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The Dark Side of Steamboat Travel: The Disasters that Claimed Thousands of Lives on the Mississippi River
Episode 50
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Steamboats revolutionized travel, dramatically shortening the time it took to get from place to place. When we think of the peak period of steamboat travel, we often picture images of t…
Published on 1 year ago
Much More than Snakes: The Unexpected Beauty and Unique Ecology of Snake Road
Episode 49
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In this episode, I talk with wildlife biologist Mark Vukovich about the unique area known as Snake Road. Located about 40 miles south of Chester, Illinois, Snake Road passes through the…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago
Explorers, Egos, and the Search for the Elusive Mississippi River Headwaters
Episode 48
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Today, we all know—assume—that the Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. How did we figure this out? Why does it matter? In this episode, I dig into the history…
Published on 1 year, 1 month ago
Winged Wonders: Unraveling the Mysteries of Dragonflies and Damselflies
Episode 47
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Amy Janik has a passion for winged creatures, which is how her professional career shifted from birds to insects in the order Odonata—dragonflies and damselflies. In this episode, we go…
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago
When Change is Possible: General John A. Logan’s Journey from Defending Slavery to Advocating for Equal Rights
Episode 46
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John A. Logan grew up in a well-to-do household in Murphysboro, Illinois, in the years before the Civil War. He had political ambitions early, maybe even from the moment he took his fir…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Iron and Immigrants: The Mesabi Range Story with Aaron Brown
Episode 45
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Aaron Brown is a writer, teacher, and lifelong resident of the Mesabi Iron Range, an area that has produced an enormous share of the iron ore that built America and won two world wars. …
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Outdoor Enthusiasm: Will Collins' Irrepressible Spirit for Adventure
Episode 44
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Some people have the outdoors in their blood. Will Collins is one of them. From the time he attended his first summer camp as a child, he felt drawn to the outdoors. In this episode, I …
Published on 1 year, 4 months ago
Mississippi River Monsters
Episode 43
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Did a 70-foot-long river behemoth really lurk in the river’s channel in the 1870s? Are there monsters in the river’s depths that have eluded us so far? In this episode, we delve deep in…
Published on 1 year, 4 months ago
Boyce Upholt on the Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River
Episode 42
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Very few people today have any memory of a relatively free-flowing Mississippi River. The scale and persistence of river engineering is staggering, and for many of us, the engineered Mi…
Published on 1 year, 5 months ago
A Refuge for All: 100 Years of Conservation and Recreation at the Upper Mississippi Refuge
Episode 41
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This year marks a major milestone, not just along the Mississippi but for conservation efforts across the United States. In June, the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge…
Published on 1 year, 5 months ago