Transcript: Stepping Into Wilder Form, 2025
Ayana Young Hey For The Wild community, it's Ayana here. I am currently sitting in this windy bay watching the seagulls fly over the herring run that's just arriving, and I thought this is the right moment to check in with y'all. It has been a while. Gosh, so much has been moving in my life, personally and I have grown up and refined what I want to share.
As much as I have loved the classic digital episodes over the past decade, I've had a real yearning to be in person with the flesh of the land and eye to eye with the guests. So as you probably noticed, we have not been releasing weekly episodes. Instead, we have been on the road, spending deep time with some of our favorite people, having intimate, edgy, raw, funny, just beautiful and challenging conversations. Although we wanted to keep the secret a little longer, we will be releasing our first season of our new walking series with beloved Sophie Strand.
We have also been in the works of creating a printed anthology, and Sophie is one of the authors of that along with 20 others and art and design and combination of 10 years of conversations. This book is weird. It's the study of oddness. It's not meant to be easy or prescriptive. It's meant to get dirty. It's meant to be used in the archive of this time, and we're planning on printing it this year as well.
But in order for us to birth these new creations into life, we need you. We're looking for funding, partners, and sponsorships, and we are considering either self-publishing the book or working with a publisher. We're also hoping to go on tour, and would love to be hosted from the West Coast to the East Coast of this continent, and across the pond in Europe.
If you're an individual or a foundation or an aligned company who want to sponsor the show with Sophie, hit me up. You can email us at connect@forthewild.world. If you are a publisher or work in the literary world, also please reach out, I would love to hear from you. And if you would like to host some live conversations for our book tour, we would love to run into your loving arms and share some good food and company and have some deep ass conversations with you all.
So thanks for hearing me out. I noticed my heart racing while sharing this all with you. It feels risky and nerve wracking and also so exciting to be stepping into this new era with you all. I'm so grateful for those of you who have been with me from the beginning, and those of you who have joined recently and are sticking with us through this transitional time. I'm really passionate about these conversations, and I think you'll be too.
Now, in the meantime, before these new shows and book drop, you can spend some deep time with us by purchasing our Earthly Reads book study, or you can hang out with Bayo Akomolafe and his We Will Dance with Mountains course that you can purchase on our website, and of course, there are still over 350 episodes that you can listen to on your favorite streaming platform. Cannot wait to continue this journey with y'all. Happy Spring.
Jackson Kroopf For The Wild is made by Ayana Young, Erica Ekrem, Julia Jackson, Viva Wittman, and Jackson Kroopf. The music you hear in this announcement is “Das Nuvens (Live)” from Fabiano do Nascimento, courtesy of Leaving Records. Thanks for listening.