The Spiritual Edge

We apologize — the previously uploaded Chapter 11 has an audio glitch. It's now been corrected. To make sure everyone can access the corrected audio, we are uploading it again, here.  Spurred by drought, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service accelerates a plan to restore winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River. Chief Caleen Sisk weighs whether to collaborate with federal officials. Salmon spotted on Dry Creek for the first time in 30 years are celebrated as an answer to the Winnemem Wintu's Run4Salmon prayer.

Spurred by drought, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service accelerates a plan to restore winter-run Chinook salmon to the McCloud River. Chief Caleen Sisk weighs whether to collaborate with federal officials. Salmon spotted on Dry Creek for the first time in 30 years are celebrated as an answer to the Winnemem Wintu's Run4Salmon prayer.

The Winnemem Wintu board a plane bound for Christchurch, New Zealand. With the help of the Maori people, they hold a ceremony on the Rikkaia River and sing to the salmon there. Once back in the United States, Chief Caleen Sisk meets with every government agency she can to push the idea of bringing the New Zealand salmon back home.

When plans for the Shasta Dam Enlargement Project accelerate, the Winnemem Wintu decide to hold a war dance, their first in more than 100 years. Members of the community dream into existence songs, dances and regalia. News of the ceremony, and the tribe that declared war against the U.S. government on top of Shasta Dam, goes around the world. That leads to an unexpected message from Down Under.  

At a sacred spring high up on Mt. Shasta, the Winnemem Wintu recount the beginnings of the world when salmon gave up their voices so that humans could speak. They now feel a special obligation to defend salmon in return for this gift. A biologist details Chinook salmon's catastrophic decline since the arrival of Euro-American settlers to California and the Northwest.  

In Part III, we follow the Winnemem Wintu's fight to return salmon to their river, the McCloud. That fight is predicated on strong spiritual and cultural ties to the fish. In the old days, they lit fires alongside the river to help them find their way. But with salmon no longer swimming in the McCloud River, the Winnemem Wintu feel a moral and spiritual obligation to bring them back. The journey is full of ups and downs and includes war dances. border crossings. trucks carrying fish. and ultimately, to everyone's surprise, salmon eggs hatching in the McCloud River for the first time in about 80 years.

The Run4Salmon bikes through rural areas in the upper Sacramento Valley where Euro American settlers changed the land to better suit an agrarian economy. The Winnemem Wintu and supporters remember the indigenous people who were forcibly removed and killed. An apology in Redding for the genocide may be well intentioned, but Chief Caleen Sisk insists action must accompany words.  

As the Run4Salmon continues to travel upstream, the Winnemem Wintu and supporters witness more obstacles faced by migrating salmon. Once a vast marshland, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was an important haven for juvenile salmon, but now is a gauntlet of human engineering. Chief Caleen Sisk stands up for salmon and water health at a bureaucratic meeting of Sacramento Valley water districts.

The Winnemem Wintu and supporters start a two-week Run4Salmon prayer to call salmon back to the waters above Shasta Dam. The Run follows the salmon's migration path from the ocean to the mountains. It starts in the Bay Area where the Winnemem Wintu and supporters encounter environmental devastation first set in motion 200 years ago.  

In Part II, we shift the focus away from the fight against a bigger dam and towards a different struggle: for salmon. The Winnemem Wintu feel a close connection to salmon, a keystone species that impacts the well-being of other creatures and habitat around them. They miss them on the McCloud River where their ancestors fished. We journey alongside the Winnemem Wintu through the San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River to witness the obstacles faced by the fish. Along the way, we learn about the historical events that have shaped these waterways and threatened the continued existence of Chinook salmon populations here.

An elder remembers indigenous life back before Shasta Dam was built. The legality of the proposal to raise Shasta Dam is considered. Meanwhile, Chief Caleen Sisk considers a new strategy to fight back: turning an adversary — the Westlands Water District — into an ally.

We go to Shasta Dam and learn about the history behind its construction in the 1930s and 1940s. We hear from Chief Caleen Sisk about how the federal proposal to raise the dam another 18 and a half feet opens old wounds for the Winnemem Wintu and further threatens their tenuous survival.

