Can lions and people thrive together?

What if protecting large carnivores means questioning some of conservation’s most deeply held beliefs?

Conservationist Professor Amy Dickman joins Matt Pycroft to examine who pays the price for keeping dangerous wildlife alive and who gets to decide what the future of conservation should look like. Drawing on more than two decades of work in Africa, she argues that lions cannot survive through distant affection, fenced reserves or international promises alone. They need social licence from the people sharing their landscapes – and achieving that is far from simple.

The conversation moves from community-run camera trapping in Tanzania to trophy hunting, mining, racism, “parachute science” and the uncomfortable economics of nature. Amy Dickman explains why conservationists must engage with governments, businesses and communities whose priorities may conflict with their own, while remaining honest about their central purpose.

This is also a candid reckoning with exploration itself, particularly in the context of wildlife conservation: who frames the questions, who owns the data and whose knowledge carries authority? The result is a compelling case for evidence, compromise and local-led conservation, built not around outsiders imposing answers but around the difficult work of creating a biodiverse future chosen by those on the ground.

What are today’s explorers really looking for? In this episode of RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration, leading glaciologist Professor Rachel Carr reflects on human curiosity, concepts of wilderness, and the role exploration plays in helping us navigate our rapidly changing world. Drawing on her research in Bhutan, where she works with government agencies to understand glacier-related flood risks, Rachel articulates how exploration can produce both personal transformation and practical impact. She discusses why wilderness is best understood as a feeling rather than a place, why successful fieldwork depends so strongly on local relationships, and why curiosity remains one of humanity's most important traits. This broad conversation ranges from childhood adventures and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award to ethical exploration, climate justice, Antarctic wilderness and even glaciers on Mars. Along the way, Rachel makes the case that exploration is not simply about where we go, but how we engage: with landscapes, communities, ideas and each other. For anyone interested in discovery through field science and the relevance of geography to the future of our planet, these are powerful words from a leading thinker and practitioner about what exploration gives us and why we should continue to pursue it.

What if some of the most important discoveries left to make are hidden beneath our feet?

In this episode of RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration, cave explorer and microbiologist Professor Hazel Barton joins host Matt Pycroft to explore the world underground.

From unexplored cave systems in Borneo and Mexico to microscopic life living in extreme environments, Hazel reveals how exploration can begin with something that doesn’t make sense. A rope that mysteriously lost its strength led to new questions about cave formation. Microbes found around mineral deposits opened up possibilities for capturing carbon and creating new materials, and ancient animal remains discovered while following the flow of air helped reveal a lost cave entrance and a different landscape from 10,000 years ago. For Hazel, this is what exploration is really about, following the clues, noticing anomalies and asking better questions.

The conversation also asks what exploration looks like in the age of AI and robotics. Can a machine map a cave more efficiently than a human? Are curiosity, intuition and human judgement qualities that technology can ever truly reproduce? Hazel also challenges the image of the lone heroic explorer. Modern exploration is increasingly a team effort, bringing together scientists, mappers, expedition teams and local expertise to generate knowledge that can help tackle some of society’s biggest challenges.