The River Radius Podcast

As spring melt begins to fill rivers in the Western United States, the anticipation is high for big water runoff this season because of the long snowy winter.  The River Forecast Centers of the National Weather Service provide forecasting for river flows across the country.  This episode talks with the 3 of the Western Forecast Centers to learn about the snowpack and the coming river flows for spr...

Every year since 1984, American Rivers has released a report called America's Most Endangered Rivers. To be highlighted by this report, rivers must have significance to human and natural communities, face consequential threat, and have an upcoming major decision that the public can help influence. This episode is an interview with Sinjin Eberle and Amy Souers Kober on what makes this report an eff...

American Rivers celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year.  Founded in 1973, American Rivers is a national level river conservation organization.  To understand how they see the future of rivers, we interviewed their Executive Director to hear his story and what American Rivers is focusing on in the next few decades.    ADVERTISING SPONSORS NISSAN DENVER AREA DEALERS DOWN RIVER EQUIPMENT RAFTOPIA...

River corridors are the conduits of water and beauty.  And so many of us treasure our time there.  How do we best leave it untrammeled?  Two experts on River Leave No Trace (LNT) join me to talk through the LNT philosophy.    ADVERTISING SPONSORS American Whitewater Instagram Down River Equipment Instagram Raftopia at Down River Equipment   GUESTS Colter Pence Wilderness, Wild & Scenic Rivers, and...

Is it true that lightning can’t strike in the Grand Canyon? How far can lightning travel through water? If it does strike, where is the safest place to be? This episode explores lightning from scientific and risk management perspectives. Grounding theory through personal narratives and best practices, this episode is a tool for any river runner’s stormy trips.  ADVERTISING SPONSORS American Whitew...

Running waterfalls in rafts is not overly common, but some rafters do it.  Tony Glassman and his river crew built a film about running waterfalls that eventually lead to people following their lead, but not following their path of gaining experience and skills.  Tony explains the layers of training and safety and experience and communication that he and his river crew have worked through to become...

River Guides have a great life working on rivers, guiding people down fun and beautiful rivers. But what makes that life hard? How do River Guides deal with stress?  Responder Alliance is building tools for River Guides and OARS, an outfitter, is putting the tools to work with their River Guides.    GUESTS Brooke Edwards Responder Alliance Instagram Courses Promo Code for courses:  riverradius OAR...

Hayley Stuart learned to kayak while attending an international traveling high school.  Today she works with indigenous river communities in South America to prevent dams from changing their rivers into reservoirs.  She is teaching these river communities to kayak, building films about this work, attends the United Nations COP meetings as a linguistics translator working to UnDam the UN, and recen...

American Whitewater is one of the oldest whitewater clubs in the United States, has become the club of clubs and is a modern leader in access to whitewater rivers and river conservation.  Recently the leadership at American Whitewater shifted as Mark Singleton stepped down after 18 years, and Clinton Begley became the Executive Director.  We talk with both Mark and Clinton to learn about AW, their...

In September of 2020 at Kanawha Falls in West Virginia, a river rescue at midnight occurred and was given an award and labeled the “Midnight Miracle.”  A group of 13 kayakers and rafters responded late that night to a facebook post about a lone kayak floating at the falls.  At the 2 year anniversary of the rescue, we went with the rescued kayaker when he ran the falls again for the first time sinc...

Source to Sea expeditions come with a myriad of missions. This episode explores how to leverage source to sea river expeditions for conservation. Source to Sea expert Danielle Katz breaks down the types of impacts that source to sea expeditions can have, how long expeditions take to plan, and what this kind of undertaking demands from a team.   ADVERTISING SPONSORS Jacks Plastic Welding discounted...

For the past 27 years in November, class 5 kayakers have assembled at the Green River in North Carolina for the Green Race.  And a couple thousand hardy spectators hike the miles down to cheer on these rowdy kayakers.  In these two episodes we tell the story of the race and we meet two of the women racing.  One has won the race 12 times.  The other is a first time racer, and an Olympic kayaker.  C...

For the past 27 years in November, class 5 kayakers have assembled at the Green River in North Carolina for the Green Race.  And a couple thousand hardy spectators hike the miles down to cheer on these rowdy kayakers.  In these two episodes we tell the story of the race and we meet two of the women racing.  One has won the race 12 times.  The other is a first time racer, and an Olympic kayaker.  C...

