- On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, co-founder of the award-winning Canadian nonprofit news outlet The Narwhal, Emma Gilchrist, speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about their successes covering the most vital environmental news in the nature-rich nation.
- Gilchrist discusses what’s special about Canada’s natural legacy, the state of environmental reporting there, how she sees The Narwhal filling the gaps in historically neglected stories and viewpoints, and why something as universally appreciated as nature can still be a polarizing topic.
- She also details a legal battle her organization is involved in that could have significant implications for press freedom in Canada.
The Narwhal is an award-winning, non-profit, environmental news outlet based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was co-founded in 2018 by podcast guest Emma Gilchrist, who joins the show to discuss the array of environmental issues they cover and how they feature Indigenous views and topics via a “story telling vs. story taking” point of view.
Her news organization recently advanced one of the most potentially significant efforts for press freedom in Canada, when it made the decision to sue the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for arresting and detaining their journalist Amber Bracken who was on assignment covering protests against a gas pipeline being built through the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation’s land in 2021.
Gilchrist speaks about the success of The Narwhal’s reader-supported, nonprofit model and their hopes for the future during the latest episode of the Mongabay Newscast with co-host Rachel Donald.
Listen here:
“We saw this huge void and we just stepped into it with The Narwhal. We really wanted to create a brand that was beautiful, that drew people into our shared love of the natural world. That’s something that people in Canada are almost universally proud of [and] so we really wanted to tap into that shared value,” says Gilchrist.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Banner image: Narwhals near the surface of the water. Image by Проектный офис Нарвал via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Rachel Donald is a climate corruption reporter and the creator of Planet: Critical, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis. Her latest thoughts can be found at 𝕏 via @CrisisReports and at Bluesky via @racheldonald.bsky.social.
Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn, Bluesky and Instagram.
Related Reading:
Indigenous funding model is a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada
