90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast

Join Chris Clarke as he explores the challenges and opportunities of the American Southwest's fragile ecosystems. Engaging interviews with experts, activists, and advocates on conservation, land management, and environmental justice. Science and sentiment, politics and philosophy, hiking and history, culture and creativity all go into defending the desert. Be forewarned: We are out to recruit you to the cause.

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Stories from the fight to protect North America’s deserts

90 Miles from Needles: the Desert Protection Podcast

90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast tells stories from North America’s deserts, and from the people fighting for their future. Through original reporting and conversations with scientists, advocates, Indigenous voices, and desert residents, we explore the wildlife, water, public lands, cultures, and conflicts shaping the continent’s arid lands.

Reviews

An urgent and lyrical love song to the desert

"There's nothing like 90 Miles From Needles out there. I've been listening from the beginning, and really enjoy how freely Chris and his guests explores connections between ecology, culture, history, …"

Meera | June 15, 2026

Beautiful and important

"I’m grateful for this podcasts’ breadth of subjects and quality of reporting. The episode I just listened to about borders and those searching for a better life brought me to tears. Thank you for sha…"

Vegan bmx | July 9, 2025

The desert is beautiful and heartbreaking -

"I think I’ve been listening since the beginning, this podcast captures both the beautiful necessity of the desert and the heartbreaking threats that never cease. Consistently excellent and uniquely v…"

Eriogonum | Dec. 17, 2024

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Recent

Sept. 11, 2026

S5E29: Why Was the North Kaibab Trail Still Open?

After the Dragon Bravo Fire, Grand Canyon trail staff warned that the North Kaibab Trail faced years of heightened danger from debris flows, flash floods and rockfall. Yet the entire trail reopened in May 2026. Journalist Joe Dana of Phoenix's 12 News joins 90 Miles from Needles to discuss his reporting on internal National Park Service recommendations, pressure to restore public access, and the decisions made before the deadly August 29 Grand Canyon flood.

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Sept. 4, 2026

S5E28: 4 Things You Need to Know about Desert Flooding

This week: four things to understand about desert flash floods, why blaming victims makes us less safe, and what both travelers and institutions can do to reduce the danger.

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Aug. 28, 2026

S5E27: Sonoran Toads and the Dirty Business of Ego Death

Journalist Kimon de Greef follows the dirty business behind psychedelic “toad medicine”: wildlife exploitation, manufactured Indigenous tradition and a global market selling ego death as transcendence.

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Aug. 14, 2026

S5E26: Maps, Vanished Lakes, and Two Desert Squirrels

The boundary between two ground-squirrel species preserves the memory of a wetter Mojave,and a barrier that disappeared thousands of years ago.

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Aug. 7, 2026

S5E25: The Vaquita Can Still Recover

Only a handful of vaquitas have recently been observed, but the species doesn't have to be doomed. Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho explains why these desert porpoises remain capable of recovery, and what must change to keep them alive.

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About the Host

Chris Clarke

Chris Clarke is an environmental journalist, writer, and longtime desert activist based in Twentynine Palms, California. He is executive director of the nonprofit Desert Advocacy Media Network and host and producer of 90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast. A former editor in chief of Earth Island Journal and environment editor at KCET, he has spent decades reporting on wildlife, public lands, environmental justice, and the people working to protect North America’s deserts.