The River Radius Podcast

As snow is melting and running down rivers across the US, this episode talks with hydrologists at 5 regions of the National River Forecast Center to gain perspectives on how much snow and rain fell over the winter and how it will melt and what the rivers will look like this spring and summer.  We focus on the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, California, some of Nevada, and the Colorado River Basin...

Dams have been blocking rivers for decades. Is there a growing crack in the dam? This episode explores dam removal as an increasing trend.  We talk with guests at the Chattooga River and Tugalo Dam, the Snake River and the Lower Snake River Dams, and the Klamath River and the active removal project there.  And we look at the trends globally for dam construction and removal.     SPONSORS Paddle Way...

Each year American Rivers publishes a list of 10 rivers that hold great opportunity for river quality improvements. This year, in addition to covering the full list with Amy Kober of American Rivers, we talk with local experts to include the ocean surfers at the Tijuana River estuary in California, the river lovers at the Duck River in Tennessee, and the high desert river people overseeing the ent...

SPONSORS Down River Equipment Instagram Facebook   AED One Stop Shop discount landing page     GUESTS John Amodio Facebook Linkedin: John Amodio   Kevin Fedarko Instagram Facebook   Vicki Ozaki  Leonel Arguello Dave Van De Mark     CONTRIBUTING HOST Samara Rosen   RESOURCES Navigating Ecological Transformation: Resist–Accept–Direct as a Path to a New Resource Management Paradigm Sierra Club Oral H...

Kevin Fedarko’s book, the Emerald Mile, takes readers on the journey of the fastest ride through the Grand Canyon in a dory named the Emerald Mile. Fedarko’s book dives into the backstory of the dam, the characters, and even the record-breaking journey, and yet leaves one question remaining: what is the backstory of the dory’s namesake? In this 1st of 2 Emerald Mile episodes, the stories of Fedark...

Atmospheric Rivers are bands of water vapor in the sky, sometimes a few thousand miles long, bringing winter moisture to the west coast of North America and delivering it all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes flies research planes above these storms all winter tracking the details and forecasting the coming storm and this episode hosts their director...

American Whitewater published their Top 10 List of Stewardship issues in January 2024.  This is a mix of dam removal projects, legislation and policy pushes, Wild and Scenic options, all encompassed in the work from American Whitewater to keep rivers clean and accessible.  This episode is an interview Kevin Colburn from American Whitewater learning about each river on this list and the positive en...

The river guiding and river running world are sometimes perceived as idyllic and welcoming.  When is it something different?  Our guest today is an openly gay man, and he share’s his story of working as a river guide and guide company manager for the past decade and how some of that is idyllic, and other parts are full of discrimination.  SPONSORS Denver Area Nissan Dealers @nissanusa www.nissanus...

The Mountain Hydrology Lab at West Virginia University has defined the density of whitewater river runs in the United States and cross referenced this data with how climate change will alter those flows, and how changes in river flows, to include low flows and floods, will impact the people living along those rivers. This episode talks at length with the Director of the Mountain Hydrology Lab, who...

In the first episode of 2024, a commercial river guide tells his story of having a massive heart attack while guiding a trip in May of 2023 on the South Fork of the American River in California. This episode is recorded with an audience of river guides and outfitters. Beyond the story is the question of the role of AEDs in commercial river guiding.      SPONSORS AED One-Stop Shop Bulk Order Discou...

There are numerous authors and media professionals doing work to explore river topics.  To close out the 2023 river and podcast year, this episode hosts two of the best.  Heather Hansman is an author writing books and magazine articles.  Teal Lehto, a.k.a., “Western Water Girl” is a social media content creator.  We talk through their respective crafts, leadership in river conservation and trendin...

The Klamath River 2nd episode. In the Spring of 2025, a group of teenagers from several Tribal Nations of the Klamath River Basin and greater region will descend the newly undammed Klamath River from source to sea. These teens began learning how to kayak in 2022 and 2023, began learning about river policy and fish science, and are bringing their family stories to the river with them. In the summer...

After 100 years of dams stagnating the flows of the Klamath River and killing the Salmon runs, a group of teenagers from the tribal nations of the Klamath Basin will paddle the Klamath from source to sea to usher in the post-dam Klamath.  In this 1st of 2 episodes on the topic, the founders of Rios to Rivers & Paddle Tribal Waters explain how their own paddle experiences and time travel, brought t...

