Media in Minutes

How An Environmental Travel Writer Turns Wonder Into Action with Amy Brecount White

• Angela Tuell • Season 6 • Episode 3

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 35:04

Send us Fan Mail

Start with wonder, end with action. That’s the throughline of our conversation with travel and environmental writer Amy Brecount White, whose stories for National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Sierra and more connect awe-filled journeys with the people and practices that keep wild places alive. We explore how she moved from early Washington Post essays to a career focused on regenerative travel, indigenous-led astro tourism and science-informed reporting that empowers readers to make change at home and on the road.

Amy opens up about the moment a small garden patch transformed her block into a buzzing wildlife corridor, and why native plants, oaks and even humble leaf piles can revive birds, bees and butterflies in weeks. She breaks down rain gardens, permeable design and the surprising truth about native bees versus honey bees. We dig into the telltale signs of responsible travel—B Corps, local guides conservation partnerships, and reduced tourism leakage—and highlight cruises and lodges that invest in coral restoration, community economies and cultural knowledge. Along the way, Amy shares reporting insights from Master Naturalist training to field interviews with scientists, park stewards and restoration crews.

If you’re curious about dark sky travel, wellness and longevity trips with real environmental benefits, or simply how to choose operators who leave destinations better than they found them, this episode brings clarity and momentum. We also talk PR pitching that actually helps journalists, Amy’s upcoming features from Yellowstone to Baja, and the environmental heartbeat of her new novel. 

Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who loves nature, and leave a review to help more listeners find conversations that turn curiosity into care.

Conntect with Amy at: 

Meet Amy Brecount White

Angela

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world. From our studio here at Communications Redefined, this is Media in Minutes. Today we're talking with Amy Brecount White, a travel and environmental writer, novelist, and writing coach whose work spans the pages of National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, AARP, Sierra, and many more. Amy is passionate about exploring the world's wild beauty from the best stargazing spots in North America to the flower-filled gardens of Mudera and the historic tea culture of Ireland's abbeys. Amy's stories often blend adventure with purpose, focusing on eco-conscious travel and the people protecting biodiversity from scientists and farmers to chefs and park rangers. She's a two-time ASJA Award winner for environmental writing and a proud Arlington Regional Master Naturalist and a National Park Service volunteer. At home, you'll find her in her pollinator garden, walking her dog or revising her latest novel, The Second Bloom. Hello, Amy. How are you doing today?

Amy Brecount White

Good. How are you, Angela?

Angela

Good. I have to know what first sparked your love for travel writing. And how did your career in this space begin?

Amy Brecount White

So, you know, I think like lots of people, I thought, wow, that would just be so cool to do that. Um I had written uh for the Washington Post a fair amount, some personal essays, and um they had a they used to have a column like what to do with your kids in the DC area, and had you know young kids at the time. And then um living near DC, we also could do Smithsonian um workshops. So, you know, it just so happened that one of the editors from the Washington Post was doing a workshop kind of a so you want to be a travel writer workshop.

Angela

Oh wow, okay.

Amy Brecount White

So me and hundreds of other people ran into this auditorium, you know, in DC, and I took, you know, voluminous notes and approached him with later, you know, with an idea because my dad had just died that year, very young, um at 62. And my whole family with my two little kids who were at that point two in nine months, um, we were all going to Key West for Florida.

Angela

Okay.

Breaking Into Travel Writing

Amy Brecount White

And and he's like, kind of, you know, sounds interesting. I actually I might have the the workshop might have been after the trip, um, because I knew I knew I had a story there, because it was sort of, you know, trying to escape grief, but also have a good time with your siblings. And we were the only ones that had grandchildren, and you know, just being in Key West at Christmas is weird. And um, in some ways, sorry, sorry, people who live in Key West. Um, but you know, if you can't if you grew up in the Midwest and you know did have some white, white Christmases um like I did, um you know, it was a little odd. And um, so anyway, so I wrote the piece entirely on spec. He, the editor at the time loved it. Um, and that I just kind of started writing for the Washington Post. They had a travel section called Escapes, then. And um, we got to the point where he would sort of call me up and you know, say, Hey, you know, I'd like to do something on this. Can you do it? Um and it got to the point. So I had a third child, I had a little girl a couple of years later. So I have three, and I brought my mom along on this biking trip through the eastern chore of Virginia because she could watch my baby while I biked like from in stop to stop and just drive along. Oh, yeah, yeah. I would nurse my it was just like I made no money, you know, I didn't on that article. But but it was it was just, you know, to kind of keep my hand in it. Um and then yeah, and then it just kind of branched into, you know, um, the web was really growing. So I did a lot of web writing and you know, it's kind of been um on again, off again over the years as I've kind of looked into other other avenues of writing, or I also kind of am a teacher. I used to be a high school English teacher in my first iteration, and then I had a I still have a college essay coaching business, although I've really scaled back on that. Um yeah, yeah, so that's how it started.

