Soundscapes

About Soundscapes

Fascinating conversations with authors, artists, scientists, and others who share Terrain.org's passion for place and focus on climate, community, and justice. We delve deeply into guests' work and imagination, exploring internal and external landscapes to reach the soul of place. For nearly 30 years, Terrain.org has published essential literature, art, commentary, and design on the built and natural environments—all at no cost to readers and without advertising.

Publisher

Terrain.org

Category

arts · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Mar 2019

Latest episode

19 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   19 Oct 2026

   The Ghost of the Mountains

   In this episode, Terrain.org podcast editor Tamara Dean talks with author Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi about his book, The Ghost of the Mountains: Unraveling the Secrets of the Snow Leopard, which was published in August 2026 by Riverhead Books. Kullu Suryawanshi is an ecologist and conservationist who has spent almost two decades studying snow leopards in the wild. He is a fellow of the British Ecological Society, the director of the India program of the Snow Leopard Trust, and a scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation. He is a CIFAR fellow and National Geographic Explorer and was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He lives in Bangalore, India, with his wife and daughter. The Ghost of the Mountains presents the amazing story of Suryawanshi's decades with snow leopards in their mountain habitats. The book weaves science and adventure with reflections on the role of this big cat in the human imagination through time and place. Music: "Natural Murmur" by Heron Splinter.

2. 

   3 Aug 2026

   Nonfiction Editors' Roundtable

   In this episode of the Terrain.org Podcast, our nonfiction editors Elizabeth Dodd, Achilles Seastrom, Jennie Case, and Eric Aldrich discuss how they became editors, the submissions they long to discover, and which types of essays are and aren’t a good fit for the journal. They also describe how editing has affected their own writing and reveal where else they look for impressive new environmental literature. Elizabeth Dodd was born in Boulder, Colorado, and grew up in Athens, Ohio. For over two decades she has lived in eastern Kansas in the Flint Hills region, where she is an award-winning professor of creative writing and literature at Kansas State University. She has team-taught courses with scientists, philosophers, and historians and she has led students on field trips in conjunction with their readings in environmental literature. Elizabeth is a poet and nonfiction writer. Her newest book, Horizon’s Lens: My Time on the Turning World, was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2012. Achilles Fergus Seastrom (he/him) is a trans writer, editor, and artist from the Midwest. He’s a 2023-2024 Hogrefe Fellow at Iowa State University, where he’s currently pursuing his MFA. He also works as a freelance journalist and reads fiction for the science fiction magazine James Gunn’s Ad Astra. Jennie Case's writing explores issues related to place, environment, home, family, and motherhood. Her work has appeared in journals such as Orion, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, and Michigan Quarterly Review. She is the recipient of a Bread Loaf Bakeless Scholarship and Stone Canoe‘s 2014 Allen and Nirelle Galson Prize in Fiction. She is the author of three books: the essay collection We Are Animals: On the Nature and Politics of Motherhood; a memoir, Sawbill: A Search for Place; and the hybrid work, The Carework Project: Reckoning with Love, Labor, and the Living World. She is also editing a collection on trauma-informed pedagogy. Eric Aldrich is a writer from Tucson, Arizona. You can find his work in DIAGRAM, BorderLore, and Deep Wild, among others. He teaches English at Pima Community College and serves on the board of directors for Sky Island Alliance, an environmental conservation organization. His YouTube channel, Lo Fi Outdoors, features trail camera footage of desert animals.

3. 

   15 Jun 2026

   Salt Lakes: Extraordinary Ecology and Collapse

   In this episode, authors Kerri Schlottman and Caroline Tracey talk about salt lakes, ecological collapse, empathy, environmental justice, and storytelling. Caroline Tracey’s debut, Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History, published by W.W. Norton in March 2026, has received extraordinary praise, including a review in The New York Times Book Review noting its “visceral clarity and geologic intimacy.” Her environmental writing for The New Yorker, Guernica, and High Country News makes her a leading literary voice grappling with the transformations of the American Southwest. Kerri Schlottman’s novel, Daytime Moon, published by Unnamed Press in May 2026, weaves themes of hydrofeminism, empathy, and collapse into a story about how bodies and communities absorb environmental and emotional depletion, and is set at the Salton Sea, a picturesque site of ecological collapse.

4. 

   4 May 2026

   Undammed: Setting Rivers Free

   In this episode, Tamara Dean talks with Tara Lohan, longtime environmental journalist and author of Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life, published by Island Press in 2025. Undammed describes how we've attempted to control the path and flow of nearly every major river in the U.S. It reveals the consequences for the integrity of animal and plant life as well as soil, water, and air quality. Tamara and Tara discuss dam removal projects across the country and how people and ecosystems are transformed by returning rivers to their free-flowing state. Music: "Liftoff" by Nature Connection. Image: Elwha River, Washington after the removal of two dams, courtesy of Tara Lohan

5. 

