Gunfighters

Introducing: Gunfighters, with Bryan Burrough

Author Bryan Burrough exhumes the gritty history of Old West gunfighters. From Billy the Kid to Wyatt Earp to John Wesley Hardin and dozens more, this collection of stori

Ep. 42: Favorite Films About the West

Since the 1903 showing of The Great Train Robbery, film has steadily become our primary way to tell the stories of the American West to the larger world. More than a cent

Ep. 41: Favorite Books About the West

The 1538 distribution of Cabeza de Vaca’s Relacion about his shipwreck and trek across the Southwest marks the beginning of books that tell the stories of the American We

Ep. 40: Becoming Natives of Place in the American West

Two ideas about living in the modern West, bioregionalism and rewilding, emerged in the 1970s and early 2000s, and while neither has gone mainstream they have influenced

Ep. 39: The River That Flowed From Nowhere, Part II

When the U.S. acquired the West with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched two scientific expeditions to explore it. Lewis & Clark became

Ep. 38: The River That Flowed From Nowhere, Part I

When the U.S. acquired the West with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched two scientific expeditions to explore it. Lewis & Clark became

Ep. 37: The Wolf Returns to the West

One of the stories that will long define the American West in the modern era is the return of the wolf after a century of wholesale attempts to obliterate it. From New Me

Ep. 36: Down the West’s Grandest Canyon

With its many diverse, stupendous landscapes and public lands, the West has long been a region of bucket list adventures. A descent down the Colorado River through the Gr

Ep. 35: How the Endangered Species Act Saved the West and America

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of America’s most famous laws and contributions to world culture, yet half-a-century after its passage it has become yet another

Ep. 34: Big Bend and the Deserts of the West

In the eyes of the world, the West’s several deserts have become defining landscapes for the modern region. But one of them, the Chihuahuan Desert, has produced the only

Ep. 33: Time and Time Again: The Fascinating Evidence from Western Repeat Photography

Calling on the photographic record made of the American West from 150 to 100 years ago, modern photographers have repeated many of the same scenes and found remarkable di

Ep. 32: Loving the Plains, Hating the Plains, Rewilding the Plains

While conservation focused national parks creation on the vertical mountains and canyons of the West, the Great Plains ended up de-buffaloed and mostly ignored. But with

Ep. 31: Cabeza de Vaca’s Fantastic Journey

Almost exactly 500 years ago, a shipwrecked Spaniard named Cabeza de Vaca and three companions made the first trans-continental journey in the history of the American Wes

Ep. 30: Jesus and Animus Beneath the Bitterroots

Religion is often at the center of historical events in the West. The founding of modern Montana, in fact, happened when Native people famously pleaded for Christian miss

Ep. 29: What Were Charlie Russell and L.A. Huffman Trying to Tell Us?

Charlie Russell and L.A. Huffman became famous for their nostalgic art about the Frontier world they experienced in the West. But with a fascination with what Russell cal

Ep. 28: Understanding Nature in a Southwestern State

Not only do most Americans misunderstand the great variety in western places, but many westerners are similarly clueless. This episode makes a stab at explaining nature i

Ep. 27: Messages From the Past - The Rock Art of the American West

A tangible and fascinating landscape record of the human past in the West exists in a form barely found elsewhere in America. So-called rock art, images incised and paint

Ep. 26: Where the Primeval West Abides

In the summer of 2019 a small group of us does a 12-day river descent from Alaska’s Brooks Range through the heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, experiencing a

Ep. 25: Thinking About Big History in One Western Place

A road trip with Steven Rinella across the High Plains to the Blackwater Draw Unesco Site on the border of Texas and New Mexico leads to an assessment of 13,000 years of

Ep. 24: Getting Over the Color Green and Learning to Love Badlands

In the 20th century peculiar landforms dismissed earlier in western history with the denigrating term “badlands” became compelling locations for scientists and artists in