More Than: A Podcast

In this final episode, Michelle and Emily welcome 5 guests to give short lightening thoughts that help illuminate their very human hopes for the future of the Mountain West - all inspired by the morethanhuman in their midst. The hosts hope you will share their dreams and work to make them a reality. 

In this episode, Emily and Michelle think about movements that matter in the Mountain West. Road kill, monarchs and stars all figure in this episode about travelers. They welcome Will Wright, historian at Augustana University. He is an environmental historian who writes about the history of the monarch butterfly. His advisor in graduate school was Mark Fiege, a historian we quote in the episode!

In this episode, Emily and Michelle take the listeners on a wild exploration of the urban morethanhuman and ask that we become aware of the importance of cities to the "nature" of the Mountain West.

In this episode, Emily and Michelle go it alone because they had too much to say! Birds remind us of the morethanhuman on a daily basis and they have inspired many of the most important developments for conservation science in the United States beginning in the 19th century.

In this episode, Emily and Michelle invite listeners to engage with the oft maligned Coyote. Trickster in Native traditions, danger in rancher lore, nuisance in urban imaginations, the Coyote shows how the morethanhuman is differently understood but always experienced as present and even ubiquitous. The hosts then welcome the foremost authority on the history of Coyote, Dan Flores.

Episode 6 Synopsis- In this episode, Emily tells a terrific story about parachuting beavers and asks us to think about all the ways these animals have helped to build (literally and figuratively) the Mountain West. She and Michelle are then joined by animal rights lawyer Asha Ramakumar and New York Times bestselling author of Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Leila Philip. This episode is a little longer because we were having just too much fun conversing with Asha and Leila. And we have fewer sources to list below because most of the episode is comprised of the interesting ideas of our guests.

Episode 5 Synopsis- In this episode, Michelle and Emily chew the cud about the furry ungulates who have captivated imaginations, inspired national conservation movements, and stimulated endless debate. In this episode, it is just the two co-hosts who have much to say about the ways in which cows, elk, and buffalo make us rethink binaries and boundaries as they lope through the history of the Mountain West.

In this episode, Michelle and Emily ask listeners to consider the presence and importance of plants in the region. Wandering among cottonwoods, willows, cholla, ponderosa forests, and even the grocery store, the hosts offer stories of the ways in which plants are present in our daily lives and have long altered the actions of human beings historically. They welcome Boise State University historian John Bieterand University of Arizona history major Gabby Vanover both of whom explain how trees provide vital information about the past that we can use to think about the future. Even if you don't have a green thumb (like Emily), you will appreciate all the power plants exert now and in the past.

In this episode, Michelle and Emily jump into an investigation of the history-making power of insects. The hosts welcome guest Molly Hunter, an entomologist at the University of Arizona. Hunter explains how insects are all around us "living their best lives." The goal of the episode is for listeners to hear some examples of insects propelling humans to act in particular ways over time.

In this episode, Michelle and Emily dive into a discussion of water and its mutli-faceted meanings for people and the morethanhumans who make the Mountain West home. In a region largely defined by aridity, water is (literally) life. The hosts welcome guest Heather Whiteman Runs Him, member of the Crow nation, associate clinical professor of law at the University of Arizona and the Director of UArizona's Tribal Justice Clinic. Episode 2 takes us on a journey down rivers and into aquifers in order to begin to think about how the false dualisms of nature/culture and nature/technology can best be understood through studies of water. The hosts also ask that listeners consider water as a particularly profound example of the power of the morethanhuman to affect historic developments. The goal of the episode is for listeners to learn that every drop of water from their tap is More Than it appears to be.

In this episode, Michelle and Emily introduce the podcast and welcome guest Marie-Anne de Graaff, a soil scientist at Boise State University. Episode 1 takes us on a journey into the muck to learn that soil has laid the foundation for history. From the fascinating cryptobiotic crust on the Colorado Plateau to the role soil has long played in Indigenous agriculture to the efforts of the US government to conserve soil especially after moments of disaster like the Dust Bowl, this episode (literally) grounds the podcast and provides introductions to the ideas that root More Than.