Nature’s Awards Show: Celebrating Wildlife, Ecosystems, and Earth’s MVPs

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This episode features the first-ever Nature Breaking Awards. It’s just like your favorite awards show, but for conservation instead of music or movies. Co-hosts Seth Larson and Hayley Lawton will run through fun categories like “Best Ecosystem Soundtrack” and “Wildest Wardrobe,” discuss the nominees, and hand out some (largely arbitrary) awards. Because after all, we’re all winners when it comes to saving the planet.

TRANSCRIPT:

Seth Larson: What if nature had its own award show? Today it does stay tuned for the first ever Nature Breaking Awards, honoring excellence in the fields of wildlife and ecosystems. From bees to zebras, from rainforests to the Arctic, stay tuned for a celebration of all the things that make our planet one of a kind.

Welcome to Nature Breaking a podcast produced by World Wildlife Fund. I'm Seth Larson. As you probably know, we're at the height of award season right now, when artists across a variety of disciplines get awarded for the best achievements in their respective industries.

In the spirit of that season, we decided to hand out some awards of our own this week. So welcome to the first ever Nature Breaking Awards. It's just like your favorite award show, but for conservation instead of music or movies. And just like those other award shows, these nominees were chosen by an illustrious panel of industry veterans... by which I mean it was me and a few other coworkers chatting on a Teams thread.

Here to present these awards with me today is Hayley Lawton, Nature Breaking's co-host. Together we'll run through some fun categories, discuss the nominees, and hand out some largely arbitrary awards -- because after all, we're all winners when it comes to saving the planet.

Before we get started, please follow Nature Breaking's feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice, and subscribe for free to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@WorldWildlifeFund. Thanks for listening and let's hand out some fake statues.

All right Hayley, welcome back to Nature Breaking. It's awesome to have you here again.

Hayley Lawton: Yeah. I'm so excited to be back Seth.

Seth Larson: Yeah, welcome to the first ever Nature Breaking Awards. This is going to be a little bit of a different episode, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. And before we get into the beginning of our award show, I wanted to ask you, do you like awards season? Are you a big fan of award shows? What's your relationship to this time of year?

Hayley Lawton: Yes, I absolutely love watching all of the award shows. My favorite part of award season is definitely the pre-red-carpet interviews and also the post-red-carpet interviews.

Seth Larson: Mm-hmm.

Hayley Lawton: And also just seeing everyone's outfits.

Seth Larson: Yeah.

Hayley Lawton: They're amazing.

Seth Larson: Yeah. Yeah, of course. I love award shows. They're always fun. I always grew up watching them as a kid. I find it really interesting to see the different approaches that the hosts take every year.

Hayley Lawton: Mm-hmm.

Seth Larson: I think there's sort of a standard cadence to a lot of them, but every now and then a different host will bring in a new approach and innovate in some way. And it's always cool to see what those folks come up with, and it's just a little different every year.

Hayley Lawton: Yeah.

Seth Larson: So for our part, hosting the first-ever Nature Breaking Awards, you and I had this idea a few weeks back. It's a little fun, it's a little silly. But I think it'll be a good way for us to talk about some of the species and the ecosystems and places that WWF works so hard to conserve and to hopefully educate our viewers and listeners a little bit, but have some fun while doing it.

Hayley Lawton: Right.

Seth Larson: So we've got some categories and some nominees that we've put a lot of thought into, and the first category is...

Hayley Lawton: Our first category is Standout Supporting Species. This award is for animals that serve a critical function for the survival of an ecosystem or another species. And the nominees are...

Prairie dogs. These animals dig extensive burrow systems that provide shelter for themselves as well as endangered black-footed ferrets, rabbits, and other prairie species. Prairie dogs are also a key source of food for the black-footed ferrets, foxes, coyotes, and eagles. Without prairie dogs, the prairie ecosystem would look a lot different.

Seth Larson: The second nominee in this category are bees. Everyone knows about the role that bees play in making honey and pollinating vegetable crops, but bees also support wildflowers and other native grassland plants. And bee species that make their nests underground can help improve soil health.

Hayley Lawton: And our last nominee are beavers. These little builders play an important role in wetland ecosystems. In fact, many wetlands began as streams that were then damned by beavers, flooding the surrounding area. Those wetlands can grow to support an array of life from frogs to fish and aquatic birds. Now, Seth, before we announce our winner, I just wanted to note that you and I wrote down numbers in envelopes, and that's going to correlate with our nominees.

Seth Larson: Mm-hmm.

Hayley Lawton: So we're going to be picking them randomly, so we didn't have to pick, because everyone's a winner.

Seth Larson: Everyone's a winner. We wanted to give out some awards, but we also didn't wanna play favorites too much. Right?

Hayley Lawton: Exactly. Okay.

Seth Larson: All right. Here is the first winner.

Hayley Lawton: And the winner for Standout Supporting Species is...

Beavers. Hey. Yes. Woo.

Seth Larson: Alright, the crowd loves it.

Hayley Lawton: Yes.

Seth Larson: Okay, well we don't want to have a four-hour award show. They always talk about runtimes with these things, right? So we're going to keep it moving. The next category in the Nature Breaking Awards is Outstanding Wildlife Effects. You know, while other award shows acknowledge special effects in audio and video formats, we know that nature has some special effects of its own. So here are the nominees: First, chameleons. These lizards have been dazzling people for centuries with their ability to adapt the color of their skin to the surface they're touching.

Hayley Lawton: The second nominee, the Costasiella sea slug, also known as the leaf slug or sea sheep. This little creature has an amazing superpower: it can photosynthesize. It actually absorbs sunlight and turns it into energy, giving it a distinctive green color.

