International EPISODES

Ben Stookesberry paddles kayaks in his home state of Montana, and around the world. In his teen years he learned to make home movies showing off his rollerblading moves, and in college he learned to kayak. Today he blends the paddling and film making as he runs rivers in global settings. He has created deep and lasting friendships in his travels, and returns to rivers again and again, to paddle more stretches, to learn more, and sometimes to engage in protection work. In this episode, Ben talks ...

The Vjosa River in Albania is one of the largest of the last free running rivers in Europe and recently it was protected with the new Vjosa Wild River National Park. The Vjosa sources from the mountains of Greece and flows north through Albania where it meets the Adriatic Sea. Eco Albania has led much of the work to create this National Park and our guest Dr Olsi Nika founded Eco Albania. Dr Nika tells us about this long and beautiful river in his home country, how people in Albania use this riv...

Dr. Adriana Martinez grew up in Eagle Pass, Texas, swimming and playing in the Rio Grande as a part of daily life. 10 years after getting her Ph.D and teaching university classes in fluvial geomorphology, her Texas hometown and home river became the iconic center of the modern immigration debate and the setting for the controversial river buoy border fence. In this episode she tells us about the research she is conducting to learn how the buoy fence in the Rio Grande is impacting this river, and...

This is the 3rd and last episode about the Tijuana River. The Tijuana River is a story of trade, immigration and international borders. This is a river that flows across the US Mexico border and carries pollution and sewage. Our guest is Dr Maria-Elana Giner; she served as commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission and upon request of President Trump, she resigned from this position in April of 2025. In this 3rd episode we look for solutions to this epic challenge for the US...

The Tijuana Rivers courses through the City of Tijuana Mexico where 2 million people live. Several hundred thousand homes in Tijuana are not connected to the city sewage system and this leads to significant pollution of the Tijuana River. And because the city of Tijuana butts right up to the US Mexico border, the path of the river sewage and the responsibility for managing is not always clear. This episode goes into Tijuana to learn more about why the pollution exists, where it comes from and th...

This episode is on site where a beautiful desert mountain river flows through an estuary and into the Pacific Ocean. Before the Tijuana River meets the ocean, it navigates through a dense urban border region with 5 million people. The outcome is a river that is carrying toxic sewage and pollution to the ocean, closing beaches and creating illness in the river and beach communities. This is the first episode in a series about this beautiful place, the epic pollution, and the incredible people who...

Do rivers have rights? Should they have a set of rights that guide how they are used? In September of this year, 2024, the Biobio River in Chile was assigned a Declaration of Rights. This non binding document allows for work to be done towards making the Declaration influential and even binding at a later date. We speak with International Rivers and Malen Lebu in Chile to understand this more. SPONSORS Denver Area Nissan Dealers @nissanusa Over It Raft Covers @overitraftcovers promo code, free ...

Darby McAdams holds many places in the river world: kayaker, film maker & instructor of both kayaking and film work for young paddlers. In November of 2024 her new film NEAR THE RIVER went public. In this episode Darby moves through her kayak path, her film path and talks about NEAR THE RIVER and its story about the people of the Zambezi River in Africa. DARBY MCADAMS Near the River film IG River Roots Film Production NRS Dirtbag Diaries: “Darby McAdams & the Evolution of Passion” by Chandra Br...

In the summer of 2024, the Chilcotin River in British Columbia had a landslide that completely blocked the river creating a natural dam. For the next 6 days the river water backed up behind this dam until the waters finally worked over the top the of the landslide, creating a breach that would exceed the previous historical flows by 5 fold. 3 people share their experience and knowledge of the landslide in this episode. EPISODE GUESTS TŜILHQOT’IN National Government Jenny Philbrick, Executive D...

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 Facebook PROJECT RAFT Facebook Project RAFT 1988 Mutual of Omaha: 'Rafting Into Siberia' on youtube Soviet Un...

Rafael Gallo began kayaking at the University of Tennessee in the 1970s, founded Rios Tropicales in Costa Rica in the 1985, prevented the Rio Pacuare from being dammed, was inducted into the International Whitewater Hall of Fame in 2009, taught ex-Columbian FARC soldiers to become river guides in 2018, was known and respected across the globe for his river work, and during his life helped plant nearly 31,000 trees, all to protect and support rivers. In March of 2021, he passed away. This episode...

The Blue Nile River of Ethiopia is the largest volume river feeding into the Nile River. In 1987 and 2019, Steve Stahl boated the Blue Nile. This river passes by many small groups of people, through intense whitewater and is populated with Nile Crocodiles and Hippopotamus. His trip in 2019 is the last descent of this river before it is impounded behind a new dam and he tells us the story of the river and the people he encounters.