We accompany the Winnemem Wintu to sacred sites near the McCloud River. The federal government's Shasta Dam and Reservoir Expansion Proposal threatens these sites and the Winnemem Wintu way of life.

In a peaceful protest, the Winnemem Wintu call out the U.S. government for its refusal to acknowledge the destruction caused by Shasta Dam. The protest at the Shasta Dam Visitor Center reveals the Winnemem Wintu's ongoing reality. They are ignored and later a security guard threatens to forcibly remove them.

A Prayer for Salmon is coming soon! The series, which has been five-and-a-half years in the making, follows the Winnemem Wintu people as they resist a proposed Shasta Dam Enlargement Project that would flood their sacred sites, and fight to return Chinook salmon to their homeland on the McCloud River, a major tributary of the dam. Over the course of the eleven episodes, A Prayer For Salmon investigates the Shasta Dam and Reservoir Enlargement Project, which gained traction during the Trump years and proposes to raise the 602-foot dam even higher, which would flood important Winnemem Wintu sacred sites. Episodes then take listeners on a journey with the Winnemem Wintu and allies who walk, run, bike and boat on a two-week, 300-mile Run Salmon ceremony that follows the migration of Chinook salmon from the Pacific Ocean to historical spawning grounds above Shasta Dam. The podcast also follows the Winnemem Wintu's nearly two-decade attempt to return Chinook salmon that originated in California, but now swim in New Zealand, to the heart of their homelands on the McCloud River where salmon have not swum for nearly 80 years.

Our new series tells the story of the Winnemum Wintu people of Northern California and it centers around their clash with one of California's most important infrastructure sites: Shasta Dam. Shasta Dam played a big role in reengineering California's water by moving it from north to south, changing the landscape forever. The water has built California's Central Valley into a farming empire. But in addition to the harm it caused the Winnemem Wintu, it decimated salmon populations. Now the Winnemem want to bring them back. They also want to stop a federal project that would raise Shasta Dam even higher- a prospect the Winnemem say could destroy what remains of their culture by flooding important sacred sites.  This isn't necessarily going to be a piece of traditional journalism where you hear from one side and then you hear from the other. The way we think about it is that the American way of seeing things is presented to us every single day. We know that point of view. So the whole point of this documentary is to help people see things in a different way. We want people to come away with an understanding of the Winnemem Wintu, who they are, and what they're fighting for.   A Prayer for Salmon is coming soon.

A week from now Muslims all around the world will begin observing the holy month of Ramadan. We thought this was a good time to share our one-hour documentary version of Becoming Muslim with you.  You could say it's our latest season in distilled form. We tell the stories of some unlikely converts to Islam and what happens to them after. In case you missed the full 8-episode series this is another way you can listen. In the documentary, Hana Baba walks us through the stories of four Americans who have chosen Islam and the joys and challenges of their lives after conversion.

How did Islam first arrive on the North American continent? Did enslaved West Africans bring it to America? Or did Muslims sail with Christopher Columbus first? Later, Islam spread in the United States, among various communities. How did that happen? In this BONUS conversation that's part of the Becoming Muslim series, host Hana Baba dives into the history of Islam in America with Dr. Edward E. Curtis IV, a scholar of Muslim American, African American and Arab American history and life.

Aaron Siebert-Llera and Raul Gonzalez both live in the Chicago area and both converted to Islam twenty years ago. And both have been trying to answer the question of how to reconcile their identity as Latinos — and Muslims — ever since.

Sofie Lovern is a Latina convert and comedienne who learned the difficulty of trying to merge two very different cultures in a marriage, even when their religions were the same.  Her struggle with marriage is not uncommon with new convert women who are often rushed into marriage. Her marriage fails, but her comedy brings her through it all. She emerges unmarried but still Muslim.

Tyson Amir's family knew he would become Muslim from a young age. He was influenced by the revolutionary example of Malcolm X. And also by the legacy of resistance embodied by his great-great-great-grandfather, an enslaved man who was Muslim, according to family lore.

Convicted of first-degree murder and sent to Folsom State Prison, Wendell Al-Amin James gravitated towards the Muslim prisoners out of a need for protection. But ultimately his conversion restructured his life to one of education and purpose.

