The poem "Untitled #5, 1998 After Agnes Martin" read by Victoria Chang.

Untitled #5, 1998 After Agnes Martin

At My Daughter’s Riding Lesson

Déélgééd,  the Horned Monster

For Friendship

The Mirage Of Marriage

Sister Storms

Things We Were Told About the Moon

Unsettling the Oregon Trail

Statement Of Purpose

Gold Ring

[Antedesolate: On the Western Set of Pioneer Town, California: How to Be a Black Cowboy]

Natural Histrionics

In December 2022, a dog musher in Nome, Alaska, was gored to death by a musk ox as he was trying to scare the animals away from his dog lot. To many in Nome, Worland’s death wasn’t a freak accident; it was an indictment of the region’s musk oxen management and the century of decisions that brought them here.

Learning to live with musk oxen

Still Dead

Long before the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge became a fantastic media event, High Country News was following a smaller controversy, in nearby Burns, Oregon, over ranching. In this episode of “West Obsessed,” we discuss the public land issues that preceded the occupation at Malheur. We go behind the scenes with our photographer and associate designer, Brooke Warren, who spent the first evening of the occupation with the men who seized the refuge, and we discuss the deeper issues behind the occupation with our online editor, Tay Wiles, who has been following the latest iteration of the Sagebrush Rebellion.

#1: Behind the Malheur occupation

Some of the most powerful figures in Western states are county sheriffs. They are elected officials, armed, with deputies and the ability to wrangle posses, and they can be hard to unseat. In this episode of “West Obsessed," Managing Editor Brian Calvert, Senior Editor Jonathan Thompson and Online Editor Tay Wiles discuss what makes county sheriffs so fascinating when it comes to public land issues, like those that led to the occupation of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

#2: What the heck is a Sagebrush Sheriff?

In 2014, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture called Wildlife Services killed 796 bobcats, 322 wolves, 580 black bears, 305 cougars, 1,186 red foxes, and 61,702 coyotes. Such high numbers have helped fuel the agency’s bloody reputation among environmentalists; however, they actually are among the lowest in two decades. In this episode of “West Obsessed,” High Country News Managing Editor Brian Calvert, Contributing Editor Sarah Gilman and Correspondent Ben Goldfarb discuss a paradoxical agency that has spent millions of dollars on non-lethal methods it has been unable to fully use.

#3: What's the deal with Wildlife Services?

High Country News writers and editors discuss a Western legacy of sexual harassment and our recent feature story about the women in the male-dominated world of wildland firefighting that face harassment, abuse and sexism. The story is part of an ongoing investigation into the long history of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in public-land agencies.

#4: Female firefighters face the brunt of sexual harassment

In the West, wildlife managers have wavered between killing Mexican wolves and trying to save them. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have released wolves to the wild, then yanked them back out, a push-and-pull that is now forcing a reckoning with mismanagement and inbreeding among wolf populations. In this episode of “West Obsessed,” writers and editors of High Country News discuss a recent feature story on the wolves and ask: Is there hope for their recovery?

#5: How Mexican wolves have become dangerously inbred

The National Parks have been called America's best idea. But 100 years into that idea, the edges are starting to fray. The National Parks face myriad challenges if they are going to make it to their next centennial, ranging from climate change, funding woes and even a lack of diversity in park visitation. In this episode of West Obsessed, the writers and editors of High Country News discuss those challenges and possible solutions.

#6: Reflecting on 100 troubled years of the national parks

Across the West, rural communities struggle with access to good health care. Hospital closures, distant emergency rooms and a lack of rural health providers mean long wait times and a deficit of high-quality treatment. In this episode of West Obsessed, the writers and editors of High Country News discuss how some towns are finding innovative solutions to fill in the gaps.

#7: How to fix the West's broken healthcare system

Donald Trump’s unlikely run for the presidency has upset the political apple cart. Trump’s ridicule of Republican Party leaders, his calls for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and for a ban on Muslim immigration, and the vitriol and violence evident at his rallies raise major questions about our nation and our democracy. But how are they playing out in the West? In this episode of "West Obsessed," the writers and editors of High Country News discuss Trump's run for president and the impact its having in the region.

#2: How Trump is recoloring the West's politics

For something as important as food, many communities in the West struggle. That's because agricultural systems aren't really geared for the communities that harvest the food. In this episode of West Obsessed, the writers and editors of High Country News discuss some of the most interesting challenges--and solutions--to rural food supply.

#9: The fate of rural food and farms

High Country News writers and editors discuss what implications the Donald Trump Administration may have on public lands, energy policy and Western communities. 
Photo credit: Jamelle Bouie/Flickr user

#10: What a Trump Administration could mean in the West

In a special episode, we talk to reporter Tay Wiles, who is in North Dakota reporting on Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

#11: The view from inside Standing Rock’s camps

Obama’s environmental and conservation record reflects an inclination toward the center in the West: He designated over two dozen national monuments, more than any other president. He oversaw surges in oil and gas production, but embraced clean energy and tackled greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode of West Obsessed, the writers and editors of High Country News discuss Obama's legacy and what the incoming administration might try to undo.

#12: Obama's mark on land, energy and the environment

For nearly a year, High Country News investigated how the tentacles of a national opioid and heroin epidemic have reached the rural West. Assistant Editor Paige Blankenbuehler reported in tiny Craig, Colorado, where she uncovered a private practice that spurred a complicated drug crisis that continues to outpace the available resources for addicts, the health care community and law enforcement.

#14: A complicated rural drug environment

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News Managing Editor Brian Calvert talks with Florence Williams on her new book, "The Nature Fix." Together they discuss the power of nature on mental health, and tell an incredible story about a group of female veterans seeking healing on a River of No Return.

#13: The power of nature for mental health

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News Editor-in-chief Brian Calvert examines the uncomfortable Western corners featured in our annual Travel Issue. Anna V. Smith, editorial fellow, returns to the old-growth forest of her youth and questions her prior assumptions about her home. Maya L. Kapoor, associate editor, talks about an encounter with a wild hawk in a not so wild place.

#15: Traveling into uncomfortable Western corners

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News Editor-in-chief Brian Calvert and Publisher Paul Larmer bring HCN correspondent Ben Goldfarb into the studio to talk about his recent feature story an illegal timber poaching gang in Washington. How did an anonymous tip, DNA evidence and a century-old conservation law help the Forest Service take down a gang of maple poachers? Listen to find out.

#16: Busting the Tree Ring

In this episode of West Obsessed, High Country News editors and writers discuss the work of wildfire researchers. New studies are uncovering how intense wildfires create their own weather and move across the land — knowledge that could save lives.

#17: The science behind unruly fires

Previously undisclosed information about the December 22, 2017 explosions and fire at an oil and gas facility in Windsor reveals how site workers and firefighters narrowly averted a much bigger disaster – and how the company behind it avoided any consequences.

Dispatch 3: The liaison

Dispatch 2: We need water

Dispatch 2.1: Trauma team

Wolves howling in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley

West Obsessed is a podcast by High Country News, the nation's leading source of reporting on the American West. Our West Obsessed podcast is a bi-monthly series produced in collaboration with KVNF community radio in Paonia, Colorado, where the editors and writers of High Country News discuss stories about the American West and why they matter.

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