Terra Firma

Terra Firma listeners, we have something special to share with you. As part of the American Storytelling collection from NPR, we're sharing a show we think you're really going to enjoy. 'Howl' is produced by our friends over at Boise State Public Radio and The Idaho Capital Sun. Host Heath Druzin and reporter Clark Corbin track the dramatic, controversial return of wolves to the Rockies — and the...

Out in the open, beyond the noise of everyday life, the land has a way of revealing us.  ‘American Storytelling’ is a collection of podcasts from across the NPR Network, and this summer, they’re presenting a selection of shows that celebrate the great American outdoors, and the deeper stories it tells about who we are. Just as this collection will introduce Terra Firma to new listeners, we hope it...

Come with CMarie to a bend in the river. Nearby, a couple spread out a blanket. A dog chases after a ball. The river brings things, and the river carries things away. This episode takes place on Diné Bikéyah and Ute homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Editor: Erin Jones Producers: Rebekah Romberg, Ki...

CMarie and her 17-year-old dog, Carhartt, camp together for the last time. Next to the stream, CMarie remembers all the other times she and Carhartt have camped together, lain in sunshine together, and splashed through rivers together. In nature with dogs, their senses expand our own. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu and Shoshone Bannock homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordi...

Hiking up a forgotten Forest Service road in autumn with her dogs, CMarie notices the golden larch needles drifting around her. Then, she stumbles upon a strange discovery that causes her to reflect on grace. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu and Shonshone Bannock homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colora...

Sandhill cranes swirl and kettle in a high mountain meadow. As she watches them and listens, CMarie wonders what the cranes would make of her, if they wrote poetry. She wants to live in a way that causes them the same delight they cause her. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu, and Shoshone-Bannock homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in Yel...

CMarie lies on the lawn of the house she grew up in, and considers the stars. How little the night needs from us -- we do not need to know the constellations, or which creatures are making what sounds. And still they give us awe. This episode takes place on očhéthi šakówiŋ, Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in R...

High in a mountain meadow, CMarie notices that a small mountain stream makes much more noise than an enormous flood. As she reflects on a waterfall, and what fish may hear, she wonders what the world would be like if we could make more space for these simplest of sounds. This episode takes place on Diné Bikéyah, Cheyenne, and Ute homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Jo...

A wildfire has recently blazed through. CMarie's friend is dismayed: her beautiful wilderness, destroyed. But CMarie quietly finds this recent ruin beautiful. And she wonders if maybe fire has something to teach us about beauty. This episode takes place on Cheyenne, Ute, Eastern Shoshone, and Arapahoe homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Award-winning outdoor audio...

On a bright morning at her mountain cabin, CMarie fills the birdfeeder. Trees, birds, flowers, and a spider all greet the brand-new sun. And CMarie greets each of them, and considers her own species' place among this citizenry. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu, Shoshone Bannock, and Shoshone Paiute homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in...

All night, camped near a mountain stream, CMarie lies awake listening. She's hoping to hear a sound she hasn't heard in a long time: a wolf howl. And as she waits, she considers the ways each of us howls -- and how sometimes, when we don't, the silence aches. This episode takes place on Eastern Shoshone and Ute homelands. Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio rec...

The sounds of nature are restorative. They help us connect with the planet, with each other, and with who we really are. That’s what Terra Firma is all about  --  and that’s why we’re returning for a second season! Season 2 offers a chance for us to see the ways in which nature allows our wildness. Now more than ever, we need to find ourselves on Terra Firma: touching the ground, listening to the...

At sunset on the eve of her 50th birthday, CMarie hikes up a slickrock ridge with her dog Carhartt. She passes petroglyphs, and cottonwoods, and at the top of the ridge, as the sun disappears over the mountains, she slips on a red evening gown. The light soaks into her hair and skin, and CMarie greets a new decade. This episode takes place on Navajo, Pueblo, and Ute homelands. Do you want to reach...

Leaning against a ponderosa on a ridgeline, CMarie watches a storm roll in. CMarie knows this storm, this nature, has something to teach her. The flowers on the mountainside opposite look like eyes; like the eyes of her ancestors, asking her to learn from and fight for nature. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu, Tukadeka, and Shoshone Bannock homelands. Do you want to reach out to the team? Emai...

Late at night, after a long day of emails and meetings, CMarie climbs on top of a horse. She rides without saddle or bit into a frozen meadow under snowcapped peaks. There, with the bobcats and the aspen and the snow, she feels as big as the wild itself. This episode takes place on Ute homelands. Do you want to reach out to the team? Email us at terrafirma@cpr.org . We've collaborated with Apple M...

In the tundra's quiet, unburdened by the chaos of technology, CMarie listens to the wind over the lichens and reflects on the word "rawah," which her ancestors, the Ute, spoke: "wild place." This episode takes place on Eastern Shoshone and Cheyenne homelands. Do you want to reach out to the team? Email us at terrafirma@cpr.org . We've collaborated with Apple Maps to create a guide to the special p...

Returning to the river to witness the annual kokanee salmon migration, CMarie starts to see the seasonal red of the fish everywhere. The kokanee mating, the flowers on the hillside, all these fleeting rituals, are miracles. This episode takes place on Shoshone-Bannock, Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla homelands. Do you want to reach out to the team? Email us at terrafirma@cpr.org . We've collabor...

In the birthplace of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park, CMarie remembers an early-morning robin song from her childhood. It's a song that stirs an ancient recognition, and it sings us home. This episode takes place on Cheyenne, Ute, Eastern Shoshone, and Arapahoe homelands. Do you want to reach out to the team? Email us at terrafirma@cpr.org . We've collaborated with Apple Maps to...

On a trail thousands of years old, CMarie sits among the wildflowers near the South Fork Salmon River and watches a tractor cover a fifty-year-old logging road. Maybe someday a woman sitting with her dog in the same place won't know a logging road was ever there at all. This episode takes place on Nimiipuu, Tukadeka, Shoshone Paiute, and Shoshone Bannock homelands. Do you want to reach out to the...

On a late afternoon in autumn, when the sun bends the shadows and gives a gold tip to the crowns of Doug fir and lodgepole, CMarie Fuhrman walks into the forest with her cello. Playing for the first time in years, her mind drifts to the ancient death of a robin, the recent death of an elk, the way humans play guns and cellos both. This episode takes place on Cheyenne and Arapahoe homelands. Do you...

Terra Firma is a new podcast that combines writing about nature with the sounds of the outdoors. It’s hosted by CMarie Fuhrman — a writer, a poet, an educator, an indigenous woman. Each episode pairs CMarie’s writing with recordings by Jacob Job. He’s a conservationist, an educator, a man very concerned with protecting wild places and with sound. The sounds in Terra Firma come from places like Bue...