In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon and called for the area to be protected.

“Leave it as it is,” he said. “You cannot improve on it.”

Roosevelt went on to preserve an unprecedented 230 million acres of American land. But many of his achievements came at the expense of indigenous communities; conservation was coupled with genocide.

Our guest on this episode is David Gessner, author of the book Leave It As It Is. We discuss Roosevelt's ground-breaking efforts to save wild places, and explore how lessons from the past can help us create a new environmentalism that is more inclusive and just.