Over 150 years ago naturalist-explorer Alfred Russel Wallace traversed the Malay Archipelago collecting specimens, observing nature, and exploring the chain of islands that is modern day Indonesia. Along the way he solved the riddle of evolution independent of Darwin, coined the theory of island biogeography, described new species, and wrote entertainingly about it all. Today Darwin’s name is famous, while Wallace is famous for being well, unfamous as a sort of ironic footnote to Darwin’s theory.

For young naturalist explorer Jesse though it is figures like Wallace who embody the spirit of bright-eyed wonder and do-it-yourself science that inspired him to study biology in the first place. So why does biology increasingly feel deskbound, concerned more with graphs, models, and complicated statistics  than actual field research? How did natural history collecting go from apex of scientific discovery to being dismissed as almost a psuedo-science today? And why does the world remember Darwin, while Wallace’s accomplishments remain largley forgotten?

In search of modern Wallace characters and the spirit of wonder that can only be found deep within wild places Jesse embarks on an odyssey to the Malay Archipealgo of today to re-discover history, science, and the beauty of a single brilliant idea that changed the world. Join me for what promises to be a visual tour-de-force adventure through the jungles, villages, and innumerable islands of the largest archipelago on Earth in celebration of tropical nature and one of the most unsung heros of science!