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Playlist: National Parks

Compiled By: PRX Editors

 Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-399094p1.html">Krishna Wu</a>
Image by: Krishna Wu 
Curated Playlist

Fresh air and wide open spaces. Radio stories about America's National Parks.


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Grand Canyon

From Hearing Voices | Part of the Scott Carrier stories series | 03:35

A father and son hike.

Scgrandcanyon_small Father and son spend a week together traveling and hiking America's Grand Canyon.

Our National Parks: The Best View

From Vermont Public | Part of the Our National Parks series | 02:37

It’s an understatement to say that the views in the national parks are striking. Take Bryce Canyon National Park, for instance, with its legions of multi-colored hoodoos — iconic “forests of stone” left by millennia of erosion. But this is ho-hum compared to the view when the sun goes down.

Denali_star_trails_jacob_w It’s an understatement to say that the views in the national parks are striking. Take Bryce Canyon National Park, for instance, with its legions of multi-colored hoodoos — iconic “forests of stone” left by millennia of erosion. But this is ho-hum compared to the view when the sun goes down.

HV124- Walk in the Park

From Hearing Voices | Part of the Hearing Voices series | 54:00

We immerse ourselves in Yellowstone, Zion, the Everglades, and William Pierce Park in DC.

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Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices

Yellowstone, Zion, the Everglades, and William Pierce Park in DC:

"Bobby's Park" (2003 / 2:26) Katie Davis

From the series Neighborhood Stories– Park Life, profiling the daily life of a community's urban oasis: "Country Bobby" Lowry is the guardian of Walter Pierce Community Park in Washington, D.C. He's been keeping an eye on the park for almost three decades, and knows more about how it than any city official -- he knows the trees, the plants and the kids. In the first of four stories about the park, we meet this transplanted farm boy who never takes shortcuts in his work. See NPR's has great photo gallery.

"Angel's Landing" (4:47) Scott Carrier

Utah's Zion National Park draws 2.7 million visitors a year, and a major attraction for hearty hikers is a trek along the Grotto trailhead to Angel's Landing. From the banks of the Virgin River, the yellow-and-red sandstone sides of Zion Canyon rise 2,000 feet. It feels like being inside a huge body. The canyon walls are the rib cage spread open and Angel's Landing is like the heart.

Take an Angels Landing eHike. Photo gallery at NPR.

"Leah's Doing Hair" (1:05) Katie Davis

Mural from Pierce Park, Leah doing hair next to the courtFrom Neighborhood Stories– Park Life: An ode to Leah at Walter Pierce Community Park, who braids hair by the basketball court while the guys play 5 on 5.

"A Long Walk" (1:00 excerpt) Jill Scott

Music from Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds, Vol. 1

"Machetes and Marigolds" (6:45) Katie Davis

Another Neighborhood Stories– Park Life: Meet Don Victor Zebina, who has the last word always at the community garden in Walter Pierce Community Park. You need a piece of land, you have to go to Victor. You don’t, your plants might get ripped out. Davis maps the intricate boundaries and passions of the community garden in Adams Morgan -- the most diverse neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Recently, there has been a line of people asking for new plots. The tension among gardeners has even led to "garden wars."

"Yellowstone Geyser Guy" (4:35)

Rick Hutchinson is research geologist for Yellowstone National Park. His main job is minding the more than 120 thermal features in the park: geysers, fumeroles, mud pots, steam vents. He tour us thru the geyser basins -- step carefully, the crust is thin and the water is boiling just under the surface.

Rick and a friend died in 1997. They were caught in an avalanche at Heart Lake, while out cross-country skiing on a park-wide inventory of the hot springs. Read Rick's "Yellowstone Ode."

At the Court" (4:46) Katie Davis

The Final Neighborhood Stories– Park Life: Sit by the basketball court at Walter Pierce Community Park and you will find the men in the neighborhood vying for ranking. This competition peaks every summer in the annual Hoopin' in the Hood Basketball Tournament. It's the day the neighborhood men plan for all year long. They recruit, talk trash and then play their hearts out trying to win bragging rights for the rest of the year. Hear the call and response of the playground game.

"Jungles of Memory" (22:39) Christina Eggloff & Jay Allison

A story of war and sanctuary, of beasts and obsession. The salvation of one Vietnam veteran, writer James P. McMullen, came through his struggle to save something else. McMullen lives in Everglades National Park, and devotes his time to tracking and protecting the endangered Florida Panther. He uses this mission as a way to make peace with his memories of the war.

Produced by Christina Eggloff and Jay Allison, talking w/ Lance Corporal James McMullen, author of Cry of the Panther: Quest of a Species; audio available at Audible. Music by Stacy Bowers, Gary Cavisted and Stew Quimbay.

Making Room For Shenandoah National Park

From Jesse Dukes | 06:45

500 families were displaced from their homes to make space for the Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoahnationalpark_small In 1924, a group of wealthy Virginians applied to have the Blue Ridge Mountains designated a National Park. On the application, they wrote that the area was "pristine and free of human habitation". This was simply not true, and when the park was eventually built, some five hundred families were made to leave their homes in the mountains.

Yellowstone Geysers

From Hearing Voices | Part of the Wandering Jew stories series | 04:50

The Park's Geyser Guy takes us on a tour.

