Episode 174: How Fiction Moves the Needle on Real-World Conservation
May 16, 2026
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Julie Carrick Dalton, author of The Forest Becomes Her
About the Author
Julie Carrick Dalton is a novelist, former journalist, and farmer whose work explores the deep, often complicated relationship between humanity and the natural world. With decades of experience telling stories rooted in fact and reality as a reporter, Julie later turned to working the land, a pivot that ultimately unlocked her passion for environmental fiction. She is the author of Waiting for the Night Song, The Last Beekeeper, and the forthcoming novel The Forest Becomes Her (July 2026, St. Martin’s Press), which draws heavily on her personal history with land preservation and the transcendentalist philosophies of Thoreau and Emerson.
Beyond her own writing, Julie is a passionate advocate and educator on the power of narrative art in conservation. By treating fiction as a necessary “laboratory for climate futures,” she teaches writers and advocates alike how to embed critical ecological truths within captivating narratives, bypassing dry data to build the deep empathy required to move the needle on real-world rewilding and environmental activism.
Photo by Andrew Shelley / Unsplash
In this Episode
Jack Humphrey sits down with former journalist, farmer, and author Julie Carrick Dalton to discuss her novel The Forest Becomes Her. Julie shares how her transition from reporting facts to working the land unlocked a passion for environmental fiction. She describes how compelling stories “hide the vegetables” to connect readers with ecological crises through empathy rather than preachiness. From the underground fungal networks of the soil to redefining climate hope, this conversation reveals why imagination is a vital laboratory for our future, reminding us that we do not just live in nature, we are nature.
Key Points
- The Shift from Facts to Fiction: How Julie’s journey from journalism to farming to fiction gave her the research skills and dirt-under-the-fingernails perspective needed to write about the wild.
- The Trojan Horse of Storytelling: Why compelling narratives and relatable characters capture audiences who would otherwise skip dense scientific data or climate reports.
- A Deeper Look at The Forest Becomes Her: The personal childhood trauma of losing a forest to development that inspired Julie’s forthcoming book, and how fiction allowed her to rewrite the outcome.
- Redefining Climate Hope: Moving past eco-grief and paralysis by finding hope in small, tangible goals, like protecting a single community tree or saving one neighborhood species.
- The “Yes And” of Activism: Balancing the necessary fight for big corporate and political accountability with local, hands-on conservation work that keeps us grounded.
- The Sentient Forest: The fascinating real-world science of underground mycorrhizal networks and chemical signals that trees use to communicate and share resources.
- Imagination as a Climate Laboratory: How near-future fiction serves as a vital playground to stress-test both warning signs and aspirational blueprints for the planet.
Extra Credit
- Grab your copy of The Forest Becomes Her.
People to Follow
- Heather White: Environmental scientist, advocate, and author who focuses heavily on managing eco-anxiety and finding joy in climate action. Julie highly recommends checking out Heather’s work and Instagram for practical ways to stay engaged without getting paralyzed by grief. (Founder of OneGreenThing.org /
@heatherwhiteofficial). - Jeff VanderMeer: Renowned speculative fiction author whose concept of using books as “laboratories for possible climate futures” deeply inspired Julie’s own writing philosophy and the classes she teaches.
Books and Essays Mentioned
- One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet (and 60 Days to a Greener Life) by Heather White — Books dedicated to moving past climate overwhelm by aligning your personal strengths with daily sustainable actions.
- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer — A brilliant piece of eco-speculative fiction that tests the boundaries of nature and human climate realities.
- The Overstory by Richard Powers — A monumental, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that treats trees as sentient, interconnected characters, utilizing the actual science of forest communication.
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward — A National Book Award winner that centers on a family in Mississippi in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina, putting readers directly inside real-world climate vulnerability.
- The Over Soul by Ralph Waldo Emerson — The classic transcendentalist essay that heavily inspired Julie’s upcoming book. It explores the spiritual intersection of humanity, divinity, and the natural world, arguing that the divine exists right within the trees and rocks.
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.