Jess Lewis started her company, Wyld Heart Co., to support river runners in the early stages of learning to run rivers. Her work focuses on mindset and heuristics that support personal growth alongside the technical skills needed to get boats down the river, and the mental skills required to grow through the challenges and “stuck on rock” moments that are inevitable for all river runners.

She teaches skills for all river crafts, and her favorite and most common teaching setting is in a raft, with her students rowing the boat. We talk through the details of the oar setup she provides, the types of boats she uses, and the various learning styles of her students.

Jess believes—and teaches—that even if a river runner has had moments on the river that scared them, or scared their kids who were in the boat, those fears can be worked through and skills can be adapted to support river running that is more prepared and more adaptable to each situation.

Jess grew up with river-guiding parents, and at 13 she hiked the full Continental Divide Trail with her family. She describes both of these early life experiences as foundational to the work she does today.

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Valley Nissan
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April 6-11, 2026
In person sale April 11

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This episode was recorded live at the America Outdoors annual conference and is a conversation with three members from the Returning Rapids Project in Utah.  The Returning Rapids Project is documenting the changes and restoration happening to the reservoir-affected areas of the Colorado River and the San Juan River as Lake Powell continues to recede out of the river canyons it inundated with reservoir waters for the past several decades.  The deeper focus of this episode beyond this research project is the powerful observational ability of river guides who work on rivers day after day, year after year, and how they can notice the most minute changes.  In the case of the Colorado River and the Returning Rapids Project, it was this guide observation that witnessed a subtle shift to the river.  This observation has developed into a powerful project that is learning how rivers recover from life under a reservoir. 

Mike Fiebig, American Rivers

America Outdoors
2027 Conference

Watch this episode on the America Outdoors Youtube Channel

Giveaway: "Raft the Last Wild River Sweepstakes"

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@oars_rafting
Stillwater & Cataract Canyon Hiker
Cataract Canyon Whitewater Rafting

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Rivers are always photogenic, even telegenic, and rivers often become the setting for many films. Each year since 1981, the National Paddling Film Festival (NPFF) has provided a collective presentation of river films. This year’s festival is happening on February 21, live and in person in Kentucky with a virtual streaming option available for the price of a cup of coffee. We have 3 guests bringing us details about the NPFF. Stephanie Hoelscher is the director; Devin Ashley Brown is the featured paddler in the film “Mother River” about her Mississippi River run; and Nishan Thapa is the creator of the film “The Jewel of Wild West Nepal” about paddling the rivers in his home country of Nepal. 

GUESTS

Stephanie Hoelscher

Devin Ashley Brown
@afrodiskayak
Harvest Film Company

Nishan Thapa
@riverratmountainkat
@summit_to_sea2026

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa

FILMS

NATIONAL PADDLING FILM FESTIVAL
@npff.paddling
Tickets: live & streaming

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Do you ever get those wild ideas about running a river in a unique way, but they just stay ideas, and you kinda always wish you had followed through?  This episode is about an idea that became a reality.  In November of 2001, 3 people zipped up their drysuits, pulled on their swim fins, strapped their dry bags to river boards, and slid into the Colorado River beginning a 300 mile trip where river boards were their only water craft.  Kelley Kalafatich, Julie Munger and Rebecca Rusch floated, swam, kicked and paddled their way in and down the Colorado River, successfully and joyfully, and they have a film documenting this story.  The film has just published and they joined The River Radius to have a reunion of sorts and tell their river boarding story 25 years later. 
 

THE FILM:  
"Three Women, Three Hundred Miles: Introduction by Meryl Streep"
Producer: Carr Clifton

GUESTS

Kelley Kalafatich TEDX
Kelley Kalafatich IRF

Julie Munger

Rebecca Rusch website
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Youtube
 

SPONSOR

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa
 

EPISODE THUMBNAIL IMAGE
Carr Clifton
 

ARTICLES

"Grand Adventure: River Boarding the Colorado"

"Three Women, 300 Miles"

RIVER BOARD

Carlson River Board at NRS

Churchhill Swimfins

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Ben Stookesberry paddles kayaks in his home state of Montana, and around the world. In his teen years he learned to make home movies showing off his rollerblading moves, and in college he learned to kayak. Today he blends the paddling and film making as he runs rivers in global settings. He has created deep and lasting friendships in his travels, and returns to rivers again and again, to paddle more stretches, to learn more, and sometimes to engage in protection work. In this episode, Ben talks through all of this with us, and goes into depth about his current paddling and film efforts on the Jatunyacu and Mulatos Rivers in Ecuador.

GUESTS
Ben Stookesberry
@benstookesberry

Bio @ Kokatat
Bio @ Jackson Kayak

Latest Film:  ¡Ay Chihuahua!

