We’re on location in Yadvinder Malhi’s office in Oxford, professor and director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. Yadvinder’s work-origin story begins when he first climbs sampling towers in the Amazon to look out on 1000 miles of rainforest in every direction. “I was absolutely bewitched. I felt it viscerally.” We talk about culture and nature, the wild force of nature, and the sense of living in a belly of something huge. He recalls being sent back to India aged six to reconnect, and see the value of the huge family network as another support system. “Vibrancy is more than abundance,” says Yadvinder. It is energy to be shared. Vibrancy is about connections and story.

We talk of ecological civilisation in China, and nature recovery in the UK. He says, “We need to be thinking about radical transformations of landscapes,” not just the utilitarian values of nature.

He also says, “Ecology and ecosystems are the constant negotiation of relationships.”

Yadvinder’s new book will be called “Vibrant Earth.”

His heroes and heroines are the small organisation and local people making positive change: the social underbelly beneath nations and governments.

His book recommendation: David Abram’s Spell of the Sensuous.

His key action: don’t stop at connections to nature: turn to action.

Website: https://www.yadvindermalhi.org/

Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery: https://naturerecovery.ox.ac.uk/

Oxford Nature Network: https://www.youtube.com/@oxfordnaturenetwork

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027 by Unbreaking/5m. It’s called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformation and Story for Climate and Nature Recovery."