Angela

Wow. So what are you doing currently? Where is your focus?

Amy Brecount White

Um, so it's kind of the intersection of travel and environment, is what I would say. Or travel, sustainable travel. You know, some people say regenerative travel. Um, you know, I'm ending up writing a lot about dark skies lately and astroturism. Um, but also, you know, I might write an article for a local publication about how to um welcome birds and improve bird habitat in your yard, you know, beyond just putting up a feeder, which it can be helpful, but year-round it's that helpful, you know. So um there's a lot of other things you can do that are relatively easy. So yeah, so kind of um, you know, really interested in um having experiences that that immerse me in nature, but also sort of have a hopeful aspect to them, you know, that that we can we can make a difference because I really believe we can. Um yeah, I'm also um I did during COVID, my my COVID project was to become an Arlington Master, Arlington Regional Master Naturalist. A lot of the tech schools in different states have a master naturalist program. Um, and it's kind of like taking a couple in-depth college courses with a lot of field trips. Um, so I'm a park steward for a local park. Um, and you know, I lead people in removing invasive species and planting native plants and educational things and stuff like that. So it's sort of some of my articles are kind of aligned with that mission.

Angela

Yeah, that is great because it's actually you're not just not that it's ever just writing, but you're giving people great options, you're doing good for them to plant it.

Amy Brecount White

Yeah, yeah. I feel like we need that, we need those.

Angela

So I love I I oh sorry, I love how you said hope. Right. Yeah, yeah.

Amy Brecount White

It can get really, yeah, it can get confusing. And you know, there's I just always say there's really simple things you can do, and you will see a really big difference. I actually wrote an article or an essay, it was a personal essay in Shondaland when that still existed. And um, but it was about like how you know, my journey to becoming um a master naturalist and and sort of, you know, an advocate for native plants and you know, creating habitats in your own spaces, that kind of thing. Yeah.

Angela

What are a few of those tips that you mentioned?

Defining Eco‑Conscious Storytelling

Amy Brecount White

Um yeah, well, number one is definitely plant native plants. Um, you know, uh lawn grass is not native. Um, there's uh I fangirl over this one entomologist at the University of Delaware, his neck name is Doug Talamy, T-A-L-L-A-M-Y. Um, and he says that, you know, most of our yards are basically kind of plastic for birds and bees and butterflies and and wildlife, because they evolved with our native species. So if you don't have native trees, oak trees are like number one. If there's any way you can plant an oak tree, do that as soon as possible. Um, because oak trees are where the caterpillars live that feed the baby birds and lots of other creatures. Yeah. So mama daddy birds don't feed the babies seeds or berries or anything like that. They feed them caterpillars. They need, you know, mushy food, like babies do. Um, and so there's just lots of different things you can do. Some of my articles all have kind of um, you know, keystone species of the plant world. So that's the number one thing. And then the number two would be like leaving leaves, creating like a little space in your yard that's maybe where you throw the sticks or you leave leaves, you know, if you have to get them off your grass. Um leave a space because things like fireflies and butterflies, most butt butterflies don't don't migrate, only the monarchs do. And so all these species are sort of laying, you know, have laid their young or their eggs or whatever it is in the the leaf litter that we call, you know, sort of in a derogatory way. It's not really litter, it's actually habitat. So if you can kind of reconceive your yard or at least parts of it, you know, as okay, this is gonna, this is gonna welcome in wildlife. You know, this part is gonna be a pollinator section, or this part is gonna be, you know, uh a place where birds can hide and nest, you know, even just like a corner where you sort of pile up leaves and let it let it be. It doesn't have to look all sort of, you know, prettified and and you know, manor house-ish. We sort of get into this aesthetic that you know our front yard needs to look like a the Lord's manor with the grass. And that's very British, you know. But yeah, that grass, it's not doing anything for the ecosystem, really. There's so many other things you could plant that would. So, like my native, my yard doesn't have any grass in it. It it has native grasses, carrots, um, which again support wildlife and and prevent erosion and do all these really great things. Um, so yeah, so those would be, I mean, I I could go on and on, but that's not novel writing.

