Episodes

Southern California has to import the majority of their municipal water from the Sacramento and Colorado Rivers and they have done this for much of the last 80 years. With 19 million water consumers in Southern California and decreasing flows in these rivers, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is looking to recycle their used water, all the way back to tap.

This episode is floating down the river with Matt Moseley before, during and after his open water swim in the Green River of Utah in June of 2021. This swim down a river flowing at record low levels becomes a vessel for deep dives into the blue mind and the health of western rivers.

The Saco River in New Hampshire and Maine hosted a Source to Sea expedition this past spring of 2021. Two acquaintances were both planning to travel the Saco River from Mt Washington to the Atlantic Ocean. So they partnered up and paddled fully loaded paddle boards from the source to the sea.

Imagine a river with no sediment. None at all. A temperature that is a barely above freezing. A river that is new and old all at the same time. These are the rivers that form on the top of the glaciers of Greenland.

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 when the need for the groover emerged, and when the groover itself was created.

Dr. Laurence C. Smith is a professor, river researcher and author. His most recent book, "Rivers of Power," is a tour of humans’ consistent pursuit of living next to rivers through time, and how in our modern times, humans are rerouting rivers and choosing how water moves and is used. Dr Smith provides insight into the connections of human culture and rivers that we easily overlook

How about ending a river trip at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay. The Pacific Ocean waiting to pull you out. This episode is the last in a set of three about the Sacramento River Source to Sea project starting near Mount Shasta and ending at that edge of the Pacific. Hear the stories of bringing this 400 mile trip to a close.

From the basic to the complex, this episode explores what comprises a river. Is a river more than water? Where does the water come from and where does it go? This episode helps unravel the mysteries of what a river is.

Sacramento Source to Sea started on snow skis in the mountains and are now paddling the Sacramento River in the Central Valley of California closing in on sea level. This non wilderness journey explores a river that grows food for America.

This episode is a follow up to the Returning Rapids episode and hosts a conversation with the Bureau of Reclamation about the receding Lake Powell and all the sediment byproduct left behind as the nation's second largest reservoir sits at 1/3 of full.

This is the first in a series of episodes that will host real time interviews with the Sac Source to Sea crew as they navigate the Sacramento River from its headwaters in the Klamath Mountains of Northern California to the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay.

Cataract Canyon is welcoming some of its rapids back to the flow of the river as the Colorado River is recovering from a reservoir. A crew of river runners has been there witnessing and documenting the Returning Rapids.

This trailer for The River Radius Podcast provides a peek into a few episodes and a has a short description from the host describing what this podcast provides the listener.

River permits for western rivers are becoming more and more competitive. Why do we have permits, how many people are applying and what comes next? This episode hosts conversations with the permit office at Recreation One Stop (rec.gov) and with the river permitting offices at Dinosaur National Monument, Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho and Grand Canyon National Park.

Rowing Home is the story of one person paddling and rowing from Montana and Minnesota on the biggest rivers of North America, to the Gulf of Mexico, and then to Texas. All by water. Canoes, kayaks, planes, headwaters and ocean waters.

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.

As our attention spans decrease this fall of 2020, this short episode tells the story of a man who planned to kayak home after a stint in jail, yet decided to not even go to jail, and head on down the river back home. For a person who grew up on that river, ignoring the river permits he needed that day was not even on his mind, and his continued hobby of hunting dinosaur bones was as normal as drinking water.

The Greenback Cutthroat Trout survived many different assaults on its existence and genetic lineage. Once it was found in hiding above a waterfall, work began to reestablish this fish in its original basin. And yet, this work runs into itself as the projects require more changes to the streams of Colorado.

The Greenback Cutthroat Trout of Colorado was once a prolific fish in the streams of the South Platte River Basin. That all changed with the arrival of European Americans. Since then it has been spread across the state, hybridized, squeezed out by non-native fish, placed on the Endangered Species List, named the State Fish of Colorado, and thought to be extinct. After many efforts to re-establish this fish, it took a college student, a PhD student to sort out the details and set the path for the Greenback Cutthroat Trout to regain its place in its home river basin.

The Poudre River is born from the Southern Rockies onto the Front Range of Colorado. Wilderness, Wild and Scenic, whitewater, flyfishing. This is a beautiful river. It is also a working river. Regional communities want more of the water for their homes and for the river itself. How much can the Poudre River give?

CONFLUENCE is a new book about rivers in the American West, cultural interactions that lay just beyond the banks of these rivers, and the adventures to capture these stories. Zak is a new literary influence in the genre of rivers and tells us about his new book and the forces that influence his writing.

By living his life the way he wanted, Herm Hoops found himself becoming a river lover, a river boater and a man pursuing his life on his terms. He chased passion instead of career. He stood up for rivers and learned that was conservation. He found his dream job.

13 boaters launched down the Grand Canyon in February 2020 for a 25 day journey. They emerged from the canyon on March 14 to the corona virus pandemic. This is a story about moving from bliss to a TP shortage in the course of one day.

The Selway River in Idaho has hosted humans for thousands of years with Salmon and Steelhead fisheries, resources to build shelters, and amazing water. Over the summers of 2018 and 2019 archeological research has been conducted on the Selway to clarify and protect the artifacts in the river valley. Jeff Adams explains as much as he can, the story of humans along the Selway long before the Europeans arrived.