Diego Robles:  @ecuskayaker
 

RESOURCES

Ecuadorian Rivers Institute
@ecuadorianrivers

Steven Donzinger story

Savages, book, by Joe Kane
 

PADDLERS TO FOLLOW

@ecuskayaker (Diego)
@williehenkel
@wyatt_doyle
@salmonsourcetosea
@elizabeth.tobey
@brookehess
@oceansandmountains (Hailey)
@pedroolivakaiak
@riverratmountainkat
@mayuwarmikayak
@teepee_boys
 

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa
 

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Podcasting is incredibly unique and fun work that has allowed me to meet so many rivers and river people. And podcasting is a job that I really just created for myself. Yes there are other podcasts and podcasters, but by nature of the work, we are all kind of hidden in quiet places behind microphones and editing screens, so finding a podcasting friend is so helpful. Ed Roberson has built the Mountain & Prairie Podcast and we have become colleagues and friends that can support each other when we have questions and challenges. For this episode, Ed and I decided to interview each other in a single episode and go deeper into our work, and publish it on both of our respective podcasts. Ed is a leading interviewer finding some of the most humble and impactful people of the American West and Ed is in the process of writing his own book. To start off 2026, here is an episode with two podcasters talking about our work, focus and plans for this coming season of episodes. 

GUESTS

Ed Roberson

Mountain & Prairie Podcast website

On Apple

On Spotify

@mtnprairie

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers

@nissanusa

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The Vjosa River in Albania is one of the largest of the last free running rivers in Europe and recently it was protected with the new Vjosa Wild River National Park. The Vjosa sources from the mountains of Greece and flows north through Albania where it meets the Adriatic Sea. Eco Albania has led much of the work to create this National Park and our guest Dr Olsi Nika founded Eco Albania.  Dr Nika tells us about this long and beautiful river in his home country, how people in Albania use this river, about life in Albania, and how they did the work to project this river. 

GUESTS

Dr Olsi Nika

RESOURCES

Vjosa River

Vjosa Wild River National Park

Eco Albania

Albania

Balkan Peninsula

Mediterranean Basin

Rewinding Europe

Video:  Blue Heart - Eco Albania

SPONSORS

Denver Area Nissan Dealers

Over It Raft Covers

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Amidst a flourish of media about Paddle Tribal Waters, a new film has published from Oregon Public Broadcasting & Jessie Sears, giving focus to the 2025 source to sea run completed by the indigenous teens of PTW. The film, “First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath”, is there to meet the paddlers at the Pacific Ocean when they complete their journey, is with them along the river and the film also engages with the families of the paddlers to hear their perceptions of their kid’s work and pursuits. And finally, the film’s producer, Jessie Sears, is a member of the Karuk Tribe from the Klamath River basin, and by creating this film, she is exploring her own connections with this river and these families. 

The Film:  “First Descent: Kayaking the Klamath"

Jessie Sears professional website
Instagram
Jessie Sears at Oregon Public Broadcasting
Karuk Tribe

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Paddle Tribal Waters & Rios to Rivers

New York Times about Paddle Tribal Waters

Underscore Native News
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Swiftwater Films
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River Roots
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In the spring of 1980, nine-year-old Bridget Crocker, while playing next to her home river, fell from a downed tree into the cold swollen Snake River — a scary swim that initiated a deep, lifelong relationship with rivers and river people. This year in 2025 her memoir “The River’s Daughter” traces a thalweg of traumas, challenges and joys that played out in both her river life and her family life. Today Bridget hosts retreats and workshops on rivers, guides on special occasions, and is creating her dream life with her family. 

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Bridget Crocker
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Sexual Harassment in River Guide Culture
Queer River Guiding; 1 Professional's Experience
Tools for the River Guide
River Guide Unions
Endless Summer 1: The Guide Life
Endless Summer 2: A Guide's Sunset
Endless Summer 3: Guiding with a Healing Intention

ORGANIZATIONS FROM EPISODE
A Dash
America Outdoors
River Management Society
Responder Alliance
Whale Foundation
Redside Foundation

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Across the United States, 640 million acres of public land belong to all of us — rivers that still run wild, deep canyons, mountain ranges, plains, and deserts. Places where the wild things live. Places we can still visit, explore, and trust that it will be there for generations or an eon. But this year, the push to sell or transfer those lands has surfaced — sometimes openly, sometimes in quieter, less obvious ways. Why is this happening? Who’s behind it? And how do we, as citizens, stand up in simple, effective ways to keep public lands public? Our guest is Land Tawney, from American Hunters & Anglers — a man who comes from a long line of land conservationists. He brings both a historical lens and a practical action plan for keeping these 640 million acres wild, free, and truly ours.

GUEST

American Hunters and Anglers
@americanhuntersanglers

Land Tawney

Minority Outdoor Alliance
@minorityoutdooralliance
 

RESOURCES

202-224-3121
Switchboard US Capital (call, tell them your zip code, and that you want to speak with your Rep and/or Sen…you might have to call 3 times to get your Rep and both of your Senators)
 

Ambler Road
Roadless Rule, USFS
Attempts to sell public lands

PREVIOUS RIVER RADIUS EPISODES

Are Public Lands 4 $ale?

The Gila: River, Place, Family
(Sen Martin Heinrich)


ELECTED OFFICIALS & PUBLIC LANDS

US Senator Martin Heinrich, New Mexico
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US Representative Gabe Vasquez, New Mexico
@repgabevasquez

US Representative Betty McCollum, Minnesota
@repbettymccollum

US Representative Ryan Zinke, Montana
@repryanzinke

US Senator Steve Daines, Montana

US Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon
@ronwyden

US Senator Jeff Merkley, Oregon
@senjeffmerkley

US Senator John Hickenlooper, Colorado
@senatorhick

US Senator Susan Collins, Maine
@sensusancollins

US Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, Pennsylvania
@repbrianfitz

US Senator John Thune, South Dakota

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Denver Area Nissan Dealers
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