I’ll Go If You Go Podcast
by Save the Redwoods League
On I’ll Go If You Go, we have thought-provoking conversations with emerging environmental leaders from diverse backgrounds who explore and work in the outdoors. By examining how we think, work, and play in the outdoors, we’re building community and illuminating how people from all walks of life experience nature and conservation, in the redwoods and beyond.
Episodes
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Hello, friend.
In the Season 5 finale, host Monica Carcamo‑Binetti returns to the redwoods to revisit a tree she considers a friend. She reflects on connection and gratitude, inviting listeners to say hello to a tree and to remember that we are never alone. Monica revisits the voices and stories from earlier...
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More Connected Than You’d Think!
In the seventh episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti heads into the Santa Cruz Mountains to record on location at San Vicente Redwoods. She is joined by Sempervirens Fund natural resource manager Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley. Beatrix’s path into land stewardship began with a spark of awe…
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Building More Than "Just a Bridge"
In the sixth episode of Season 5, Monica travels to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to meet with two crew members of the trail crew who work on one of Big Sur’s most beloved trails. She sits down with Riley Dunn and Margarita Munguia of the California State Parks Trail Crew, who worked on the complex...
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Healing Begins on a Redwood Walk
Episode Description: In the fifth episode of Season 5, Monica sits down with Dr. David Rebanal, associate professor of public health at San Francisco State University, and Rizelle Jugarap, a master’s student researcher at San Francisco State. Together, they share insight from the Reclaiming…
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A Naturalist Homecoming
In the fourth episode of season 5, Monica sits down with Daisy Prado, community organizer and founder of City Gurlz Hike. City Gurlz Hike is a collective that creates spaces for Black, Latina, Indigenous women and non-binary folks to feel at home on the trails across San Francisco. Through the...
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Origins of a Green Hero
In the third episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti settles into the Save the Redwoods League office on a chilly San Francisco morning with guest Rahsaan McFarland II. Rahsaan is a Stanford undergraduate, artist, photographer, and emerging science communicator whose early encounters…
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Backyard Giants
In the second episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti heads out into the field to kick-off California State Parks Week beneath the soaring redwoods of Samuel P. Taylor State Park. This is the 4th year of celebration and the first time in a redwood park! Guided by this year’s tagline…
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Pass the Baton (But You Are Not Gone)
In the first episode of season 5, we celebrate transitions, transformations, and the quiet power of standing among ancient trees. Former host Emily Harwitz returns to pass the mic to new host Monica Carcamo-Binetti, a longtime advocate for nature connection and co-Founder of Bay Area GalVentures....
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Talking Trees
In this twelfth episode, host Emily Harwitz takes a closer look at the fuel that drives conservation. Funding, of course, is essential, and two of the main sources of conservation funding are government agencies and philanthropy. Today’s guests—Ben Friedman and Geenah Leslie—are experts in those...
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Finding your path
In this eleventh episode, host Emily Harwitz takes a closer look at career development programs specifically designed to give young people work experience in park and public land jobs. Many guests this season found their jobs in conservation by following wending paths toward their love for...
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Outreach, where the people are
In this tenth episode, host Emily Harwitz talks outreach and engagement—for nature and adventure—in a double-feature with Xiomara Batin, Outreach and Marketing Manager at GirlVentures, and Erika Granadino, Community Engagement Coordinator for the North Coast Redwoods District. How do you get…
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Art: it’s only natural
In this ninth episode, host Emily Harwitz ventures to Butano State Park to ask artist, educator, and naturalist Elexis Padrón: What is art? How can art help us connect with nature? And what role can artists play in conservation? As Elexis puts it, art is a way of seeing that can help us foster…
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Stewardship: Keepers of the Land
In this eighth episode, host Emily Harwitz heads to a redwoods preserve in Napa County to explore the work of stewardship—or, the next stage of conservation after a piece of land is protected. Conservation doesn’t end with a legal transaction! Just as nature is constantly changing, so, too, are…
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Reimagining Fire
In this seventh episode, host Emily Harwitz delves into the world of fire adaptation and resilience across California with a double feature: Katie Low, fire ecologist and Statewide Coordinator for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network, and Saul Tejeda, an Assistant Captain on the...
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Neida and the Giant Sequoias
In this sixth episode, host Emily Harwitz travels to the Sierra Nevada mountain range (figuratively) with guest Neida Rodriguez, a rising forestry student at Cal Poly Humboldt and this year’s Giant Sequoia Forest Fellow. There’s only one species of the biggest tree on Earth—giant sequoias—and…
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Up to interpretation
In this fifth episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Kyle Buchanan and Karla Jovel about Interpretation—the kind that blends science, art, and storytelling in the outdoors to help park visitors appreciate the natural and cultural histories of the places they love. We also get an inside look at…
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The Way of Water
In this fourth episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Daniela Peña Corvillon about her work as a water architect, a term she coined while studying landscape architecture and realizing that water is the foundation for life in any landscape. Where water flows, life grows, and water always finds a...
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Aqua Team Restoration Force
In this third episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with José Juan Rodriguez and Verenice Sanchez about doing aquatic restoration in old growth redwood forests. Growing up in big cities, neither of them thought they’d one day be snorkeling beneath the redwoods or trekking along creeks to collect eDNA...
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Guardian of the redwoods
In Season 4, we’re exploring the different kinds of jobs you can do in the redwood and redwoods parks. In this second episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Francisco Saavedra about forestry, how his Yurok heritage informs his forestry practice, who the redwoods are to him, and what he hopes to...
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Who’s your host?
