A lyrical ode to our atmosphere: the invisible, underappreciated substance that makes all life on Earth possible. 

There are quite a few things working against us when it comes to acting on climate change—not least of them, the simple fact that we literally can’t see the atmosphere, or how we’re changing it. 

In this episode, we take a guided tour of the Earth’s atmosphere to understand the science, beauty, and wonder of our “magical safety blanket.” Our tour is led by a trio of scientists: astrophysicists Dr. Anjali Tripathi and Dr. Hannah Wakeford, and hydroclimatologist Dr. Francina Dominguez. 

Join us in giving the atmosphere its due.

This episode originally aired on February 8, 2022.

Find the transcript for this episode here.

Please share Threshold with friends, family, and community.

Sign up for our newsletter, a monthly invitation to explore our relationships with the changing planet.

Stay in touch with us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook or at listeners@thresholdpodcast.org

A few weeks ago, the Biden administration approved the Willow project. It’s a plan to extract 600 million barrels of oil from northern Alaska. There’s a lot of history and politics behind this story, things that tie to issues we’ve reported on in past seasons of Threshold. 

Amy Martin wrestles with this project and what it means for our netzero future in this month’s issue of our newsletter.

Are you a subscriber?

Stay connected to Threshold between seasons and find out what we're reading, watching, and listening to by subscribing to our newsletter. 

Subscribe to the newsletter

Threshold needs you! It's our year-end campaign, and we're hoping to get 100 NEW donors to support our show before the end of 2022.  If 100 of you choose to support our work for the first time, we get a one-thousand dollar bonus award! A gift in any amount helps us reach our goal to keep bringing you great storytelling.

We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and our work is funded almost entirely by gifts and grants. When you make a donation to Threshold, you’re directly supporting our independent nonprofit journalism. Thank you so much!

Support our work

Representatives from nearly every country in the world are in Egypt right now for COP27, the annual climate conference hosted by the United Nations. The overall goal of each COP is to make progress on climate; to get all countries moving in the same direction, toward a decarbonized world, in an equitable way, based on the best scientific information available. But some are now saying that we should abandon hope of holding global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial temperatures.

But we don't think that. And here's why.

Threshold's year-end fundraiser is underway right now. Donate today to keep Threshold going strong. Our listeners make this work possible. 

Sign-up for our newsletter

In many ways, the climate crisis is an identity crisis. As we reckon with the damage we’ve done, we’re being forced into a massive confrontation with the powers, limitations, and essential nature of our species. How do we even process the notion that we can do—that we are doing—so much harm to ourselves and to all life on Earth? What is it about us that led us into this mess, and do we have what it takes to get ourselves out of it? Who are we? And who do we want to become? 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explore what we learn about ourselves from bonobos, the necessity of getting everyone on the planet in the same boat, and the power of stories to shape our future. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

The climate crisis is not just a problem of carbon emissions: it's one of inequality. In fact, global warming and global inequality are the same problem manifesting in different ways. And one of the places we see this connection clearly is at COP26. 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we follow the conflict over loss and damage, mitigation, and finance in the negotiating room. Who wins and who loses in the making of an international climate pact? 

This episode contains strong language that may not be suitable for all listeners. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

The UN climate talks, or COPs, are attempting the biggest, most complicated, highest-stakes group project humanity has ever known. They are, in a sense, an attempt to design a revolution—to help guide a massive societal transformation that needs to happen all around the world, all at once, to curb climate chaos.

But design and planning are rarely how paradigm shifts actually happen. So how do we actually make it happen? And can we do it fast enough? 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we continue our journey at COP26 in Glasgow to see what the process for organizing a social and economic revolution really looks like and explore what kind of collaboration this kind of climate transformation asks of all of us. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

The UN climate talks, or COPs, are a lot of different things: they're confusing, bureaucratic, inspiring, boring, infuriating, and exhilarating. They are also the only thing we’ve got to deal with climate change on a scale that matches the problem—that is to say, globally. 

The overall goal of each COP is to make progress on climate: to get all countries moving towards a decarbonized world—as equitably as possible and based on the best scientific information available. But of course, every country has a different idea of what that looks like and how we should get there. 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we take you into the trenches of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, to explore how the process of climate negotiation works and what’s at stake for every human on the planet.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5” In this episode we travel to northern Sweden to explore how a greener process could revolutionize the iron and steel industry, dramatically reduce fossil fuel emissions, and make life better for people in industrial communities.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

Listening to Threshold is free, but creating it is not.

We have always been committed to making the best show we can—and making it available for free.

But that's not possible without financial support.

We’re a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and our work is funded entirely by gifts and grants. When you make a donation to Threshold, you’re directly supporting our independent nonprofit journalism.

 Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

For centuries, we have been willing to sacrifice places, ecosystems, and entire species for industries like steel. While steel is one of the most useful materials humans have ever created, it’s also one of the most damaging to the climate and to the people who work in and live near these mills. These conditions help explain why the workers in the steel mills of Gary in the first half of the 20th century came from two main groups: newly arrived immigrants and African Americans who had moved up from the southern United States.

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explore the intersection of racism, industrialization, and climate change in Gary, Indiana. Also Michael Jackson.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

Steel is the signature material of the Industrial Revolution. It’s also an essential component of the wind turbines, electric cars, and climate-friendly buildings we’ll need in a decarbonized world. But making steel requires mountains of coal. So we both really need steel and really need to stop making it the way we’re doing now.

