Terrain.org Podcast

Terrain.org

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.

  1. Undammed: Setting Rivers Free

    MAY 4

    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

    47 min
  2. No One Will Know You Tomorrow

    MAR 16

    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 No One Will Know You Tomorrow, which collects Najwan Darwish’s published and unpublished poems from 2014 to 2024, has been a finalist for numerous prizes, including the 2025 Walcott Prize for Poetry and the 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.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.

    49 min

  3. JAN 26

    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.

    48 min

  4. 11/10/2025

    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.

    46 min

  5. 07/27/2025

    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.

    38 min

  6. 12/26/2023

    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.

    32 min

  7. 07/31/2023

    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

    34 min

  8. 02/20/2023

    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

    37 min
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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Terrain.org
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Terrain Publishing
  • Show Website
    Terrain.org Podcast

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