S5E31: Desert Dispatch, Data Centers, and the People Pushing Back

Desert Dispatch Media is bringing together artists and communities to document how the AI buildout is affecting desert lands and the people who live there. Chris talks with organizer Melinda Matson Spina, filmmaker Jodi Darby, and musician Sage Bond about their planned community-led documentary, a …

S5E30: Why Deserts Need Defending

For our 150th episode, we return to a foundational question: why does the desert need people speaking up for it? Chris offers four answers. Deserts are widely misunderstood as empty or expendable. They remain surprisingly understudied, even when familiar species such as Joshua trees are concerned.…

S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open?

Journalist Joe Dana of 12 News in Phoenix joins Chris Clarke to discuss questions raised by the August 29 flash flood in Grand Canyon National Park—and what happened inside the National Park Service before the disaster. After the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon Trails Supervisor Adam Gibson w…

S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open? [Subscribers' Cut]

Journalist Joe Dana of 12 News in Phoenix joins Chris Clarke to discuss questions raised by the August 29 flash flood in Grand Canyon National Park—and what happened inside the National Park Service before the disaster. After the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon Trails Supervisor Adam Gibson w…

S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding [Subscribers' Cut]

Episode thumbnail photo by Bo Insogna. The deadly August 29 flood in Grand Canyon National Park received national attention, but it was not an isolated event. Flooding struck communities, parks and backcountry destinations across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico throughout the summer. Chris Clarke …

S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding

Episode thumbnail photo by Bo Insogna. The deadly August 29 flood in Grand Canyon National Park received national attention, but it was not an isolated event. Flooding struck communities, parks and backcountry destinations across Utah, Arizona and New Mexico throughout the summer. Chris Clarke …

S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death

Journalist Kimon de Greef joins Chris Clarke to discuss his new book, The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence. The Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius) spends most of the year underground, emerging to breed during summer rainstorms. It is also …

S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death [subscribers cut]

Journalist Kimon de Greef joins Chris Clarke to discuss his new book, The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence. The Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius) spends most of the year underground, emerging with the summer monsoon to breed. It is also t…

S5E26: Maps, Vanished Lakes, and Two Desert Squirrels

We think of range maps as static representations of where plants and animals belong. It doesn't often occur to us that maps are just snapshots of a constantly changing world. In the Mojave Desert, two sister species of desert ground squirrel coexist nearly side by side. A field guide's range maps w…

S5E25: The Vaquita Can Still Recover

The vaquita is the world’s smallest and most endangered cetacean, but the handful still living in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California may be more resilient than recent headlines suggest. In 2025, researchers concluded that there was a 67 percent probability that seven to ten distinct vaquitas had be…