Angela

I know those are good places to start, though. That's super fascinating. Yeah.

Amy Brecount White

Well, it it also a lot of times, you know, I I like experiential travel and I like being, you know, taken with a guide or taken out with a guide or um, you know, somewhere, someone hiking with you who knows a lot, you know, about the environment or wildlife or things like that. And so it's I can really tap into what they're saying because, you know, it's not exactly the same as where I live in Virginia, right? But, you know, the systems pretty much work the same. So I feel like having gone through that master naturalist training, you know, I generally have a better understanding. I mean, I took a trip to to Bon Air and and sort of begged them, you know, to let us do this experience with with a uh group in in Bonaire that was doing coral restoration. Um and yeah, and I could really sort of tap into what they were talking about. And yeah, um, so yeah, so it's been it it's fun, it's hopeful, but it's also an advantage in my writing because I'm I've started writing like more for Sierra at kind of that section of travel and science, um, which it, you know, which is which is great fun. I'm not afraid to talk to a scientist.

Angela

That's great. Yeah, that that makes you definitely better at what you do because of your experience there. Do you have a this might be a hard question, but a favorite assignment that has really stuck with you either because of the landscape, the destination, or the people?

Simple Yard Hacks For Wildlife

Amy Brecount White

Well, I'm gonna talk about the one I'm doing, I was just doing today. Okay, because it's it's uppermost in my mind. And and so many assignments lead you, you know, to other assignments. So I'm writing a piece for Nat Geo Travel right now on um indigenous astro tourism experiences. So um there are more and more providers around the US and Canada that are, you know, either some of them are national parks or some of them are at, you know, um indigenous or First Nation owned lodges. Um, and I'm really enjoying that. Um, and I'm on the process of interviewing this week and just sort of um learning those stories and seeing how they, you know, can intersect with and augment, you know, uh my readers' stories, if that makes sense. You know, it's sort of it's it's a new, a different lens on astrotourism. Um yeah, so I'm I'm super excited about that. And I, you know, I sort of did a call out for it and was, you know, surprised by how much there is. There's actually quite a bit um of different experiences. You can have, you know, a lot, a lot of different places. So I'm really excited to write that article. It should be in like NACIO probably later in February because I'm still researching it.

Angela

Okay, great. We will have to watch for it, definitely. Along those lines, you've won multiple ASJA awards for your environmental stories. Tell us a little bit about those.

Amy Brecount White

Yeah, so those um, you know, come in with the the master naturalist background. One was on rain gardens, which is, you know, with uh climate change and all the weather craziness we're experiencing. We're getting, you know, we're getting a hundred-year rain events um every few years. And there, you know, it's sort of uh about per per that permeus and impermeous surfaces. So a rain garden sort of creates a space in your yard to absorb that rather than having it like run off, and from where I live, it would run off into the Chesapeake and create erosion and pollution and you know, more chemicals. You just want it to kind of soak into the ground and clean itself as it does that. And one of the cool things about that piece was I ended up finding out that like a lot of church communities are putting in rain gardens. Because if you think about, you know, how churches work, they usually have these enormous roofs and enormous parking lots. Both of these are impermeable surfaces that the rainwater just runs off of. Um, so it was really cool to see that people are doing that. Um and then um the other one, it was about native bees. Honey bees are not native to the US. Um, they've gotten a really, really big PR brand to protect honeybees, but they're actually more of an agricultural addition that the colonists brought over in the 1700s. Yeah. Um, when you talk to like bee experts, what they're really concerned about is our native bees, which are like bumble bees, and then there's all these other kinds of bees, orchard bees, mining bees, and they're kind of paired a lot of times with certain plants. So there's a um spring beauty bee that only feeds their young pollen from spring beauty, which is this beautiful little white and pink flower that comes up in the early spring. Um, so if you don't have those plants, you don't have those creatures. It's like the monarchs and milkweed, but there's all these other creatures. There's this beautiful butterfly on the East Coast called um a zebra swallow tail. Um, and it's um it's got you know, it's black and white like a zebra and it has a red stripe on it. And they only lay their eggs, you know, on pawpaw trees, which are another tree. Um, so anyway, it's a whole piece about that. Was was in um Arlington magazine, and it's a whole piece about um our native bees and how how to welcome them. And again, most of our native bees don't sting, which um, you know, they're they're sort of their yellow jackets are the ones that really get you. Honeybees can sting, but native bees, you almost have to like harass them to get them to sting you. Um, so yeah, so it's kind of a, you know, people have this, oh, bees, you know, scared I'm gonna get stuck. It's like, no, actually, you can, you know, lots of people that I interviewed were talking about how they will go up and pet a um bumblebee that's sleeping in the morning. Sometimes you can see them, they're like inside your flower sleeping overnight. Um, and yeah, they are kind of fuzzy and and cute.

