The first time I ever had a real conversation with Kim Samuel, she was sixteen minutes late for our Zoom call. Her reason? A vulture who had taken to visiting her every day had just landed in her balcony in Costa Rica, and she didn’t want to disappoint it by failing to meet it. It was an impulse I could relate to. Given everything in the natural world humans have let down of late, who would want even a vulture to feel cast aside?
Community—between people, other species, and the planet—is something most of us think about only when it’s denied to us or taken away. And yet Samuel has been championing it since long before pandemic lockdowns left many of us reaching for connections. An activist and educator, she has lectured on the topic, devoted symposiums to it, and even built a think tank to help combat disconnection. This fall, she published a book called On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation.
