3 New Episodes and Other News
Getting serious in Q2 23
Hey all! It's been a minute since we've been in touch, and we wanted to let you know about a couple new initiatives we're embarking on here at 90 Miles from Needles.
But first, here are the episodes we’ve put up since the last time we sent one of these out:
S2E4: Protecting Wonder Valley
Alicia talks to a well-organized group of desert denizens who are working together to stop an inappropriate development from destroying their way of life, and the desert environment they cherish. And a baby desert tortoise appears at exactly right right moment.
For more information, see stopwonderinn.org. A few days after this episode aired, San Bernardino County’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny the project. Woohoo!
Extra thanks to Lucas Basulto of NPCA and Saving Slowpoke for his contributions, and to the wonderful Lisa M. for reading samples from the writing of Ruth Bagley.
S2E5: The Problems with Desert Solar
The US Interior Department is rethinking the ways it has managed big corporate solar on public lands, and we have opinions. Chris pontificates based on his many years of covering public lands renewable energy as a recovering journalist, and Alicia interrupts his solarsplaining once in a while to inject some non-jargon-ridden analysis.
We love solar! We want it in our backyards! And we want to protect desert habitat from industrial development. We can do both.
If you'd like to hear more of Charlie King's work, check out his website at charlieking.org. The album Chris mentions in the closing notes can be purchased here, with all proceeds going to the artist.
S2E6: Border Chronicle: Biden Still Building Trump's Border Wall
We here at 90 Miles from Needles are big fans of The Border Chronicle podcast and email newsletter, and in this episode, we're republishing an episode from that podcast first aired in November in which Melissa Del Bosque talks to Texas border activist Scott Nicol about how the Biden Administration is continuing to build Trump's border wall, though it's called something else. From The Border Chronicle's description:
Scott Nicol is an artist, educator and environmentalist in South Texas who has advocated against border wall construction for years and is an expert on the subject. In this Border Chronicle podcast, Nicol talks about the current construction of wall in his community, which is being labeled as “levee repairs.” And he touches on other wall construction happening in other states despite President Biden’s promise during his campaign “that not another foot of wall” would be constructed during his administration.
You can hear more of The Border Chronicle by checking out their website at TheBorderChronicle.com. Their email newsletter is extremely good.
Fundraising changes
We're immensely grateful to those of you who've contributed to the podcast via Patreon: we quite literally could not have launched or maintained this podcast without your support. At the same time, Patreon has taken a rather large percentage of your money for itself. In March 2023, for instance, we received 74¢ of every dollar you donated.
Patreon does provide some important services for that, swag like our patron T-shirts being one such. But the sizeable slice of your money Patreon is taking has prompted us to look for alternatives.
We've found an alternative we like in GiveButter, which relies on donor tips to stay afloat. That means we get 100% of your donation if you donate through GiveButter. What's not to like? What's more, Givebutter allows us to offer a way for people to make one-time donations as well as the recurring kind.
Structural Changes
We are working to incorporate as a non-profit. We both want to build this podcast to the point where it can be our primary focus.1 This would be possible with crowdfunding, but we'd have to build our supporter base by a factor of about 25. If we can get even small grants of a few thousand at a time, we can get where we want to be all the faster.
Building a non-profit is a serious commitment of time and resources, so it's not a decision we've arrived at lightly. But we see it as the most sensible way forward. Plus, it'll be nice to offer you wonderful folks a tax deduction.
This project will likely take a few months to set up, and we will be putting together a diverse board of 90 Miles from Needles supporters to share the load and keep us real.
New Daughter Podcast
We are putting together a special project focusing on the Amargosa Basin. This project will taker the form of a 4-6 episode standalone podcast series with a target release date of mid-Autumn 2023. The Amargosa River Basin has it all: beauty, endangered species, Tribal peoples and their efforts to defend their cultures, venal developers, National Parks, mining towns, renewable energy sprawl, pronghorns, and a Wild and Scenic River. It's the desert in microcosm, and we can't wait to dive in to its shallow, bitter water. More news soon!
In the meantime, we've got two solid episodes lined up — one on spring desert blooms and another on Native stewardship of desert lands — and a third to record this coming weekend, out at Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.
Stay well, and thank you again for making this whole thing possible!
— Alicia and Chris
meaning we want this podcast to be our day jobs.