Orion Magazine

02/14/2025

Lonesome George, the last of his kind, wasn’t interested in breeding before he died. All he wanted to do was hang out with his caretaker and friend, Fausto Llerena. A different kind of love story for your Valentine’s Day.

Endlings force us to reexamine animals as individuals. But Fausto Llerena understood that already.

02/14/2025

Pam Houston on finding her soulmate in her fifties 💚

This essay is included in Earthly Love: Stories of Intimacy and Devotion from Orion Magazine.

02/13/2025

Looking at animals – truly looking – can help us see. That, writes Benjamin Swett, is a key purpose of Michel Negroponte’s ‘A World Before God,’ a fifteen minute film consisting almost entirely of long shots of animals and landscapes.

From our Winter issue on film, sponsored by NRDC.

How looking at animals can help us see

02/13/2025

“Whenever we encounter extraordinary wild creatures,” writes Miriam Darlington, “it takes a few moments to adjust. Our senses register a strangeness for a split second.” Then shock. Then… recognition. She describes the feeling when she encounters everyone’s favorite tubular form: the otter.

An unexpected encounter with wild joy

02/12/2025

TOMORROW! Don't miss joining us for a discussion on film, nature, and how they both influence the other. Hosted by Orion and our friends at NRDC. Learn more and register here for this 2 p.m. ET chat. See you there!
https://orionmagazine.org/event-workshop/green-screen-on-the-nature-of-film-with-orion-nrdc/

02/12/2025

Whether or not your Valentine’s Day is shaping up to be something you’re looking forward to, take comfort and joy in the giant panda, whose fumbling, fuzzy romantic woes are nothing short of legendary.

On romantic malaise

02/11/2025

During a pregnancy in which everything is going wrong, Mandy Len Catron goes for a walk in the woods.

Expand image captionJasper Garratt / Unsplash Lay of the LandThe Shifting Shape of Love By Mandy Len CatronExpand image captionJasper Garratt / Unsplash from Winter 2023 Courting Disaster: Romance in the Climate CrisisDecember 20, 2023Want to keep reading?Subscribe and help keep Orion independent, n...

02/11/2025

Celebrate our Winter issue on film with us alongside Nathanial Rich, Moeko Fujii, and NRDC 's Meredith Milton this Thursday, February 13! The conversation, as always, is free for everyone to join. Register here.
https://orionmagazine.org/event-workshop/green-screen-on-the-nature-of-film-with-orion-nrdc/

02/11/2025

(And for every month after.)

and every month after!

02/10/2025

Leafing through ‘Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity,’ Lulu Miller finds herself giggling a little (lots of unabashed drawings). But awe creeps in too. With page after page of scientific proof that queerness exists in nature, she wonders: How were we not told?

Queerness exists in nature. Take it from the artist that illustrated hundreds of examples of it.

02/10/2025

“In the immortal words of Billy Joel, “You can’t get the sound from a story in a magazine,” writes Patrick Madden on a little bird called the zorzal. “You have to hear it.”

So listen (and read) right here.

Listening attentively to find meaning and music

02/09/2025

The dating scene can sometimes feel like a disaster in and of itself. But what about dating inside a disaster? For our winter issue last year, we asked normal people what it was like to find love amidst the climate crisis. Here’s what they told us.

Interviews with normal people attempting to date inside the climate crisis

02/09/2025

Don’t miss Nathaniel Rich in conversation about the Winter issue with Moeko Fujii and NRDC’s Meredith Milton on Thursday, February 13th! Register to join us here. It's free for everyone.
https://orionmagazine.org/event-workshop/green-screen-on-the-nature-of-film-with-orion-nrdc/

02/03/2025

For lovers of dragons, consider this tinier Empyrean: dragonflies.

Five transformations

02/03/2025

Robert Redford has proven time and time again how storytelling makes a direct impact on the world. The iconic actor, filmmaker, environmentalist sat down for a chat with Conor Schlosser, head of The Redford Center and his grandson, in this illuminating conversation from our winter issue.

Thank you to the NRDC for its generous support of this issue.

https://orionmagazine.org/article/robert-redford-nature-interview/

02/02/2025

When the animated film ‘Wild Robot’ debuted on screen last year, it instantly became a hit. For our winter issue on nature and film, Daniel Hinerfeld sat down with director Chris Sanders to get a behind-the-scenes look at how to use movie magic to tell climate stories on screen.

(Thanks to the NRDC for generously sponsoring our winter issue.)

An interview with the director and production designer of The Wild Robot

02/02/2025

Be a good ancestor. This is the advice Renata Golden wants to give to readers of the future. In this conversation, Joni Tevis sits down with Golden to talk astonishment, birding, and her book, ‘Mountain Time.’

A conversation about astonishment with Renata Golden

02/01/2025

“A grandmother kissing her grandbaby. A monarch butterfly making its way from Canada to Michoacán. A good-looking spider with knockout legs. Every day I am wowed by the beautiful unforeseen.”

Sandra Cisneros on beauty, from our 2022 issue about walls and borders.

A life spent seeking connection with the world