The River Radius Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In the summer of 2024, the Chilcotin River in British Columbia had a landslide that completely blocked the river creating a natural dam.  For the next 6 days the river water backed up behind this dam until the waters finally worked over the top the of the landslide, creating a breach that would exceed the previous historical flows by 5 fold. 3 people share their experience and knowledge of the landslide in this episode.

EPISODE GUESTS

TŜILHQOT’IN National Government
Jenny Philbrick, Executive Director
State of Local Emergency Declared for Tŝilhqot’in Territory due to Tŝilhqox (Chilcotin River) Landslide
Tŝilhqot’in National Government initiating Emergency Salmon Task Force

ROAM  Rivers, Oceans and Mountains
Brian McCutcheon

British Colombia Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
Natasha Cowie, Hydrologist, River Forecast Centre

TIME LAPSE IMAGES OF LANDSLIDE AND BREACH & other info on landslide
Scroll down to "Timelapse..."
 

YOU TUBE VIDEOS

Short: "...helicopter view of landslide..."

Short: "...building washed away..."

Landslide breach video

"Water begins moving past landslide damming Chilcotin River"
 

River Radius Instagram and Facebook has videos also.  
Links below.  

EPISODE SPONSORS

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

Why have cases of reported bat encounters at the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon drastically increased in the last several years? What are the chances of contracting rabies from a bat encounter? How is the safety of helicopter crews wrapped up in the physical location of a bat encounter? What does the vaccination process look like? In this episode, we utilize the personal story of a river runner's bat bite in the Grand Canyon, the expert perspectives of 2 ecologists, a CDC rabies expert, and the woman who oversees Search and Rescue in the Grand Canyon to provide insight into that real bat encounter that played out in the fall of 2023.

GUESTS

Beppe Amodio 
Brandon Holton 
Anya Metcalfe 
Dr. Ryan Wallace 
Lisa Hendy

RESOURCES

Rabies surveillance in the United States during 2022 
Bat Citizen Science in the Grand Canyon
Radiolab episode on Rabies
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Patient Assistance Program
Grifols Patient Assistance Program
RX Assist

SPONSORS

River Management Society
Instagram
Facebook
2025 Symposium

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram
 

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

Atmospheric Rivers are bands of water vapor in the sky, sometimes a few thousand miles long, bringing winter moisture to the west coast of North America and delivering it all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes flies research planes above these storms all winter tracking the details and forecasting the coming storm and this episode hosts their director to learn about Atmospheric Rivers.  

SPONSORS

Down River Equipment
Raftopia 2024 Sales Event
Instagram
Facebook

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

GUESTS

Marty Ralph
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California San Diego

AR short video (great graphic diagram)

Thumbnail pic credit:  Scripps Institute of Oceanography, Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

American Whitewater published their Top 10 List of Stewardship issues in January 2024.  This is a mix of dam removal projects, legislation and policy pushes, Wild and Scenic options, all encompassed in the work from American Whitewater to keep rivers clean and accessible.  This episode is an interview Kevin Colburn from American Whitewater learning about each river on this list and the positive end goals. 

SPONSORS

AED One Stop Shop

Over It Raft Covers
@overitraftcovers

GUESTS
American Whitewater Website
@americanwhitewater
Facebook
AW Membership
@kevincolburn42

 

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

The river guiding and river running world are sometimes perceived as idyllic and welcoming.  When is it something different?  Our guest today is an openly gay man, and he share’s his story of working as a river guide and guide company manager for the past decade and how some of that is idyllic, and other parts are full of discrimination. 

SPONSORS
Denver Area Nissan Dealers
@nissanusa
www.nissanusa.com

AED ONE STOP SHOP
Volume and Outfitter Discounts

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

The Mountain Hydrology Lab at West Virginia University has defined the density of whitewater river runs in the United States and cross referenced this data with how climate change will alter those flows, and how changes in river flows, to include low flows and floods, will impact the people living along those rivers. This episode talks at length with the Director of the Mountain Hydrology Lab, who is also a stout river kayaker, Associate Professor Nicolas Zegre about this work his students are doing, how West Virginia has the most dense collection of whitewater runs, and where students can gain excellent river based educations.  
 

