Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors.

The episode you're about to hear is not the story that was scheduled to run today.

We'll run that episode next week, but we wanted to press pause for a moment.

The events that have been unfolding over the past few weeks have made it very clear that all of us need to be doing much more to actively fight racism.

One of the ways that out there, as media company can do that is to use our platform

to amplify the voices of black, indigenous, and people of color. The stories we tell and the people

who tell them matter. So, we're going to take a break from our normal programming this week, and we're going to talk about what we commit to do to become part of the solution rather than adding to the problem.

I said this on last week's bonus episode, but I want to say it again now.

Black Lives Matter.

As a podcast, we commit to becoming a better ally in the fight against racism.

The outdoors should be a place that is welcoming to all, a place where anyone can go without fearing violence, harassment, or discrimination.

Unfortunately, that's not the reality.

I have begun to appreciate that going outdoors as a black person is a political act.

An act of defiance that challenges existing power structures

of who does and who doesn't belong in certain spaces. That's Sean Amagasy. He's an out-there listener,

and he's reading from a recent Instagram post in which he talks about his experience as a black

man trying to enjoy the outdoors.

I would be lying if I said that I always have the courage to venture wherever I want whenever I please.

In the back of my mind, I'm always making risk calculations about whether a trip outside is worth the real danger of being perceived as a threat

simply due to the color of my skin.

One day I venture to the top of Amacalola Falls in northern Georgia.

This day I found the courage to hike to the top of a water fall in the middle of Maga country.

...