In this episode of Women in Wild Places, host Gabriella sits down with Dr. Iva Njunjić, a cave biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and co-founder of Taxon Expeditions, to explore the hidden worlds beneath our feet.

Dr. Iva studies life in extreme underground environments, focusing on cave-dwelling insects and biodiversity in some of the most remote places on Earth. Her work has taken her to Europe’s deep cave systems, rainforests in Borneo, the Amazon and more. She shares how a childhood visit to a cave at age 13 sparked her lifelong passion for exploration and science, and what it takes physically, mentally, and technicallyto access places few humans ever see.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why nearly 80% of Earth’s species may still be undiscovered
• How caves function as “living laboratories” for evolution
• The story behind naming a beetle after Leonardo DiCaprio
• Why insects and small organisms are essential to ecosystems
• How citizen science helps protect biodiversity
• What it means to care for the natural world without burnout
• Practical ways anyone can support conservation in daily life

Dr. Iva also explains how Taxon Expeditions allows everyday people to join real scientific research expeditions and help document new species around the world.

This episode is for anyone interested in conservation, biodiversity, cave exploration, citizen science, environmental protection, and reconnecting with nature above ground and below.

🎧 Listen now to learn how paying attention to the smallest creatures can change how we see the planet.

Links & Resources

🔬 Dr. Iva Njunjić

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cavernella/
  

🌍 Taxon Expeditions

• Website: https://www.taxonexpeditions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taxonexpeditions/

🎙️ Women in Wild Places Podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womeninwildplaces/
Host: https://www.instagram.com/outsidegabs/

Substack: https://substack.com/@womeninwildplaces?

Cover Image by Sotiris Kountouras / Taxon Expeditions

What does it mean to hunt as a deeply embodied, emotional, and relational practice?

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, I sit down with writer and landscape architect Christie Green to explore hunting as a path to connection: to food, to place, to the animal world, and to our own bodies.

Christie shares her journey of beginning to hunt later in life after growing up in Alaska, and how what started as a desire to harvest her own food became a personal and creative practice. Together, they talk about the sensory world of the hunt, the moment of deciding whether to take a life, the paradox of grief and gratitude, and what it feels like to see your own anatomy reflected in the body of an animal.

We talk about why the topic has become so polarizing, and how these charged topics can actually open space for deeper dialogue, humility, and mutual respect.

This is a conversation about nuance, belonging, and paying attention.

Connect with Christie Green

• 🌿 Website: https://www.christiegreen.net/
• 📸 Instagram
• 📖 Moonlight Elk
• Christie's fashion brand

Connect with Women in Wild Places

• 📸 Instagram: @womeninwildplaces
• 
  Join the free community on Substack
• Shop essential gear

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, I’m joined by Amanda Monthei, a former hotshot wildland firefighter, writer, and the creator of the Life With Fire podcast, for a deep, thoughtful conversation about wildfire, creativity, and what it means to live and work inside powerful & uncontrollable landscapes.

Amanda spent multiple seasons working on fire crews and hotshotting, witnessing massive wildfires most people will never experience up close. Through years on the line, she came to understand something many of us resist: fire is never really “in control,” and the idea that humans can fully control it is largely a myth.

We talk about what it’s actually like to live in survival mode all summer, the nervous-system crash that comes in the off season, and the emotional and psychological toll of increasingly long, intense fire seasons. Amanda shares what it means to see communities burn, to work inside catastrophe, and to carry that weight long after the season ends.

We also explore her transition from firefighter to storyteller, and her current chapter pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Montana and returning to craft, attention, and creative practice as a way of making sense of the world. We talk about writing, observation, landscape, and how learning to really see the places we live changes how we tell stories.

This episode is about hotshotting, the creative process, and how living with uncontrollable forces shapes the way we pay attention, write, and understand our place in the world. It’s also about humility, limits, fire ecology, and what wildfire teaches us about being human in a changing climate.

Connect with Amanda

• Listen to her podcast: Life With Fire
• Follow her on Instagram: @a_monthei
• Check out her website and Substack

Connect with Women in Wild Places

• Follow us on Instagram: @womeninwildplaces @outsidegabs
• Join our Substack
• Subscribe to our Patreon

If you loved this episode, please consider following the show, leaving a rating or review, and sharing it with someone who loves wild places, good stories, and thoughtful conversations about the world we live in.

Note: Toward the end of the episode, Amanda accidentally say “prescribed fire councils” when she meant to say “prescribed burn associations.”