Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Frog and Toad Are Friends, at least according to a venerable children’s book. And so are Jason (Crazy Town’s resident biology nerd) and conservationist brothers, Kyle and Trevor Ritland, authors of The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species. The three eco-explorers connect over wondrous habitats and critters in Costa Rica's cloud forest and swap stories that cover Lazarus species, global pandemics, self-taught naturalists, birding, and even pregnancy tests. Spliced into the nostalgia and stories are reflections on how to cope in a world where biodiversity is declining and how to regain the connections that modernity has severed between humanity and wild nature. Originally recorded on 10/9/25.
Sources/Links/Notes:
• Kyle and Trevor Ritland, The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species (kyleandtrevor.com/the-golden-toad) , Diversion Books, 2025.
• Adventure Term (kyleandtrevor.com/adventure-term) , Kyle and Trevor's nonprofit experiential learning initiative
Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:
• Episode 40 (resilience.org/stories/2021-05-06/nature-detachment-and-ecocide-or-the-story-of-the-marauding-mountain-lion-episode-40-of-crazy-town/) , "Nature Detachment and Ecocide, or… the Story of the Marauding Mountain Lion"
• Episode 49 (resilience.org/stories/2022-03-17/a-day-at-the-zoo-is-no-walk-in-the-park-humanitys-overexploitation-of-animals-and-nature-episode-49-of-crazy-town/) , "A Day at the Zoo Is No Walk in the Park: Humanity’s Overexploitation of Animals and Nature"
Frog and Toad Are Friends, at least according to a venerable children’s book. And so are Jason (Crazy Town’s resident biology nerd) and conservationist brothers, Kyle and Trevor Ritland, authors of The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species. The three eco-explorers connect over wondrous habitats and critters in Costa Rica's cloud forest and swap stories that cover Lazarus species, global pandemics, self-taught naturalists, birding, and even pregnancy tests. Spliced into the nostalgia and stories are reflections on how to cope in a world where biodiversity is declining and how to regain the connections that modernity has severed between humanity and wild nature. Originally recorded on 10/9/25.
Sources/Links/Notes:
• Kyle and Trevor Ritland, The Golden Toad: An Ecological Mystery and the Search for a Lost Species (kyleandtrevor.com/the-golden-toad) , Diversion Books, 2025.
• Adventure Term (kyleandtrevor.com/adventure-term) , Kyle and Trevor's nonprofit experiential learning initiative
Related episode(s) of Crazy Town:
• Episode 40 (resilience.org/stories/2021-05-06/nature-detachment-and-ecocide-or-the-story-of-the-marauding-mountain-lion-episode-40-of-crazy-town/) , "Nature Detachment and Ecocide, or… the Story of the Marauding Mountain Lion"
• Episode 49 (resilience.org/stories/2022-03-17/a-day-at-the-zoo-is-no-walk-in-the-park-humanitys-overexploitation-of-animals-and-nature-episode-49-of-crazy-town/) , "A Day at the Zoo Is No Walk in the Park: Humanity’s Overexploitation of Animals and Nature"
