7 episodes
Ghost Herd KUOW News and Information
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- Society & Culture
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4.6 • 769 Ratings
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A true story of family, fraud, land and power in the American West. Ghost Herd is a joint production of KUOW and Northwest Public Broadcasting, both members of the NPR Network.
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Part 6: The Reckonin'
Native Americans once owned these lands, and they still treat the Columbia Basin as their sacred home. We’ve all benefited from that taken land, but now corporations are the West’s new settlers. Meanwhile, Cody faces a federal judge and his tight-knit rural community. His sons start taking over what remains of the family’s vast operation and beat-up reputation.
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Part 5: The Bidding War
The Easterday empire is being broken apart. Some of the most valuable farmland in America is up for sale, and the billionaires are coming to town. The bidding war over water-rich lands shows the shift in how America farms.
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Part 4: The Crash
Cody's swindle comes crashing down, and it’s all thanks to Covid. When a giant meat operation discovers the truth about his ghost herd, they take aim at Cody.
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Part 3: The Gamble
Why would someone create a ghost herd? Behind Cody Easterday’s swindle was an even-bigger gambling habit on the futures market. That vice may have changed the price of American beef slapping down on your kitchen table. We also look at how all farmin’ is a gamble.
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Part 2: The Swindle
Cowboy Cody Easterday lies big, creating a “ghost herd” of 265,000 cattle that only exist on paper and bringing in hundreds of millions of investment dollars from companies including a meat-packing giant. It’s fraud on a massive scale. We examine how he carried it out.
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Part 1: The Empire Builders
Meet the Easterdays – ranching royalty rooted in the Columbia Basin in southeast Washington state. But behind the well-known family name hides a dark secret, concealed in spreadsheets and bum invoices, that’s eating away at their vast empire.
Customer Reviews
Awesome
Couldn’t put my earbuds down
Riveting and fascinating
This was one of the best stories I’ve heard in ages! It was educational, interesting and fascinating. The information about the contract futures was particularly informative. Who knew! My uncle was a farmer and some of my cousins still are so I have great respect for Americas farmers. What Cody did was messed up! He’s an outlier from the others and I believe we need to do more to preserve and protect farmers and our ag heritage.
An American tragedy
Finally a narrative podcast about rural America told by someone who has chosen to live there and understands the nuances of the subject.
Too often it seems major media companies descend on small towns and as soon as they’re off the plane they have to belittle the natives who must be a bunch of rubes to live in these backwater places.
No such conceits here as the storyteller lets us know the cattle business is big business and there are complex financial systems at play.
The narrator doesn’t speak in condescending tones but clearly inhabits this same world. That’s not to say she’s uncritical of her subject but she’s comfortable talking center pivot irrigation and futures markets and knows this isn’t some hayseed operation but a tragedy at a cattle operation this size has the ability to affect your combo meal at Wendy’s.
Highly recommended.
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