Angela

So uh anyway, yeah, that is really interesting too.

Amy Brecount White

So, yeah, so I'm a big native bee proponent. Um, and you know, honey bees are certain agricultural things like almonds in California need them. But um, should you put a honey bee hive in your backyard? The experts will say no, you don't need that. It just becomes in competition with the native bees who we do need to be supporting because they are because of pesticides and the fact that people, you know, like a lot of the plants in our yards are plastic for them, they're not getting any pollen or nectar.

Angela

Right.

Amy Brecount White

Um, so um yeah, but there again, there's lots of things you can do. My yard is just a buzz now. It's amazing, it's so beautiful. I mean, you know, bumblebees, dragonflies, dragonflies eat the mosquitoes. Um, you know, so it's it's super fun, actually.

Angela

How long has it taken you to get to that point with your yard where you wanted it to be?

Training As A Master Naturalist

Amy Brecount White

Well, honestly, okay. And the the the essay that I mentioned earlier, the one that was Chandalia, I think you can still find it. Um, but uh my daughter, you know, I think she was 19 at the time, and she basically came up to me and she said, Mom, I haven't seen any butterflies. I haven't seen many butterflies this year. Can you do something about that? You know, which is such a you know, like good question. But I started doing research and I was like, dang, I can do something about that. You know, I just need to plant native plants that are going to support them. So I this is, you know, I had a typical grassyard, my whole front yard was basically plastic, you know, for these creatures. And I just ripped out um a patch about the size of a long desk and um went to my local nursery, you know, and said, hey, I want native plants for butterflies for monarchs or things like that. And they gave me, you know, probably eight or nine plants that I put in. And within a couple weeks, and I'm not exaggerating at all, within a couple weeks, I could stand at my front yard and the part that that section that was blooming and had the native plants, it was just alive. You know, there were peas, there were moths. It took a little bit for the butterflies to get there, but you know, it was just alive. And then I looked at the rest of my yard, and there's there's no creatures. You know, so we had yeah it literally is. I mean, if you this spring, you know, just pick out a little piece of your yard and start planting native plants. And and there's um the National Wildlife Federation, just you know, I think it's just nwf.org, they have uh you can uh something, you know, just I think it's called the plant finder. And you just go on there and put in your zip code and it'll tell you what native plants will support the most species. Like if you want butterflies, you know, or you want um uh different kinds of birds, you know, things like that. If you're a birder and you want to support birds, it will tell you what the species are trees, shrubs, uh ground covers, perennials, what the ones are that will support the most species. And so then if you go and put those in, I mean it's just it's so quick. It's so quick. They just they just come. And now my yard is really, I mean, it's like yeah, it's all alive. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's fun because I've you know connected with a lot of other people on my street and I back up to the park that I'm a park steward for. And so now we have like a wildlife corridor.

Angela

Oh, nice.

Amy Brecount White

The birds and the pollinators and you know, um, butterflies and all these other creatures can really, you know, sort of come through and find things to eat. You know, we have hummingbirds and we have all these cool moths, and um yeah, it's fun.

Angela

It's awesome. I love it. You know, and as you're as you're talking about um and a little bit about your writing too, your it's not just beautiful but meaningful. So, what advice do you have for writers or travelers who want to explore the world more thoughtfully? So not right there at home, but you know, as you explore the world.

Indigenous Astro Tourism Projects

Amy Brecount White

Right, right. Um, I would say one of the things that I'm trying to do is sort of, you know, look at um the the philosophy of places I'm staying or different tour guides I'm you know going with, because they usually have some sort of a statement about what's driving them. And there are more and more places, you know, where they are trying to, you know, either support local ecosystems, um, different organizations have foundations that have arisen from you know what they've created with travel, or um sometimes they'll have a program, you know, where um I know um I think it's Winstar has a program um in Fiji that they're allied with a coral restoration program there. And they um uh you can you can sponsor corals or you can buy corals, you know, that sort of or there's other places that you know we'll talk about how we're you know, we make sure we hire local guides or we're um you know, trying to support local economies, buying from local farmers or local fishermen. Um a lot of times that gets the term you know regenerative. So it's it's becoming easier to find that. I think, you know, it may take a little bit more digging, but there's, you know, there's some alliances and things like that. So, so that's kind of the direction I'm heading, um, you know, with with my own travel to try to find those places. And then often, you know, you're getting, you're getting the, the guides, you know, who are local or you are helping support like a local school or something along those lines. Yeah. So that's that's really uplifting too. I'm actually writing an article about that now for Sierra Magazine. Because the opposite of that is like what we saw a few years ago in Venice with you know giant cruise ships sort of pulling up and no money going into Venice. It's called tourism leakage.

