The Wind

I found a handsaw in the mountains, sticking out of the snow. I carried it deep into the woods and used it to build a desk from a felled tree. This desk is where I produce and record the podcast. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Western Films as America’s origin story, and why they sound the way they do. Featuring Gary Farmer, Rion Amilcar Scott, Jeff Grace and Kathryn Kalinak. ------------------Playlist of Western Film Scores:SPOTIFY  | YOUTUBE------------------In this episode we investigate western film scores from early westerns and singing cowboys (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Herb Jeffries) to the John Ford Era (Tiomkin, Hageman, Steiner and Bernstein) to Ennio Morricone to Neil Young's score for Dead Man and beyond. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

How gender neutral language is working for non-binary people, and how it’s developing in English, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Portuguese and Hebrew. Featuring Avery Hellman (Ismay), Cara Nguyen, Dana Dela Cruz, Tyler Broderick (Diners), nwaobiala, Tuck Woodstock (gender reveal), Dan Everton, Jaq Victor, Em Jiang, Lior Gross, Eyal Rivlin (Non-binary Hebrew project).  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Time can wear a word down. If said too much, or not enough, it can begin to mean something else entirely, or start to blend into the words around it. Three such words are hobo, tramp and bum.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

In 2017, Jeff Davis Peak (California) and Jefferson Davis Peak (Nevada) began the process of shedding their names. In this episode, we journey through the bureaucratic network that names places in the US, and try to get a handle on what it means to name a place. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

A quick tour of the office, as it snows on my desk.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

An investigation of subversion by Emily Pratt. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Dan Flores and his book Coyote America, dueling press releases, and The Wind Inaugural Coyote Calling Contest. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Before this patch of Lodgepole Pines became my office, I was walking through the meadow. I heard a small waterfall coming from inside a bush. Since waterfalls don't come from inside bushes, I elbowed my way in to find a Fountain of Youth -- a rusty pipe spouting the coolest, clearest water I had ever tasted.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

The unlikely history of voice breaking in American music, and what it says about us. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

I sit at my desk and the wind scrapes endlessly through the canyon. Glad that I could capture a little bit of it and fold it up into words and yips and yodels for you this year. Catch you soon. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

A conversation with Nomadland author Jessica Bruder from February 2020.   To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

A note on Throat Forest, a half-failing aspen grove that I pass through on my way to my handmade desk in the woods.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

All we talk about is the smoke. Where I live it has replaced the weather; both conversationally and to some degree physically. Fire has become its own season.I have not had a conversation in over a month that didn’t at least touch on the smoke.But really, that’s only if we’re lucky. Because if we aren’t talking about the smoke, it’s because a fire has come close enough to talk about that instead. Close enough to our houses or friends houses or favorite places in the mountains that we watch slowly be eaten by a red line as the Facebook group updates the fire perimeter. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Traveling the west with an Aeolian Harp: listening in dry lake beds, great sand dunes, and the world's largest living organism, Pando Aspen Grove // official reports from the road. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

In a quest to understand the Aeolian Harp, an interview with composer John Luther Adams.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Let's take a long walk. We'll park at the Walmart. Cross the asphalt, past the Arby's and the TJ Maxx. Get on the sidewalk, right between the street and the parking lot. Now, keep walking. Pass the KFC and the Payless Shoes. In just a few long minutes you'll reach the Circle K. Hit the crosswalk button -- it's only you on foot. Watch the traffic back up as you slowly cross the 6 lanes and step into the Burger King parking lot. Behind it, you'll find a Costco. Now the trick is to keep walking, as far as you can, until you can't anymore. And then turn around and walk back. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Kiko Dinucci: “It's been about 10 years since I've realized that in my music, in all my works and projects, such as Metá Metá, I have been working with something beautiful and something ugly; something violent and something lyrical. And I think Brazil is like that. It is a tropical country with wonderful nature, but it has its past and history marked by death, exploitation, and so on and so on… So we live with many amazing things, especially when we think about our culture and nature; but there's a lot of bad stuff too. Thus, we still have a lot of marks from our colonial period, from slavery, from military dictatorship… so I got used to writing songs in this way: bringing together beautiful and ugly things; lyrical and violent things. I like that mix and I like artists who play with it.” To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

How a small sonic boom came to represent homelessness in Reno, and how the city responded to unhoused people taking up sonic real-estate. // Utility, aesthetic language, 911 tape and the search for Reno’s master whip maker.To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewind Subscribe at thewind.org

My office is a field of poison flowerspurple swaying in the breeze.It is also a pathway. For a bear, whose tracks have on occasion encountered my own. Surprised by each other’s quiet presence, we make eye contact before retreat.•On the way to my desk, I traverse a shelf more mixed than lush: Throat Forest — a half failing aspen grove, green shoots among the fallen white trunks. • That which is pliant is a disciple of life: that which is rigid, a disciple of death. • Throat Forest voices this point. The living trees bend and sway, while the dead hold steady and unwavering: solemn monuments, they are their own gravestones.•This has been a year of adjustment, a season of bending and adapting. But in so, a year of life. I appreciate your presence, and this show will return soon, with more findings and searchings.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org