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explore the costs and benefits of our industrial processes on people, communities, and the climate through the story of Gary, Indiana.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

One of the most challenging aspects of the climate crisis is that we have to do everything at once - transition the entire global economy away from fossil fuels AND deal with the warming that’s already happening. In climate-speak, these two things are called mitigation and adaptation, and one of the places where you can see this playing out is Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and one of the most important ports in Africa. It’s a city that’s flourishing and also one that is facing a huge problem as the world warms and the ocean encroaches. 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we pay a visit to two communities in Lagos, just a few miles apart, responding to climate change in very different ways.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we zoom in to look at what individuals can do to decarbonize their homes, from small town Livingston, Montana, to New York City. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

We keep hearing (and saying) that solving climate change is really hard. But we actually know what we need to do - and have the technology to do it - right now. It’s more a question of what happens if we don’t act fast enough.

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we look at some models for how we can realistically meet the 1.5C goal and get to net zero by 2050. There is hope and there are also challenges, but the biggest barriers and our most promising tools are our imperfect human selves.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we look at what climate chaos could do to our ability to meet our basic needs and live together in relative harmony, and explore what we all stand to lose if we don’t act fast enough.

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

Britain was the first place in the world to go through what we now call the Industrial Revolution, a transformation of an agricultural, rural society into a manufacturing powerhouse that kicked off the mass migration of ancient carbon from the ground to the atmosphere. 

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explore the mass acceleration of nearly every process on earth that began in Britain in the 1700s and continues to this day, a multi-century fossil-fuel binge that knocked the climate out of whack. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

There are quite a few things working against us when it comes to understanding how urgently we need to act on climate change. But there's also the simple fact that we can't literally see how we're changing the atmosphere. It’s time to give the atmosphere its due. This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we go straight up, into our atmosphere. 

This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

 After decades of scientific study and political wrangling the world has agreed—at least on paper—that 1.5C of heating must be the upper limit of our impact on the climate system. How could something that sounds so small matter so much?

This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we take you inside the scientific and political origin story of 1.5C, from the holocene to the halls of COP26 in Glasgow. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. This work depends on people who believe in it and choose to support it. People like you. Join our community at thresholdpodcast.org

Humanity has a mission right now: to keep global heating to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Science tells us that we have less than a decade to do it, and that if we don't, the consequences will be dire.

That's humanity's mission, and that's what season 4 of Threshold is about. It’s called “Time to 1.5.” 

In this season, we’re going to grapple with what it means to be living through this pivotal moment, when what we do and don't do will have impacts that ricochet out for thousands of years. We’ll take you to the front lines of the efforts to keep 1.5 alive—the halls of COP26 in Glasgow, cities across the globe, back in time, and into the atmosphere. 

"Time to 1.5" arrives February 1.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters.

For the last few months now, we’ve been telling you that we’re working on season four of Threshold. But we haven't told you what it's about. We're going to fix that now...sort of. We're going to tell you a story of something Amy did several years ago—something that very nearly had disastrous consequences—which is kind of a metaphor for what season four is all about. Consider this a strong hint about what's to come in just a few weeks.

In-depth reporting on climate change, environmental justice, public lands, and so much more. This is what Threshold is about — bringing you important and thoughtful stories about human relationships with the natural world. And we need your help to continue doing this work. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. 

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking back on the last two weeks in the *supposed* final hours of the conference.  

This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, but while we're here, at such an important international event, we're going to send you some updates here on the podcast feed and on our social media channels about what's happening, what we're learning, and who we're talking to.

Stay tuned for more.

Please support our independent nonprofit journalism by making a donation today. Learn more about Threshold on our website.

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking at loss and damage, a crucial part of the conversation at COP26. 

This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, but while we're here, at such an important international event, we're going to send you some updates here on the podcast feed and on our social media channels about what's happening, what we're learning, and who we're talking to.

Stay tuned for more.

Please support our independent nonprofit journalism by making a donation today. Learn more about Threshold on our website.

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking at protests both inside and outside the conference. 

This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, but while we're here, at such an important international event, we're going to send you some updates here on the podcast feed and on our social media channels about what's happening, what we're learning, and who we're talking to.

Stay tuned for more.

Please support our independent nonprofit journalism by making a donation today. Learn more about Threshold on our website.

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate.

This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, but while we're here, at such an important international event, we're going to send you some updates here on the podcast feed and on our social media channels about what's happening, what we're learning, and who we're talking to.

Stay tuned for more.

Please support our independent nonprofit journalism by making a donation today. Learn more about Threshold on our website.

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26^th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate.

This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, but while we're here, at such an important international event, we're going to send you some updates here on the podcast feed and on our social media channels about what's happening, what we're learning, and who we're talking to.

Stay tuned for more.

It’s time for our annual listener survey! We’re inviting your feedback to help us improve the show, get to know you, and reach new listeners. 

Please go to thresholdpodcast.org/survey to fill out the survey. You’ll have our gratitude and a chance to win a $100 to Shop at MATTER, an independent bookstore.

In this special episode, we feature one of the many podcasts we love. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Outside/In is a show about the natural world and how we use it. In the coming decades, the scale of migration linked to climate change could be dizzying. This episode, “Climate Migration,” tackles a pair of listener-submitted questions: ​​if you’re worried about climate, where should you live? And how should places prepare for the wave of climate migrants just around the corner?

Find out more on our website.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters on Patreon.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

The question of whether or not we should drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most contentious public lands debates in the United States. Even though most Americans would have a hard time finding it on a map, the topic seems to ignite intense feelings in just about everyone.

After 40 years of fighting, Congress voted in December 2017 to allow drilling in the refuge. As we release this, the Trump Administration says they’ll start auctioning off development rights to oil companies as soon as this winter. But opponents to drilling are trying to stop that from happening, and at this point, no one really knows how things will play out.

In this episode, we take you to the refuge, track down the origin story of the conflict, and follow that conflict through the decades.  

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. 

Archival footage in this episode is from the documentaries Alaska Highway and Journey to Prudhoe, and from murkowski-alaska-anwr-sot-nr.cnn">CNN, Eddy Arnold’s 1952 rendition of Smokey the Bear, PBS NewsHour, and ABC.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

For 40 years, the fight over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been waged mostly from afar, in Washington, D.C. But what would oil development mean to the people who live closest to the proposed drilling area? 

