Dan Van Voorhis is a professional podcaster with a PhD in Church History. His podcast, The Christian History Almanac offers daily 5-minute episodes all about the work of God in the world over the centuries. It’s one of my favorites.

Dan is also a friend, congregant, and the best interviewer I know. He graciously agreed to come on The Thing with Feathers and interview me about the launch of the audiobook for Looking Up that comes out today (yayyyyyyy!) on the one-year anniversary of the paperback’s launch.

Come join us as we chat about the ins and outs of audiobook recording, the joys and surprises at the ways Looking Up has made its way into the world, the birds of spring, and the special additions that come with the audio version of this book.

Lee Pfannmuller and Jerry Niemi know a thing or two about birds. With over one hundred years(!) of birding experience between them, they have spent their lives doing fieldwork related to conservation and ecology throughout the state of Minnesota and beyond.

Today we celebrate the publication of their new, beautiful book The Breeding Birds of Minnesota. We talk about everything from bird surveys to caring for creation to wrangling volunteers.

Find out the most frequently seen bird in Minnesota (the answer surprised me!), the most difficult places to perform bird surveys, and a great story about one place you should never drive a Prius.

Join us for this special, encouraging episode all about the beautiful birds of one of our most fantastic and ecologically fragile states.

Peter Harris co-founded A Rocha, a Christian nonprofit dedicated to conservation back in 1983. Together he and his wife Miranda built an organization that helped churches and Christians across the world work together to care for creation. Their vision was to build a global family of conservation organizations working together to live out God’s calling to care for creation ​and equip others to do likewise.

Today, A Rocha exists in more than 20 countries, from Portugal to the United States to India to Kenya. It continues to bring together those interested in conservation with people of faith, offering practical ways people can work to steward the good gift of creation God has given.

Friends, I could have spoken with Peter for days upon days. He is a wealth of wisdom, humility, and kindness, and I learned so much from our hour together. I’m so excited to share today’s episode with you - our discussion ranges from practical tips for conservation to the British evangelist John Stott’s love for birds to coping with grief to and loss to the hollowness of consumerism to how gosh-darned wonderful the avian world is.

“People are looking to understand,” said Peter.

I’ll also never forget our initial email exchange where I, a little star-struck by a guest who has done so much good in the world, told Peter I was looking forward to learning from him.

“We will learn from each other, Courtney,” he said.

Check out Peter’s beautiful book from the 1990s, Under the Bright Wings, about the faith-filled founding of A Rocha, too.

Enjoy this gift of a podcast, perfect for thinking more about the beauty of God’s creation and how we might better care for it.