Seth Larson: And the third and last nominee in this category is the glass octopus. This animal is both translucent, as the name suggests, as well as luminescent, which means that it basically glows in the dark. And the winner of this category is the chameleons!

We should say none of these nominees could be here to accept their awards in person today, so we'll be sending them all out via snail mail.

Hayley Lawton: Yes, we will. Alright. Moving on to our next category, and I think this one is my favorite category, Best Ecosystem Soundtrack. This award is for a place that showcases nature's best sounds. And the nominees are: The Great Plains. On a given day in America's Great Plains region you'll hear songbirds singing, bees buzzing and prairie chickens calling to one another. It's a wonderful symphony of nature. Here's a clip.

Seth Larson: All right. The second nominee in this category is Southern Africa. This region spans ecosystems from wetlands to woodlands to dry scrublands. And on a given night, you'll hear an amazing variety of insects, and maybe if you're lucky, an elephant moving through the trees. Let's hear a clip of that.

Hayley Lawton: And our final nominee, the Amazon Rainforest. Before you even see it, you hear it. Birds chirping and insects buzzing. It's one of the most vital ecosystems, spanning eight countries and one overseas territory, and home to a dazzling array of wildlife and plant life. Here's a clip.

Hayley Lawton: And the winner is the Amazon Rainforest. Oh.

Seth Larson: Congratulations to the rainforest. You know, it's won a lot of awards over the years.

Hayley Lawton: It has.

Seth Larson: This is a big one.

Hayley Lawton: I think this is a big one. Yeah. I think it's the biggest one for the Amazon.

Seth Larson: Yeah. Yeah. Our next category is Wildest Wardrobe, which goes to the species whose skin, fur or feathers are best adapted to its environment. The nominees are: Snow leopards. These big cats have a white coat that works so well to disguise them against the mountainous habitat they live in, that they've been nicknamed the Ghost of the Mountain.

Hayley Lawton: The second nominee: Monarch butterflies. These insects are known for their bold orange and black colors and white polka dot trim. But the stunning ensemble is more than a fashion statement. It's built for an epic journey. Monarchs are migratory and can travel up to 2,800 miles.

Seth Larson: The third and final nominee in this category are zebras. Strutting in a custom black and white design, no two patterns are ever the same. These bold stripes aren't just high fashion, they're also functional. Their stripes help to confuse predators and deter flies. And the winner is...

Monarch butterflies.

Hayley Lawton: Woo. Let's hear it for the monarchs.

Seth Larson: Yeah.

Hayley Lawton: Amazing.

Seth Larson: Absolutely. Coming to a garden near you.

Hayley Lawton: Absolutely. Okay, our last category, we'll close with our award for outstanding ecosystem. This goes out to those amazing places that make life possible for all of the animals and plant life that we talked about today. The nominees are... The Amazon Rainforest. It's the biggest rainforest on Earth. It regulates climate and weather patterns, and it's crucial to the livelihoods of millions of people, including Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Seth Larson: The next nominee is the Arctic. This place holds diverse landscapes from sea ice to wetlands, to mountains. It's home to some 4 million people spread across eight countries, as well as iconic species like polar bears, arctic foxes, and narwhals. And the sea ice and permafrost in the Arctic play a crucial role in regulating global temperatures.

Hayley Lawton: And our last nominee, the Eastern Himalayas. This biodiversity hotspot stretches over 1,500 miles across Nepal, Bhutan, and Northeast India. The region supports some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth, including iconic species like the snow leopard, tiger, and greater one horned rhino, as well as millions of people.

And the winner is… the Arctic.

Seth Larson: Wow. I did not see that coming.

Hayley Lawton: Amazing.

Seth Larson: Well, Hayley that was a lot of fun. If there's one thing that I love more than anything else about award season, it's arguing about the nominees and the winners and talking about who got snubbed. And so if any of our viewers or listeners out there have a feeling that their favorite place or species wasn't nominated or wasn't acknowledged today, shoot us an email at [email protected] or comment on our YouTube page or in Spotify in the comment section there. We definitely would love that feedback.

Hayley Lawton: Yeah.

Seth Larson: Do you feel like any of the winners really stood out today for you?

Hayley Lawton: Hmm. I'll have to say the Amazon.

Seth Larson: Yeah.

Hayley Lawton: That was, yeah, Amazon was nominated twice.

Seth Larson: Yeah.

Hayley Lawton: Amazing.

Seth Larson: Really strong showing, very strong for the biggest rainforest on Earth.

Hayley Lawton: Mm-hmm. What about you?

Seth Larson: Yeah, I think I was pleasantly surprised to see Monarch butterflies pull off the best wildlife costume.

Hayley Lawton: Mm-hmm.

Seth Larson: Yeah, that was cool. That was really cool for, I really, I was pulling for them.

Hayley Lawton: Yeah. They have a great look.

Seth Larson: Definitely.

Hayley Lawton: Very great look.

Seth Larson: Definitely. That's a wrap for the first ever Nature Breaking Awards. Hayley, thanks for doing this with me today, I hope you had fun. I hope our viewers and listeners enjoyed and we'll do it again next year.

Hayley Lawton: We'll do it again, had so much fun. Thank you, Seth.

Seth Larson: That's a wrap on our first ever Nature Breaking Awards. I hope you learned a thing or two about our nominees and why they matter to our planet, and if there's a category or a nominee that you think we should have included, drop a comment on YouTube or Spotify or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you. For now, thank you for listening and together let's keep building a more sustainable future.