Sidedoor: The Riverkeeper

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fred Tutman is a voice for Maryland’s Patuxent River. In 2004, he founded Patuxent Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization. His mission is to protect and preserve all 110 miles of the Patuxent—a mission that takes him to the courtroom and to the riverbank. Fred is also the only African-American "Riverkeeper" in the Waterkeeper Alliance in the U.S., which he sees as an indicator of an environmental movement that is incomplete—one the planet will pay the price for. “It’s very hard in these big conservation movements for people of color to be ourselves,” said Tutman. “We need not only all hands on deck, but we actually need movements that are adaptable enough to embrace and serve all.” This episode was produced by Sidedoor, a podcast from the Smithsonian. Sign-up for the Outside/In newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know I kind of happened upon Fred Tupman an unexpected place.
0:03.2	It was in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which was online this year.
0:07.4	And he was part of a panel discussion on Earth optimism.
0:10.9	Dearest Outside Inn listeners Inn listeners meet Lizzy.
0:13.4	Yes, my name is Lizzy Peabody and I am the host of the Side Door Podcast.
0:18.1	As she just said, Lizzy hosts a podcast called Side Door made by the Smithsonian.
0:22.4	We sneak visitors in the Side... called Side Door made by the Smithsonian.
0:22.6	We sneak visitors in the Side Door of the Smithsonian,
0:26.0	so we aim to tell stories from sort of the nooks and crannies
0:29.2	that might be overlooked on a standard visit.
0:32.2	There are so many nooks and crannies.
0:34.0	It's made of nooks and crannies?
0:36.0	Yeah.
0:38.0	That's the whole thing.
0:40.0	So often out here in podcast land we hear stories that are just wonderful and that we wish we had done ourselves and fortunately the culture of podcast land is still very
0:52.3	Shary we can just bring it to you. So this is the story of a waterkeeper.
0:58.2	Fred Tutman. I will not steal Lizzie's Thunder because in the episode she lays out what a
1:03.4	waterkeeper is and their fascinating history which was totally new to me even
1:06.9	though I have interviewed several waterkeepers in my day.
1:09.7	And I don't want to speak for him but what he told me was that you know when you spend
1:14.0	this long as a minority a person of color in a predominantly white movement you know you
1:19.7	do experience yourself as sort of a tool of a bigger machine in a way.
	...

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