Today we’re sharing a podcast from our friends at KALW Public Media called How Wild. In the podcast, journalist and longtime backpacker Marissa Ortega-Welch explores where the original ideas for wilderness came from and how today’s changes are testing the definition of wilderness.

In the first episode, Marissa ventures off trail in California’s Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park to see a grove of ancient giant sequoia trees that burned down in a severe fire, and learn why park biologists and environmentalists are grappling with how much to try and restore these trees.

Both How Wild and Beyond the Shore are proud to be part of the American Storytelling Collection. To find even more great titles to explore the outdoors this summer with the NPR Network, just search for the 'American Storytelling Collection' in the NPR App or on Apple Podcasts.

Out in the open, beyond the noise of everyday life, the land has a way of revealing us. ‘American Storytelling’ is a collection of podcasts from across the NPR Network, and this summer, we’re presenting a selection of shows that celebrate the great American outdoors, and the deeper stories it tells about who we are.

The American eel is an unlucky and undeniably slippery hero. Sometimes thought of as slimy or scary, it’s an underdog in the conservation world. An animal existing in frighteningly low abundance compared to its early 20th century glory. An animal that has the power to instantly capture the imagination with its mysterious and obscured life cycle.

In this episode, we take a road trip through Canada, following part of the very long and arduous American eel migration from Lake Ontario, talking with people along the way and witnessing their obstacles up close.

Support for the production of this podcast was made possible by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, as part of its Great Lakes News Collaborative.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

More at michiganpublic.org/bts