Burn Wild

BBC Radio 5 Live
  • 4.3 (158)
  • PERSONAL JOURNALS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
Burn Wild

For more than a decade two mugshots of fugitive environmentalists have sat amongst airplane hijackers, bombers and murders on the FBI’s Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists list. One of the photos is of a tall, hipster looking engineer from Seattle. He’s wearing a red shirt, has a light shadowy beard. His name: Joseph Mahmoud Dibee. The other photo is of a young white woman with thick eyebrows, piercing brown eyes and long brown hair. Across her back is a large tattoo: a bird with its wings outstretched, soaring. Her name: Josephine Sunshine Overaker. To the authorities, Joseph Mahmoud Dibee and Josephine Sunshine Overaker are dangerous, violent extremists, part of an eco-terrorist movement that in 2005 the then Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI called the number one domestic terror threat in America. And now one of them - Joseph Dibee - has been caught. For the past eighteen months journalist Leah Sottile has been recording with Joe Dibee as his case progresses through the courts and as she works to understand the truth behind the mugshots and how they ended up here. Burn Wild is a story of radical environmentalism and morality that journeys into one of the most thorny and murky questions of our time: How far is too far to go to stop the planet burning? Answering this will take Leah and producer Georgia Catt into radical activist communities past and present on both sides of the Atlantic, amongst people who’ve spent their lives running from the authorities, and those who carry the weight of that word - terrorist - on their shoulders. In this story people will take away very different things on what they hear, but where you sit isn’t a question of the past. It’s a question of right now. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Episodes

  1. 11/10/2022

    Episode 8-and-a-half: Extraordinary collateral consequences

    An update on Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, who on November 1st 2022 was sentenced. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Voiceover actor: Chloe Beeney Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineers: Sarah Hockley Series Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live

    21 min

  2. 10/25/2022

    Episode 8: Just like the rest of us

    The mother of Josephine Sunshine Overaker - the remaining fugitive environmentalist - tells her story. And a change of plea from Joseph Dibee means he’s able to talk in a way he hasn’t before, including about a night he said he'd never speak of. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineers: Sarah Hockley and Giles Aspen Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Series Editor: Philip Sellars Featuring footage from the FBI. Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    53 min

  3. 10/18/2022

    Episode 7: When the Fed met the Radical. Again.

    Jane Quimby was one of the FBI agents on Operation Backfire, the investigation that busted the Earth Liberation Front and so-called Family. One of those she put behind bars was Chelsea Gerlach – sentenced to nine years and now living with the weight of that word ‘terrorist’. Now, they’re ready to talk in a way they couldn’t before. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineers: Sarah Hockley and Giles Aspen Series Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live

    41 min

  4. 10/11/2022

    Episode 6: The Line

    As they visit the site of an ELF arson twenty-five years ago, Leah and Georgia meet inhabitants of a town that two years ago was lost to forest fire. The Earth Liberation Front had a clear line they wouldn’t cross: they would never cause any physical harm. And they never did. As climate change bears down they ask - where is the line now? A time when the stakes have gotten higher, the consequences sharper. Leah and Georgia hear from those who spent years behind bars as a result of their actions in the name of the ELF, and environmental activists today - including the founders of mass civil disobedience movement Extinction Rebellion. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley and Giles Aspen Series Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live

    51 min

  5. 10/04/2022

    Episode 5: The centre of the story

    During a visit to Eugene, Oregon - a city that brought key people and ideas in this story together - Leah and Georgia find something unexpected. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Series Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    41 min

  6. 09/27/2022

    Episode 4: Ghosts and myths

    In 2005 Joe Dibee fled America – leaving everything behind. Speaking in Summer 2021, as he awaits what he hopes will be a trial date, Joe tells Leah and Georgia about life out of reach of the FBI, and his eventual capture in Cuba. As they faced - or face - years behind bars, Leah Sottile explores what that word, terrorist, meant for the environmentalists who had become a ‘domestic terror priority’. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Series Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Includes archive from GB News, The Hill, America’s Most Wanted Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    58 min

