The Headwaters

Join us as we take a look back on our favourite stories of the first three seasons of The Headwaters podcast, presented by the KMC Productions crew. You’ll hear about everything from homemade submarines to baseball prodigies, giant golden nuggets to paranormal encounters, plus a special announcement. Season four of the podcast is launching summer 2025!

Whether climbing mountains or cross-country skiing well into our eighties or outlasting nine other competitors on the world’s most popular survival show, we do a good job of Stayin’ Alive here in the Basin. Meet modern survivalists who make a living by living outdoors, as well as members of the Kimberley Search and Rescue team. You’ll also hear a harrowing account from a survivor of a grizzly-bear attack in this last episode of season three.

A community-focused music festival, a symphony for a glacier, a small-town spoken word artist: what do they all have in common? An intention to make the world a better place through the power of art. In this episode, we’ll talk to writers, visual artists, storytellers and arts professionals, people whose work and creative practices in the Kootenays are helping to inspire systems to change.

In season one of our podcast, we produced a popular episode titled “Young Dreamers” about Basin youth accomplishing extraordinary things. Well, there must be something in the water, because the kids just keep getting after it, and we couldn’t wait to share more of their stories. Meet one of the best female baseball players in the world, 22-year-old Alli Schroder, as well as Keanu Chan, who, at 17 years old, has invented award-winning medical devices—when he's not shredding on the drums. Enjoy “Young Dreamers: Part 2.”

We all need a place to call our own—somewhere we feel safe to relax and refuel—but a recent convergence of circumstances has made finding a home a serious challenge. In this episode, we focus on housing solutions here in the Basin. We start with a “Tale of Two Towns,” an investigation into creative, multi-faceted projects in Rossland and Fernie. Then we jump through Meadow Creek, Kaslo, Procter, and South Slocan to meet Kootenay entrepreneurs who are using surprisingly innovative solutions to address our housing crisis.

There’s a lot going on beneath the surface in our corner of the world. The Basin is home to the deepest cave in Canada, named Bisaro Anima, located just outside of Fernie. In this episode, we meet the explorer who has pioneered its dark and dangerous depths. We also dip into an eerie, once-secret Cold War bunker in Nelson, and we make a Kootenay connection to one of punk music’s more legendary bands, D.O.A. Join us for our subterranean Unexpected Underground episode.

It is one of our most ingenious inventions. Nothing gets the blood moving, the smiles grooving, and the kilometres rolling like the almighty bicycle. Over the past two decades, the bike has inspired Basin residents to create thousands of kilometres of cycling paths and trails, drawing international attention to the region. Additionally, bike culture in the Kootenays has had a large impact on action-sports media, technological innovation, and rural economic health. Join us as we explore these stories in our Beautiful Bicycles episode.

Like rain or soil, fire is a crucial part of a healthy forest ecosystem. But as warmer temperatures and longer periods of drought have become the norm in the Columbia Basin—along with the fact that we have suppressed fire to protect trees as a valuable natural resource—we now face bigger, hotter, and more dangerous megafires. Join us as we meet fire experts who are creating a better understanding of what we’re up against and helping us safeguard our homes and communities.

Over a century ago, pioneers from around the world rushed to the Basin in search of riches hidden in the mountains. The discovery of galena ore profoundly changed the region’s landscape, creating booming resource towns overnight. But as quickly as these bustling centres of commerce were built, they were gone. In this episode, we go back in time to explore some of the Kootenays more legendary ghost towns.

Everywhere you look in the Kootenays, there’s water. Lakes, streams, rivers, springs, wetlands, snowfields, and glaciers—this region has it all. But in an increasingly water-challenged world, it’s surprising how little we know about how much water we have and how our supply is affected by a warming world. In this episode, meet the people—and animals—working to change that.