Kaktovik, Alaska is the only town within the boundaries of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now that drilling has been approved by Congress, it could mean people here someday have oil rigs right next door. But it could also mean this small town is suddenly awash in cash. 

Kaktovik may have more to lose, and more to gain, than any other community in the country, so we’re going to spend two full episodes listening to people here.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. 

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

We continue our reporting from Kaktovik, Alaska — the only town within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — to find out how the conflict over drilling for oil in the refuge feels to the people who live there. The more we listened, the more we realized: the heart of the issue isn’t just over oil extraction and development, wilderness and wildlife. Whatever side people took, their focus is on their community, sovereignty, and survival.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

We continue our reporting from Kaktovik, Alaska—the only town within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—to find out how the conflict over drilling for oil in the refuge feels to the people who live there. The more we listened, the more we realized: the heart of the issue isn’t just over oil extraction and development, wilderness and wildlife. Whatever side people took, their focus is on their community, sovereignty, and survival. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

We're moving from the coast to the interior of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to help you get a sense of what it feels like to travel through this vast area. Last summer, writer William deBuys took a raft trip from the Brooks Range in the middle of the Refuge all the way out to the Arctic Ocean. During his two weeks on the water, he got to travel alongside the Porcupine caribou herd, animals crucial to the debate playing out the fate of the coastal plain. You’ll hear lots more about these creatures on our next episode. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

The Gwich’in have lived and hunted in the Refuge long before it was carved out as federal, protected land. Their territory spans a huge swath of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, and their health and culture depends on the Porcupine caribou herd - a group of animals 200,000 strong that calve on the area of the coastal plain slated for drilling.

In this two-part episode, spend time in Arctic Village, a community just over the southern border of the Refuge, and hear from the Gwich’in about what’s at stake for them as development looms in the 1002 area.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

The Gwich’in have lived and hunted in the Refuge long before it was carved out as federal, protected land. Their territory spans a huge swath of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, and their health and culture depends on the Porcupine caribou herd - a group of animals 200,000 strong that calve on the area of the coastal plain slated for drilling.

In this two-part episode, spend time in Arctic Village, a community just over the southern border of the Refuge, and hear from the Gwich’in about what’s at stake for them as development looms in the 1002 area.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

This is The Refuge, Threshold’s Peabody Award-winning third season, originally released in late 2019. A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our show came out — so we're re-releasing the season in full, along with an update on where things stand today.

...

When the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge first emerged, most people had never heard of global warming. So over the last four decades, the controversies over oil in the Refuge and climate change evolved on different tracks. 

Now, those tracks are intersecting. We dive into the resulting tensions and contradictions around oil and climate in this final episode of our series on the Refuge.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Our Audio Mosaic Project is under way! We're thrilled by the response so far to our first two prompts. If you haven't responded yet, we'd love to hear from you soon. 

As a reminder, our prompts are:

1). Breathing in, breathing out

2). Being born

And... we have a new prompt for you, too!

3). The sound of love

About the project: Since we haven't been able to travel and collect sound for over a year now, your submissions will help us inform the sound of season four of our show. So submit to as many or as few prompts as you like, and your sounds may just end up in the next season of Threshold! 

You can find details and sign up on our website: http://thresholdpodcast.org/audio-mosaic

We’re inviting you to join us in a new experiment we’re calling the Audio Mosaic Project. The sound of place has always been an important part of our show — think the chirps of crickets, the flow of water, the crunch of boots on snow. Using the noises we take for granted in the backgrounds of our lives, we bring listeners right there with us, to the places we report.

For over a year now, we haven’t been able to travel and get out into the world to collect sound. So as we work on season four of our show, we’re asking for your help to create that sense of auditory travel. 

We’re releasing prompts that will give you audio collecting assignments. You don’t need any special equipment aside from your smart phone, and anyone can participate. You can submit to as many or as few prompts as you like, and your sounds may just end up in the next season of Threshold! 

You can find details and sign up on our website: http://thresholdpodcast.org/audio-mosaic

 “There needs to be a lot more equity given at tables for indigenous knowledge, and for indigenous knowledge to inform decision making,” says Carolina Behe.

Carolina Behe, John Noksana and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq are all pushing for self-determination across the Inuit homelands, which extend from eastern Russia all the way to Greenland. In this episode, producers Amy Martin and Nick Mott talk with Carolina, John, and Mumilaaq  about sovereignty in the North. 

John, an Inuit hunter from Northern Canada and Carolina, the Indigenous Knowledge and Science Advisor for the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Alaska, discuss how food security fits into a bigger picture of Inuit self-determination. Then, we hear from Mumilaaq, who’s addressing that bigger picture on an even larger stage: in Canada’s Parliament.

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent, nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

After four decades of fighting, the lease sale for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was held on January 6, 2021. Amy sat down with David Aaronovitch of The Times of London to talk about what happened at the lease sale for their podcast, “Stories of our Times.” 

Amy and David talk about what the outcome means for the future of the refuge, and also revisit some of the central questions of season three of Threshold: Why drill in the refuge? Who stands to gain—or lose—the most from drilling? And how does the legacy of colonization come into play here? 

This episode is reposted with permission from “Stories of our Times.”

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

Last week, the National Bison Range in northwest Montana was returned to the people of Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

As part of the COVID relief bill signed into law at the end of December, the lands of the bison range were returned to the Flathead Reservation. There will be a two-year transition period as the management duties are passed off from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and after that, the CSKT will be the exclusive manager of the National Bison Range and this herd.

To make sense of this monumental change, we're re-broadcasting our episode on the National Bison Range from Season One of our show, "Heirs To The Most Glorious Heritage."