Bglcgeyser_small More than two million people each year visit Yellowstone; it's America's first and most famous national park. The main attraction are the geysers and hot springs. There are 120+ of these thermal features, Old Faithful being the most popular. For 26 years, Rick Hutchinson was known simply as 'the geyser guy' at Yellowstone. He was a geologist, a naturalist, and the world's foremost authority on geysers. He died in 1997, in an avalance while skiing t check some backcoutry geysers. In 1996 producer Barrett Golding went on a tour with Rick Hutchinson through Yellowstone's geyser basins.

Winter Wolves

From Jennifer Jerrett | 02:12

Some of the best howling of the season at Yellowstone National Park

Ndh-rickmcintyre-3339_small Wolf mating season coincides with peak howling season in Yellowstone National Park. Biological Technician Rick McIntyre puts this magnificent, winter sound into perspective; within the complex history of the park.

This Lake Can Sing!

From Jennifer Jerrett | 01:52

The ethereal sounds of a rare, wintertime mystery in Yellowstone National Park

Yell_lake_winter_small Maintenance Supervisor Bruce Sefton walks us down to the shore of Yellowstone Lake to hear the ethereal sounds of a rare, wintertime mystery in Yellowstone National Park.

100th Anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Third Party Bid to be President

From Prairie Public | 20:07

2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Bull Moose bid to be president. This program looks back at Roosevelt's career and how the issues he raised in the 1912 presidential campaign are still at the center of today's political debates. Roosevelt scholar Clay Jenkinson (known to some for "The Thomas Jefferson Hour") is featured as are excerpts from 4 audio pieces recorded 1912 campaign speeches.

Roosevelt-riding-a-bull-moose_small 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of an extraordinary year in presidential politics. TOday it would seem odd if not crazy and illegal, for a two term president say if Bill Clinton or George W. Bush ran for a third term - as the candidate of a third party – But that’s exactly what Theodore Roosevelt did. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt ran for president not as a republican or democrat but as the candidate of a new progressive party. This program  looks back at Theodore Roosevelt’s career and how the issues he raised in the 1912 presidential campaign are still at the center of today’s political debates. This documentary is a joint production of Prairie Public and the Theodore Roosevelt center at Dickinson State University

Grand Canyon Gold

From Western Folklife Center Media | Part of the What's in a Song series | 02:47

Navajo singer Alger Greyeyes sings of the beauty of food and the meaning of a bounty from the earth.

Truck1_small Navajo singer Alger Greyeyes sings of the beauty of food and the meaning of a bounty from the earth. He tells the story of a young couple at the Grand Canyon savoring peaches they find, which Greyeyes explains are "as good as gold."

Tiny Forests in the Utah Desert

From Jennifer Jerrett | 05:49

Like trees in a forest, biological soil crusts play a key role in the ecosystems in which they are found. Damages to these tiny organisms can have greater consequences than you think. From Arches National Park.

Tinyforests_small

From Arches National Park, we get a close-up view of a living ground cover called "biological soil crust." This ground cover, made up of tiny organisms like mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria, helps to stabilize the soil surface; "holding the place in place." It is extremely resilient to wind and water, but particularly sensitive to compressive forces like stepping or driving on the crust. Once disturbed by these kinds of compressive forces, the soil -- the place -- can start to blow away. This kind of destruction is not unlike deforestation; just...smaller. Listen as Dr. Sasha Reed, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, explains why seemingly localized impacts to Utah's crust communities have much greater implications for the western U.S. Reed was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2011.

Presence of the Past

From Jennifer Jerrett | 06:15

Some of the earliest records of human occupation in North America are in northwest Alaska. Archeologists in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve tell us how climate change is affecting archeological sites and why looking at the past is important to us today.

Bela_surveying_small Some of the earliest records of human occupation in North America are in northwest Alaska. Archeologists in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve tell us how climate change is affecting archeological sites and why looking at the past is important to us today.

Audrey and Frank Peterman

From American Public Media | Part of the The Promised Land series | 54:00

If Frank and Audrey Peterman have their way, many more of their fellow black Americans will visit our national parks. They take host Majora Carter to Yosemite, where she crawls through a hundred-foot cave and meets Yosemite’s only black park ranger.

Peterman_3adjusted

On a 10-week tour of 16 national parks in 1995, Frank and Audrey Peterman were awed by the beauty of America and warmed by the friendliness of fellow campers. But among all of the park tourists, the Petermans saw only two fellow African-Americans.

After discovering that many blacks felt no connection with the parks, the Petermans took action: they started a program called “Keeping It Wild,” aimed at encouraging black Americans to visit the nation’s parks and other public lands that they help pay for with tax dollars. As Frank notes, “If you are not involving the communities who will make up a larger percentage of the voting population in the future, how do you then expect them to make decisions that will protect these places for posterity?”

H
ost Majora Carter joins the Petermans and a group of teens from inner-city Houston as they crawl through a wondrous 100-foot cave in Yosemite. And we meet Shelton Johnson, Yosemite’s only black park ranger, who is quick to point out that less than 1 percent of the park’s visitors are African-American — a statistic that’s bound to change if Frank and Audrey Peterman have their way.

Annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry

From KRCC-FM | 06:36

A festival of testicles!

Westernskieslogoprx_small City kids might hold car washes or bake sales to fund student activities, but in ranching country, they have their own traditions. Shanna Lewis takes us to the annual Custer County FFA Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry and Auction in Westcliffe. Everyone has a ball.