Payson Kennedy at 39 was a career academic, and with his wife Aurelia had four kids, a house, and two cars in Atlanta.  After working on the stunt team for the film Deliverance in 1971 and a summer running a raft company, he and his wife decided to leave it all behind and with a good friend, started the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  Today, 50 years later, the Nantahala Outdoor Center is one of the mo...

Our 3rd Annual episode of "What is a River" comes to you from a plane flying above the flooded Yampa River Valley in northwest Colorado. In May 2023, River Radius host Sam Carter joined two geomorphologists and a hometown river guide to fly above the Yampa River when it peaked at 20,000 cfs. This flight and episode learns about the deep value of an un-dammed, free flowing river spreading its water...

The Native Teen Guide in Training Program held its 12th year of training teenagers from various tribal nations how to work as river guides. This year was the first year that the guide staff for this program was all Indigenous. The River Radius joined the NTGIT program at the boat ramp, campground and river warehouse to hear this story.     SPONSORS NRS Website LEAD Program PFDs NRS Duct Tape Diari...

SPONSORS Denver Area Nissan Dealers Instagram Over It Raft Covers Instagram Promo Code (free shipping):  riverradius   GUESTS Scott Armstrong with All Outdoors Scott Underwood with Mother Lode River Center  Jann Dorman Ron Stork Keiko Mertz Stan Dodson Amy Stroud Colton Johnson Tim Lasko Friends of the River     EPISODE CONTENT RESOURCES The Last River Lost Episode Restoring the Stanislaus River ...

SPONSORS Denver Area Nissan Dealers Instagram Over It Raft Covers Instagram Promo Code (free shipping):  riverradius   GUESTS David Brown Book for sale Book on Facebook:  The Whitewater Wars   American Whitewater 40th Gauley Fest Instagram Facebook   Animal Upper Gauley Race Ace Adventure Resort   Dylan Pennick  River Company Outfitters Instagram Tik Tok River Company Outfitter's: My Favorite Rive...

EPISODE SPONSORS Over It Raft Covers Promo Code:  riverradius Wholesum Promo Code:  riverradius   GUESTS Mark Dubois Kevin Wolf RESOURCES The Stanislaus River Archive Restoring the Stanislaus River Tim Palmer Tim Palmer’s book:  Stanislaus: the Struggle for a River Friends of the River Episode Cover Photo by Tim Palmer from the Stanislaus River Archive PICTURES OF ITEMS MENTIONED IN EPISODE Shark'...

The South Platte River runs right through downtown Denver and as you might imagine, this river catches a lot of trash.  There are hordes of people who clean this river several times a year and have been doing so for 17 years.  Today this clean up is led by Protect Our Rivers, and the South Platte is lined up for a $350 million dollar upgrade.  This is a story of urban river people and the river th...

Have been using a groover this summer?  Have you cleaned one....or need to clean one?  This episode is a Re-issue of our "History of the Groover" episode from 2021.  For many overnight river trips, the groover has become as common a tool as the PFD.  Where did this groover come from, and why is a portable river toilet called a groover.  This episode finds the people who were there 50 years ago whe...

While many river runners see Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam as the leading threat to the Colorado River overall and to the Grand Canyon, there is a voice that wants to keep Lake Powell in place and full of water. To understand this viewpoint and reasoning, this episode explores this topic with the BlueRibbon Coalition and Powellheadz. This episode is the companion to our recent publication of “Gl...

Is there a relationship between forest fire scars, floods and debris flows? This episode will explore  landscapes denuded by fire and these massive storms creating floods in the fire scar zone. Is this a normal pattern? A new pattern? Coincidence? And how does understanding this correlation further our relationship with these changing landscapes? This episode explores these questions and more thro...

Glen Canyon was home to the flowing Colorado River until 1963 when Glen Canyon Dam closed its gates creating Lake Powell.  Over the past few years, water in Powell has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.  The River Radius went onto Lake Powell and up into the canyons to see what has returned in these canyons as they restore to their pre Powell eco-systems and to ask the questions of what i...

An exploration of unions in river guiding. Why aren’t they common? Why do some guides want them?  A guide forms a union. One outfitter assesses the viability of unions on multi-day rivers. A guide turned outfitter on the Ocoee River provides healthcare to her guides. A boater turned insurance agent teaches provides healthcare insurance to river guides.     EPISODE SPONSORS: Nissan Denver Area @nis...