Ep. 043: From Loss to Life - Ben Goldsmith & Natural Capital

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

Ben recounts Iris’s 2019 death and the grief that followed before the land was rewilded.

1. Wilder Podcast episode 43 centers on Ben Goldsmith, rewilding, and natural capital. 2. Chloe and Tom host Ben Goldsmith, a rewilding advocate, investor, and creator of Rewilding the World. 3. The episode asks how personal grief, global nature recovery, and private finance connect to large-scale restoration. 4. Ben says he has been passionate about nature “since my earliest memories” and was interested in rewilding before it was a term. 5. He points to a Kazakhstan project on the Golden Step, where saiga antelope rose from 30,000 to nearly 4 million. 6. He also names rewilding work in Namibia, Montana, and London, including the Rewilding London Task Force for Sadiq Khan. 7. Ben says his working life moved from renewables and electrification into natural capital over the last 20 odd years. 8. He argues that restoring nature requires “similar amounts of private finance” to what was mobilized for green investment. 9. He says his South Somerset farm was bought after his father died and became the main place he and his wife rented in London returned to. 10. He describes planting about 20 acres of mixed native woodland, digging ponds, and then farming 60 Dorset poll sheep and 50 white cattle on heavy clay. 11. Ben says July 2019 changed everything when Iris, aged 15 and a half, died in a farm-vehicle accident. 12. He says relief after that loss came from a morning cup of tea, the trees, birdsong, and swimming in his pond. 13. He says rewilding the farm became a “love letter” to Iris, who loved the wilder corners of the land. 14. He describes pulling out fencing, running a mole plow, blocking ditches, and watching nature “unfurl” over five years. 15. He names dog roses, blackthorn, crabapple, bramble cushions, beavers, great egrets, kingfishers, nightjars, and goshawks as part of the return. 16. He says children are born with an innate fascination for nature and cites E.O. Wilson’s term “biophilia.” 17. Ben says a single afternoon outdoors, making mud balls or sitting by a pond, can stay with a child forever. 18. The interview is conversational, reflective, and detailed, with Chloe and Tom asking follow-up questions about grief, ecology, and policy. 19. People interested in rewilding, grief, nature connection, and conservation finance will get the most from it. 20. People wanting a light chat or short practical farming advice may skip it.

As heard by us

A thoughtful rewilding conversation that keeps close to the land.

Ben Goldsmith's appearance turns on rewilding a family farm in memory of his daughter, while also widening out to global rewilding projects and nature credits as a way to fund restoration at scale.

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Why you'd press play

A farm, a loss, and a big question about how restoration gets funded.

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