Ben Goldfarb: How America’s roads alter our ecology

The Wild with Chris Morgan

KUOW News and Information

Science, Nature

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It is safe to say that Americans love their cars. The mythology of the open road speaks to us all, calling us for adventure. But American wildlife might have something else to say about that. One million animals are killed on roads every day but the problem with our transportation system goes beyond roadkill.

Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb says practically everything in the natural world is influenced by all these miles of gravel and tarmac. His latest book is “Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet.”

Enjoy this fascinating conversation with an author who traveled the world for answers about roads. Those roads take us to stories about cougars, butterflies, deer, and of course bears.

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THE WILD is a production of KUOW, Chris Morgan Wildlife, and the NPR Network. This episode was produced by Matt Martin and edited by Jim Gates. The Wild is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support comes from climate one.
0:02.0	The world is living through a climate emergency.
0:05.0	Addressing this crisis begins by talking about it.
0:08.0	Every Friday co-hosts Greg Dalton and Ariana Brocious
0:12.0	offer empowering conversations.
0:14.4	Listen now at climate one.org.
0:18.0	I'm Rachel Martin. You probably know how interview podcasts with famous people usually go. There's a host, a guest, and a light
0:24.4	Q&A, but on Wild Card we have ripped up the typical script. It's a new podcast from NPR
0:29.5	where I invite actors, artists, and comedians to play a game using a special deck of cards to talk
0:35.2	about some of life's biggest questions.
0:37.2	Listen to Wild Card wherever you get your podcasts, only from NPR.
0:41.2	Hi everyone, Chris here.
0:43.0	Just wanted to let you know that this season of the wild,
0:46.0	we're bringing you three new things,
0:48.0	along with the launch of our series on location in America's National Parks,
0:52.0	we're also presenting interviews with the sharpest
0:55.3	minds in wildlife conservation, and we'll dip into our archives to share some of our favorite
1:01.3	wild episodes from the past. Enjoy.
1:05.0	This is the American dream of freedom on wheels, an automotive age traveling on time-saving
1:19.3	super highways, futurama's free-flowing channels of concrete and steel.
1:26.0	When cars first started appearing on the landscape, you know, people hated them, right?
1:30.0	They were these terrifying new death machines that were running over children and taking over city streets and killing lots of animals.
	...

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