Threshold
Each of the three seasons of Threshold, a podcast created and reported by Amy Martin, is dedicated to an environmental issue. First up: the American bison. In seven episodes that include the stories of ranchers, conservationists, and tribal leaders, the show explores why hundreds of the Yellowstone herd will be slaughtered by year's end. "When we brought the buffalo back, everybody started talking buffalo," Robbie Magnan explains while talking about the Fort Peck Tribes' bison restoration project. "And just like that, started bringing our people pride again. And now our community college even call themselves the Fort Peck Tribes Buffalo Chasers."
Subsequent seasons bring listeners on a circumpolar journey to learn about the effects of climate change in the Arctic and to Alaska to hear about the threat of oil development. These are well-trod environmental issues, but what sets this podcast apart is its skillful storytelling. The show is immersive, exposing listeners to the lives and perspectives of communities directly impacted, those of Indigenous peoples in particular—the Iñupiat and the Gwich'in in Alaska, the Sami in Arctic Scandinavia, and Native American tribes across the Great Plains. The podcast takes care not to represent those affected as a monolith, but rather as discrete communities with their own concerns, histories, and cultures.
Threshold's field reporting is ambitious, taking listeners from the recording studio of Inuit rockers to the far reaches of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Gorgeous soundscapes and scoring help transport us to these remote landscapes, like in the opening of the second season, when the crunch crunch of footsteps and slow, atmospheric synths underscore Martin's awed description of 3,000-foot peaks on the Greenland ice sheet. "The skyline of Manhattan, but ice," she says.
Generation Anthropocene
Mike Osborne and co-creator Miles Traer started the podcast Generation Anthropocene nine years ago, when they were graduate students at Stanford University along with former producer Leslie Chang. The trio artfully combine science and emotion in episodes that make the abstract and potentially sterile topic of anthropogenic climate change more relatable. In long-form interviews, the show explores subjects as diverse as extremophiles (microorganisms that can survive in very inhospitable conditions), geoengineering, and mountaineering. A Game of Thrones–themed episode covers the geology of Westeros. The show also takes on made-for-audio topics such as the changing soundscape of the ocean and includes a playful piece about the carbon footprint of superheroes (they found that Batman, with all his crime-fighting vehicles and gadgets, is responsible for 125 times more carbon output than the average American).
In a recent episode, Osborne (who now produces the show solo) and environmental journalist David Roberts speak about the concept of shifting baselines and the human tendency to get used to a diminished world. Roberts's grim assessment: "The temporal and spatial scales are never going to align such that this problem [climate change] grabs us in the gut. . . . We're going to have to solve it based on intellect." Pretty heavy stuff, but Osborne brings an unpretentious curiosity to the interview, dropping lots of profanity and talking about his feelings as a father of young children. "My kids are in a warmer world, but I don't want to fucking tell them it's all fucked," he says.
Now in its 10th season, the show is poised to evolve once again with a batch of younger producers. "As a recovering academic, I'm pretty good on the science, and I'm also pretty good at pointing people toward the experts," Osborne says. "But I need young voices to help me understand what's really important and what they're paying attention to."
Outside/In
Outside/In host Sam Evans-Brown is the charismatic, nature-loving, slightly dweeby friend you never knew you were missing. Case in point: An episode about invasive species begins with one of his favorite scenes in The Simpsons, in which Bart accidentally introduces a pair of Bolivian tree lizards into the town of Springfield.
The tagline "A show about the natural world and how we use it" eschews purist notions of pristine nature and wilderness, signaling a goal to help listeners better understand how humans interact in, as well as shape and impact, the world. Like the genius Radiolab and 99% Invisible, which animate the potentially dry topics of science and architecture, Outside/In invigorates environmental coverage through unexpected and creative storytelling.
Evans-Brown and team are nimble in how they handle the gravity of climate change and sustainability, with a tone that is sincere but never naive. The biweekly podcast addresses the racialized history of swimming (the episode opens with a giggling baby and a turkey baster in a bathtub) and does a deep dive into how net metering works. One recent episode uses contemporary astrology to explore queerness, sending a producer to get a birth-chart consultation and check out a queer dating app.
This article appeared in the Fall quarterly edition with the headline "Listen Up."
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September 27, 2021 at 02:05PM
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Three Must-Hear Climate Podcasts - Sierra Magazine
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