Sam Forstag, former smoke jumper and Forest Service union leader running for Montana's First District, argues that federal workforce cuts that dismissed 360 Montana Forest Service employees have stripped out the institutional knowledge needed to manage wildfires...
Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer for the National Audubon Society, argues that the Conservation Ranching Program demonstrates how market-based certification can scale working lands conservation by aligning rancher livelihoods with grassland health. Johnson...
Dan Puskar, executive director of the Rock Creek Conservancy, discusses Rock Creek Park, the 1,754-acre urban national park Congress created in Washington, DC the same week in September 1890 as Sequoia and Yosemite. Puskar traces the park's reliance on partner...
Journalist Heather Hansman, author of Downriver and Powder Days, discusses her new book Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America's Love for the Wild, which profiles Grand Canyon river guide Georgie White, Adirondack wilderness biologist Anne...
A once-in-a-generation chance to reimagine public lands protection from the ground up The federal lands fight has shifted since Tracy Stone-Manning last sat down with Bill and Anders in June 2025. The workforce cuts she warned about have arrived; the Roadless Rule is...
A message of hope rooted in action, collaboration, and the fact that the technical solutions we need already exist Dr. Erica Smithwick, a distinguished professor of geography at Penn State University and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, joins...
What matters most is that forests continue to function for people, wildlife, and the climate. Dr. William Keeton is a forest ecologist and silviculturalist at the University of Vermont who has spent most of his career studying old-growth forests in the eastern United...
January is Roadless Month on The Wild Idea. Throughout the month, we’re exploring the landscapes, communities, and ideas shaped by America’s roadless public lands — and what’s at stake as these protections face renewed threats. Why? Because decisions being discussed...
What does it mean to hold on to hope after history has shown us how easily good causes can go astray? Environmental historian Frank Uekötter joins Bill and Anders for a thought-provoking conversation about how good intentions and bad systems can collide, and what...
The power of combining personal stories with facts and building broad coalitions to make sure wild places stay protected. This special episode marks our first live recording, in partnership with the National Wilderness Coalition during National Wilderness Week in...