What is the point of caring about nature when the headlines feel so bleak? In this episode of Turning the Tide, Lucas sits down with Victoria Benns, former art teacher turned naturalist and founder of Bewild CIC, who thinks the answer starts on your doorstep rather than in Westminster.

From beach cafés in Dartmouth to verges and pavements across the South Hams, she explains why reconnecting with nearby wildlife is not a soft, sentimental add‑on but a serious strategy for tackling biodiversity loss, mental health crises and community fragmentation. She argues that if people fall in love with the birds, beetles and moss outside their front door, protection and activism follow naturally.

Victoria also reflects on why apathy is often just a lack of invitation, how local businesses can become unlikely biodiversity trailblazers, and what it means to build hope not by preaching doom, but by helping people notice the wild stories already unfolding all around them.

This is Turning the Tide: A brand new Roots Media production. The tide is turning. The only question is, will you listen in as tomorrow gets written?

Turning the Tide is brought to you by Roots Media - a teenage-led environmental media organisation mixing hope, authenticity, and unpolished truth about climate action in the real world. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Support Victoria's work at: bewild.uk

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