In our latest episode of Nature Reads, we travel back to 1899, when Cambridge anthropologist Walter William Skeat led a major scientific expedition to Malaya. The expedition didn’t just collect plants and animals; it also produced classic books on zoology, botany, and culture that continue to influence how we understand our natural history today. To guide us through this chapter, we’re joined by Katherine Enright, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, whose research looks at the politics and legacies of expeditions like Skeat’s. Together with co-host Dylan Jefri Ong, the co-founder of Sunda Shelves, we discuss the stories behind the books, the people, and the knowledge they preserved. 

Nature Reads on Earth Matters is a monthly show where we explore the stories behind books that bring us closer to nature and the world around us, done in collaboration with Sunda Shelves, an independent bookstore and café with a passion for wild places and thoughtful reads.

Produced by: Juliet Jacobs

Presented by: Juliet Jacobs

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Categories:  Literature/Philosophy,  environment,  History/Heritage,  culture

Tags:  environmental communication,  Skeat Expedition,  colonial scientific expeditions,  the bigger picture,  earth matters,  Nature Reads,  Sunda Shelves,  books on nature,  books on conservation,  nature literature,  nature guide books,  zoology,  botany,  anthropology,