Hello, and welcome back to the Shadows Run Podcast!

Today's episode is the sixth and final installment of the WRFI Stories series. The Wild Rockies Field Institute is a nonprofit organization that offers college level field courses accredited through the University of Montana. Their mission is to offer academically rigorous, place-based field courses that develop engaged, informed citizens and strong leaders capable of addressing complex social and environmental issues.

Today's guest is Fiona Monahan, a student on the most recent Restoration Ecology course during summer 2025. Fiona is in school at Reed College in Oregon studying Environmental Studies with a concentration in Biology. They hope to go on to pursue a PhD in Ecology or Lichenology. They are an avid backpacker, river surfer, climber, all-round adventurer, and steward of the world around them!

In this conversation we talk about:

• Fiona's experience hiking the Colorado Trail after high school
• their thoughts on risk and risk assessment
• why they took a WRFI course, and some stories from the field
• the definitions and differences between restoration, conservation, and preservation
• Fiona's thoughts on building community with the more-than-human world
• ...and a lot more

Thank you for joining us!

Wild Rockies Field Institute website: https://www.wrfi.net/

Ways to Support WRFI: https://www.wrfi.net/support/ways-to-give/

WRFI's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wild_rockies/

Women's Wilderness: https://womenswilderness.org/

I love to hear from you! Get in touch with me via:

• Email: shadowsrunpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowsrunpodcast/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shadowsrunpodcast.bsky.social

Hello, and welcome back to the Shadows Run Podcast!

This episode is part 2 of my conversation with friend and world traveler, Chloe Carnegey. In this half of our conversation, Chloe and I tell the story of our New Zealand hitchhiking adventure from the mountains of the south island to Queenstown, both sharing journal entries we wrote chronicling those days in real-time. We talk about spending New Year's Eve of 2018 on a magical remote property south of Queenstown, and then about Chloe's travels after New Zealand to Costa Rica and Peru! I ask Chloe about her thoughts on gap years broadly and what that year changed in her, and share some of my thoughts as well.

Chloe and I then talk about what she has been up to in the 7 years since we took our gap years, including her path to her undergraduate degree, and more international travel. We finish the conversation talking about where Chloe is at now, looking to pursue work as a birth doula and diving more deeply into her passion for music and songwriting!

I loved this half of our conversation; Chloe has so much wisdom to share about what makes for a meaningful life and the value of following an authentic path, even if it is unconventional. It was so good to reconnect for this conversation, and if you enjoyed part 1 with Chloe I have no doubt you will love the second half as well!

I love to hear from you! Get in touch with me via:
• Email: shadowsrunpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowsrunpodcast/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shadowsrunpodcast.bsky.social

Hello, and welcome back to the Shadows Run Podcast!

Today's episode is part 1 of a conversation with friend, artist, and world traveler Chloe Carnegey. Chloe and I went to high school together, and then went on to take gap years and traveled to New Zealand for four months from October 2018 to January 2019. Chloe went on to keep living this wild life of spontaneity and travel and adventure, and has hardly stopped moving since our time in New Zealand! She now has a Bachelor's degree in Botany and Plant Pathology with two minors in Spanish and Chemistry, and is currently looking into becoming a doula and working with mothers in that capacity.

In this first half of our conversation, Chloe and I talk about how we met in the awesome outdoor class we were both a part of in high school. Chloe tells the story of how I inspired her to take a gap year, an interaction I ironically have no memory of but marked the beginning of what became a life-changing adventure we took on together.

We then talk about some of our memories in New Zealand - the highs and lows of being 18 years old and learning how to travel and live on our own 7,000 miles from home. We talk about WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) and our first host farm, and then about how - after a month traveling solo - we met up again for a harrowing and exhilarating handful of days during the week of Christmas 2018 on another host property on the rugged west coast of the South Island.

Both Chloe and I share some journal entries from our time in New Zealand in this episode, and I hope you enjoy this glimpse into our minds and lived experiences as 18-year-olds on a wild adventure.

I am so glad you are here, and hope you enjoy!

I love to hear from you! Get in touch with me via:

• Email: shadowsrunpodcast@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowsrunpodcast/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shadowsrunpodcast.bsky.social