Angela

Right.

Amy Brecount White

So you know the the cruise company is basically keeping all the money, you know, because the people are eating on the ship. They're not really investing in that local economy. And there's other cruise companies um I know Amoways is doing some cool things um where they're really trying very hard not to do that. You know, they're trying very hard to kind of be almost like a responsible citizen in wherever the resort is or wherever the boat is going. Yeah so it's so I'm I'm writing a piece about that. And then a lot of travel companies have become B Corps. Intrepid is one of the first ones to become a B Corps. I know Frontier Adventures up in Canada is a B Cor, untours. Yeah, so there's you can kind of look at like what's my provider doing um you know are they are they serious about taking care of these gorgeous places that I want to go and you know like I have a two year old granddaughter. I want my granddaughter you know I want to take her snorkeling on a beach that's alive and and you know so I'm trying to do what I can because I do feel like even if it's just in my backyard I'm supporting you know more bumblebees and butterflies and birds, you know, I do think it reverberates.

Angela

So yes for those who aren't familiar uh explain B Cor for us.

Amy Brecount White

Sure. Uh B Cor is basically the the the um company agrees to um sort of almost police themselves by certain principles that would be you know are are we acting in a sustainable manner? Are we engaging with the local communities, you know, where we're bringing guests into you know are we I am looking at it from the tourism perspective, you know, are we engaging in ways that are um building up that community and not just taking from it? I mean that's that's probably a succinct summary there's more to it but let's let's go with that.

Angela

Are there other travel or sustainability trends that you're excited about right now?

Amy Brecount White

I think just um one of the things that I keep hearing is you know how popular eco travel or experiential travel is um and I feel like you know part of that equation is you know if you want to have experiences in these beautiful places and you want to have you know sort of environmental immersions, you know, there have to be turtles there. We need there to be turtles there. The coral needs to be alive you know you don't want trash all around kind of thing. So it's that you know I think if people um again you know choose groups that are or or travel providers that are are looking at those kinds of questions you know we can't keep going to these places if we destroy them. So I think you know what we have to do is really think about um all right you know yes everybody wants to travel and go to these places but how do we make sure you know they're still around for for several generations later so I you know that kind of ties back in but I think that's um I mean I think adventure travel you know is is amazing and people go for all sorts of different reasons. Wellness travel, you know, I think that's that's huge. I'm hearing a lot about um basically longevity travel you know trying to to um do things or have treatments or or even talk to doctors sometimes on staff that are helping them to live lives you know in a fuller way but that they'll also potentially live longer, you know, happier, more active all those sorts of things. It's not, I think it's less, you know, and I love sitting on a beach and chilling and reading a book you know but I also want to you know be out there snorkeling and swimming or you know walking the beach brisly or taking a hike or all those sorts of things. So I think that again it's sort of you know the wellness of the planet but also you know personal wellness and seeing how those intersect and understanding that.

Award‑Winning Pieces: Rain Gardens & Bees

Angela

Definitely what is some of your advice for PR professionals when pitching you and and working with you I'm gonna call out something I got today.

Amy Brecount White

I won't name oh no good or bad. Okay bad not great I was just like yeah no I got it was spot on in terms of what I needed and I I posted something on Trav Media for an assignment I have and you know I was looking for that and it was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for but the whole thing like I would say 95% of the email was high had like that you know sort of aqua blue highlight. And so I opened it I was like you know it seemed like the email was screaming at me. You know it's it was just all highlighted it's like it's okay to bold a couple things or you know but it's giving me something that's all highlighted I was just like and so I wrote back to the the PR I was like you know thank you this is great information but honestly I have to share I just had this reaction please don't please don't do that anymore.

Angela

That was nice of you I guess to share with them maybe this is great.

