The Wild Life

The Earth has ended before.
Five times in the last half-billion years, life on this planet has been nearly wiped clean—reset by asteroid impacts, volcanic winters, and cataclysms we can barely imagine. And now? We’re living through number six. The difference? This one’s caused by us.
But buried in those ancient endings are stories—lessons about resilience, adaptation, and the strange, beautiful creatures that made it through.
In this episode, I’m joined by JP, better known online as @paleoauthor, the mind behind the upcoming book Primordial: A Biology of Ancient Triumphs and Tragedies. Together, we explore:
Previous mass extinction events and what they can teach us about the one we’re in now
Why dinosaurs still capture our collective imagination
The weirdest prehistoric animals you’ve never heard of
The influence of media and film on our understanding of deep time
How telling the stories of the past might help us change the future

It’s part science, part storytelling, and part love letter to life itself.
Links & Resources:
Follow JP on Instagram: @paleoauthor
Support The Wild Life on Patreon

Meet the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis), a creature so strange that early scientists couldn’t even decide if it was a rodent, a squirrel, or… something entirely new. Native to Madagascar and the largest nocturnal primate in the world, the aye-aye sports perpetually growing teeth, a bat-like ear for echolocation, and a freakishly long, bony middle finger that can hook grubs from deep inside tree trunks—or, yes, pick its own nose.
In this episode, we dive into its percussive foraging superpower, its evolutionary mystery, and why it fills the same ecological niche as a woodpecker.
Field Guide of Wonder is a companion to my main show The Wild Life, giving you quick, vivid snapshots of the planet’s most remarkable creatures.
If you enjoy the show and want to help keep it going, consider supporting on Patreon
Stay weird :)
-Devon

Meet the world’s largest rodent—the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), a creature so wonderfully chill it makes a golden retriever look high-strung. In this episode, we dive beyond the memesto explore what makes capybaras such an evolutionary success story.
We’ll talk:
Why “semi-aquatic social loaf of bread” might be the perfect lifestyle
Their remarkable teeth, digestive superpowers… and yes, why they eat their own poop
The wild variety of vocalizations they use to chat with each other
How babysitting is a survival strategy
The surprising ways their biology connects to the ecosystems they live in

From their South American wetlands to their unlikely friendships with everything from birds to caimans, capybaras prove that being laid-back is a legitimate survival tactic.
Listen, wonder, and maybe… book a ticket to the Pantanal.
Support The Wild Life's Field Guide of Wonder at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as $1 per month

Hey everyone! I have some news to share 😊
Field Guide of Wonder—my social media video series— is getting a podcast companion!
And here is the first episode!
It'll be short, spectacular stories of the weirdest, wildest, most wonderful creatures on earth, in a format that hopefully gives these animals more room to stretch their wings, claws, pseudopods, or whatever it is they’ve got.⁠
It’ll be bite-sized but packed with questions you didn’t know you had, facts that feel like magic, and connections that make this tangled web of life feel even more alive.
If you'd like to support the creation of this series, you can join my patreon at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for FREE. You can also support its creation at patreon for as little as $1 per month. Y’all, you know I post A LOT 😅 $1 per month comes out to 1.33 CENTS per piece of content. Like, literally, I did the math 😂
Stay weird. Stay curious. Stay wild.

Hey everyone!
I’m really excited to share with you all my conversation with the thoughtful and inspiring Alexa Pavan, aka @GoGreenWithAlexa.
We dive into everything from accessible sustainability and composting, to coral bleaching, water bottles, and beach cleanups. It’s a chat about progress over perfection, the importance of small, everyday actions, and finding hope in the face of big, global challenges.
We talk:
🪸 Coral reefs and climate change
♻️ Reducing waste without shame
🌱 What it actually means to live sustainably
💚 How individual choices can ripple outward
🌍 Interconnectedness, agency, and actionable hope

It’s full of insight, encouragement, and gentle reminders that we don’t have to do everything—but we can all do something.
As always, thank you for listening to The Wild Life. If you’d like to help continue making episodes like this possible, you can join for as little as $1 per month (a penny per piece of content) at www.patreon.com/thewildlife. Your support means the world—and makes this work sustainable (see what I did there?).
-Devon