In August of 2019, Michael Gungor, Science Mike, William Matthews, and Jamie Lee Finch embarked on a trip to the Arctic circle to experience some of the last untouched wilderness on the planet and hear from the Gwich'in people. The Gwich'in are Athabaskan-speaking Indigenous peoples who lives in the Arctic region of Alaska and Canada. Their sacred lands include areas within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In September 2019, the Trump Administration said it would "seek to open up the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, picking the most aggressive development option for an area long closed to drilling" to cite The Washington Post.  The violence and destruction caused by the removal of long standing protections by the United States is difficult to overstate. This episode is the story of our trip to that area, and what we learned from the people there.

We want to give a special shout out to The Wilderness Society for making this episode possible and to Dan Ritzman from Arctic Wild for his guidance in Alaska.

This episode is sponsored by our friends at the No Place Like Home podcast.  No Place Like Home is a podcast that gets to the heart of climate change.  Hosts Mary Anne Hitt and Anna Jane Joyner explore the biggest story of our time—climate change—from intimate, creative, and surprising angles.  Find and subscribe to No Place Like Home at noplacelikehomepodcast.com or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.