Stay ConnectedThreshold is a Peabody Award-winning documentary podcast about our place in the natural world. Each season, we take listeners on a journey into the heart of a complex environmental story, asking how we got here and where we might be headed.
Threshold is nonprofit, listener-supported, and independently produced.
Copyright: © 2018
The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest body of frozen water in the world, with the potential to raise sea levels by 23 feet if it melts.
In this Threshold extra, we’re talking with leading climate scientists and glaciologists about the cryosphere—all the things that are frozen in the Earth’s system: permafrost, sea ice, land ice, and snow. We take a close look at how two of its key elements have fared in 2020: the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic sea ice. Each of these components of the cryosphere has large and immediate impacts on our climate. And their fate will affect everything from health care to migration, national security, and what life might look like in a rapidly changing world.
If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
In such a challenging time, it seems important to make some space for gratitude. Here’s what the Threshold team is thinking about.
If you enjoy this podcast, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.
“Breathing is civil rights and breathing is environmental justice.”
Dr. Robert Bullard, Distinguished Professor at Texas Southern University and a transformational figure in the environmental justice movement, says that the environment isn’t just out in the woods and wilderness; it’s everywhere. “It's where we live, work, play, worship, learn, as well as the physical and natural world,” he says.
Robert has devoted much of his life to documenting how environmental racism puts Black people and other people of color at higher risk from polluted air and water, natural disasters, and other natural threats. In this episode of Threshold Conversations, Amy and Robert talk about the origins of his pioneering research, the battle to get environmental justice on the agendas of large, White-dominated environmental groups, and what gives him hope.
If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
The word crisis comes from the Greek krisis, meaning the turning point in a disease. Today on Threshold Conversations, we sit down with author, activist, and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben to talk about the dual crises of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
If you enjoy this episode, please support our independent nonprofit journalism at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
All donations through the end of the year will be doubled by NewsMatch.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
Award-winning photographer Ami Vitale has seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. She’s documented war and conflict, nature, wildlife, and conservation in places from Kashmir to Kenya.
On this episode of Threshold Conversations, we hear the incredible stories behind some of Ami’s most iconic images — including her photo of a northern white rhino that was on the cover of National Geographic; what she sees as the importance of storytelling; and why she’s hopeful for our future.
If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to support us at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
Every contribution, small or large, helps power our independent nonprofit journalism.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
Become a Member Today!
In-depth reporting on climate change, environmental justice, public lands, and so much more. This is what Threshold is about — bringing you important and thoughtful stories about human relationships with the natural world. And we need your help to continue doing this work.
Our annual membership drive starts on November 1st. For the cost of a cup of coffee, a larger year-end gift, or anything in between, you can be a part of the Threshold story. Join us at thresholdpodcast.org/donate
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
How does your zip code affect your life expectancy?
The impacts of climate change, toxic water, and dirty air aren’t evenly distributed. Low income and communities of color bear the brunt of these impacts.
Today, we dive into conversation with Peggy Shepard, a pioneer of the environmental justice movement who has worked for more than three decades to shine a light on the ways damage to the natural world intersects with issues of race and class.
She co-founded WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a community organization based in New York City with the mission of ensuring that the right to clean air, water, and soil extends to all people, no matter where they live, what color their skin is, or how much money is in their bank accounts. Many of the environmental protections she helped to fight for in her community have been scaled up to the national level, benefitting people around the country and even the world.
Threshold Conversations is an ongoing series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders on some of the most urgent environmental and social issues today.
Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio, and listeners like you.
Learn more about Threshold on our website.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
Join our host Amy Martin and National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale this Thursday, September 10 for a live recording of Threshold Conversations!
Ami Vitale is an internationally-renowned photographer whose work invites us into extraordinary, intimate interactions between humans and wild creatures, and shines a light on the complicated relationships we have with our fellow beings. She’s received some of the biggest honors in the photography world, including a National Geographic photo of the decade and five (!) World Press Photo of the Year awards.
You're invited to be part of the discussion and take a peek behind the scenes to see how the sausage—er, podcast—gets made.
You can find details and tickets on our website: https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-conversations-live-with-ami-vitale
All proceeds from this event support Threshold’s independent, non-profit journalism.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
Last week, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge made headlines all over the world: the Trump administration finalized plans to open up this piece of remote, Alaskan wilderness to oil and gas development.
But what does this latest move in the decades-long battle over the future of ANWR really mean?
To find out, and to understand what might be next in this saga, we sat down with Heather Richards, who covers drilling on federal lands for E&E News, a journalism outlet focused on energy and the environment.
Listen to our Peabody Award-winning series The Refuge for an in-depth look into the tangle of politics, economic aspirations, traditional culture, and environmental activism that have shaped this controversy for decades.
Learn more about Threshold on our website. Our reporting is made possible by listeners like you. Become part of our passionate network of supporters here.
This series was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
If a whale sings in the ocean, and Michelle Fournet is there to record it, how does it sound?
Find out in this episode of Threshold Conversations.
Michelle Fournet is an acoustic ecologist with the Cornell Bioacoustics Research Program. She studies how marine animals—including humpback whales and other creatures—use sound to communicate, detect predators and prey, and engage with their environments in an increasingly noisy world. From Glacier Bay National Park in Southeast Alaska to Florida’s Everglades, she’s recorded hours and hours of sound from the underwater world.
Threshold Conversations is an ongoing series featuring interviews with environmental thought leaders on some of the most urgent environmental and social issues today.
Threshold Conversations is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists, as well as the Park Foundation, the High Stakes Foundation, and our home public radio station, Montana Public Radio, and listeners like you.
Learn more about Threshold on our website.
Mentioned in this episode:
Announcing...Threshold Live!
Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