EPISODE SPONSORS

AED One-Stop Shop

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

EPISODE GUESTS

Nicolas “Nico” Zegre, Associate Professor Forest Hydrology
Mountain Hydrology Lab
West Virginia University
Instagram

A note from Prof. Nico Zegre about the research work:  
“sincerest gratitude to whitewater boater and recent graduate student of the MHL, Melissa “Mel” Shafer, who conducted the future boatable days analysis for the lower 48 states”

ORGANIZATIONS FROM EPISODE

Friends of the Cheat
@cheatriverfriends

WV Rivers
@wvrivers

Highland Outdoors
Facebook   

River Management Society River Studies & Leadership Certificate
@rivermgtsociety

Climate Central    
@climatecentral

Center For Resilient Communities


EPISODE CO-HOST

Dylan Penick
River Company Outfitters
Instagram
Tik Tok

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

In the first episode of 2024, a commercial river guide tells his story of having a massive heart attack while guiding a trip in May of 2023 on the South Fork of the American River in California. This episode is recorded with an audience of river guides and outfitters. Beyond the story is the question of the role of AEDs in commercial river guiding. 

SPONSORS
AED One-Stop Shop Bulk Order Discount

Covered With Carrie website
 

CONFERENCE
American Outdoors Association
Instagram

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

There are numerous authors and media professionals doing work to explore river topics.  To close out the 2023 river and podcast year, this episode hosts two of the best.  Heather Hansman is an author writing books and magazine articles.  Teal Lehto, a.k.a., “Western Water Girl” is a social media content creator.  We talk through their respective crafts, leadership in river conservation and trending topics.  

SPONSORS
Covered with Carrie

Denver Area Nissan Dealers
Instagram

GUESTS
Heather Hansman
Website
Instagram
Link Tree

Teal Lehto
Instagram
Tik Tok

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

The Klamath River 2nd episode. In the Spring of 2025, a group of teenagers from several Tribal Nations of the Klamath River Basin and greater region will descend the newly undammed Klamath River from source to sea. These teens began learning how to kayak in 2022 and 2023, began learning about river policy and fish science, and are bringing their family stories to the river with them. In the summer of 2023 The River Radius spent a week with these young paddlers on the water and on the microphone capturing their story. 

SPONSORS
NRS LEAD Program
NRS website
NRS Instagram
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Students of PTW
Danielle Frank, aka Ducky, Instagram, Vogue Magazine interview
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters
Klamath River Renewal Corporation, Ren Brownell

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree

After 100 years of dams stagnating the flows of the Klamath River and killing the Salmon runs, a group of teenagers from the tribal nations of the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath from source to sea to usher in the post-dam Klamath.  In this 1st of 2 episodes on the topic, the founders of Rios to Rivers & Paddle Tribal Waters explain how their own paddle experiences and time travel, brought the inception of this powerful passage. 

SPONSORS
NRS  @nrsweb
Mighty Arrow Foundation
Virga Foundation 
American Whitewater   @americanwhitewater

GUESTS
Ashia Grae Wolf Wilson  Rios to River bio
Paul Robert Wolf Wilson  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Weston Boyles  Instagram  Instagram  Rios to River bio
Rios To Rivers  Instagram
Paddle Tribal Waters

FURTHER CONTENT
Upper Klamath Lake
Klamath River
Klamath Dams
Fish Kill
Story Map: History of Klamath Irrigation
Klamath River Renewal
Dam Removal News
LA Times

THE RIVER RADIUS

Website

Runoff signup (episode newsletter)

Instagram

Facebook

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Link Tree