As a student and basketball player at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1960s, Abdul Raoof Nasir joined the Nation of Islam. In the years that followed, he was forced to make a choice: stay with the Nation or go with one of the groups that splintered away from it. 

Rabi'a Keeble has been fighting discrimination and pushing boundaries her whole life as she searched for a faith and spiritual home that felt just right. She's an innovator, which led her to found a women-led mosque that sparked a powerful backlash.

Diana Demchemko converted to Islam in college after a childhood of asking tough spiritual questions of those around her. She spent her young adulthood learning to become Muslim, but it was while on a journey to Cairo to study the Quran that she looked for answers to some of her deepest questions. While there she learned, and unlearned, a few things about how to be a “real” Muslim.

In Becoming Muslim, we explore the motivations and challenges of converts, as they carve out a uniquely American path for being Muslim in the United States. Over seven episodes, we profile eight individuals from various cultural backgrounds. Each offers a different window into this diverse and complex religion. A spiritual seeker travels to Cairo to find the “real” Islam.. A prison inmate hangs with the Muslim brothers to stay safe. A UC Berkeley basketball player is introduced to the Nation of Islam. And more. In a religion that's often partitioned by nationality and culture, how do these new Muslims fit in?

Women don't always feel welcome in American mosques. They're sometimes turned away, sent to basements to pray, or discouraged from serving on the boards of directors. Aisha al-Adawiya has devoted her life to changing that. She's inspired a national campaign — and a fatwa — that's persuading the men who control mosques to share space and power.

Independent producer Maria Martin offers this remembrance of the late Sister Dianna Ortiz, who survived torture in Guatemala during the 1980s. For years, Sister Dianna sought the truth about what happened; the Guatemalan and U.S. governments attempted to cast doubt on her story. She went on to fight for human rights and to speak out about the use of torture globally. She did so until her death in February 2021, even while still suffering from the trauma of her experience. 

The Central American country of Guatemala promotes its indigenous heritage to tourists. At the same time, its government has historically marginalized and discriminated against the Maya, many of whom endured terrible violence during a decades-long civil war. Twenty five years after the war's end, human rights leader Rosalina Tuyuc is promoting healing for her people based on ancient Maya wisdom.

The Central American country of Guatemala promotes its indigenous heritage to tourists. At the same time, its government has historically marginalized and discriminated against the Maya, many of whom endured terrible violence during a decades-long civil war. Twenty five years after the war's end, human rights leader Rosalina Tuyuc is promoting healing for her people based on ancient Maya wisdom. Through these teachings she began to understand, “That it's good not to feel defeated. That we should keep moving  forward, loving life, and our existence.”

California reports more cases of human tracking than any state In Oakland, most sex trafficking victims are Black girls under the age 18. While living in Australia, healing from her own trauma, a visit from Beyoncé pushed Regina Evans to return home to Oakland. She's now an activist and artist using her creative gifts to call attention to the trafficking crisis and to rescue girls on a strip.

 Caroline Yongue wants to talk about death, a subject many of us would rather avoid. She's the founder and director of the Carolina Memorial Sanctuary, a small cemetery offering environmentally-friendly burials in Western North Carolina.  The Sanctuary is grounded in a Buddhist ethos and committed to restoring native ecosystems. It's also part of a larger project to change how Americans approach death and grief — creating new ways to live with loss, from the ground up.  

Mehool Sanghrajka isn't your typical tech CEO. To start with, his worldview is grounded in ancient Indian philosophy, one which inspires him to serve not just his close-knit religious community, but people he's never met. He believes education is the key to improving the life chances of children. As the coronavirus pandemic forced millions of students online, his Jain worldview and tech savvy helped him to meet the moment. 

 COVID-19 prison lockdowns prevented family and friends from visiting the nation's nearly two million prisoners; they also shut down education programs. However, at a maximum security prison near Chicago, one trail-blazing theology instructor managed to keep reaching inside. Years back, a student had encouraged Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom to think about how she could put her beliefs into practice. The result was the first master's degree program available to incarcerated people at an Illinois prison. 