If you haven't already, listen to more of the story of the American bison in season one of Threshold. 

The controversy over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is at a critical point: a lease sale may be just days away, but lawsuits have piled up that could put a stop to that sale and put a wrench in the federal government’s efforts to open the refuge to drilling.

In this update to our Peabody Award-winning series The Refuge, we dive into this moment through conversations with three lawyers and Vebjørn Aishana Reitan, a polar bear guide in Kaktovik, the only village within the refuge. 

Do these lawsuits hold water? What impacts might they have? And what’s next for the people living closest to the refuge, whatever happens in court?

To listen to our series The Refuge, head over to Threshold’s website or find it on Threshold’s feed wherever you’re listening to this podcast. 

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.

DFTBA — Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. That’s the motto of Vlogbrothers, a wildly popular YouTube channel.

On this episode of Threshold Conversations, we talk with one of the creators of that channel, Hank Green. In addition to his YouTube stardom, he’s a science communicator, novelist, and entrepreneur. Hank talks to us about how DFTBA reminds us to do the work to be good friends and citizens, about his passion for bringing science to the masses, and why all great communication begins with empathy.

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.

Today the Trump administration published a “notice of sale” of oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. What that means is on January 6, 2021 oil and gas companies will be able to bid for the right to drill in the coastal plain of the refuge.

Stay tuned to our feed for more coverage as this unfolds. 

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch. 

The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest body of frozen water in the world, with the potential to raise sea levels by 23 feet if it melts. 

In this Threshold extra, we’re talking with leading climate scientists and glaciologists about the cryosphere—all the things that are frozen in the Earth’s system: permafrost, sea ice, land ice, and snow. We take a close look at how two of its key elements have fared in 2020: the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic sea ice. Each of these components of the cryosphere has large and immediate impacts on our climate. And their fate will affect everything from health care to migration, national security, and what life might look like in a rapidly changing world.

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch. 

In such a challenging time, it seems important to make some space for gratitude. Here’s what the Threshold team is thinking about. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.

“Breathing is civil rights and breathing is environmental justice.” 

Dr. Robert Bullard, Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University and a transformational figure in the environmental justice movement, says that the environment isn’t just out in the woods and wilderness; it’s everywhere. “It's where we live, work, play, worship, learn, as well as the physical and natural world,” he says.

Robert has devoted much of his life to documenting how environmental racism puts Black people and other people of color at higher risk from polluted air and water, natural disasters, and other natural threats. In this episode of Threshold Conversations, Amy and Robert talk about the origins of his pioneering research, the battle to get environmental justice on the agendas of large, White-dominated environmental groups, and what gives him hope.

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch. 

The word crisis comes from the Greek krisis, meaning the turning point in a disease. Today on Threshold Conversations, we sit down with author, activist, and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben to talk about the dual crises of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.

If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch. 

Award-winning photographer Ami Vitale has seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. She’s documented war and conflict, nature, wildlife, and conservation in places from Kashmir to Kenya. 

On this episode of Threshold Conversations, we hear the incredible stories behind some of Ami’s most iconic images — including her photo of a northern white rhino that was on the cover of National Geographic; what she sees as the importance of storytelling; and why she’s hopeful for our future. 

If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to support us at thresholdpodcast.org/donate

Every contribution, small or large, helps power our independent nonprofit journalism. 

Become a Member Today!

In-depth reporting on climate change, environmental justice, public lands, and so much more. This is what Threshold is about — bringing you important and thoughtful stories about human relationships with the natural world. And we need your help to continue doing this work.

Our annual membership drive starts on November 1st. For the cost of a cup of coffee, a larger year-end gift, or anything in between, you can be a part of the Threshold story. Join us at thresholdpodcast.org/donate 

How does your zip code affect your life expectancy? 

The impacts of climate change, toxic water, and dirty air aren’t evenly distributed. Low income and communities of color bear the brunt of these impacts. 

Today, we dive into conversation with Peggy Shepard, a pioneer of the environmental justice movement who has worked for more than three decades to shine a light on the ways damage to the natural world intersects with issues of race and class.

She co-founded WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a community organization based in New York City with the mission of ensuring that the right to clean air, water, and soil extends to all people, no matter where they live, what color their skin is, or how much money is in their bank accounts. Many of the environmental protections she helped to fight for in her community have been scaled up to the national level, benefitting people around the country and even the world.

Threshold Conversations is an ongoing series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders on some of the most urgent environmental and social issues today.

Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio, and listeners like you.

Learn more about Threshold on our website.

Join our host Amy Martin and National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale this Thursday, September 10 for a live recording of Threshold Conversations!

Ami Vitale is an internationally-renowned photographer whose work invites us into extraordinary, intimate interactions between humans and wild creatures, and shines a light on the complicated relationships we have with our fellow beings. She’s received some of the biggest honors in the photography world, including a National Geographic photo of the decade and five (!) World Press Photo of the Year awards. 

You're invited to be part of the discussion and take a peek behind the scenes to see how the sausage—er, podcast—gets made.

You can find details and tickets on our website: https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-conversations-live-with-ami-vitale 

All proceeds from this event support Threshold’s independent, non-profit journalism. 

Last week, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge made headlines all over the world: the Trump administration finalized plans to open up this piece of remote, Alaskan wilderness to oil and gas development. 

But what does this latest move in the decades-long battle over the future of ANWR really mean?

To find out, and to understand what might be next in this saga, we sat down with Heather Richards, who covers drilling on federal lands for E&E News, a journalism outlet focused on energy and the environment. 

Listen to our Peabody Award-winning series The Refuge for an in-depth look into the tangle of politics, economic aspirations, traditional culture, and environmental activism that have shaped this controversy for decades. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. 

If a whale sings in the ocean, and Michelle Fournet is there to record it, how does it sound?

