Episode Details

What becomes possible when we learn to see a place through the layers of its memory?

Host Ayana Young speaks with artist-naturalist Laura Cunningham about her newly revised and expanded book, A State of Change: California’s Forgotten Landscapes (Heyday Books, 2026).

Through field sketching, careful observation, and imagination rooted in research, Cunningham invites us to slow down and look closely at the birds, plants, waterways, and landscapes that shape a place. Together, they explore how drawing can deepen our attention, open our senses, and bring us into a more intimate relationship with the world around us.

Cunningham shares her practice of reconstructing California’s historical landscapes, bringing scientific evidence into conversation with field observation and imaginative inquiry. Together, they explore shifting baselines, the landscapes held in collective memory, and the ways our sense of what is possible is shaped by what we have witnessed ourselves. Looking to the past becomes a way of widening our vision, revealing the abundance and complexity that have shaped these places across generations.

This conversation is an invitation to slow down and look again, to become curious about what a place remembers, to let the past expand our imagination, and to consider how a deeper sense of belonging might shape our future.

Credits
Thank you to our series partner, Heyday Books.

Artwork © 2026 Laura Cunningham.

🎵 The music featured in this episode is “Junglessa (w/ Dylan Golden Ayock)” by Lake Mary and “Unseen Song” by Samara Jade.

Podcast Production and Publishing by For The Wild: Ayana Young, Erica Ekrem, and Caitlin Brehm.

Get the newly revised book →
A State of Change: California’s Forgotten Landscapes (Heyday Books, 2026)

Our Series Partner
Heyday Books is an independent, nonprofit publisher founded in 1974 in Berkeley, California. We are a diverse community of writers and readers, activists and thinkers. Heyday promotes civic engagement and social justice, celebrates nature’s beauty, supports California Indian cultural renewal, and explores the state’s rich history, culture, and influence. Heyday works to realize the California dream of equity and enfranchisement.

Guest Biography
Laura Cunningham is an artist-naturalist who studied paleontology and biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked field biology jobs for the California Department of Fish and Game, the United States Geological Survey, and various universities, gaining experience with such species as Owens Valley pupfish, salmon and steelhead trout, Yosemite toads, Panamint alligator lizards, and tule elk. Simultaneously, she taught herself the arts of sketching and oil painting and pursued studies of California’s historical ecology. She currently works in the conservation nonprofit field. Her studio is next to Death Valley National Park along the Amargosa River. Learn more and support her work: https://www.patreon.com/Mesophyticum?

©2026 F