Episodes

A lyrical argument against border violence traces migrant deaths across the Sonoran Desert and asks listeners to imagine a borderland restored to wildlife, Indigenous communities and human freedom.

Chris sounds the alarm over a Senate proposal to sell millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service land, explaining what privatization could cost Western communities and urging immediate action.

Parker Lloyd tours the Nature Center at Pia Okwai, where Tracy Aviary and West Valley communities are restoring former industrial land as wildlife habitat and an environmental-justice gathering place.

Diné leader Davina Smith explains Bears Ears as a living cultural landscape, the legacy of her grandmothers' resistance and the necessity of Indigenous leadership in protecting sacred lands.

Journalist David Helvarg revisits his 1994 investigation The War Against the Greens and explains how the Wise Use movement's tactics evolved into today's attacks on environmentalists, public lands and democracy.

Chris Clarke critiques Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance, arguing that environmental review is being blamed for failures more accurately explained by economics, corporate power and poor project choices.

Humane Borders chair Laurie Cantillo describes placing and maintaining life-saving water stations in the Sonoran Desert while confronting migrant deaths, militarization and disinformation at the U.S.–Mexico border.

Teal Lehto, known online as Western Water Girl, explains Colorado River politics, prior appropriation, agricultural water use and how authentic social media storytelling can make water policy understandable.

Author Barret Baumgart traces the strange cultural and natural history of Joshua trees, from early disgust and failed schemes to commercialize them to their modern role as icons of desert resistance.

Chris challenges claims that genetically edited gray wolves amount to resurrected dire wolves, asking whether de-extinction can succeed without habitat, ecological relationships and learned animal culture.

Writer and photographer Josh Jackson discusses The Enduring Wild, his travels across California's BLM lands, the tension between exposure and protection, and threats from mining and agency cuts.

Three surprising examples show deserts protecting human health and climate: tortoise blood suppressing tick-borne bacteria, desert soils storing carbon, and desert pavement reducing harmful dust.