Welcome to the SAFARI CHANGEMAKERS Community
POWERED BY ARTISANS OF SAFARI
Big personalities. Wild ideas. Extraordinary stories from the people changing African safari.
This Substack is the home of the Safari ChangeMakers podcast and the Artisans of Safari community.
It is for curious travelers, travel advisors, conservation-minded readers, safari professionals, and podcast listeners who care about the future of Africa’s wildlife, wild places, and the communities connected to them.
Safari ChangeMakers takes you beyond the game drive and behind the scenes of Africa’s safari world.
This is where you meet the conservation legends, safari pioneers, lodge founders, researchers, guides, pilots, artists, filmmakers, community leaders, and glorious rule-breakers who have spent their lives protecting wildlife, rebuilding landscapes, challenging old systems, and attempting things other people called impossible.
Some are famous.
Others are famous only to the people who truly know the safari world.
They have tracked endangered animals across enormous wildernesses, faced down poachers, flown helicopters into remote landscapes, built lodges where there were no roads, negotiated with governments and communities, survived spectacular failures, and occasionally risked everything on one very wild idea.
Fortunately for us, they are also terrific storytellers.
Watch or Listen to the Podcast
Watch the complete first season and new episodes from Season Two of the Safari ChangeMakers docu-video podcast on YouTube.
You can also listen on Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.
Follow the Tracks…
The podcast is only the beginning.
Subscribe to stay close to the Safari ChangeMakers conversation, with new Safari Briefings, Podcast Companions, and Safari Intelligence delivered directly to your inbox, plus full access to the growing publication archive.
Safari Briefings
Deeper essays and informed opinions on conservation, African ownership, regenerative tourism, authenticity, hospitality, and the forces shaping the future of safari.
Podcast Companions
Go beyond the episode with photographs, context, reflections, and deeper stories connected to specific Safari ChangeMakers conversations, including some of what could not fit into the final podcast.
Safari Intelligence
Expert planning guidance, practical resources, and insider recommendations for designing a better safari: where to go, when to travel, what questions to ask, and what the glossy brochures may not tell you.
Notes
The informal trail: short updates, video clips, photographs, questions, interesting links, behind-the-scenes moments, and observations gathered along the way.
Join In
Safari ChangeMakers is meant to be a conversation, not simply a broadcast.
Read, listen, comment, ask questions, share your own experiences, and introduce us to people whose stories deserve to be heard.
For the easiest way to follow the conversation and participate in Notes and subscriber chat, download the Substack app.
Who Is This For?
Safari ChangeMakers is for people who want more than another beautiful photograph of a lion at sunset.
It is for:
Curious travelers who want to know what lies behind an extraordinary safari
Podcast listeners who finish an episode and immediately want the rest of the story
Conservation-minded readers who care about wildlife, wild places, ownership, and community benefit
Travel advisors seeking deeper knowledge and stronger stories to share with their clients
Safari professionals interested in the people and ideas transforming the industry
Anyone who enjoys a bold personality, an improbable adventure, and a very good story
You do not need to know the safari world already.
You only need to be curious about the people doing remarkable things within it.
These Are Not Ordinary Interviews
There are no polished scripts, corporate talking points, or carefully rehearsed answers here.
We want the real story.
Whose impossible idea actually worked?
Who nearly lost everything?
What went spectacularly wrong?
What happened when conservation collided with politics, money, tourism, or human nature?
Who kept going when every sensible person told them to stop?
And what does it really take to protect a species, restore a landscape, build a lodge, or create a model that benefits the people living alongside wildlife?
Our guests talk about the encounters, arguments, risks, failures, recoveries, and flashes of brilliance that changed their lives.
There may be danger.
There will almost certainly be strong opinions.
And somewhere along the way, there is usually a story that begins with a sentence like, “This seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The Bigger Safari Story
Safari is often presented through wildlife photographs, beautiful camps, and dramatic sunsets.
We are very fond of all three.
But the real story is bigger, messier, and far more interesting.
Who owns the land?
Who benefits from tourism?
Who gets to tell the story?
What does protecting wildlife require from the communities living beside it?
Can tourism preserve culture without packaging it for visitors?
What happens when conservation ideals meet financial reality?
And can a safari do more than minimize harm? Can it actively help wildlife, landscapes, and communities become stronger?
Safari ChangeMakers goes straight to the people living those questions.
The people taking the risks.
The people making difficult decisions.
The people who have made mistakes, changed course, and tried again.
And the people proving that safari tourism can become one of Africa’s most powerful forces for good.
This is not a publication about easy answers or perfect heroes.
It is about bold people doing difficult work in complicated places.
It is about progress, courage, and the belief that thoughtfully designed safari tourism can help protect wildlife, strengthen communities, and preserve wild places for the future.
Who Is Karin Jones?
Karin Jones has specialized in African travel since 1987, which means she has been doing this longer than many safari camps have been standing.
Over nearly four decades, she has worked across 17 African countries and built longstanding relationships with conservationists, guides, lodge founders, community leaders, researchers, and safari pioneers.
That history opens doors.
More importantly, it creates the trust required for honest conversations.
Karin is the Founder and CEO of Artisans of Safari, where she designs highly personal African journeys grounded in firsthand knowledge, deep relationships, thoughtful pacing, and honest guidance.
She has been recognized by both Travel + Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler as one of the leading Africa travel specialists.
Safari ChangeMakers grew from her desire to share the extraordinary stories of the people she has encountered over decades in Africa: the visionaries, conservation leaders, risk-takers, originals, and quietly influential figures whose work deserves a much larger audience.
One day she may be sitting with a safari pioneer who transformed an entire region.
The next she may be flying into the field for a rhino-collaring mission, investigating why African wild dogs remain so misunderstood, or hearing how someone gambled everything on protecting a threatened landscape.
Every conversation leaves her more hopeful.
And usually with at least one story she cannot believe she has never heard before.
When You’re Ready to Plan Your Own Safari
Safari ChangeMakers is the storytelling and conversation home.
Artisans of Safari is where those relationships, ideas, and values become journeys.
Through Artisans of Safari, Karin designs rare, conservation-led African safaris rooted in deep relationships, private access, authenticity, thoughtful pacing, and genuine impact.
When the time is right to begin planning your own safari, visit Artisans of Safari.
Let’s Talk - Set up your Safari Design Meeting
Join the Conversation
Subscribe for remarkable conversations, intelligent reporting, practical safari guidance, strong opinions, and stories from deep inside Africa’s safari world.
Come for the wildlife and wild places.
Stay for the pioneers, renegades, conservation legends, impossible ideas, and stories you will be repeating at dinner.
Welcome to Safari ChangeMakers.
