Semester in the West Podcast

After full careers in business, when they could have happily retired and not worked another day, Tom Campion and Doug McDaniel opted out. For Tom, the Arctic beckoned as the last truly wild place on earth. For Doug, the river in his backyard couldn't hold fish. Each took the rougher lane at the end of the road: why?

Karrie Kahle worked to bring the Paradise Valley together against risky exploratory mines in one of Earth's most beautiful locales. Her coalition of businesses and citizens could be an example of how to best use local organizing to stop multinational corporate power.

In the 1990's, the timber industry of Wallowa County collapsed overnight. With work programs and collaborative groups, Wallowa Resources has invigorated the county with new life by opening sustainable timber harvest and opportunities for conservation.

Steve Fuller has spent the winters of his life snowbound in the center of Yellowstone National Park. Why?

Individualism has always stood as an American ideal, but this does little to help one's neighbors. The Navajo Nation retains its ruggedness by banding together en route to an uncertain future.

Steve and Robin Boies are ranchers working to protect their reputation as stewards of public land, but face illogical public policy and environmentalists seeking one-size-fits-all solutions to nuanced problems.

Where large disagreements exist, collaborative groups have been used to find compromise and unite communities. But collaboration takes time, which in an era of climate change, the West is short on.

Environmentalists and ranchers alike are trying to restore the West, one bit at a time, but are stymied by powerful legislation designed to conserve natural environments. Is it time to modernize an aging system of land protection?

Cindy Abrams has always been frustrated by the lack of political discourse in her community. In this podcast, she investigates whether this apathy and aversion to disagreement continues in the West.

An analysis of what "multiple-use" really means, and whether the federal land management agencies are actually upholding their central mandate.