True Impact Of Our Human Footprint With Shane Campbell-Staton, PhD
Care More Be Better: A Podcast For Sustainable Social Impact and Regeneration
Corinna Bellizzi
5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The human footprint may not be easily measurable, but it is crucial in shaping the planet for better and for worse – but most of the time it is the latter. Corinna Bellizzi sits down with biologist Shane Campbell-Staton, PhD, who hosts the aptly named show "Human Footprint." He talks all about his experiences traveling around the world to delve into different human activities, cultures, and lifestyles to understand how they impact our society and environment. Shane also shares insights on how supermarkets changed the way we eat, the value of humanity’s fundamental interconnectedness, the true costs of hydroelectric power, and the truth behind the bee colony collapse.
About Guest:
Shane is interested in how human history, culture, technology and politics influence life, biological stress and evolution of species around the world. He uses physiology, gene expression, genomics and experimentation to identify genes and traits that allow animals to rapidly adapt to new environmental pressures faced in a human-dominated world.
Shane also has a deep passion for sharing science with the public. His own passion for science was kindled through television as a child. Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, he was not exposed to much nature or the outdoors. But watching nature documentaries and TV shows featuring passionate presenters, like Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin, he developed a love for the natural world. Now Shane is sharing his own passions and the wonders of science with a diverse audience through his research as well as visual and audio media.
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-campbell-staton-034a1380/
Guest Website: https://www.campbellstaton.com/
Guest Social:
https://www.pbs.org/show/human-footprint/
https://www.instagram.com/shane.campbellstaton/
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biology-of-superheroes-podcast/id1314139416
https://www.youtube.com/@PBS/featured
Additional Resources Mentioned:
The Impact of Climate Storytelling with Trip Jennings and Maiya May of WEATHERED, a PBS Docuseries
The Impact of Dams on the Health of Our Ecosystems with Steve Hawley, Author of Cracked
The Consequences of Farmed Salmon with Simen Saetre, Author of The New Fish
Show Notes: Raw audio
00:02:37 - Shane Campbell-Staton And Human Footprint
00:08:24 - What To Expect From Season 2
00:11:19 - How Supermarkets Changed Our Daily Lives
00:13:41 - Understanding The Honey Trap And Colony Collapse
00:17:49 - Insights About Hydroelectric Power
00:24:50 - Appreciating Fundamental Interconnectedness
00:26:52- Environmental Response To Human Footprint
00:34:45 - Telling Stories About Social Justice
00:46:12 - Evolving From Domination To Reciprocity
00:53:39 - How To Remian Hopeful And Keep The Faith
00:56:17 - Making Small Changes For The Greater Good
00:59:51 - Episode Wrap-up And Closing Words
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | we live in these two sort of sensory worlds, one that is our local sort of biological senses, |
| 0:08.0 | the things that are in front of us, that we can see, that we can feel, that we can taste, |
| 0:12.0 | etc. But then this wider sensory world that we live in that connects us literally globally. |
| 0:20.2 | You know, you pick up your phone and you're connected |
| 0:22.4 | globally. And those connections are just as physical as they are abstract, right? The infrastructure |
| 0:30.5 | that we put around the planet to connect us all. And there can be a really complex interaction between those two sort of sensory spheres that really mess us up, you know, when it comes to trying to understand the impacts of our decisions on a global scale. |
| 0:50.8 | Welcome to Care More Be Better, a podcast for people like you who care about the social impact of conscious companies and everyday heroes. |
| 1:00.0 | Hear inspiring stories from those who put people in planet before profit and personal gain. |
| 1:05.6 | You'll learn how you can make a difference, vote with your dollars, and get involved today. |
| 1:10.4 | Here's your host, Karina Belizzi. |
| 1:14.1 | Welcome to Care More Be Better, a podcast for people like you who care about the future of our planet |
| 1:19.9 | and are ready to do something about it. Today's conversation is one I've been eagerly awaiting. |
| 1:25.8 | I'm joined by evolutionary biologist, Princeton |
| 1:28.6 | professor, and Emmy-nominated host of Human Footprint, Shane Campbell-Staten. Shane is a rare |
| 1:35.0 | voice in science media, someone who doesn't just study how humans shape the natural world, |
| 1:41.2 | but who explores how our culture, history, and even politics impact evolution |
| 1:45.7 | itself. His work brings cutting-edge science to the public through powerful storytelling, |
| 1:51.1 | something we desperately need more of today. This episode is also a celebration of season |
| 1:56.7 | two of Human Footprint on PBS, airing Wednesdays starting June 25th. PBS remains one of the last |
| 2:04.2 | truly nonpartisan public service media platforms, yet it's facing growing threats to its federal |
| 2:10.1 | funding. So supporting programs like this matters more than ever. Shane's new season takes us from |
| 2:16.6 | supermarket aisles in New York to beekeeping villages |
... |
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