To close out Season 1 of Ecocide, creators Tim Dobyns and Aaron Provencio introduce themselves, thank listeners for being part of the first season, share their favorite episodes, and preview what’s coming in Season 2.

The story of how an ancient aquifer turned the land that blew away in the Dust Bowl into some of the most productive farmland in the country, and why today it's being drained faster than it can ever refill

When the rains returned and the Dust Bowl ended, the land on the southern plains recovered. In the decades that followed, it once again became some of the most productive farmland in the country thanks to the Ogallala Aquifer, an ancient reservoir beneath eight states that took millions of years to fill and, in most places, refills at less than an inch a year. New pump technology turned wells that once watered a household into enough to irrigate hundreds of acres. So who owns water that won't come back, and who gets to pump it? This is the story of how pumping a finite resource became a race, and why the officials in charge of it chose to manage its decline rather than stop it.

In the 1930s, drought and decades of overplowing created the Dust Bowl on the southern Great Plains. Tens of millions of acres of native grassland had been plowed under for wheat, stripping away the roots that held the soil in place. When the rains stopped, the wind lifted the exposed soil into enormous dust storms that buried farms, sickened families, and turned afternoon into midnight. "The Dust" explores how railroad sales pitches, false promises of rain, and a wartime wheat boom helped create one of the worst environmental disasters in American history. Through firsthand accounts, including John Garetson and Louise Snyder's escape from the darkness of Black Sunday, the episode brings listeners into daily life amid the black blizzards. It also tells the story of a soil scientist's campaign to change how America farmed, and the hostility awaiting the families who left in search of work, branded "Okies" no matter which state they came from.

This is Part 1 of a two-part story. Part 2, "The Well," returns to the Garetson family's land in present-day Kansas, where the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer threatens another generation's future.