Ingrid Shockey is an environmental sociologist whose work focuses on natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness boundaries--an interest sparked by a summer job she once held at Yellowstone National Park. From there, her research concerns have grown to include the extent to which people rely on substitutions for authentic experiences in the wild. This includes tracking diminishing environmental literacy and documenting dynamics in how knowledge and perception of nature determine the depth of our engagement with the environment. This can be explored in everyday behaviors: how we interact with pets, food, germs, waste, and how we perceive ideas of tame versus wild. The capacity to identify what is real means identifying mediating forces ranging from domestication to advertising that impact our identities, decisions, and actions in the world.