Find out in this episode of Threshold Conversations.

Michelle Fournet is an acoustic ecologist with the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program. She studies how marine animals—including humpback whales and other creatures—use sound to communicate, detect predators and prey, and engage with their environments in an increasingly noisy world. From Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska to Florida’s Everglades, she’s recorded hours and hours of sound from the underwater world. 

Threshold Conversations is an ongoing series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders on some of the most urgent environmental and social issues today.

Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio, and listeners like you.

Learn more about Threshold on our website.

IMPORTANT: DATE CHANGE

This event was originally planned for August 27. Due to unforeseen changes in Ami Vitale's travel schedule, it's now happening Thursday, September 10 at 7 pm eastern time.

Being a National Geographic photographer may seem glamorous, but sometimes the work just plain stinks—literally! 

Ami Vitale is an internationally-renowned photographer whose work invites us into extraordinary, intimate interactions between humans and wild creatures, and shines a light on the complicated relationships we have with our fellow beings. She’s received some of the biggest honors in the photography world, including a National Geographic photo of the decade and five (!) World Press Photo of the Year awards. 

And, to create all that amazing work she at times has to put herself in some unpleasant situations. 

Join our host Amy Martin and Ami Vitale on September 10 for a live recording of Threshold Conversations to hear their discussion, and take a peek behind the scenes to see how the sausage—er, podcast—gets made.

You can find details and tickets on our website: https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-conversations-live-with-ami-vitale 

All proceeds from this event support Threshold’s independent, non-profit journalism. 

J. Drew Lanham is a Distinguished Professor at Clemson University, and an author, orator and Poet Laureate from Edgefield, SC. As a Black American, he’s intrigued by how ethnic prisms shape perceptions of nature and its care. His writing focuses on his passion for the natural world, and the personal and societal conflicts that sometimes put conservation and culture at odds. His award-winning book, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature, came out in 2016.

In this episode of Threshold Conversations, host Amy Martin talks with Drew about his relationship to wild things, wild places, and social justice, and his experiences as a Black scientist and birder.

Threshold Conversations is an ongoing series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders on some of the most urgent environmental and social issues today.

Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio.

Learn more about Threshold on our website.

In the second episode of Threshold Conversations, Amy talks with award-winning journalist Alfredo Corchado. As Mexico Border correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, Alfredo is one of the nation’s leading reporters covering the complicated issues playing out at the U.S./Mexico border.

We all depend on the food we eat, and on the people who raise, grow, and harvest that food for us. In the United States, a huge number of the people who do that work are undocumented immigrants. Today, Alfredo discusses what coronavirus means for this vulnerable and important population and his own experience growing up and working in the fields of California’s Central Valley. He also discusses the intersection of climate, immigration, and food security.

Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio.

Learn more about Threshold on our website.

Threshold Wins a Peabody Award!

Threshold was selected as one of 30 Peabody Award winners from a pool of nearly 1,300 submissions. This one of the most prestigious awards in media. We're thrilled!

The board of jurors awarded the Peabody to Threshold’s most recent season, “The Refuge,” which examined the controversy over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The jurors wrote,  “This five-part series examines the battle for the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and opens up into a superb account of environmental activism, Alaskan Native rights, and the politics of oil and gas exploration.”

About the Peabody Awards

The Peabody Awards honor the most powerful, enlightening and invigorating stories in television, radio and digital media. Each year, Peabody Awards are bestowed upon a curated collection of 30 stories that capture society’s most important issues — known as the Peabody 30. Honorees must be unanimously chosen by the Peabody Board of Jurors, a diverse assembly of industry professionals, media scholars, critics and journalists who each bring a unique perspective of what constitutes a story that matters. From major Hollywood productions to local journalism, the network of Peabody Awards winners is a definitive collection of society’s most important stories and storytellers.

Huge thanks to everyone who shared their stories with us.

And also to:

Pulitzer Center

Montana Public Radio

Park Foundation

High Stakes Foundation

NewsMatch

the William H and Mary Wattis Harris Foundation

Threshold’s community of listeners and donors

Each week, we’re inviting you to help us document this crazy time, when we’re confronting a national crisis together — from alone in our homes. 

This week, we’re asking: Is this the end of the lockdown for you? Or are you still in quarantine mode? Send us some audio that captures the sound of this weird, nebulous moment. Record up to one minute of audio and send it our way. To participate, go to www.thresholdpodcast.org. We’ve posted everything you need to know on how to record and how to submit. 

On our website, you can also find our listener survey. We’re eager to know more about the folks who listen to our podcast. It’ll take just a few minutes of your time—and if you complete it, you’ll be entered to win an REI backpack cooler. 

Hey! We’re starting a new thing!

Welcome to Threshold Conversations, a new series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders.

We're still doing our main show—our documentary work, where we take you on a journey deep into one pressing issue. But between seasons of Threshold, we're going to start sharing interviews with people who have interesting things to say on important issues impacting cultures, creatures, and ecosystems around the world.

For our inaugural episode, Amy talks with Kendra Pierre-Louis, a climate reporter at The New York Times, to discuss how coronavirus intersects with a number of the environmental stories she tracks every day.

Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio.

Our work is also made possible by listeners like you. This week, we’re aiming to raise $3,000 as part of Giving Tuesday Now. Every contribution makes a difference, no matter the size. You can choose to give monthly or make an individual gift. Just go to thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Thank you for helping us to keep independent, nonprofit journalism afloat in the choppy pandemic waters!

Learn more about Threshold on our website.

Each week, we’re inviting you to help us document this crazy time, when we’re confronting a national crisis together — from alone in our homes. 

This week, we’re asking: Tell us about a song or a piece of music that’s especially meaningful to you right now. Or — sing it to us. Record up to one minute of audio and send it our way. To participate, go to www.thresholdpodcast.org. We’ve posted everything you need to know on how to record and how to submit. 

