The Mountain Stories Podcast

Stories about mountains and the people who live, work, and play in them.

About the show

Presented by the Institute for Mountain Research at Westminster College, the Mountain Stories Podcast will share the stories of people who live, work, and play in the mountains. The Institute for Mountain Research provides a hub to coordinate and support interdisciplinary research and learning related to the cultural, economic, scientific and political facets of mountain landscapes and the people who live in them. We encourage deep and abiding interests in the mountains, the people who live in and near them, and the connections between the two. The Institute supports thinking across disciplinary and political boundaries in order to foster conversations about the landscapes that are part of our lives. We strive to serve as a home for exploration, a refuge for reflection and thought, and a forum for community conversation.

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Episodes

  • Episode 11: Conserving Mountain Landscapes around the World

    November 25th, 2019  |  59 mins 4 secs

    In this episode, we discuss the student-centered programs of Round River Conservations Studies. We talk with Elizabeth Brunner (a Round River instructor), Kelsey Barber and Rain Keating (2 students recently returned from Round River Programs), and Frank Black (a Westminster Professor who spent part of his sabbatical with Round River in Patagonia).

  • Remembering the Westminster Expedition

    March 3rd, 2019  |  40 mins 41 secs
    expedition, westminster college

    During the 2017 Fall Semester, 14 students, two professors, and a program coordinator loaded a bunch of books and some camping gear into a trailer, piled into a couple of vans, and took off on a 10,000 mile, 84 day academic adventure around the American West. We've been back for a little more than a year and were curious about what students remembered and what they learned on the trip. This is what they had to say.

    The trip is designed as an exploration into the issues at the heart of the contemporary West. Students will earn 16 credits in environmental studies and history as they study Environmental Cooperation and Conflict, Landscape and Meaning, the History of Public Lands, and the Native West.

    This prolonged journey into the field will allow us to learn directly from landscapes and ecosystems, as well as from people who live, work, and study in those places. Together, we expect to build a cohort of impassioned scholars with a particular breadth and depth of experiential knowledge who are equipped to build a better future for the West.

  • Brenden Rensink: Running and Writing Mountains

    February 15th, 2019  |  28 mins 21 secs
    history, mountains

    Brenden Rensink, BYU historian and assistant director of the Charles Redd Center, talks about how his trail-running hobby influences his scholarship.

  • Episode 9: A Mountain Poem

    December 18th, 2018  |  11 mins 21 secs

    In this episode, Westminster College Environmental Studies Professor Xiumei Pu sends us into winter with a reading of a poem by T'ao Ch'ien (translated by David Hinton). The episode is, perhaps, best enjoyed with a glass of wine.

  • Episode 8: Tar Seeps, Pelicans, and Connections

    December 9th, 2018  |  45 mins 53 secs
    collaborative summer research grants, great salt lake institute

    We continue our series of stories about the Great Salt Lake today with 2 stories about Pelicans, a piece of new music, and a report from a couple of our summer collaborative research grants. First, Kara Kornhauser discusses her research related to pelicans and tar seeps near the Spiral Jetty on the shores of the lake. Next, I interview Connor Lockie about his new piece of music, "Mass for Pelicans," and we'll share that composition. Finally, Hikmet Loe and Scout Enviros talk about the work they did this summer as part of their summer collaborative research project, "The Necessity of Landscape."

  • Episode 7: Great Salt Lake Resorts

    November 27th, 2018  |  24 mins 59 secs
    great salt lake, interviews, resorts, utah

    Today, the most famous resorts in northern Utah are in the mountains. But that wasn't always the case. For much of the 20th century people flocked to the shores of Great Salt Lake to spend time swimming, listening to music, dancing, and sunbathing. We'll explore some of the history of those resorts in today's episode, the first of two episodes in which we'll focus on the lake. We begin with Jeff Nichols discussing the history of the lake resorts and their connection to the city. Then we'll have a chance to hear Rebecca Richard talk about her own personal experiences of spending time at the lake in the 1970s.

  • Episode 6: Utah Avalanche Center Fall Fundraiser

    October 21st, 2018  |  13 mins 4 secs
    avalanche, mountains, recreation, skiing, utah, wasatch, winter

    The Utah Avalanche Center works to bring avalanche awareness to the community as well as resources that help people to be more knowledgeable about avalanche safety. We talked with some of the attendees about their experiences in the mountains.

  • Episode 5: Fireside Chat with Mike and Lily Libecki

    April 9th, 2017  |  53 mins 35 secs
    adventure, climbing, mountains, recreation

    On January 25, Mike we had Mike and Lily Libecki join us for a fireside chat. Mike is a National Geographic Expeditioner and his daughter, Lily, is 13 years old and just started her own nonprofit. We were able to have a Q and A with them to ask them all about their travels around the world! This is a live recording from the fireside chat!

  • Episode 4: Fireside Chat with Peter Metcalf

    January 24th, 2017  |  37 mins 6 secs
    adventure, black diamond, business, climbing, mountain, utah

    Peter Metcalf, founder and former CEO of Black Di…

  • Episode 3: Intro to the Mountain Story Podcast

    January 24th, 2017  |  4 mins 34 secs
    culture, mountains, recreation, science, utah

    This is the introduction for the IMR's Mountain Story Podcast. In this first episode the mountain fellows describe what the Institute for Mountain Research is all about and what this podcast will look like in future episodes!

  • Episode 1: Prologue: An EC Squared interview with Joni Adamson

    October 10th, 2016  |  41 mins 4 secs

    Dr. Joni Adamson is one of the outstanding schola…

  • Episode 2: Prologue: An EC Squared interview with Peter Boag

    October 10th, 2016  |  10 mins 43 secs

    On October 29, 2014, the EC2 team – Brent Olson a…