Range

In this bonus episode, Julia heads back to Reno for a visit and we dig into the details of Nevada's nascent recreational marijuana industry, whether there's really a "state of emergency" around the state's weed supplies, and what Attorney General Jeff Sessions might do to the industry down the road.

One of the many unique aspects of the West is the presence -- still, even with more and more people moving here -- of so much wide open space. And that pioneering spirit lingers on, with small pockets of people forging new communities in these spaces. In this episode San Diego-based public radio reporter Megan Burks joins us to look at some of the eccentric desert communities in California and how big thinkers there have brought new ideas back into the cities.

In this episode we follow a new California clothing company, Eight & Sand, as they navigate the challenges and benefits of setting up a manufacturing operation in the West. 

Affordable housing is an issue throughout the West (and the country), but we typically hear most often about dire circumstances in cities like LA, Seattle, or San Francisco. Small towns struggle to house residents too, and that holds doubly true for tourist towns where the wealth gap tends to widen. In this episode we dig into Lake Tahoe, best known for its beaches and billionaires, and learn about how the region is struggling to provide housing for its crucial workforce. 

In this Season 2 update, Amy and Julia explain their long hiatus, what they've been up to and how a Trump presidency may affect the American West. 

On episode two of season two of Range Podcast, we explore why the U.S. National Park System, celebrating its centennial this year, has struggled to attract more diverse visitors and staff. Also, Julia visits Yosemite National Park in California for the first time and — in between naps — finds signs of hope for a more inclusive park system. 

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day we're launching season two of Range podcast with a look at women in tech, including the story of a female software engineer who has adapted to life as the lone female on her particular planet, and a look at where virtual reality could take gender biases. All with our particular West Coast bent, naturally. 

Amid increasing reports of police shootings and racial injustice, Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter, police versus people of color, we take a look at what racial divides exist in the west. Is growing up black in the West different from the experience elsewhere in the country? How does the unwillingness of West Coast progressives to admit to white privilege or acknowledge racial biases affect the experience of African Americans in the West? We dig into all of that and more with our colleague, young black journalist Marcus Lavergne. 

There have been gearheads and car guys for as long as there have been cars, but Tesla has developed a whole new level of groupies. In this episode of Range podcast — our last episode of Season 1 — we dig into what makes a Tesla fanboy, and what it is about both Tesla and Elon Musk that has attracted such fierce devotion from so many people. 

Backcountry skiing is one of the few sectors of the winter sports industry seeing any growth. But with this backcountry boom comes an uptick in the number of human-caused avalanches, resulting in several injuries and deaths this winter. We ask the experts why backcountry has gotten so popular and what we learned from the Sierra Nevada's ski season. 

The X Games have been around for a little over 20 years now and some of extreme sports' first generation of stars are grappling with something pro athletes have had to navigate forever: transitioning into normal life. In this episode of Range podcast, we talk to some Western athletes (including Megan Pischke and Cody Townsend) about their transition, and sit down with sports psychologist Rob Gaffney for his take, too. 

In this bonus episode of Range Podcast, real estate tycoon and Mustang Ranch owner Lance Gilman tells us how he took a desolate mountain range in rural Nevada and turned it into the state's best bet for a tech boom, drawing startups and larger companies like Tesla, Amazon and Switch to an unlikely corner of the Wild West. 

More than 23 states have legalized medical marijuana and nine more are considering it. On the latest episode of Range Podcast, we meet a woman who moved across the country to join the Western-led cannabis boom. We also stop by an Oregon dispensary for, um, research.  

The last showgirl epic closed this month in Las Vegas. We look at the fading industry of showgirls and Old Hollywood revues and what they meant to the casino capitals of the West. 

Last year on his birthday, comedian W. Kamau Bell got kicked out of the Elmwood Cafe, in Berkeley, for talking to his white wife and her friends. In this bonus episode, he talks about what happened after that incident, how it continues to affect his life (and career), and what he's planning to do about it now that the restaurant's owner has stopped returning his emails. 

How do you build a sustainable food movement in an area with a three-month growing season? In this episode of Range Podcast, we look at food hubs, growing domes and doomsday prepping around Lake Tahoe. 

Grammy Award-winning Dom Flemons teaches us how to play the bones and Texas poet Purly Gates recounts a harrowing experience with an axe in this special dispatch from the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada.

In our second episode of Range Podcast, we look at the cultural divide over coyote hunting competitions in the West. Spurred by success in California, animal rights advocates in Nevada have been pushing for a ban on these events. 

In the first episode of Range Podcast, we talk to entrepreneur Jen Gurecki of Coalition Snow about the challenges of making skis that don't suck for women. Sexism in the ski industry is a hot topic thanks to Lynsey Dyer who made a documentary on marginalized professional lady skiers. 

Howdy! This is Julia Ritchey and Amy Westervelt, co-hosts of the new podcast Range. We'll be bringing you stories of the new American West throughout 2016. Here's a small taste of what we have in store for you. Please subscribe and tell all your friends.