We’ve been busy in the desert 🌵🔥 — and you’ve got a lot to catch up on

Hey desert friends,

It’s been a minute since our last newsletter — but that’s only because we’ve been very busy bringing you stories from the desert that matter. Think of this as a care package from us to you: full of windblown news, desert poetry, and a bit of grit in your teeth.

First, early August brought us a big one:
🎙 Desert Communities Need Public Broadcasting — Now
Cuts to public media hit rural and tribal communities hardest. We talked about what’s at stake and why the desert’s stories must be heard.

Then… we hit 100 episodes! 🎉
A week ago, we recorded our milestone episode live on Zoom with a great audience. Instead of one mega-file, we’ve split the evening into six “chapters” so you can savor them like a good trail snack:

• Ruth Nolan’s Literary Mission — A former wildland firefighter turned desert writer on telling the land’s stories.

• Two Deserts, One Story with Rubén Martínez — Connections between the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

• Three Sonorans & Tucson’s Stand Against High-Tech Ecological Threats — What was at risk with the Project Blue data center? Just a whole lot of water, power, and money. That’s why it’s so cool that Tucson killed the project.

• Poetry and Plants with Cameron Mayer — Verse rooted in the desert soil.

• Morgan Sjogren’s Tales of Beauty, Rage, and Uranium — Stories from the canyonlands.

• The Amargosa Victory — A win for the desert worth celebrating.

And just today:
🔥 Five Years After the Dome Fire — We revisit the Cima Dome burn scar to see what’s grown back, what hasn’t, and what the fire still teaches us.

Thanks for sticking with us — whether you’ve been here since episode one or just found us on your last road trip. Every listen, share, and kind word helps keep this work going.

See you on the trail,
— Chris Clarke
Host, 90 Miles from Needles: The Desert Protection Podcast

P.S. If you love what we do, consider helping us keep the mics on and the desert stories flowing: Support the podcast by hitting up https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate!