West Obsessed - High Country News

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The borderlands are a long-misunderstood region of the country, wrapped up in rhetoric and myth. In this episode of West Obsessed, Tucson-based Associate Editor Maya Kapoor joins Editor-in-Chief Brian Calvert and Deputy Editor-Digital Kate Schimel to discuss the realities of the border, the communities along it and their intertwined ecologies and economies.

In this episode of West Obsessed, contributing editor Jonathan Thompson joins High Country News editors Brian Calvert and Kate Schimel to explore the struggle of Navajo Nation residents, and others, to prevent more oil and gas exploration in historically important lands. Chaco Canyon holds cultural significance to several tribal nations and is also at the center of one of the richest oil and gas fields in the country.

Writer Julian Brave Noisecat join High Country News editors on the latest episode of West Obsessed to talk about the original victims of gentrification. Inside this story is an emotional tale of one Indigenous family's experience with structural inequities that affect the availability of housing in both rural and urban areas.

In the latest episode of West Obsessed, High Country News editors discuss a zealous political movement — a push for a 51st state — born from resentment of California’s liberal ‘resistance’ to Trump.

Since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in Jan. 2017, he and his administration have been steadily undoing Obama-era protections, including designations of national monuments and rules designed to fight climate change. In the latest episode of West Obsessed, High Country News’ D.C. Correspondent Elizabeth Shogren, and editors Brian Calvert, Kate Schimel and Paige Blankenbuehler review some of the most important rollbacks that hit the West this year.

The Rocky Mountains have long been a source of inspiration and art. This is apparent in the works of the poet Belle Turnbull, who wrote about the mining camps of Colorado, the beauty of the mountains, and her life in the Rockies. In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News Editor-in-Chief Brian Calvert travels to Gunnison, Colorado, to discuss Turnbull, her work, and the questions it raises about modern wildness and the sublime with two professors from Western Colorado University: David Rothman, the head of Western’s creative writing program, and John Hausdoerffer, who heads the university’s environmental studies program.

Native American communities are an integral part of the nation’s history —and future. However, even today there aren’t enough publications that know how to accurately tell their stories. In this episode of West Obsessed, the writers and editors of High Country News discuss the magazine’s efforts to tell better stories from Indian Country.

In April 2014, Cliven Bundy, along with hundreds of supporters, faced down federal agents over the removal of his cattle from public lands. They’d been illegally grazing for years and a court had ordered their impoundment. Three years later, Bundy, along with two of his sons and a handful of supporters, is slated to go on trial. It’s been a long and windy road to the courtroom; we break it down it this latest episode of West Obsessed.

In this episode of West Obsessed, we confront the realities of climate change as its impacts on the West begin to unfold. With an administration at odds with recognizing climate change, it’s even more important to see what efforts are being made at the grass roots level. We discuss the fragility of shellfish in an increasingly acidified ocean and the impact of extreme weather events on indigenous people, and what they’re doing about it.

This episode of West Obsessed delves into the forces that shape our energy system — from corporate profit motives, to the individuals with solar panels on their roofs. A surprising win by solar customers in Nevada portends a shift.

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News examines the lessons learned on Washington’s Elwha River, whose dams came down six years ago, and Utah’s Bear River, where a diversion is still being planned.

High Country News Editor-in-Chief Brian Calvert delves into the choices we must make as we begin to face the consequences of the Anthropocene. Reckoning with the grinding anxiety of climate change and the grief of losing our most precious species, how we cope with these fears will define us.

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News Correspondent Krista Langlois talks about her recent feature story on a burgeoning recreation industry in the West's northern-most terrain. Alaska looks to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline as a boon for an unlikely economy in the Frontier State: Thru-hiking through rugged wilderness.

Why did the rural Colorado town of Walsenburg swing from voting blue to red in the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump? High Country News editors Brian Calvert and Kate Schimel talk to writer Leah Todd about her recent feature story on the politics behind the shift that helped elect Trump to the White House.