Welcome to Emergence Magazine's podcast.

I'm Emanuel Vaughn Lee, executive editor of Emergence Magazine,

located on the unseated ancestral lands of the Coast Mewalk people of present-day,

Marin County.

Each week, we feature a new interview, narrated essay, or story, exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality.

There are some people you meet who are just wise beyond their years.

Their presence and perspective feels as if they have lived a life full of experiences

and have the ability to share that wisdom in deep and profound ways.

Dara McAnulty, the teenage Irish writer, naturalist and activist, embodies these qualities

while also being full of wonder and joy.

His debut book, Diary of a Young Naturalist, which he wrote at the age of 14, and his

impart an intimate portrait of his love of the living world and his distress at its destruction,

is a testament to the power and importance of joy, a joy that encircles his relationship with nature.

In a world where many are incentivized to act out of fear,

Dara's instinct to wonder at all that unfolds around us felt regenerative,

a return to the essence of our connection with the living earth.

This week, we're resharing my conversation with Dara, recorded in 2021, where we spoke about

the importance of approaching living in an era of crisis from a place grounded in joy, and

is realization that writing, music, and art can be activism and play a vital role

in creating the futures we want to live in. Dara, you wrote your first book, Diary of a Young Naturalist at the age of 14, and you're 17 now, is that right?

Yeah, I'm 17 now.

And as I understand it, the book grew from a blog that you started writing when you were 12 years old.

...