Podcast chart #73 on the podcast chart

Kim Hill hears a case for letting invasive species stay

RNZ's interview podcast climbs Apple's New Zealand chart as its latest guest challenges the language and priorities of conservation.

Channel:

RNZ Story of November 15, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The podcast "Kim Hill Wants To Know" rose to #73 on Apple's podcast chart in New Zealand, from #112 yesterday.

Why Amy Crawford thinks invasive species deserve to stay | Kim Hill Wants to Know

What did you think?

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

6:44Crawford questions parallels between hostile language about human immigration and the rhetoric surrounding introduced species.
13:20Crawford distinguishes competition from predation, identifying island predators as a direct cause of extinctions.
24:25Hill recalls her mother's pet possum, contrasting that memory with attitudes towards possums in New Zealand.
35:10Crawford describes Florida snail kites adapting to eat invasive apple snails.
40:31Hill raises Zealandia's conservation success and the spread of native birds beyond its fence.

Kim Hill remembers her mother adopting a baby possum. In a country where possums are targets of eradication efforts, that family memory gives her latest conversation an unusually personal point of entry: how do we decide which creatures belong?

RNZ's Kim Hill Wants To Know has risen from 112th to 73rd on Apple's podcast chart in New Zealand. Hosted by the veteran broadcaster, the interview series brings together guests whose ideas invite a sustained questioning, rather than a quick answer.

Its recent conversations have ranged from novelist Tim Winton on finding a way forward through environmental crisis to translator Emily Wilson's enthusiasm for Homer. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has also joined Hill to argue that AI could already be conscious.

The latest guest, science writer Amy Crawford, makes a more earthbound provocation. Discussing her book Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong, she argues for greater hospitality towards introduced species and questions the militaristic language used against them.

Her case isn't simply that conservation should leave everything alone. Crawford distinguishes competition from predation, acknowledging the direct extinction threat posed by predators such as cats on islands. She also describes native birds adapting to introduced species, including Florida snail kites learning to feed on invasive apple snails.

Hill brings the argument back to New Zealand's experience. Alongside the pet-possum memory, she raises Zealandia, Wellington's fenced sanctuary, and the native birds spreading beyond it into urban gardens. That contrast gives the conversation its substance: Crawford's appeal to accept ecological change meets Hill's examples of what active protection can achieve.

Published on Trari

Most watched today ›