Bundyville: The Remnant

Fans of Bundyville should check out this new podcast from host Leah Sottile and producer Ryan Haas. In the first season, we look at the case of Jesse Lee Johnson, a Black man who lived for 17 years on Oregon’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and we try to understand why the state tried for so long to kill him.

The story of how a small group of activists and scientists fought to save America's last old growth forests, and in the process upended the Pacific Northwest, turned environmental conflicts into culture wars, and transformed the very way we see the natural world. Produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting and 30 Minutes West, with original music by Laura Gibson.

Hosted by Peter Frick-Wright and award-winning journalist Rachel Nuwer, Cat People examines the strange relationships some Americans have with big cats and the legal loopholes that have made this country home to more captive tigers than there are left in the wild.

In July 2019, Leah Sottile and Ryan Haas sat down with OPB's Dave Miller for a live Q&A event in Portland, Oregon. The discussion covered a range of topics, from how the second season of Bundyville came together to why conversations about white supremacy and extremist violence are necessary -- even when those conversations are uncomfortable.

The bombing in Panaca, Nevada, was a case that led journalist Leah Sottile on an unexpected journey to a nerve center of hate and anti-government sentiment in the West. But newly uncovered evidence in the case offers a broader view of extremist violence — and some possible solutions.

To find out how radical ideas enter the mainstream, we trace one back to a secretive religious community in Stevens County, Washington. That place — Marble Community Fellowship — has a dark past and is preparing for an apocalyptic future. One exile takes us inside to see what's really at the heart of anti-government extremism.

The violence perpetrated by the anti-government movement has long been fringe and rare. But more politicians are starting to accept extremist language and ideas as a part of their platform. One of those people is Washington state Rep. Matt Shea. He says he sees a chance for a 51st state in the Northwest — a place that would be governed by strict biblical laws and made up almost entirely of white people.

Stevens County, Washington, has been the origin point for a litany of white supremacist and anti-government violence over the past 40 years. In a time of extreme political rhetoric and conspiratorial thinking, we explore how the Patriot movement is workshopping some of their most radical ideas here and who is being recruited into the movement.

When police killed Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum in 2016 during the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge takeover, a grand jury deemed it a justified shooting. But for the Patriot Movement, it was an assassination. They call Finicum a martyr. So, what happens when people who have a deep-seated mistrust of the government finally have a justification to take action?

The 2016 bombing in Nevada is far from the only act of violence related to the self-described Patriot movement. In fact, it wasn't even the only bomb to blow up that year. Another explosion happened that summer near a Bureau of Land Management cabin in Arizona — and the man who pushed the detonator tells us what made him do it.