Listen to the first season of the podcast, featuring my bicycle ride, here.
First, I want to thank y’all for following along on my nearly 800-mile bicycle ride from Missoula, Montana to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I’m back, warm at home, looking at the half-inch of snow that fell last night and dreading the winter storm that is supposed to hit my hometown this weekend.
But I’ve been busy. Distilling dozens of interviews into a four-part podcast. It’s a lot of long nights. Bleary mornings. Sitting at a desk staring at a screen. It makes me want to get back out on the road. That’s my favorite part of reporting – talking with people. Writing is the hard part. I’ve been pulling at my hair trying to figure out how to build this podcast. My editor has been a lot of help, though. She suggested themes. Imagining each episode as an audio essay. So that’s what we did.
Our first episode is all about the political divide. I tried to get at something that was nagging at me the entire journey – why were some rural Westerners so afraid of what was happening in cities hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away? What fueled this fear? There weren’t any easy answers. But the first season is all about grappling with that question.
You can give it a listen here.
Also, that really badass artwork? That’s Luke Anderson, a Wyoming native who recently moved to Salt Lake City with his wife, Caroline Ballard (she’s the stalwart voice of All Things Considered on KUER).