Just a couple days ago, we also found out that we’re one of 60 finalists for the Peabody Awards. They’re one of the biggest and most prestigious awards in journalism. And we’re just wowed that they selected us as a finalist - out of more than 1,200 submissions. We could never have done this without you, our listeners. We’re halfway to our goal of $3,000 for Giving Tuesday Now - to show your support, visit thresholdpodcast.org/donate. Thank you.

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday Now, a new global day of giving to address the immense need created by the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re participating in this campaign all week long. 

Nonprofit, independent journalism is more important than ever. If you can, we hope you'll help Threshold stay afloat during these uncertain times. You'll be joining the millions of people around the world who are contributing to causes they care about. Every donation, whether $5 or $500, helps us to hit our goal of raising $3,000 by the end of day Friday. 

Visit thresholdpodcast.org and click “Donate” to contribute. Thank you.

Each week, we’re inviting you to help us document this crazy time, when we’re confronting a national crisis together — from alone in our homes. 

This week, we’re asking: What is breaking your heart right now? Does your sadness have a sound, or do you just want to tell us about it? How are you handling your grief? What are you doing with it, especially when you can’t go be with the people you love? 

Record up to one minute of audio and send it our way. To participate, go to www.thresholdpodcast.org. We’ve posted everything you need to know on how to record and how to submit. 

Each week, we’re inviting you to help us document this crazy time, when we’re confronting a national crisis together — from alone in our homes. 

This week, we’re asking: How is the natural world helping you to get through this? And if you can’t access nature at all right now, what are you missing the most? How are you quarangreening? Or, how are you longing to?

Record up to one minute of audio and send it our way. To participate, go to www.thresholdpodcast.org. We’ve posted everything you need to know on how to record and how to submit.

We’re launching a new project for this weird time we’re living in. It’s a time when we’re confronting a national crisis together. But we’re doing it from our homes, isolated and often alone.

So we’re inviting you to help us document this crazy moment. Every week, starting today, we’ll give you a prompt. Your mission - if you choose to accept it - is to record up to one minute of sound in response to that prompt, and send it our way.

This week’s prompt: Sunrise in Lockdown. What does waking up during the pandemic sound like in your world?

To participate, go to www.thresholdpodcast.org. We’ve posted everything you need to know on how to record and how to submit. 

To get us through this trying time, we’re inviting you around a virtual bonfire to share an Arctic story from our vault. 

In the 1920s, Ada Blackjack, an Iñupiaq woman from Nome, Alaska, was recruited to tag along on an expedition to a remote chunk of land north of Siberia called Wrangel Island. Along with four men, seven sled dogs, and a cat, she set off in September of 1921. The trip was anticipated to last a year. But just about nothing on that trip went according to plan. 

In this Threshold extra, we follow Ada’s journey, a tale that could have lots to teach us about our own time of isolation.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here.

We did it! We not only met our fundraising goal - we blew right on past it. And that’s all thanks to you: our listeners and our donors. To celebrate, we’re hosting an online party on Thursday, January 23rd. The whole Threshold team will be there, and if you don'ated to Threshold in 2019 or the first few weeks of 2020, we’d love it if you attend too. 

Click here to RSVP for the shindig.

Thank you. We could not be doing this without you.

When the debate over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge first emerged, most people had never heard of global warming. So over the last four decades, the controversies over oil in the Refuge and climate change evolved on different tracks. 

Now, those tracks are intersecting. We dive into the resulting tensions and contradictions around oil and climate in this final episode of our series on the Refuge.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

The Gwich’in have lived and hunted in the Refuge long before it was carved out as federal, protected land. Their territory spans a huge swath of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, and their health and culture depends on the Porcupine caribou herd - a group of animals 200,000 strong that calve on the area of the coastal plain slated for drilling.

In this two-part episode, spend time in Arctic Village, a community just over the southern border of the Refuge, and hear from the Gwich’in about what’s at stake for them as development looms in the 1002 area.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

The Gwich’in have lived and hunted in the Refuge long before it was carved out as federal, protected land. Their territory spans a huge swath of northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, and their health and culture depends on the Porcupine caribou herd - a group of animals 200,000 strong that calve on the area of the coastal plain slated for drilling.

In this two-part episode, spend time in Arctic Village, a community just over the southern border of the Refuge, and hear from the Gwich’in about what’s at stake for them as development looms in the 1002 area.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

We're moving from the coast to the interior of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to help you get a sense of what it feels like to travel through this vast area. Last summer, writer William deBuys took a raft trip from the Brooks Range in the middle of the Refuge all the way out to the Arctic Ocean. During his two weeks on the water, he got to travel alongside the Porcupine caribou herd, animals crucial to the debate playing out the fate of the coastal plain. You’ll hear lots more about these creatures on our next episode. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

We continue our reporting from Kaktovik, Alaska—the only town within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—to find out how the conflict over drilling for oil in the refuge feels to the people who live there. The more we listened, the more we realized: the heart of the issue isn’t just over oil extraction and development, wilderness and wildlife. Whatever side people took, their focus is on their community, sovereignty, and survival. 

Learn more about Threshold on our website. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

We continue our reporting from Kaktovik, Alaska—the only town within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—to find out how the conflict over drilling for oil in the refuge feels to the people who live there. The more we listened, the more we realized: the heart of the issue isn’t just over oil extraction and development, wilderness and wildlife. Whatever side people took, their focus is on their community, sovereignty, and survival.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

We told you if you could help us raise $5,000 by last Monday, a generous listener would give an additional $1,000. And you did it! So today, meet the special donor who contributed this bonus to our membership drive! John Weaver is a wildlife biologist and rancher based in St. Ignatius, Montana, and a longtime fan of the show.

