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.

Could you discover something nobody else on Earth has ever seen without leaving your laptop?

In this episode of RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration, host Matt Pycroft speaks with Dr Prem Gill, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey, who studies Antarctic seals using satellite imagery and cutting-edgetechnology. By spotting seal colonies from space and using AI to analyse vast amounts of data, Prem is helping scientists understand how Antarctica is changing, and what those changes mean for the Southern Ocean, climate and the wider planet.

But this is also a conversation about what it means to be an explorer today. Prem sees exploration as something much more universal based in curiosity, asking questions, discovering something new and finding ways to share what we learn. The conversation explores how satellites, remote sensing and AI are transforming scientific discovery, while showing why boots-on-the-ground fieldwork still matters.

Prem also reflects on diversity in polar science, the history of Antarctic exploration, and how new technologies could open up opportunities for people who might never think of themselves as explorers.

In this episode of RGS Presents: The Future of Exploration, urban exploration pioneer Max Leonard challenges our ideas about where exploration happens, who gets to do it, and what discovery can mean in a world that has already been mapped and photographed from almost every angle.

From forgotten railway tunnels and abandoned power stations to hidden infrastructure beneath our cities, Max reveals the extraordinary worlds that exist in places we pass every day. He argues that exploration doesn’t mean travelling further or climbing higher, it simply means looking differently.

The conversation also raises difficult questions. Who owns these spaces? Who has the right to explore them? Can trespassing ever create public value? And when does documenting a hidden place help preserve it or put it at risk?

For Max, urban exploration is ultimately about curiosity and imagination, seeing familiar places in new ways and asking what remains hidden in a world that can seem completely known. At a time when so much of our planet is mapped, monitored and documented, this episode asks whether exploration is really running out of places to go, or whether we simply need to learn how to look more closely.

What happens when exploration is no longer about discovering new places, but about understanding them?

In this episode of The Future of Exploration, journalist and author Sophy Roberts explores storytelling as a powerful form of exploration, driven by curiosity, empathy and the desire to connect.

Drawing on her research-led journeys from Siberia to the Congo, Sophy reflects on slow travel, oral history, memory and wonder. She shares how storytelling can reveal deeper truths about people and place – allowing space for complexity, ambiguity and questions without easy answers.

In contrast to the search for definitive conclusions, Sophy makes the case for a different kind of exploration, one that begins with a feeling or question.

She challenges the idea that discovery must always lead to clarity and shows uswhystorytelling remains essential for understanding the world and staying connected to each other within it.

What happens when exploration moves beyond Earth?

In this live episode of The Future of Exploration, bestselling author and journalist Tim Marshall joins host Matt Pycroft to consider the forces shaping humanity’s future in space, from geopolitics and economics to technology, ambition and the enduring human desire to discover.

Drawing on lessons from centuries of exploration, Tim asks whether humanity is repeating familiar patterns of competition, resource extraction and territorial ambition , or if space offers a chance to do things differently.

From the lunar south pole and the search for water to the challenges of governing beyond Earth and the impact of space exploration on Earth itself, this conversation unpacks .the opportunities and tensions of becoming a spacefaring civilisation.

How much of our own planet have we truly explored?

In this episode of The Future of Exploration, ocean explorer and Nekton Mission Director Oliver Steeds challenges one of our biggest assumptions that the final frontier lies in space. Instead, he argues that the greatest unknown is much closer to home, in the vast, largely unexplored depths of our oceans.

Oliver reveals why we have mapped only a fraction of the seabed, why most marine species remain undiscovered, and how these hidden ecosystems play a critical role in regulating the Earth’s climate and sustaining global food systems. From extraordinary deep-sea discoveries to AI-powered species identification, he explores how new technologies and global collaboration are transforming our ability to understand life beneath the waves.

If we have discovered less than 10% of ocean life, what might still be out there, and can we find it before it disappears?