This sister-led Philly podcast is changing the tone around conservationism

Talking about environmental issues is important, but often conversations can feel overwhelming —  rarely do they feel enjoyable. A podcast from two Philly sisters is aiming to change that. 

“The Kindred Podcast,” from hosts Kate Coffin and Jenn Asplundh, began as a pandemic venture — an interview-based podcast with a conversational and storytelling vibe — all about our relationship with animals and nature. The project is self-funded and this season also spotlights Indigenous voices on climate and environmental change. 

Guests include scientists, biologists and authors who have specialized in environmental studies. This season is all about “maligned species” — animals that often get a bad rap like sharks, hyenas, bats and vultures, but are actually pretty cool and serve an important role in their ecosystem. 

“We really work to be a voice for animals in nature that people can hear — hopefully in a new way — to reconnect us back to them,” Coffin said. “And we do it because we really care about the planet and what I would call our ‘kindred’ species.”

While Coffin has a BA in Anthropology from Temple University, neither she nor Asplundh are experts in this field. 

“We also believe very much in a sense of humor,” Coffin said. “So we try to create a comfortable and relaxed setting, all the while being really focused on science and hopefully getting some really good facts in there.”

Earlier this year, Kindred was featured on Apple Podcasts’ homepage. It is returning for its ninth season on Tuesday, Oct. 14.  New episodes get released every other week.

We chatted with Coffin ahead of the new season, in which she dove into her start in podcasting, explored working with her sister and reflected on the legacy of the late Jane Goodall. 

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Tell us about the new season. Why did you decide to focus on animals that most people love to hate?

I’ve always wanted to talk about maligned species. I do not like misrepresentation on any level. There’s nothing worse than having someone tell you what you are when it’s absolutely untrue. It really gets your blood up. I think I feel the same way about these animals.

Hyenas, for example, are a bizarre looking animal. Honestly, all power to them, but they aren’t typically the most beautiful. Still, we haven’t spent enough time with them to see that they’re not just these cackling, marauding scavengers who are trying to steal food from everybody. They’re actually highly organized, intelligent hunters. They are like the janitors of Africa — cleaning up the environment around them. We were lucky enough to get a hold of Dr. Kay Holekamp. She’s a professor of biology and one of the world’s leading behavioral ecologists out of Michigan State University for the episode.

And we joke in the podcast about, like, I’m mad at Disney, I’m mad at Hemingway, and I’m mad at these people throughout history who have just continuously misrepresented animals like the hyena. They’re super badass. 

What inspired you to start The Kindred Podcast in the first place?

During the pandemic, everything shut down, and we were all really disconnected. And I just saw how the world so quickly bounced back. Nature started to repair and recover itself so beautifully — whale migration shifted, sheep from the highlands were coming down into the towns. And I am so inspired by that.

We are really looking to get the message out that we are not above or separate or better than animals in nature, but equal. We are all in this together, and we are really trying to do this through the heart space.

We can change this. We are the most powerful (for good or bad) species on the planet right now. I think it’s just the idea of connecting to all the little guys. Listen to the birds. Watch the squirrels digging their little hole. Watch the cute bumblebees with little furry legs doing their pollinating. Even for just a minute, watch and connect to the absolute magic and wonder that is playing out every day right outside our window.

What is it like to have your sister as a co-host?

My sister is very much a kindred spirit to me. We’re very close, and we’re very different. Jenn is a very kind, smart, empathetic person, and she’s a great conversationalist. She knows how to listen, and she has this amazing mind. I don’t know that she had a choice to do this. I was like, “Hey, so I’m starting a podcast, and you’re my big sister, but I’ve always wanted to boss you around. So how about you come work on the podcast with me?”  She was actually the one who got me into podcasts at all. We’re both true crime addicts. For our podcast, she’s the audience’s perspective, so she comes in with questions that I haven’t asked or haven’t thought of to ask. 

How do you make talking about the environment inviting, when issues surrounding it often make people want to hide under the covers?

My co-host Jen, who also is my sister, and I, we are not scientists or academics or journalists or any of these things. What we’re trying to do is make the science really accessible for us and our listeners. We talk to really smart, brainy people who have dedicated their lives to this, and so we’re trying to translate what we’re hearing for all of us, and hopefully all the while, sparking empathy in our hearts. 

We want to inspire action, but we really don’t want to do that through all the fear and the guilt and the doom stuff. We don’t want people feeling during interviews that we’re sitting on the climate bus just heading for the edge of a cliff. So we try to make it relaxed, comfortable and accessible. 

I’m very much, of course, thinking a lot about Jane Goodall, right now. I’ll try not to get… I get really teary eyed. It’s a big deal. It’s a big loss. And, you know, we often say in our podcast that we don’t use the word hope, we use the word inspiration. However, Jane Goodall really breaks down hope in such a beautiful way. She never talks about hope without action. And I find that really comforting. What she talks about so often is that people say, ”Oh, what can I do? I’m only one person.” And she would say, “Well, I’m only one person.” 

And I also feel like, you know, “I’m also only one person.” I technically had no business starting a podcast about conservation and all of these things. And yet I did because I was really compelled. 

I just listened to your conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Deborah Bloom on Rachel Carson, which will be an episode on the new season. One thing that struck me was the way that Deborah discussed Carson’s ability not only to make people care about an issue, but effect change in a quiet and feminine way. And I think Jane Goodall kind of did that too. Why are women or female voices sometimes uniquely qualified to talk about these issues?

Historically, women’s voices have not been heard or respected in the world of science. I’m talking about Western science. It’s very predominantly white and male. Women have a multifaceted perspective, because we have been in that sort of minority — as well as BIPOC voices. We have been researching and writing and observing and partaking in and experiencing this world on many different levels. And I think Rachel Carson is such a beautiful example of that as well as Jane Goodall — very almost demure, very feminine, quiet in their presentation of themselves. You have to know how to gather your grit, how to sit in front of Congress like Rachel Carson did while having cancer. I always say that Jane Goodall was this lovely English flower, but I’m sure she was also made up of empathy and steel. You have to have a spine of steel.

What are you hoping listeners take away from the podcast?

I really hope that the overall takeaway for listeners is a new sense of empathy and sitting in another being’s shoes for an hour — taking the time to really listen to the experience and the experience of a specific animal that they have deemed unworthy or gross, or an animal that really doesn’t deserve the respect that it does.

I hope that people feel inspired to then take that into their own lives. You can honor what our kindred species do for us, and then ask what we can do back for them.

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