If you believe in what we’re doing and want to be part of making this show happen, please consider making a contribution today. Our goal is to raise $20,000 by the end of the year. All donations right now are doubled by a program called NewsMatch. Contribute now to follow our progress and become part of our passionate network of donors!

For 40 years, the fight over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been waged mostly from afar, in Washington, D.C. But what would oil development mean to the people who live closest to the proposed drilling area? 

Kaktovik, Alaska is the only town within the boundaries of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Now that drilling has been approved by Congress, it could mean people here someday have oil rigs right next door. But it could also mean this small town is suddenly awash in cash. 

Kaktovik may have more to lose, and more to gain, than any other community in the country, so we’re going to spend two full episodes listening to people here.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. 

Can we reach $5,000 by November 18?? A generous listener has stepped up to donate an extra $1,000 if we can hit that mark by this time next week.

All donations right now - including those bonus dollars - are doubled by a program called NewsMatch. Contribute now to follow our progress and become part of our passionate network of donors!

The question of whether or not we should drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most contentious public lands debates in the United States. Even though most Americans would have a hard time finding it on a map, the topic seems to ignite intense feelings in just about everyone.

After 40 years of fighting, Congress voted in December 2017 to allow drilling in the refuge. As we release this, the Trump Administration says they’ll start auctioning off development rights to oil companies as soon as this winter. But opponents to drilling are trying to stop that from happening, and at this point, no one really knows how things will play out.

In this episode, we take you to the refuge, track down the origin story of the conflict, and follow that conflict through the decades.  

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. 

Archival footage in this episode is from the documentaries Alaska Highway and Journey to Prudhoe, and from murkowski-alaska-anwr-sot-nr.cnn"> CNN, Eddy Arnold’s 1952 rendition of Smokey the Bear, PBS NewsHour, and ABC.

Our annual membership drive begins today. For the next two months, all donations up to $1,000 are doubled. If you give ten dollars, we get twenty. If you give 500, we get 1,000. Join our passionate network of members by contributing now. 

For the last season of our show, we reported from all eight Arctic countries on climate change in the polar north. But we couldn’t stop there! We’ve created an additional miniseries about the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, where the stakes of oil drilling are higher and more immediate than ever. It premieres next week—stay tuned!

It’s been an exciting year for us. Season two of Threshold earned a national Edward R. Murrow award—one of the highest honors in our field—and a citation from the Overseas Press Club, placing second to The New York Times.

While we are heartened by this recognition, what matters most to us is our impact on listeners like you. We make Threshold for you, and also can’t make it without you. We’re a nonprofit, and we depend on passionate listeners and donors to sustain our in-depth process of reporting, editing, and producing this show. 

When you give to Threshold, you’re directly nourishing our ability to tell more stories about the most important issues of our time. You’re also nourishing democracy. Independent journalism is an essential element of a healthy society. We aim to shine a light on injustice, hold people in power accountable, and build a space where civil dialogue can flourish. 

Thank you for supporting us in this work.

You can learn more about what we do on our website.

We’re closing out two years of Arctic reporting with a new series about one of the oldest, most contentious, and most complex environmental issues in the United States—the future of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2017, Congress opened part of the refuge for oil and gas development, and the Trump administration says they aim to start selling the drilling rights this winter. But opponents to drilling are saying: not so fast.

The Refuge began as a bold vision to preserve enough land to sustain a whole web of Arctic animals. Today, these 19 million roadless acres are home to moose and caribou, wolves and foxes, and birds that fly in from around the world to nest. Polar bears are using the coastal areas as a true refuge as the world warms and the sea ice retreats.

But shortly after ANWR was created, an enormous oil deposit was discovered nearby, and a different vision for the far north took hold. Oil production at the Prudhoe Bay oil field transformed Alaska’s economy and provided thousands of jobs. For the last 40 years, these competing visions of public land, conservation, and natural resource development have been colliding. 

But this isn’t just a fight between environmentalists and oil companies—the indigenous communities in the region are also fighting to be heard. Both the Iñupiat and the Gwich’in have roots in the refuge that go back thousands of years. For some indigenous people, the refuge is sacred land that needs to be preserved. But others say oil development is the best hope for the future of their community.

Right now, this decades-long battle is coming to a head. Climate change is warming the Arctic twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and the plants, animals and people living there are struggling to adapt. Oil drilling could turn up those pressures, but as the Prudhoe Bay oil field continues drying up  many Alaskans see drilling in ANWR as the way to revive their faltering economy.

In this series, we ask what’s at stake if we drill in the refuge—and if we don’t. We also track down the origin story of this conflict, and try to understand how the fate of this remote Arctic refuge became one of the most contentious environmental issues in America today.

“The Refuge” starts next week on Threshold.

Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here. 

This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.  The news clip in this preview was from KTOO Public Media. You can find their full story—and other reporting on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—here.

In this special episode, we feature one of the many podcasts we love. HumaNature tells real stories about human experiences in nature, and helps us reflect on our role in a changing world. Today, tag along with writer Manasseh Franklin on her Alaskan journey to follow glacial melt to its source—on a raft

Find out more on our website.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters on Patreon.

We’re working on a set of stories about the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There’s been a fight over the future of this area for decades, and Congress opened up oil and gas development there in late 2017.

This story was too big and too complex for our main Arctic series. So we’re giving it the time it deserves in its own miniseries. 

And we want you to participate.

We want to hear your personal, on-the-ground experiences in ANWR. When were you there? What did you see, hear, do? What did it make you feel? Did the experience surprise you in any way? How? We'd especially love to hear from people who live in Kaktovik and/or any of the communities in that region.

You can call in anonymously. Any and all voices are welcome -- whether your experiences in ANWR were good, bad, a mixture -- we just want our listeners to get a sense of what it's like to be there.