 Former President Trump labeled COVID-19 the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu." Since then, violence targeting Asian Americans has surged. As a result, older Asian Americans are afraid of facing attacks on their walks to the grocery store. Parents fear harassment against their kids at school. Russell Jeung, the co-founder of the Stop AAPI Hate coalition, is determined to make this reality known. TIME magazine has listed the coalition founders among its 100 most influential people for 2021.

There's a lot of talk about the the coronavirus pandemic has taken on our collective mental health. Years ago, people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo confronted another deadly and highly contagious disease. Like now, misinformation was rampant. No one trusted the health authorities. And in-person funerals were not allowed. Mental health counselor Noe Kasali was determined to help. He recognized a problem: that in the face of so many losses, survivors had no way to grieve.

Season 2 of The Spiritual Edge launches with a second series of intimate profiles called Sacred Steps. We dive in with stories from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Oakland, California and a maximum security state prison in Illinois. These are people who are standing up to intolerance. Risking their lives to heal their communities. And always challenging the status quo.  It's a second dose of hope and inspiration that crosses the boundaries of multiple faiths. Take the next step with us. Listen and subscribe to get Season 2 of The Spiritual Edge.

The Poor People's Campaign is an interfaith movement to end poverty in the United States. It builds on an earlier movement launched by Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists in 1968, an organizing effort that connected civil rights to economic justice. In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we meet Shailly Gupta Barnes, one of its leading tacticians. She's an Indian American who grounds her commitment to economic justice in her family's Hindu traditions.

On this episode of TSE's Sacred Steps: most religions teach people to help those in need. But what happens when that mandate clashes with how the government views the law? After federal prosecutors cracked down on volunteers providing aid on the border, Scott Warren faced decades in prison for following his conscience.

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, a Honduran Catholic priest fondly known as Padre Melo, risks his life to speak up on behalf of his country's most vulnerable people. His activism can be heard on the airwaves, in his writings and speeches places him in the crosshairs of a government that has killed its opponents, including this priest's friends and colleagues.

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we meet two Catholic nuns who, after decades of work with immigrant detainees, aren't slowing down. Sisters JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy say their age — one is in her 80s, the other in her 90s — is irrelevant when there is so much need.

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we meet Al and Andi Tauber, married singer-songwriters who direct music for a congregation of urban Mennonites in Chicago. Mennonites favor the simple life, but urban Mennonites see city life as God's work too. For the Taubers, this means taking their ministry – and their music – to the streets, where they've found heartbreak …and a family.

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we meet Sameer. Around his left wrist, he wears three strands of olive pits. He carved them into beads when he was a teenager, in prison, put there for throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Since then, he's had a weak stomach and more sleepless nights than he can count. When he can't sleep, he plays one song to help him relax. It's a melody that inexplicably becomes a touchstone for peace.

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we meet a former Israeli soldier, who finds himself under fire by his own government when he starts to question violence that he participated in towards Palestinians. He then suffers an identity crisis. What does it mean to be Jewish if he's no longer a Zionist?

In this episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we profile Neets'aii Gwich'in leader Sarah James. For most of her life, Sarah has worked to protect her homelands, which include the coastal plain of the nearby Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It hasn't been easy. The region's longtime inhabitants say plans to drill for oil and gas in the area threaten the Porcupine Caribou population and land that they call sacred.

For the first episode of TSE's series Sacred Steps, we profile Sarah Byrne-Martelli, a hospital chaplain in Boston. Since the earliest weeks of the pandemic, Sarah sat with COVID patients to reassure them at the end of their lives. She calls it bringing "bright sadness" or “joyful sorrow” to the bedside—to hold space for hope, joy and sadness all at the same time. Sarah has done hospital chaplaincy work for 17 years now. Without her, these COVID patients would have otherwise spent their final moments alone.

Season 1 of The Spiritual Edge launches with a series of intimate profiles called Sacred Steps. These are stories of people who show up as standout humanitarians. They're getting arrested. Challenging the status quo. And at times, risking their lives. Want a dose of hope and inspiration that crosses the boundaries of multiple faiths? Take the first step here with us. Listen and subscribe to get Season 1 of The Spiritual Edge.