Earlier this year, Outside/In host Nate Hegyi picked a fight with Ryan Zinke.
Zinke served as Interior Secretary under former President Donald Trump — the guy who rode into office on horseback. In the midst of an awful few days in June, when Canadian wildfire smoke blanketed the entire East Coast, Zinke took to Twitter and argued that the solution was “active forest management.”
Nate assumed that was a political code word for more logging, something Republicans have been pushed for years. But instead of firing back, he decided to fact-check his assumptions and study up. Why are Canadian wildfires getting so intense? Is it possible to stop the smoke by logging the boreal forest? And what would Teddy Roosevelt have to say about this?!
Featuring Phil Higuera, John Vaillant, Ryan Zinke, and Courtney Shultz.
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VOTE FOR US!
Our series, The Underdogs, is in the running for a podcast award through Signal for Best Sports Documentary!
There’s also a Listener’s Choice, which requires fans to vote — so if you’ve got literally 20 seconds to spare, check out the link in the show notes and cast your vote for The Underdogs.
SUPPORT: CELEBRATING 250 EPISODES
Can you believe it? Outside/In is celebrating 250 episodes of wacky, fun, and longform journalism. We hope to keep making more episodes (maybe even 250 more!), and to celebrate the journey ahead of us, we’ve got brand new Outside/In swag for you!
If you donate $5+ a month, you can select the Outside/In baseball cap as a thank you gift. Plus, the first 250 people to donate during this campaign will receive a special “Ginkgo Love” sticker. Click here to donate!
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Submit a question to our Outside/Inbox. We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).
LINKS
Check out our episode about prescribed burns (10X10: Pine Barrens).
The NPS has a good overview of how Indigenous fire practices shaped North America.
“As Canada reels from wildfire, First Nations hope for larger role” (Al Jazeera)
CREDITS
Hosted, reported and produced by Nate Hegyi
Edited by Taylor Quimby and Rebecca Lavoie
Our team also includes Justine Paradis, Jeongyoon Han, and Felix Poon.
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer
Music by Blue Dot Sessions.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
