S12. E20: Trevor Ritland: The Golden Toad
“I think you could probably go back and track the stages of grief, probably that is what I went through. But I think if you do it right, you end up at acceptance. And that’s where I ended up. And that’s not to say that I’ve fully accepted the idea that the golden toad is extinct. Personally, I do still hold out hope that it could still be out there in those forests. ”
This conversation is with Trevor Ritland, who—along with his twin brother Kyle—authored The Golden Toad. The book chronicles their remarkable journey into Costa Rica’s cloud forest, once home to hundreds of brilliant golden toads that would emerge for just a few weeks each year—until, one day, they vanished without a trace.
What began as a search for a lost species soon became something much more profound: a confrontation with ecological grief, a meditation on hope, and a powerful call to protect the natural world while we still can.
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In gratitude,
Elizabeth Novogratz
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