In June 2024, the planet hit a terrifying milestone: 12 straight months of global temperatures at or above 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels. But even as the impact of climate change becomes more visible and far-reaching, the opportunity to change the trajectory of this global crisis remains possible. Hope is possible. Today, we’re sharing a conversation with writer and activist Rebecca Solnit, a leading voice on the climate crisis and a dogged champion of possibility and promise. 

Subscribe to the Threshold newsletter for sneak peeks behind the scenes and news about our upcoming new season. Subscribe here.

Listening to Threshold is free, but creating it is not. Support independent journalism by making a donation to support Threshold. Donate here.

In Season 1 of Threshold, we reported on the decades-long fight to get the federal government to transfer the National Bison Range, and the bison, back to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. In 2020, it finally happened. Stewardship of the herd was returned to the people who had helped to save these animals from extinction more than a century before. It’s one of just a few cases where the U.S. government has actually returned a piece of land to the Native American people it was taken from. Earlier this year, we came back to the Bison Range to find out how things are going for the herd and what the restoration of this land has meant to the Tribes.

Transcript

A special offer for our year-end donors!

On March 13, 2024, host Amy Martin and managing editor Erika Janik will take you behind the mic for a special virtual event—Stories in the Wild: Seven Years of Making Threshold—sharing the triumphs and tribulations we experience when creating a season of our show.

Year-end donors—at any giving level—will receive a code for a complimentary ticket when reservations open. Can't make the event? Ticket holders will gain access to a free recording. Donate today to support our work.

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

Yellowstone Park Superintendent Dan Wenk gives his take on the bison conundrum.

Many cattle ranchers view wild bison as a threat to their livelihoods. But some think cattle and bison can coexist. On episode three of Threshold, you'll meet two cattle ranchers with different perspectives on wild bison — and, we'll take you on a controversial bison hunt.

A Yellowstone visitor tries to explain how it feels to watch the country's largest wild bison herd grazing in the Lamar Valley.

Amy goes off-trail in the Yellowstone snow and discovers how hard it is to be a bison.

How did we go from more than 50 million wild bison to just 23 free-roaming animals? And how does the decimation of the herds relate to the oppression of Native Americans? Find out on this episode of Threshold.

Each season, Threshold podcast explores one story from the natural world, and what it says about us. Season one focuses on the American bison. Dig into the history of the American bison, from their arrival in North America, to current controversies surrounding their management today.

Yellowstone National Park is where we saved the American bison from extinction. But each year, we slaughter hundreds of animals from this prized herd. Why? Learn more on this episode of Threshold.

Each season, Threshold explores one story from the natural world, and what it says about us. Season one focuses on the American bison.

When you start out talking about bison, you end up talking about America. Wherever you are in the U.S., bison used to live there too. How did that change so drastically, so quickly? Can the U.S. ever have wild, free-roaming bison again? Should we? Threshold podcast dives deep into the history of the American bison to understand who we are, where we've been, and where we're going. 

If the steel industry were a country, it would be the world's third-largest emitter. So to prevent a climate catastrophe, this industry has to change. And not just a little bit: we have to fundamentally transform how we make one of the most versatile, durable, widely used materials human beings have ever created. That's exactly what a group of companies in northern Sweden is aiming to do. 

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

A lot of the changes needed to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees have to occur at a huge, international level. But nearly a fifth of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from our homes. Are there things we can do at home to help the climate crisis? And just how effective are individual actions? 

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

The number of things at stake in the climate crisis do not fit inside one episode. It's hard to even fit them inside your mind. Part of what makes the potential losses so hard to grasp is that they're happening at lots of different scales, all at the same time. And as we move back and forth between what's happening out our own backdoors with what we know is happening all around the globe, one thing becomes very clear: there's no separating what we're doing to nature from what we're doing to ourselves. 

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

A few weeks ago, Yellowstone National Park released a draft plan for managing bison in the park. In this dispatch, we answer your questions about the plan and what it means for the future of the herd.

Read the NPS plan here

Submit a comment here or mail your comment to this address:

Superintendent, Attn: Bison Management Plan, PO Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190

Listen to our first dispatch on the plan here

Learn more about how many bison Yellowstone can support:

The Yellowstone Bison Program’s 2020 Conservation Update (especially “Making Sense of Numbers” on Page 12) 

A paper by other scientists with a different perspective: “Bison limit ecosystem recovery in northern Yellowstone”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Episode transcript

Support Threshold by making a donation today

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 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.

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.

Yellowstone National Park recently released a new plan for managing the bison herd. It’s in draft form, and maps out three alternatives for how to manage the herd in the future. Before it gets finalized, the public has a chance to read it and weigh in on which path is best. We talked with Morgan Warthin, chief of public affairs at Yellowstone National Park, to learn what this could mean for the future of the bison.

What questions do you have about bison, bison science, bison history, and bison management? Send your questions to us at outreach@thresholdpodcast.org and we’ll try to answer as many as we can in an upcoming dispatch.

Read the plan here

Learn more about the plans at one of the virtual public meetings:

August 28, 2023 10:30 AM -12:00 PM MT and August 29, 2023 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM MT

What's brucellosis? It's a bacterial disease, primarily occurring in bison, elk, cattle, and pigs.

Learn more about brucellosis here.

Sign up for the Threshold newsletter here. It's the best place to stay up to date on this issue and everything else going on at Threshold.

Episode transcript

Support independent nonprofit journalism by making a donation to support Threshold today. Donate here

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.

A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our Peabody Award-winning third season came out in 2019 — so we're updating you on where things stand today and encouraging you to go back to re-listen to the season.

...

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. 

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.

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

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.