   16 Mar 2026

   No One Will Know You Tomorrow

   In this episode, Kareem James Abu-Zeid, translator of the poems of Najwan Darwish in the new book from Yale University Press, No One Will Know You Tomorrow, talks with Terrain.org reviews editor Renata Golden. Najwan Darwish has been described as one of the foremost Arabic language poets. In spare lyric verse, he testifies to the brutal and intimate traumas of war, the anguished fatigue of waking up each morning in an occupied land, and the immeasurable toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Born in Jerusalem in 1978, Darwish has published nine poetry books in Arabic. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages. Kareem James Abu-Zeid is a translator, poet, and teacher with a Ph.D. in comparative literature from University of California, Berkeley. No One Will Know You Tomorrow, which collects Najwan Darwish’s published and unpublished poems from 2014 to 2024, has been a finalist for numerous prizes, including the 2025 Walcott Prize for Poetry and the 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. Music: "Liftoff," by Nature Connection. Photo by Nayef Hammouri, courtesy Shutterstock.

6. 

   26 Jan 2026

   In the Circle of Ancient Trees

   In this episode, host Tamara Dean talks with Valerie Trouet, Gretel Boswijk, and Malcolm Hughes, dendrochronologists whose stories appear in a new book, In the Circle of Ancient Trees. They describe what we can learn from earth's ancient beings; share secrets that tree rings reveal about climate, culture, and history; and indicate how such information could help us plan for future climate resilience. Music: "Liftoff," by Nature Connection. Illustration by Blaze Cyan excerpted from In the Circle of Ancient Trees by Valerie Trouet. Used with permission from Greystone Books.

7. 

   10 Nov 2025

   The Gift of Animals

   Tamara Dean hosts the relaunch of the Terrain.org Podcast with an episode titled "The Gift of Animals," after the new poetry anthology edited by Alison Hawthorne Deming and published by Storey Publishing: The Gift of Animals: Poems of Love, Loss, and Connection. In this episode, Tamara speaks with The Gift of Animals editor and contributors Nickole Brown, Jose Hernandez Diaz, and Camille T. Dungy, asking why the anthology is necessary now, what it means to the contributors to be a part of this anthology both for the poets and for the poems, how grief and love play into our responsibilities to the animal world, and why both animals and poetry are a gift to those connected to the animal world. Music: "Liftoff," by Nature Connection. Illustration by Daniela Gallego excerpted from The Gift of Animals, © by Alison Hawthorne Deming. Used with permission from Storey Publishing.

8. 

   27 Jul 2025

   Soil, Story, and Shelter

   In this rich and reflective conversation, Renata Golden speaks with essayist Tamara Dean about her book Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless and her decades of life in Wisconsin’s Driftless region—a landscape uniquely spared by glaciers, leaving behind steep bluffs, spring-fed streams, and hidden histories. Dean explores how engaging with the land can be both a political act and a personal reckoning, weaving together environmental care, citizen science, and the ghosts of those long erased from rural memory. From foraging groundnuts to unearthing the links between reproductive rights and white supremacy, she reveals how landscape and story are inseparable. Their dialogue is a meditation on awe, resilience, and the quiet revolutions that begin at home.

9. 

   26 Dec 2023

   The Noticing Muscle

   In Episode 9 of Soundscapes, we listen in on a conversation between poet and essayist Ross Gay and Terrain.org poetry editor Derek Sheffield. As Ross Gay’s biography points out: “Ross Gay is interested in joy. Ross Gay wants to understand joy. Ross Gay is curious about joy.” Ross gay, it turns out, is curious and interested in just about everything, but humble about his ability to understand it. In fact, he’s in love with not knowing, which allows for change and, yes, “flabbergastment.” Along with living the questions and inciting joy, though, Ross Gay centers what he calls, “the noticing muscle.” This muscle, when strengthened, “inclines us to care for each other in systems of distrust and brutalization.” Listen to Ross Gay and Derek Sheffield take a deep dive into the workings of poetry (“the longer I study it, the more I realize I don’t know how I’m doing this”), what it’s like to witness a bee orgy (“I don’t know shit”), and why you should consider turning toward your death (“to not consider our dying and our living the same thing is in impediment to joy”). Additional poetry in this episode: “At First Scent of Daylight” by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg “On NPR This Afternoon” by Jillian Hanson “Duplex II” by Camille Newsom About Ross Gay The most recent book by Ross Gay is The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin Books, 2023), the collection that occasioned this interview. His first Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. He is also the author of another book of essays, Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, 2022), and four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Read the full interview with Derek Sheffield.

10. 

    31 Jul 2023

    Staying Power

    What is staying power, and how can we cultivate it? This episode Terrain.org-published poetry as well as a short story set to music that explore the staying power of words and experiences. In conversation with Alan Sincic, we learn about the relationship of silence to word music and how subverting expectations can be a source of wonder that lasts for decades. Poetry and fiction included in this episode are: “A Remnant” by Pattiann Rogers “Eva” by Alan Sincic “Mend” by Alanc Sincic “Phenology” by Jory Mickelson

11. 