Welcome to Season 4! This season, we’re exploring the different kinds of jobs you can do in the redwood and redwoods parks. In this first episode, producer and host of season 1, Leslie Parra, interviews the current host Emily Harwitz. They talk about Emily’s love for nature, what she does for…
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To Build a Trail—and the community that follows
In Episode 6, the final episode of Season 3, host Emily Harwitz talks to Agnes Vianzon (she/they), the founder and Executive Director of Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps (ESCC) and a first-generation, queer filipinx. They founded ESCC in 2017, starting with an initial all-women crew, and the...
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Trek long and prosper
In episode 5, host Emily Harwitz chats with Michelle Warren, the Vice President and Co-founder of Black Girls Trekkin Inc. (BGT). BGT is a Los Angeles based 501c3 nonprofit for Black women who choose to opt outside. BGT seeks to inspire and empower Black women to spend time outdoors, appreciate...
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Out with Outlandish!
Episode 4’s guest is Max Sovine (they/them). Max works at Queer LifeSpace, a San Francisco-based non-profit providing mental health services for the queer community, where they just launched the new project Outlandish! which will bring queer youth out into awesome parks and recreational areas in...
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The Girl with the Redwood Tattoos
Episode 3’s guest is Kathryn Luna who builds community and partnerships at the outdoors retailer Mountain Hardwear. She’s also on the Board of Directors at GirlVentures, a non-profit that inspires girls to lead through outdoor adventure, inner discovery, and collective action. Host Emily Harwitz...
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Have no fear, the gals are here!
In episode 2, Host Emily Harwitz chats with Monica Binetti and Erin Closmore about how they started the hiking community Bay Area Galventures, beginning with Monica overcoming her fear of the outdoors and her dear friend Erin moving back to the Bay Area. Amongst the redwood trees, Monica has...
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Conservation: now in technicolor!
In the season 3 premiere, host Emily Harwitz (she/her) chats with Alanna Smith (she/her) about Alanna’s evolution as a conservationist and finding her niche within the conservation movement. Alanna is the Parks Program Associate at Save the Redwoods League, where she focuses on facilitating...
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Brown is a beautiful color
We’ve explored many ways to play in the redwoods this season. What resonates most, beyond any single activity, is the relationships formed and fortified—with one another, with the outdoors, and with one another in the outdoors. In this season’s finale, beneath the redwoods in Oakland, Grace...
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When the river meets the sea
In the northern reaches of the California coast, Yurok Country is home to the state’s largest federally recognized tribal nation. On a brisk morning here in Redwood National Park, Yurok Tribe member Josh Norris invited us to paddle down the Klamath River in ‘ohl-we’-yoch, a traditional Yurok…
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"Skate slow and live"
Skateboarding in the redwoods might seem unconventional, but it’s a thing. The nonprofit Skate Like a Girl (SLAG) hosts a sleepaway skate camp for women, trans, and nonbinary skaters—in the middle of Sequoia National Forest. We skated with SLAG in Santa Cruz and from the skate park ventured into...
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Bird is the word
Oakland’s Lake Merritt may be a few miles from the nearest redwood forest, but this tidal slough is not only a bustling community space for locals, unhoused neighbors, artists, musicians, and roller skaters — it’s also a whole wildlife refuge abundant with native and migratory birds. For...
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Nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend
What is forest bathing, really? Originating as a mindfulness practice in Japan called shinrin-yoku, it involves activities that help heighten your senses to experience nature on another level and improve overall well being. It's a vibe. Certified forest bathing guide Juan Lazo Bautista takes us...
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The fungus among us
In the season 2 premiere, Leslie Parra passes the mic to new host Emily Harwitz as they venture into Wilder Ranch State Park to go mushroom foraging with Arthur Lee of Mazu Mushrooms. In the middle of a redwood fairy ring, they explore the fantastic world of fungi — from mushrooms’ animal-like...
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Come as you are (smells like team spirit)
In the final episode of season 1, the podcast team tells stories from the redwood forest and about what the phrase “I’ll go if you go” really means—from psychedelic banana slugs to a ladybug bonanza to heartfelt tales about immigration and queerness. Featuring Dana Poblete, Marcos Castineiras…
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How to stand up (like a redwood)
In the face of violence against Asian and Pacific Islander people over the last year, Rebecca Au was galvanized to work with her colleagues at the National Park Service to develop upstander training. Also known as bystander intervention, it teaches people how to practice allyship and intervene…
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A hike a week keeps your well-being at peak
While going through a divorce, Karla Amador discovered a new passion: hiking for mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. She was inspired to start a movement called the 52-Hike Challenge to encourage others to reclaim their sense of self through connecting with nature. Join Karla and her...
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If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals
Toni Maggi-Brown (he/him) is a wildlife biology student at Humboldt State University and a photographer who combines creativity with conservation. Step into Toni’s world in the ancient redwood forests of the north coast, where he worked last summer as a wildlife apprentice for Redwoods Rising. He...
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Rooting yourself in community and place
Farrahn Hawkins (she/her) is a self-described “community and economic development enthusiast” who loves helping people achieve their life goals through education and the lens of nature. A former park ranger at Yosemite National Park and now based in Baltimore, Maryland, she volunteers to help…
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Raised by the Oakland redwoods
For our first episode, Save the Redwoods League Outreach Program Manager Leslie Parra rings in the new year with Miguel Marquez (he/him)—Oakland born, and raised by the local redwoods. He talks about the role that his Mexican-American heritage and family time in redwood parks played in developing...
About this show
On I’ll Go If You Go, we have thought-provoking conversations with emerging environmental leaders from diverse backgrounds who explore and work in the outdoors. By examining how we think, work, and play in the outdoors, we’re building community and illuminating how people from all walks of life experience nature and conservation, in the redwoods and beyond.
Hosted by
Save the Redwoods League