Threshold

Right now, the Trump Administration is pushing hard to drill for oil and gas in places that were previously off-limits. One of those places is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and in June, the administration took another step forward in the process of opening this enormous protected area for drilling.

Season 3 of Threshold is actually all about this controversy: it’s called The Refuge, and today, we’re sharing a bit more from one of the most memorable people we spoke to back then. His name is Trimble Gilbert, and he’s a traditional chief and a deeply knowledgeable elder from the Gwich’in community of Arctic Village, just over the Refuge’s southern boundary.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Credits: This extra was produced by Sam Moore, with music by Todd Sickafoose and Travis Yost. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer.

Resources and Links:

Amy’s Substack, Letters to Earthlings

A profile of Trimble Gilbert from the Tanana Chiefs Conference

Harvard Law School’s effort to track the political football over the Refuge across the past four administrations

Trump’s Executive Order: Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential

More about the Gwich’in, from the Gwich’in Tribal Council Dept of Heritage in Canada (Check out their “elder of the month” feature).

Recent related stories from the Alaska Beacon about the Trump administration canceling its support for the Arctic Report Card and relaxing rules for offshore drilling in Alaska.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

We’ve been telling the story of the petrochemical industry in Louisiana, but this isn’t just a Louisiana issue, or even just an American one - petrochemicals are a global industry with a global impact. In this episode, we think about our collective future, and how we might begin to navigate living with all this plastic.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

For decades, the residents of St. John the Baptist Parish breathed in toxic chemicals from a massive complex that makes neoprene - a synthetic rubber. But while residents suspected something was wrong, they were still shocked when the EPA told them they had the highest risk of cancer in the nation. Why were they just now being warned? And what was the government going to do about it? In this episode, we follow one community’s search for justice.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

People have objected to the toxic side effects of industry in Louisiana and across the country for a long time. A swell of activism in the 70s and 80s connected civil rights with environmental issues and public health, so that by the 1990s, it seemed like the nation was entering an environmental justice renaissance. And yet, low income and minority communities have remained at risk. In this episode, we follow the history of environmental justice activism and how the corridor became a poster child for unevenly distributed pollution.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

We know that many of the chemicals being released by plants in the corridor can cause cancer. We also know that the cancer risk along this stretch of the Mississippi is unusually high. But how do we know for sure that these things are connected? In this episode, we explore what we know about pollution and disease.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

At the beginning of the 20th century, the corridor began a transition from one deadly industry to another—from sugar to petrochemicals. This transition wasn’t a coincidence. The history of industry intersects with the history of race in Louisiana all the way up to the present day. In this episode, we look at how and why petrochemicals came to the corridor.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

Before gas, oil, and benzene, there was sugar. This is the story of the first industry that exploited people in the Corridor, an industry that brought the ancestors of today’s residents to the area and laid the foundations for the modern petrochemical industry.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

One of the largest concentrations of petrochemical plants in the country lies along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Petrochemicals are made from fossil fuels. We use them to make a huge range of synthetic materials that are found in almost every part of our daily lives — but petrochemicals are made where people live. Here, amidst houses, schools, and churches, more than 150 plants release toxic pollution into communities that are often poor and black. In this episode, we meet residents and explore what it’s like to live - and love - a place at the center of our modern consumer culture.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live

Coming Tuesday, June 2nd: A podcast about history, pollution, and resistance on the frontlines of America’s petrochemical industry.

Over seven episodes, The Corridor examines how Louisiana became a center of industry and an epicenter of disease, with some communities facing cancer risks among the highest in the nation. Everything that’s happening in the industrial corridor today has been shaped by history - from slavery and segregation to huge technological breakthroughs and environmental change. Across the series, we explore how residents have pushed back - against the destruction of their past, the construction of more plants, the lax enforcement of environmental regulations, and further harm to people’s health as they seek to claim their right to a prosperous and healthy future.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Like many countries, Iran has struggled with major water scarcity in recent years. Last summer its capital, Tehran, came very close to “day zero,” the day when the whole city runs out of drinking water. Now, with the United States at war with Iran, President Donald Trump has further threatened the country’s civilian water infrastructure, including dams, water treatment plants, and the electrical grid.

Dr. Kaveh Madani is a water scientist and the former Deputy Head of the Department of Environment in Iran. He now leads the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. He joins us to talk about his work on the concept of ‘water bankruptcy,’ his experience working on environmental issues in Iran, and the links between water and conflict.

Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced. You can support Threshold by donating today. To stay connected, sign up for our newsletter.

Credits: Threshold Conversations is produced by Sam Moore. Our music is by Todd Sickafoose. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer.

Resources and Links:

Kaveh’s major new report on water bankruptcy

The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live