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by Wild Idea Media
The Wild Idea is an exploration of the intersection of wild nature and our own human nature. The hosts, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds, through conversations with experts and thought leaders will dive into the ways that humans have both embraced and impact the function and vitality of our remaining wild places.
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- 2 days ago34 min
Dylan McDowell: Inside the Network Connecting State Lawmakers on Environmental Policy
Most state lawmakers work with little or no staff, some for almost no pay, and on Election Day 83% of state legislative seats are on the ballot. Dylan McDowell, CEO of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, explains how a nonpartisan network of state lawmakers from all 50 states trades ideas across party lines, and what happens when a large new class arrives in January. He breaks down why data centers have become the biggest environmental policy story in statehouses, why outdoor access and funding bills draw support from red and blue states alike, and how local governments fit in. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- 1 weeks ago31 min
Bob Marshall: The Haunting of Bill’s House
It's Halloween week, and Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds are in the same room in Missoula with a Ouija board. Within minutes, Bill is performing the ghost of Bob Marshall, the forester and principal founder of The Wilderness Society, and Anders has an interview he never planned. This is a scripted Halloween special, not an archival interview. Marshall died in 1939, and the character's lines are dramatization. Along the way the conversation covers real history: childhood summers in the Adirondacks, the winter in Wiseman, Alaska behind Arctic Village, the 1934 Knoxville drive that led to the Wilderness Society, the Forest Service roadless rules, and Marshall's push to open wild country to everyone.Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- 2 weeks ago35 min
Sam Forstag: Smoke Jumping, Union Organizing, and the Fight for Montana’s First District
Sam Forstag spent eight years on the fire line, four of them as a smoke jumper, before he organized the response when the federal government cut the people who manage wildfires. Now he is running for Montana's First District with a campaign built on defending public lands and rebuilding the agencies that protect them. The conversation covers the personal cost of firefighting, a thousand-hour overtime season, a near-death jump near Fairbanks that he says grew from 30 acres to 60,000 in a day, and the Windy Rock fire that he says cost Montana $56 million. Forstag lays out what he would do on the House Natural Resources Committee, expanding prescribed fire, hiring fuels crews, and keeping firefighting inside the Forest Service rather than separating it into a crisis-response operation. He also explains why he believes public lands are a winning issue in Montana, and how he is running a campaign with former Republican legislators as allies. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.A note on this conversation: Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds live in Montana’s First District, where Sam Forstag is a candidate in the November 3, 2026 general election. The Wild Idea invited Forstag to talk about public lands policy and his experience in wildland fire and the Forest Service. This episode is not an endorsement of any candidate.
- 3 weeks ago42 min
Cam Brensinger: NEMO’s Road from a Bivy Bag on Mount Washington to Recyclable Gear
Cam Brensinger sewed a prototype from a bicycle inner tube after a bivy bag failed him on Mount Washington: this conversation explores what a gear maker owes the ground its products are used on. Brensinger explains why NEMO only brings products to market that improve the outdoor experience, how a bicycle inner tube and an inflatable kite shaped the company's first designs, and how a REI buyer's blunt criticism taught him to put the customer in the room. He talks about fifteen years of lobbying through the Outdoor Industry Association, the industry's 2017 withdrawal of its trade show from Utah over Bears Ears, and how business can connect jobs and economic impact to the conservation case. The episode also covers NEMO's sustainability commitments, a roughly forty percent cut in carbon intensity and fully recyclable products, and the challenge of selling those stories in 2026 after years of greenwashing fatigue. Brensinger argues that climbers, backpackers, hunters, and anglers share far more than their differences, and that showing up together in Washington represents the vast majority of the outdoor constituency. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- Oct 6, 202636 min
Marshall Johnson: Conservation Ranching and the Birds That Depend on It
Marshall Johnson, Chief Conservation Officer for the National Audubon Society, joins Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds to discuss how the Conservation Ranching Program aligns rancher livelihoods with grassland health. Johnson explains why ranchers were the easiest sell for a national certification effort and how birds act as diplomats connecting urban and rural communities. The conversation traces the program’s evolution from a small pilot to a national framework, highlighting collaborations with brands like Thousand Hills and Lifetime Grazed that carry the Audubon Certified Bird-Friendly Land seal. Johnson applies the concept of realpolitik to explain why voluntary Farm Bill incentives remain the viable path for passing legislation, despite concerns that regulatory measures might be more effective at reversing grassland bird declines. He notes that birds serve as sentinels for environmental health, revealing issues such as the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer years before human impacts become visible. The episode underscores the tension between the need for rapid conservation action and the slow pace of legislative change. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- Sep 29, 202654 min
Amy Bowers Cordalis: Indigenous-Led Conservation and the Salmon That Came Home
Amy Bowers Cordalis is a Yurok Tribe member, attorney, and executive director of Ridges to Riffles Indigenous Conservation Group. She helped lead the fight to remove four dams from the Klamath River, the largest dam removal and salmon restoration project in U.S. history. In this conversation, she traces that fight from the first covenant of the Yurok creation story through her great-uncle's arrests for fishing on the Klamath, the Supreme Court case that followed, and the grassroots and legal strategy that turned a hostile utility company into a negotiating partner. She also talks about the day her father was saved by the cold waters of Blue Creek, watching salmon return to spawning grounds within days of the final dam coming down, and why she believes indigenous-led sovereignty, not colonial conservation, is the model the rest of the world needs. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- Sep 22, 202649 min
Mark Haggerty & Megan Lawson: The Economics of Public Lands and Rural Prosperity
Some of the highest-output rural counties in the country are losing population, even as public lands get pitched as the answer to everything from housing to the national debt. Mark Haggerty of the Center for American Progress and Dr. Megan Lawson of Headwaters Economics, two economists who study what public lands do for the communities next door, join Bill and Anders to sort out what the numbers actually say. They cover why automation and stagnant wages have hollowed out extractive jobs, the "amenity trap" that can price teachers out of thriving outdoor towns, why selling public land is a weak fix for housing affordability, and what happened to the economy around Grand Staircase-Escalante after designation. Haggerty also lays out a proposal to replace annual federal payments to counties with a permanent fund, and both guests take on whether making the economic case for wild places risks losing the moral one. Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee. Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
- Sep 15, 202649 min
Fitz Cahall: The Million-Signature Push to Save Public Lands
Fitz Cahall has spent nearly twenty years telling other people's outdoor stories as the host of The Dirtbag Diaries. Now he's leading one himself: Save Public Lands, a coalition campaign racing to collect a million signatures against public land sell-offs, backroom deals, and giveaways before National Public Lands Day on September 26.Cahall talks with Bill Hodge about the throughline from The Dirtbag Diaries to organizing, including his and Becca Cahall's history with Bears Ears National Monument and the education center they helped build there after its boundaries were first rolled back. They discuss a proposed private resort inside Yosemite National Park, why the campaign's three demands were kept deliberately narrow, and why Cahall believes the fight for public lands isn't as partisan as it looks.Support our show with a one-time or recurring gift through Buy Me a Coffee.Full show notes and links at our website, thewildidea.com.
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About The Wild Idea
The Wild Idea is an exploration of the intersection of wild nature and our own human nature. The hosts, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds, through conversations with experts and thought leaders will dive into the ways that humans have both embraced and impact the function and vitality of our remaining wild places.
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