  7. 09/20/2022

    Episode 3: The case of Sunshine

    More than fifteen years ago a woman, authorities call an eco-terrorist, slipped through the fingers of the FBI and vanished. Leah Sottile meets the agent she evaded, who’s made it his mission to see her caught before he retires. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Featuring footage from the FBI Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    51 min

  8. 09/13/2022

    Episode 2: The Family

    For over a decade, Joseph Dibee’s mugshot stared out from the FBI’s Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists list. He’s charged with crimes in connection to an underground cell that was known as The Family, whose actions committed in the name of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front would see them called terrorists. In 2005 the then Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI called the eco-terrorist movement they were said to be a part of the number one domestic terror threat in America. And since that year, Joseph Dibee has been a fugitive. Now, he’s been caught. For the first time in what would be more than eighteen months of recording, journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt get to talk to him. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Featuring footage from the FBI. Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    50 min

  9. 09/06/2022

    Episode 1: The Elves are watching

    An underground group of radical environmentalists become a domestic terror priority. Then two go on the run. And this series goes in an unexpected direction. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Featuring footage from the FBI. Plus news footage from KGW News, 4 News Now, GB News, Energy GOP, The Hill. Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live.

    46 min

  10. 08/30/2022

    Introducing: Burn Wild

    For over a decade, a pair of mugshots have lived side by side on the FBI’s website, on its list of America’s Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists. The government says these fugitives were part of an eco-terrorist movement that in 2005 the then Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI called the number one domestic terrorism threat in America. And now one of them has been caught. For the past eighteen months journalist Leah Sottile and producer Georgia Catt have been recording with him across a case that ventures into some of the thorniest questions of our time: What is the most effective way to bring about change? How far is too far to go to stop the planet burning? What happens when you step over that line? Burn Wild. An eight-part podcast series. Starting September 6th.

    5 min
  • 10 Episodes

Hosts & Guests

4.3
out of 5
158 Ratings

About

For more than a decade two mugshots of fugitive environmentalists have sat amongst airplane hijackers, bombers and murders on the FBI’s Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists list. One of the photos is of a tall, hipster looking engineer from Seattle. He’s wearing a red shirt, has a light shadowy beard. His name: Joseph Mahmoud Dibee. The other photo is of a young white woman with thick eyebrows, piercing brown eyes and long brown hair. Across her back is a large tattoo: a bird with its wings outstretched, soaring. Her name: Josephine Sunshine Overaker. To the authorities, Joseph Mahmoud Dibee and Josephine Sunshine Overaker are dangerous, violent extremists, part of an eco-terrorist movement that in 2005 the then Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI called the number one domestic terror threat in America. And now one of them - Joseph Dibee - has been caught. For the past eighteen months journalist Leah Sottile has been recording with Joe Dibee as his case progresses through the courts and as she works to understand the truth behind the mugshots and how they ended up here. Burn Wild is a story of radical environmentalism and morality that journeys into one of the most thorny and murky questions of our time: How far is too far to go to stop the planet burning? Answering this will take Leah and producer Georgia Catt into radical activist communities past and present on both sides of the Atlantic, amongst people who’ve spent their lives running from the authorities, and those who carry the weight of that word - terrorist - on their shoulders. In this story people will take away very different things on what they hear, but where you sit isn’t a question of the past. It’s a question of right now. CREDITS Presenter: Leah Sottile Producer: Georgia Catt Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt Fact Checking: Rob Byrne Music and Sound Design: Phil Channell Music including theme music by Echo Collective, composed performed and produced by Neil Leiter & Margaret Hermant; recorded, mixed and produced by Fabien Leseure Artwork by Danny Crossley with Art Direction by Amy Fullalove Script recorded and mixed by Slater Swan at Anjuna Recording Studio Series Mixing and Studio Engineer: Sarah Hockley Editor: Philip Sellars Assistant Commissioner: Natasha Johansson Commissioner: Dylan Haskins Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Information

  • Creator
    BBC Radio 5 Live
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2022
  • Show Website
    Burn Wild

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada