The Modern West

 A new book, "The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier," weaves together the stories of seven historical characters as they crisscross the American West in the 1800s. Some of them, like Sacajawea, you’ll recognize. Pulitzer-finalist Megan Kate Nelson says there are others we should know more about but just don’t. We discuss why setting Western history straight is so crucia...

 Love stories set in the American West are often extra romantic and heart-wrenching because of all the moving around the lovers are forced into. Jenny and Brian Drollinger’s story takes them to every nook of the American West. But they actually met in high school in Alaska. It’s a real life 80’s rom-com, with all the miscommunications, near misses and twists of fate. 

 It’s not just human animals that migrate around the West. So do wildlife. We start this season learning about how humans are adapting to the expanding range of grizzly bears. We head out into the field with wildlife photographers, go toe-to-toe with a robo bear, pick apples to reduce food rewards, and meet a herd of cattle getting radio collared. 

Mountain Migrations Trailer

 This time on the show, we share an episode from another podcast called Our Uncertain Future. It’s produced by Johanna DeBiase and Eric Mack, the couple we met in our last bonus episode called “An Apocalyptic American Dream.” Johanna and Eric and their teenage daughter live in a strawbale house in the no man’s land of the Mesa, a few miles west of Taos, New Mexico. They’ve been documenting the rea...

 A visit to a family living in a straw bale house on the Mesa outside Taos, New Mexico. They say they’re feeling less stressed about the chaos of the world because living off grid has given them survival skills. And they delve into the lurid history of how this subdivision turned into a no man’s land in the first place. 

The story of one family who lived off grid in a yurt for years in the no man’s land of the Mesa outside Taos, New Mexico. Now that her kids are all grown, Janelle has come full circle. She bought some land and a new yurt and re-adopted this life in her 50’s.

Celeste and Gary Havener seem to have a perfect homesteading story: the horses, the garden, the honeybees, an amazing mountain view from every window. But theirs is actually a cautionary tale of enduring cancer, COVID and multiple forest fires. At 70, they almost gave up the life. But then they realized they were surrounded by support.

We talk with Pulitzer finalist Ted Conover about his book Cheap Land, Colorado: Off Gridders On America’s Edge. Ted bought land in an area outside of Alamosa where he and his neighbors lived off grid with few social safety nets. His take away? It’s a difficult life with incredible views and intense poverty. But you can find lifelong friends and experience a special sense of liberation.

Paul Menjares moved to Frisco, Colorado to live the good life as a musician. But when his landlords kept canceling his leases to turn his apartments into short term rentals, he made a crazy decision. He moved into his car. That was three years ago. Now he’s the manager of a program helping other people do the same thing.

When a U.S. Forest Service worker gets fired by DOGE, she’s left scrambling to find a place to live while she finishes building her straw bale house. Luckily, she has lots of friends who not only let her couchsurf, but help with the house raising. It’s an old fashioned approach to affordable housing that’s catching on.

Howdy Cheap Dirt fans! We will be taking a pause this holiday and resuming on January 7th with a new episode.

People in the American West love tiny houses. But, come to find out, per square foot they cost almost 40% more than a regular house. Eric and Erica found a way to get one on the cheap – by winning one in an auction! But are tiny houses really an affordable housing solution, when you try to scale up?

We usually think of full time RVers as retirees. But these days, over half are Millennials and Gen Zers. And way more people are adopting the RV life. Including a house builder who doesn’t have a house of his own. Instead he lives in his RV on the edge of Wyoming’s Big Hollow. He says, off gridding isn’t for the faint of heart.

We journey into the Red Desert of southwest Wyoming to visit a trona mine worker building his dream cabin off grid for the two small children he’s raising alone. He had to buy extra solar panels for his daughter’s medical equipment and the cabin includes an apartment where she can live with him when she grows up. He says it’s all part of his American dream.

You’ve probably seen viral videos on social media about how quaint it is to live an off-grid life. But these videos belie something more problematic going on beneath the surface. An affordable housing crisis that’s affecting the working and middle class more all the time. Eight of the ten states with the least affordable housing are in the American West. And that’s causing lots of resilient wester...

Cheap Dirt: The Trailer

Two conversations about Wyoming's news ecosystem: one with Cali O'Hare, the editor of the Pinedale Roundup and a roundtable discussion with Solution Journalism's Melissa Cassutt and WyoFile's Rod Miller.

In early August, a media company that owned dozens of newspapers across the region suddenly collapsed. It forced eight Wyoming papers to shut down their presses. The outcry statewide was immediate. But a week later the owners of the Buffalo Bulletin stepped forward with one other investor and offered to buy all eight and keep them publishing. We talk to the husband/wife news team.

Reviving Rural America -- A Modern West Bonus

Five years ago, a Northern Arapaho judge was sent to prison. Now, she helps keep Wind River residents from going back into custody through a unique justice program. Her clients say, "She can relate to everything: the prison system, the probation system, being an addict, everything. Her story inspires me so much."

This time, an episode from another podcast we care a lot about. It’s called Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore, produced by Charles Fournier, the former sound designer of the Modern West. (To illustrate just what a back scratching industry podcasting is, Melodie happens to be the editor of this podcast as well.) Charles dives into what’s causing public school teachers to leave the profession. We'll hea...

Hop in a pickup as we head out into the National Elk Refuge outside Jackson, WY to hear all about the debate over whether to wean elk off winter feeding before chronic wasting disease strikes.

Back in the 1930’s, a trading post swapped Northern Arapaho artifacts for food and other basic necessities. Decades later, a descendent opened boxes in a storage room of the Episcopal Church in Laramie, Wyoming. There, she found a photo of her grandfather, Chief Yellow Calf.“And so I talked to my grandfather, and I said, 'Grandfather, is there something that I'm supposed to do here? Show me. Guide...

The local newspaper, the Pinedale Roundup, didn't break the wolf torture story. Why not? Because last winter, News Media Corporation that now owns the paper laid off everyone at the paper except the editor, Cali O'Hare, to run the entire show by herself. It’s part of the corporate consolidation of local news. There’s now a national effort to stop these legacy papers from becoming “ghost papers." O...