Environmental justice scholar Joe Whitson joins Bill and Anders to talk about how our stories about nature shape the land itself.

Joe explains his concept of “wildernessing,” the process of making a place look and feel “untouched” through policy decisions, land management, and marketing, even though these landscapes have deep human histories. The conversation moves from history to the present, exploring how our cultural definition of “wilderness” has shifted over time, why climate change is challenging the myth of pristine nature, and what it will take to create a more just and inclusive future for public lands.

Find the resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

Today we report on the rollback of protections in Alaska’s North Slope, revival of a mining project near the Boundary Waters, and threats to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We offer some good news with proposed Wild and Scenic River designations in Montana, and some bad news with Louisiana’s cancellation of a landmark coastal restoration project, plus public comments open on a controversial Forest Service reorganization plan.

Find out more about the news mentioned today and links and resources from today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this first installment of our special Southern Currents series, Bill travels the Gulf Coast (sadly, without Anders) to explore the crisis of coastal land loss and the role of citizen science in protecting the region's future.

We begin in Louisiana with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bob Marshall, who has spent decades covering the collapse of his home state's coastal wetlands, before shifting east to the Florida panhandle, where marine biologist, author, and lifelong mischief-maker Jack Rudloe tells the story of founding the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, Florida.

Together, these conversations trace the interconnected threads of land, water, loss, and resilience in the Gulf South and ask what it means to fight for wild places when those places are rapidly disappearing.

Learn more and find the resources and links mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

Join us as we climb aboard the BOB, a 50-foot Catalina sailboat, with Blain and Monique Anderson—a husband-and-wife team navigating the remote waters of Southeast Alaska. As the owners of Sound Sailing, they’ve turned their love of sailing and wild places into a platform for sharing the raw beauty and singular experience found only in Alaska’s coastal wilderness. Today's episode is part travelogue, part meditation on modern wilderness, and part love letter to the wild waters of Alaska.

Find the resources and links mentioned in today's discussion at our website, thewildidea.com.

Today we zoom in on layoffs, restructuring, and reorganizations across multiple departments, and cover wins and losses for wildlife and parks. We also inventory what happened on the hill this week. 

Find out more about the news mentioned today and links and resources from today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this special 20th episode of The Wild Idea, Bill and Anders are recording face-to-face for the first time, from the deck of a sailboat in Southeast Alaska. To mark the milestone, they’re answering twenty questions submitted by listeners.

The result is a wide-ranging, often hilarious, occasionally serious, and always thoughtful conversation that covers everything from their dream podcast guests and close calls in the backcountry to artificial intelligence, bipartisan conservation, screen addiction, and the secret behind those corny intro questions.

Find the links and resources mentioned today along with the list of questions answered on our website, thewildidea.com.

Today on The Wild Line: A sweeping USDA plan to restructure the Forest Service, a major executive order from President Trump aimed at fast-tracking AI data center development on federal land, the House’s latest Interior budget bill, and a legal win for conservationists.

Find the resources mentioned today and more at our website, thewildidea.com.

Josh Jackson didn’t set out to become a champion for the Bureau of Land Management. But after stumbling into BLM lands in the deserts of California, he found himself transformed, first by the landscape, and then by the history behind it.

In this episode, Josh joins Bill and Anders to talk about The Enduring Wild, his new book exploring California’s public lands, and the path that took him from “drive-by desert” skeptic to devoted pilgrim. why the desert strips us bare, how the King Range helped launch a conservation revolution inside the BLM, and the power of returning to overlooked landscapes again and again.

Learn more about Josh and the resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Cristina Eisenberg shares her perspective on the growing crisis facing our forests and why meeting this moment will take more than science alone. As the opening speaker for the Ninth American Forest Congress, Cristina reflects on how this historic gathering signals a shift in how we think about forest stewardship—and why that shift depends on blending Western science with Indigenous knowledge and local wisdom. Together with Bill and Anders, she unpacks why both extractive management and strict hands-off protection have fallen short, and how it’s time to rethink what “wilderness” really means.

Learn more, connect with Dr. Eisenberg, and find the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.

This week on The Wild Line: We’re back with a full roundup of what’s happening across all three branches of government, plus a reminder that history is written not just in laws, but in landscapes. We dive into the latest BLM approvals, two new Trump-era executive orders, a small act you can take to help save our National Park signs, and a whole lot more.

Find the links and resources mentioned today on our website, thewildidea.com.