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Deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and scattered sparsely across the Colombian and Peruvian borders, reside the Indigenous people of the Kichwa Nation. With more than 400 organized communities comprised of ayllus \u2014 groups of families \u2014 the Kichwa clans currently retain the rights to over 1,115,000 hard-won hectares in and around the rainforest. And they\u2019re mere minor landowners.

After working and communing with Kichwa activist Leo Cerda for several days in his home village, host Tate Chamberlin and Cerda ventured back out of the verdant depths to meet with esteemed Amazon Watch founder and fellow activist Atossa Soltani at her hotel in the urban center of Quito to discuss the past, present, and future of the Amazon\u2014the thrumming, thumping heart of the planet.