Shannon Kachel is a University of Washington PhD student leading a research project in collaboration with panthera.org aimed at understanding how snow leopards interact with wolves, bears, and their shared prey in the wilds of Kyrgyzstan. Shannon is also involved in research in Tajikistan investigating how traditional methods of herding impact snow leopards, wolves, and bears and the conservation value of community-based trophy hunting initiatives, which seek to provide local people with an incentive to protect wildlife as an important economic resource. Obviously, Shannon's work is amazing and interesting at first glance, but he and I get into topics ranging from our human relationship with nature, trends in ecological science, conservation politics and what it's like to maintain a relationship between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan.