Season 1
Nov. 28, 2022
S1E22: Season Finale! Ironwoods: the Sonoran Desert's Tree of Life. Plus thank you
The desert ironwood, Olneya tesota , is the basis of an entire ecosystem in the Sonoran desert. And this ecosystem includes people. Alicia and Chris hike in Ironwood Country and talk to the renowned Petey Mesquitey, host of …
Nov. 7, 2022
S1E21: The Desert Tortoise Still Has a Chance
The largest reptile in the Mojave faces threats ranging from predation to illegal collection to loss of habitat. But the desert tortoise has defenders. We talk to Tim Shields of Hardshell Labs about his campaign to use 21st …
Oct. 25, 2022
S1E20: California still doesn't know what to do about the western Joshua tree
On October 12, the California Fish and Game Commission postponed a decision yet again on whether to grant the western Joshua tree protection under the California Endangered Species Act. Chris and Alicia speak to Brendan Cumm…
Oct. 11, 2022
S1E19: Shannon Salter Fights to Save the Desert
Solar in the built environment could meet America's need for electrical power. But still the desert is in the crosshairs. Public lands with intact habitat are coming under extreme threat because of the Inflation Reduction Ac…
Sept. 21, 2022
S1E18 Chris is Stressed Out + Some Good News
We're not going to be able to save the desert if we self-immolate. Alicia reads Chris the riot act about taking time to enjoy the desert without being preoccupied by saving it. He responds by heading to the Colorado River. A…
Sept. 7, 2022
S1E17: Mylar Balloons: threat or menace? plus Joshua Tree NP AMA
Alicia takes on one of her personal bugbears: the endless supply of mylar balloons landing in the desert, choking wildlife and starting fires, just because people don't care what happens to their floating trash. Also, we sub…
Aug. 21, 2022
S1E16 Flood and Drought; Death Valley and the Great Salt Lake
As the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts contend with record rainfalls, climate change and urban development are drying up the Great Salt Lake. We talk to David Smith of Joshua Tree National Park about floods in desert parks, and Z…
Aug. 7, 2022
S1E15 What Keeps You Going plus Bristlecone Pines
With bad news all around, how do we keep up our strength and resolve to protect the places that matter? Chris and Alicia start an ongoing conversation in a couple of those places. In between, 90 Miles from Needles talks to L…
July 21, 2022
S1E14 The Bean Trees! But first, please help us
There's good news: the desert offers sweet sustenance that can be had for a little bit of work. And we mean actual food, not that metaphorical well being stuff. Though that's here too. But first, Chris offers some thoughts o…
July 7, 2022
S1E13: Don't Die Today: Heat in the Desert
Chris enjoys the desert at its hottest. Alicia, on the other hand, is closer to sanity. Both of them treat desert heat with respect. We talk about how to make sure your time in the desert doesn't end in tragedy. The desert n…
June 20, 2022
S1E12: What's Happening to the Monsoon?
Climate change has been happening in the desert for some time now. While consensus isn't complete, most experts agree that more warming will make the desert hotter and drier. But at the same time, while individual monsoon th…
June 7, 2022
S1E11: Deconstructing Ed Abbey
The writer Edward Abbey is revered by many desert activists, and roundly criticized by others, all based on the provocative and occasionally offensive things he wrote. Chris and Alicia talk about the prescient and helpful th…
May 21, 2022
S1E10: Remembering Phil Klasky and Ward Valley
From the mid-1980s until the first months of the 21st Century, a coalition of desert tribes and non-Native activists worked to keep the state of California from siting a low-level nuclear waste dump in the Mojave Desert, on …
May 8, 2022
S1E9: Saving the Western Joshua tree
Joshua trees, the iconic species of the Mojave Desert, are in serious danger of becoming extinct across most of their range... and yet the state of California is recommending against granting the trees permanent protection. …
April 22, 2022
S1E8: The IPCC Lets the Deserts Down
Plus, why rock stacking is a bad habit, and how you can keep the state of California from stripping protections from the western Joshua tree. Listen to the episode either before or after you click here: https://act.biologica…
April 1, 2022
S1E7: This Desert Fish was Declared Extinct. Now It Thrives.
Considered extinct by the late 1950s, the Shoshone pupfish was rediscovered 36 years ago by a woman who changed her entire town to preserve the species. We talk to Shoshone resident Susan Sorrells about her life and the fish…
March 16, 2022
S1E6: Co(yot)existence — how to live with coyotes
They're more complicated than the howling silhouette on your bespoke candle holder from Santa Fe, and more interesting. Chris and Alicia discuss living with coyotes in the desert, what they offer, what they don't offer, and …
March 2, 2022
S1E5: Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Spring is coming, and that means that hundreds of thousands of people start thinking about visiting the desert to see the "superbloom." But even in the rare years when it happens, there's a right way and a wrong way to take…
Feb. 16, 2022
S1E4: The End of the Cadillac Desert: Megadrought in the Southwest
As we publish, scientists are announcing that the last dozen years are the driest in more than a millennium. With the desert's cities ever more dependent on water from the Colorado River, how will southwestern society meet t…
Feb. 1, 2022
S1E3: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Cima Dome
Cima Dome was supposed to be a place where Joshua trees were most likely to survive climate change. A climate-accentuated wildfire hit there anyway. In this episode, Chris relates how much the Cima Dome Joshua tree forest me…
Jan. 17, 2022
Saving the Dixie Valley Toad
Discovered only in 2017, the Dixie Valley toad is found only in one 400-acre hot spring wetland in remote Nevada. Guess where a giant geothermal corporation is ready to build a wetland-draining power plant? We talk to Patric…
Jan. 1, 2022
Welcome to 90 Miles from Needles! Our inaugural episode
In this first episode, Chris and Alicia head out to Sand Draw, a beautiful and vibrant bit of desert dry wash woodland in the Mojave Desert that almost became an industrial sacrifice zone for the energy industry. It's a good…
June 29, 2021
Season 0 Episode 1: Trailer for 90 Miles from Needles
A brief description of what we'll be doing with the podcast, partly to answer questions and partly to get practice with our equipment. All flaws and glitches included for transparency's sake. Transcript (Chris C. speaking): …