To send your story, call 1-800-437-3009. Enter code 31488.

What is the Arctic? Who lives there? How are their lives changing as the climate warms? In this Earth Day Special, we take listeners on a three-part journey across the polar north, drawing on our 18 months of research and reporting in all eight Arctic countries.

This one-hour Threshold Earth Day Special is formatted to the NPR clock and can be licensed for radio broadcast through PRX, here:http://exchange.prx.org/pieces/271817-s02-earth-day-special. Promotional material is also available through the PRX Exchange, here: https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/270418-s02-promos-earth-day-special.

Part I: On Grímsey Island, Iceland, an eight-ton concrete ball maps the path of the Arctic Circle as it moves an average of 14 meters each year.

Part II: The island town of Shishmaref, Alaska is only about a quarter of a mile wide, and thanks to the effects of climate change, it’s getting smaller each year. The town has voted to relocate to the mainland, but they need help to make the move. So far, no one seems to be listening.

Part III: The Greenland ice sheet is basically a giant ice cube the size of Alaska. What happens when it melts? We spent five days camping out on the ice with a team of scientists who are trying to find out.

Season two of Threshold, an award-winning podcast and public radio show, took listeners to the thawing soil and melting ice of the polar north, to experience this fast-changing part of the planet first-hand. All 13 episodes, each 29 minutes long, are also available for broadcast on PRX.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Remember the Sámi family from episode six? The Aleksandersens face threats to their reindeer herding from both climate change and climate change solutions. But a lot has happened since our initial reporting. Spend some time surrounded by these beautiful, antlered ungulates, and get an update on the family’s fight against a nearby wind development.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

18 months of reporting. All eight Arctic countries. So many fascinating people. On the final episode of season two of Threshold, we pull back a little and try to see the big picture. Join us as we bust some myths, travel back in time in a Swedish forest, and search for roadmaps into the future.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

The Greenland ice sheet is basically a giant ice cube the size of Alaska. What happens when it melts? We spent five days camping out on the ice with a team of scientists who are trying to find out.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

All across the Arctic, indigenous languages are on the decline. But in many communities, people are finding new ways to reclaim both language and culture. Join some Inuit rockers in northern Canada in the recording studio, singing in their own language and making their first new studio album in more than 30 years.  

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

Half of the Arctic is in Russia, and half of Russia is in the Arctic. Oil, minerals, pollution -- it's a web of complicated environmental stories that need to be told. But in Russia, investigative journalists have become an endangered species. Spend some time around a nickel smelter and meet a veteran journalist fighting to do his job.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

Russia has more land in the Arctic than any other nation. It's also a regime that does not tolerate dissent. What does this mean for residents of Murmansk, the Arctic's largest city?

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

What happens when the thing you can't live without in the short term threatens your very existence in the long run? Meet two whalers in Utqiagvik, Alaska trying to answer that question.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

If there's one thing everybody's heard about the Arctic, it's that sea ice is melting, and that's bad news. But what's less well-known is that some people see opportunity in sea ice loss. This time, take a seat in the captain's chair of a Finnish icebreaker, sing along with a very musical Alaskan mayor, and find out what it means when the world gets a whole new ocean.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

Take a trip through the Norwegian archipelago, meet workers in the tourism industry, and get a glimpse of some charismatic Arctic megafauna. Plus, Newsmatch begins.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org/donate.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

After thousands of years of tradition, a shifting climate is forcing changes in the way Sámi families herd reindeer. But some climate solutions are also threatening their way of life. This is the story of the Aleksandersens, a Sámi reindeer herding family in northern Norway.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

Everyone's heard of Vikings -- their daring North Atlantic voyages, their mysterious runes. But there's another ancient culture in Arctic Scandinavia that's much older, and just as fascinating -- the Sámi. While the Vikings have been celebrated, Sámi music, language and traditions were forced underground. Why?

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

An eight-ton concrete ball and a 32,000-year-old needle collection. What's all this got to do with the Arctic? Find out on this episode of Threshold.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

All across the Arctic, frozen soil is thawing out. A lot of stuff is buried there -- plants and animals that lived more than 10,000 years ago. What happens when a Paleolithic bison bone starts to decompose for the first time? And what does that have to do with climate change?

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

When a major storm hit Shishmaref, Alaska in 2005, it became a poster child for climate change in the Arctic. Dramatic pictures of houses falling into the sea showed up in news outlets around the world. But the story here starts way before that storm.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

In Shishmaref, Alaska, no one’s asking if climate change is real. What they want to know is how bad it has to get before the world decides to act.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast.

What is the Arctic, anyway? Like, is it the North Pole, or the south? Do penguins live there? Polar bears? What about people?

On Threshold Season Two, we're taking you on a circumpolar journey to learn about one of the most important regions of the planet: the polar north. Most of us don't think about it very much. But we should. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet and the changes happening there have the power to push climate change to a whole 'nother level of bad. We traveled to all eight Arctic countries to find out what the Arctic is, how it's changing, and why that matters to all of us. 

Coming September 25.

Find out more at www.thresholdpodcast.org.

Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters at: https://www.patreon.com/thresholdpodcast

This season is underwritten by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Production partners: Montana Public Radio and PRI’s The World.

We're coming to the International Wildlife Film Festival! Amy Martin and Nick Mott will be presenting a sneak preview of season two of Threshold at the IWFF on Sunday, April 15 at 6 p.m. in Missoula, Montana. This is a fantastic festival that celebrates all kinds of top-notch storytelling about the natural world. Details here. Hope to see you at the Roxy!

Are you part of a business or organization that would like to reach a national/international audience of smart, engaged listeners? (Yes, that means you, Threshold listeners.) We're inviting quality companies to become sponsors for season two. If you'd like to learn more about sponsorship options, Cheryl Skibicki would love to hear from you!