    20 Feb 2023

    Wildness: Life, or Death?

    Apparently there’s nothing like trying to paddle a gravely ill child out of a swampy wilderness to remind us that death, in fact, is the ultimate wildness. But what does that mean for our lives? This episode of Soundscapes gives voice to Terrain.org contributors Janisse Ray, Robert Morgan, and Kim Parko as we explore the ability of the written word to engage with big questions. Listen to Robert Morgan read his poem "Portal," listen to Janisse Ray read her essay "I Have Seen the Warrior," enjoy a conversation between Miranda Perrone and Janisse Ray, and listen to Kim Park read her poem "Our woman." We hope you enjoy our offerings. Essays and poems referenced in this episode: "Portal", poem by Robert Morgan "I Have Seen the Warrior", by Janisse Ray "Our Woman" poem by Kim Parko

12. 

    26 Jan 2022

    More Than Alone

    Have you ever held a heart in your hand, or wondered how that might feel? Erin Block’s rendition of just what that’s like starts off this episode of Soundscapes, in which Terrain.org artists explore what it means to be more than alone. Each individual, embedded in complex systems both ecological and social, experiences this differently; poems from Ever Jones and Michael Wasson create a kaleidoscope of perspectives in the search for what matters and round out this episode’s offerings. We hope you enjoy it. Essays and poems referenced in this episode: “Solo” by Erin Block Poems by Ever Jones Poem by Michael Wasson

13. 

    20 Jun 2021

    Love Across Time

    In the fifth episode of Soundscapes, we present Love Across Time. In this episode, a lively collection of Terrain.org artists consider love: love for each other, love for places, and love for the hard work of creating the world as it could be. After Sandra Steingraber and Taylor Brorby delve into these questions in a conversation held atop Rachel Caron’s beloved Hawk Mountain, Pepper Trail and Katharine Whitcomb share their poetry with us. We hope you enjoy this episode of Soundscapes.

14. 

    13 Dec 2020

    The Elasticity of Democracy

    In this episode of Soundscapes, we explore division and hope from perspectives both human and non. What does it mean to be a citizen? Lee Herrick, editorial board member at Terrain.org, sits down with Soundscapes to share his Letter to America exploring just that. Then, poet Jocelyn Casey Whiteman’s work takes us in an expected direction. We hope you enjoy the episode.

15. 

    5 Apr 2020

    Sustenance

    In our third episode of Soundscapes, we present Sustenance, in which Miranda Perrone interviews essayist Elizabeth Dodd, who reads her essay “Provenance,” originally published in Terrain.org. The podcast ends with a reading of Nathaniel Perry’s poem “Country Gospel,” which brings another kind of sustenance. It is read by the poet and also originally appeared in Terrain.org. Read this and two other poems by Nathaniel Perry.

16. 

    17 Jun 2019

    Conservation in Verse

    Recently, Terrain.org co-hosted Conservation in Verse: Authors, Artists, and Activists on Protecting the Landscapes We Love with Friends of the Columbia Gorge. We hope you’ll enjoy listening to poets Kim Stafford and Jane Hirshfield, as well as hearing a panel discussion including artist Ka’ila Farrell-Smith and Friends of Columbia Gorge executive director Kevin Gorman. Additionally, listen to eight more poems read by Jane Hirshfield at the Conservation in Verse event: “French Horn,” “Page,” “Global Warming,” “Today Another Universe,” “A Cedary Fragrance,” “Cataclysm,” “Let Them Not Say,” and “Tree”: Listen to Jane Hirshfield introduce and read these poems, or download the poems in .mp3 format. Additional information about topics discussed in this podcast can be found at: Jane Hirshfield’s poetry in Terrain.org Kim Stafford’s poetry in Terrain.org Ka’ila Farrell-Smith Links she mentions in the podcast: Rogue Climate Signal Fire Arts

17. 

    25 Mar 2019

    The Consciousness of the Streets

    Welcome to the inaugural episode of Soundscapes, where host Miranda Perrone talks to Kathleen Dean Moore about her involvement in the Permanent People’s Tribunal for Human Rights trial of fracking. While delving into the global impacts of fracking and climate change, Kathleen’s unique eloquence and clarity suggest that our problems do have solutions. We hope you appreciate her perspective as much as we do. Read Kathleen Dean Moore’s many important contributions to Terrain.org. And be sure to check out Miranda Perrone’s 2018 interview with Kathleen Dean Moore. More information about Kathleen and her entire body of work can be found at www.riverwalking.com. Additional information about topics discussed in this podcast can be found at: The Permanent People’s Tribunal on Human Rights, Fracking, and Climate Change (May 14-18, 2018 Session) Climate Action Music and Spoken Word Bedrock Lectures on Human Rights and Climate Change, Spring Creek Project, Oregon State University

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

32

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

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