Parched

By Colorado Public Radio

What's Parched about?

The southwestern United States has been in a drought for more than 20 years. It's created a serious problem for the Colorado River, and tens of millions of people in the region. Parched is a podcast about people who rely on the river that shaped the West – and have ideas to save it. Hosted by Michael Elizabeth Sakas, a climate and environment reporter for CPR News.

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Parched episodes:

07.05.2023
A River For The Future
Across the U.S.-Mexico border, the Colorado River once flowed freely into the ocean. When the freshwater and saltwater met, it created an explosion of life in the desert. But most of that lushness dried up when people used up the...
06.27.2023
Desert Farming, Differently
Crops like alfalfa that feed cows are the biggest user of the Colorado River, to satisfy our cravings for nachos and burgers. Cutting back on farms' water use is the biggest way we can live in a drier West. One...
06.20.2023
Water For Pay
If we turned off every tap in every city in the southwest, we still wouldn't solve the Colorado River crisis. That's because 80 percent of the water goes to agriculture — to the lettuce and melons in your produce section,...
06.06.2023
The Cost of Cheap Water
What we pay for water doesn't reflect how scarce it is with climate change. Could cities get people to use less water by charging more for it? Decades ago, Tucson did this, and it worked. But the political consequences may...
05.30.2023
Flush With Opportunity
Americans flush toilets with water that's good enough to drink. We could cut how much water cities need if we reused that water, or flushed without sapping our fresh mountain supplies. From at-home solutions to citywide scale, wastewater reuse and...
05.23.2023
How big a deal is this week's Colorado River deal? (Bonus episode)
Across the country, headlines this week touted a "deal" to save the Colorado River. In this bonus episode, we'll break it down: What you need to know, and what it means for the solutions we're exploring on Parched. Come back...
05.16.2023
Viva Las Vegas
Most people in the West live in cities, and cities can do a lot to change how they use water. We head deep into the glittery, neon heart of Las Vegas. There, under the Bellagio Fountain, we learn that this...
05.09.2023
Water, Water Everywhere
On the beach in Southern California, it's easy to look at the Pacific Ocean and wonder what would happen if we could drink it. It's already happening in some places, and others from Arizona to the California coast want to...
05.02.2023
The Boldest Idea Of All
What if we could get more water, instead of just living with less? The idea of pulling water from another river, like the Mississippi, has tantalized people in the southwest for decades. We meet a farmer in Arizona who's become...
04.25.2023
Ignored No More
Indigenous tribes lived with the water's flow for thousands of years. Then, they were shut out of decision making about the Colorado River. In this episode, we go to the Jicarilla Apache Reservation to learn what that's meant for tribes,...
04.18.2023
The Last Straw
The U.S. southwest is in a water crisis; it's a front line of climate change. This show takes you to places that rely on the Colorado River, to explore what we can do to ensure life in the region as...
03.30.2023
Introducing 'Parched'
The southwestern United States has been in a drought for more than 20 years. It's created a serious problem for the Colorado River, and tens of millions of people who use water from it. Parched is a podcast about people who rely on...