Amy Brecount White

You know it was it was great info. I really appreciated that you know reading my getting back to me and all that sort of stuff but or reading my call out yeah I guess the biggest thing is just like have you spent any time looking at my website because I do I have an angle you know and I do have things that I get really excited about and sending me something about NASCAR you know or um which is I get a surprising number of things. I mean I get like you know romantic destinations things like that it's fine. It's just it's not I don't you know I'll write about hotels and resorts tangentially and you know if if a resort hotel is doing something you know really cool along the the grounds of you know the uh regenerative travel or um you know working with a foundation or or supporting local schools or something like that, you know, I'll I'll definitely read it. But it's just frustrating because I you know I just feel like it's such a blast you know it's male blast and it's not me and um I you know I get it I'm really busy too I do try to read them um but I you know I really appreciate it if someone sort of gets what I'm what I'm doing. You know, because I might end up like meeting with a destination at IMM and writing a story about sand reclamation, you know, on their beaches after the last round of hurricanes, you know, which again it's an environmental story but it's also really relevant for those beach in travel and their whole the livelihood of you know these these Gulf Coast communities that got hit so hard in um I guess it was 2024 with Alina and and and everything else. So um yeah so you know I I tell a certain kind of story I like to write a certain kind of story and I you know as you can probably tell I get very enthusiastic about those kinds of stories. Yes. So yeah so if if you've got that yeah please reach out to me but um you know yeah I just don't I don't like the email blasts and I don't I don't like a lot of highlighting so good to know right I don't think I've ever sent an email like that ever. No, it was I I've never received one it was kind of astonishing I was and it was early too when I read it I was just like oh my god we must talk about that you're also a novelist. Tell us more yeah yeah with with mixed success so I had I did publish a YA novel in uh 2010 called um forget or not that's about the the language of flowers which is sort of a Victorian concept that dates back to um Turkish culture actually um but yeah that so that was super fun and it it went well it was published by a division of Harbor Collins um and I am working on another one now that's uh definitely has an environmental aspect to it it's a little bit more suspenseful um kind of a mother-daughter conflict um and um yeah that one's called unrooted um so um I'm just getting to the point where I'm writing a query letter to send out to agents and um excited about that. So yeah it's always uh um yeah it's fun it's sort of um I can't not do it so we'll be watching for it. Yeah fingers crossed fingers well yeah I will be blah if it you know if it all comes I'll be blasting it. Um kind of a cross between like a Leanne Moriarty novel and the overstory if you know that book at all. Yeah.

Angela

So okay great. Yeah I have to ask is there a destination you haven't written about yet that's on the top of your list um I would really love to go to Tasmania.

unknown

Okay.

Thoughtful Travel And Regenerative Models

Amy Brecount White

Yeah I was trying to kind of work out that trip for this year. I don't think it's gonna work this year but I'm I have my you know sights kind of set on it for next year. A lot of times those big trips you know as you probably know take a minute to um to pull together everything. But yeah I'm definitely working toward that but I'm super excited you know I've got a a cruise in the Bahamas coming up in a uh Abaco which is a little bit less um uh explored part yeah super excited about that and I'm going to Yellowstone in February and um whale watching in kayaks in Baja in March. Nice so I don't know pretty good yes those all sound fantastic I have it pretty good right now so yeah so I'm pretty excited and the main thing is like not so traveling so much you can't actually get your articles done. Yes that's bad um or or um you know all your plants die while you're gone. I need to you know as a park steward I need to be there for part of the work days we have and and I enjoy my my own yard too I see you know watching all the different plants emerge in different seasons and the different creatures that come in different seasons. So yeah the balancing act I'm I'm I'm I don't think I still have it I don't have it down yet but I'm I'm working toward that yeah that is tough because you have to have those experiences to write about that when you have the time to write right so yeah yeah exactly and January February are gonna be a little nuts but that's all right I've I stayed home most of November December just basically uh churning out articles so I should yeah I should be I should be posting a lot soon of them as they come out so yeah great thank you so much Amy how can our listeners follow your work um sure I have a website that's just my name it's pretty much just my name everywhere because um Amy White is super generic there's a ton of Amy white turning around so I use my maiden name Brecount so it's Amy Amy BrecantWhite.com or at Amy Brecount White on Facebook or Instagram that's you know where I usually am or LinkedIn.

Angela

Um yeah thank you we will be watching thanks so much Angela this is really fun to talk that's all for this episode of Media and Minutes a podcast by Communications Redefined take a moment to rate review and subscribe to our show we'd love to hear what you think you can find more at communicationsredefined dot com slash podcast I'm your host Angela Tuell talk to you next time