The Hopeful Locals #6: Cowboy Country
STORIES by Lea Thau
Lea Thau
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As L.A. burns behind me, I drive deeper into cowboy country through Wyoming to Montana, trying to untangle the many contradictions of the country I call home.
This is Episode 6 of The Hopeful Locals, and it is in loving memory of Crawford White Eagle.
This series is made with suppport from our sponsors Tink Media and Podcast The Newsletter, and from our paying subscribers on Patreon and Substack.
Big thanks to Jackie White, for letting me visit with her. Jackie's husband, Crawford White Eagle was a ceremonial leader and one of the Northern Arapaho’s Four Old Men. He worked tirelessly for preservation of the tribe’s language and culture, and he helped establish the Northern Arapaho endowment for tribal students at the University of Wyoming, where he also received an honorary doctorate. Crawford served his country in the Vietnam War and was twice wounded in combat, receiving a Purple Heart and many other medals for his service. He was also a master jewelry maker and silversmith.
Thanks to Paul Dreux Smith, for making the music and mixing this episode, and to my Associate Producer, Vix Jensen, for her help with this story and many other things. Also big thanks to Pernille Clifforth for illustrating the series, and to Heather Kitching for her support.
Lauren Passell of Podcast The Newsletter also created the newsletters Podcast Marketing Magic, where you can find all sorts of awesome marketing tips and tricks, and Podcasts We Text About. Enjoy them all!
We’d love your thoughts on this episode (and anything else) and you can email us at stories@leathau.com, or find us on Facebook and Instagram.
Thanks for listening!
The entire back catalogue of Strangers can be found at STORIES by Lea Thau on Patreon and Substack, where you can also find my new work in its entirety, all of it ad-free. You can join as a free or paid member, so come be part of my community! Or follow my new work in my new public feed, STORIES by Lea Thau, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This series is made with support from Tink Media, a podcast growth and marketing company, and podcast The Newsletter, both founded by Lorne Passell. |
| 0:11.1 | If you like stories, I think you'll like the kind of podcast Lauren recommends in the newsletter, which is geared towards discovery. |
| 0:18.9 | I asked her what podcast she thought my listeners might like, |
| 0:22.2 | and she said, how about drifting off with Joe Para? And I was like, oh my God, yes, because |
| 0:27.3 | I'm a huge Joe Para fan. The show is technically supposed to be a sleep aid, but it's |
| 0:33.1 | also funny and quirky and cool, and if it doesn't put you to sleep, it will still do something |
| 0:38.2 | really good for your soul, I promise. |
| 0:41.3 | Lauren recommends the episode called Wind, featuring Elie Saxel, where Joe takes you |
| 0:46.9 | up in an airplane-shaped hot air balloon for a choose-your-own-adventure escape into the skies, |
| 0:53.1 | and she also recommends the episode called Christmas Tree Lit, |
| 0:57.2 | featuring Mary Ladamore and Whitmer Thomas. |
| 1:00.3 | And now here's episode six of the hopeful locals, |
| 1:03.4 | brought to you without commercial interruption by Tink Media and podcast, The Newsletter, |
| 1:09.6 | as well as my paying subscribers on Patreon and Substac. |
| 1:13.6 | Thanks if you're one of them. |
| 1:15.6 | The Hopeful Locals is a serial story, and this episode will make most sense if you've heard |
| 1:20.6 | the previous ones. |
| 1:21.6 | If you're one of my free subscribers and you didn't hear the episodes that I held back for |
| 1:26.6 | my paying people, but you need to know going into this episode is that while I'm on the road, L.A. is burning back home. |
| 1:34.3 | Perhaps you remember the terrible L.A. fires of last year. |
| 1:39.3 | Well, that happened while I was on this reporting trip, which created a lot of drama and distraction, |
| 1:45.0 | as you can imagine. The other thing you need to know is that I'm staying in a cabin on a ranch |
... |
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