ADVERTISING SPONSOR Nissan and the Denver Area Nissan Dealers website Nissan Instagram   GUEST Jon Totten Dogsmile Adventures Instagram Music Jon likes Jason Isbell, “It Gets Easier”   SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE For emergencies, call the : 1-800-273-8255 DENVER RECOVERY CENTER REDSIDE FOUNDATION Instagram Facebook HELPLINE , 208-740-1192 , Response within 48 hours   WHALE FOUNDATION Instagram Fac...

ADVERTISING SPONSOR Nissan and the Denver Area Nissan Dealers website Nissan Instagram   GUEST Jon Totten Dogsmile Adventures Instagram Music Jon likes Jason Isbell, “It Gets Easier”   SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE For emergencies, call the : 1-800-273-8255 DENVER RECOVERY CENTER REDSIDE FOUNDATION Instagram Facebook HELPLINE , 208-740-1192 , Response within 48 hours   WHALE FOUNDATION Instagram Fac...

ADVERTISING SPONSOR Nissan and the Denver Area Nissan Dealers website Nissan Instagram   GUEST Jon Totten Dogsmile Adventures Instagram Music Jon likes Jason Isbell, “It Gets Easier”   SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE For emergencies, call the : 1-800-273-8255   DENVER RECOVERY CENTER REDSIDE FOUNDATION Instagram Facebook HELPLINE , 208-740-1192 , Response within 48 hours   WHALE FOUNDATION Instagram F...

In the late 1980s, a group of river boaters from the United States reached out to river boaters in the Soviet Union, modern day Russia.  And they began an international river running friendship called Project RAFT; Russians & Americans For Teamwork.  Big volume rivers of Siberia and the Altai Mountains.  Friendships that are still intact today.     SPONSOR Protect Our Rivers website Instagram Face...

Our 1st episode published in 2019 and in September of 2022, we hit the 50th episode.  The River Radius has covered 50 rivers, 21 states and 12 countries.  Here we have 8 short follow up interviews from 8 of those episodes to learn what is happening in those ongoing river stories.    ALL ADVERTISERS FOR RIVER RADIUS PODCAST Jack's Plastic Welding Fort Collins Kia Fort Collins Nissan Em River Big Mu...

Is there a right associated with being able to float down a river and to engage in that joy and risk?  What happens when life circumstances create barriers to accessing risk?  The National Ability Center (NAC) is a river rafting outfit that focuses on developing access to rivers for all people.  We spent a day this summer running a river with NAC and their boats full of participants learning about...

What is a River?  What is in there, at the micro level?  How does water move from the Earth’s surface through the ground, in and out of rivers?  How much of the water on the planet is in rivers and how long is it there?  This episode of What is a River is our annual episodic interview with an expert in their field.  Dr Rebecca Neumann is a professor and researcher at the University of Washington i...

Ben Knight builds powerful films with his partner at Felt Soul Media.  DAMNATION, RED GOLD, IN CURRENT, and now LEARNING TO DROWN.  In the past few years, Ben also became a father.  In this episode Contributing Host Greg Cairns talks with Ben about the inside of his life, some of the process of creating his films, and his path of becoming a powerful filmmaker.  And, his daughter.   TODAY'S ADVERTI...

The Grand Salmon Source to Sea crew is paddling just shy of 1000 miles following the Snake River Basin Spring Summer Chinook Salmon from the mountains of Idaho to the Pacific Ocean.  These 4 women launched in April of this spring and are now nearing the west coast.  Youth Salmon Protectors is a dedicated group of 2000 young people of the Pacific Northwest.  Both of these groups are working to brin...

The River Radius went to Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River to learn about that dam.  How do Salmon get around the Lower 4 Snake River Dams?  How are the dams impacting the salmon returns?  What does breach mean?  What are the proposals on the table right working to avoid Salmon extinction?  How do tribal treaty rights impact the salmon outcome?    GUESTS Jay Hesse, Director of Biological Servic...

Chinook Salmon of the Snake River begin their lives in mountains of Idaho’s rivers, live their lives in the Pacific Ocean, and return to their natal spawning stream in Idaho.  This fish is on the brink of extinction. This is the summer when all pressure is focused on maintaining this fish that is millions of years old.  This is the first of 2 episodes about this Chinook Salmon.     GUESTS Dr Helen...

This episode is the 2nd of 2 episodes.  Some stories stand the test of time. This is one. 1995, Big Susitna River in Alaska, glacial melt, rains in the canyon. Three friends fly deep into the backcountry with plans of a one day trip on big water. That day their plans changed & 27 years later they all tell the story.  Nissan and The Denver Area Dealerships Dealer Locater Link Big Susitna River USGS...