Podcasts about american great plains

In the Green Scene this week, Dr Ruth Freeman looks A prairie dog is a small, burrowing rodent that looks a bit like a chunky squirrel. They live in the American Great Plains where you might see little furry heads popping up from mounds of dirt, looking around, and then letting out a sharp, yipping high-pitched call which sounds like a bark (which gives them their “dog” moniker). New research is revealing that curlews, a species of grassland bird, use the dog's bark as an alarm system to stay safe. Listen to the Green Scene here.

Send us a text/ /  Welcome to the Human Being Human Podcast   This is the third and final episode in the fourth season of this podcast, entitled, “Great Plain Bands.” In this episode, we'll explore the rich history of polka music in my home state, Nebraska. Nearly two centuries ago, the genre became a community staple for newly arrived immigrants as they sought the “good life” on the American Great Plains. / /  Please join me for hearty conversations, scholastic adventures, and lively storytelling   / /  Thanks for listening, and thanks for sharing with a fellow human being  / /Support the show

How do words shape our world? In this week's narrated essay, writer Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder visits the wind-sculpted dunes of Nebraska's Sandhills, considering the prophecies that collided across the American Great Plains in the nineteenth century. Tracing the histories of violence, conquest, and degradation that have played out there, Chelsea locates the points at which human and wilderness were separated. Wondering what words, what prophetic voices are needed to guide us out of an entrenched dualism, she calls us to remember that we have always been intimately linked with the cycles of our ecosystems. Read this essay on our website. Explore more stories from Shifting Landscapes, our fourth print volume. Sign up for our newsletter to hear more stories as they are released each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the years after World War One, more than 100,000 Jews were murdered in pogroms across Ukraine. Jeffrey Veidlinger is an acclaimed historian who says this targeted violence sowed the seeds for the Holocaust that would arrive two decades later. Veidlinger is an award-winning author and Joseph Brodsky Collegiate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. He is the author of several books, including his most recent, “In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust” which was a finalist for both the Lionel Gelber Prize and the National Jewish Book Award, as well as a Kirkus Top Nonfiction Book of 2021 and a Times of London “Book of the Week.” Veidlinger is the former Vice-President of the Association for Jewish Studies, Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History, a member of both the Executive Committee of the American Academy for Jewish Research and of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History.  Veidlinger was the Director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University from 2009-2013, and Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies from 2015-2021. His work has been found in Harper's Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Globe and Mail, Tablet Magazine, and The Forward. He is currently writing about an early twentieth-century project to redirect Jewish immigration to the American Great Plains, known as the Galveston Movement.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My special guest is author and researcher Dan Flores, who's here to discuss the onslaught to wipe out millions of animals that once lived in the American Great Plains. Get his book American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains on Amazon.      America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago, these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write, "It is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals." In a work that is at once a lyrical evocation of that lost splendor and a detailed natural history of these charismatic species of the historic Great Plains, veteran naturalist and outdoorsman Dan Flores draws a vivid portrait of each of these animals in their glory - and tells the harrowing story of what happened to them at the hands of market hunters and ranchers and, ultimately, a federal killing program in the 19th and 20th centuries.     Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook     It's super easy to access our archives!   Here's how:   iPhone Users: Access Mysterious Radio from Apple Podcasts and become a subscriber there, or if you want access to even more exclusive content, join us on Patreon.   Android Users: Enjoy over 800 exclusive member-only posts to include ad-free episodes, case files, and more when you join us on Patreon.    Please copy and Paste our link in a text message to all your family members and friends! We'll love you forever! (Check out Mysterious Radio!) Do you frequently miss episodes of Mysterious Radio? Don't worry; here are some tips to ensure you never miss out again: 1. If you haven't already, follow or subscribe to the show to receive updates on new episodes. Even if you have already done this, it's a good idea to click the option again to ensure that you are still subscribed. This is especially important! 2. Turn on notifications for new episodes in your podcast app. 3. Make sure that your device allows notifications from your podcast app. 4. If your app has the option, swipe down to refresh the list of episodes.   Do you frequently miss episodes of Mysterious Radio? Don't worry; here are some tips to ensure you never miss out again: 1. If you haven't already, follow or subscribe to the show to receive updates on new episodes. Even if you have already done this, it's a good idea to click the option again to ensure that you are still subscribed. This is especially important! 2. Turn on notifications for new episodes in your podcast app. 3. Make sure that your device allows notifications from your podcast app. 4. If your app has the option, swipe down to refresh the list of episodes.

My special guest is author and researcher Dan Flores, who's here to discuss the onslaught to wipe out millions of animals that once lived in the American Great Plains. Get his book American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains on Amazon.    America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago, these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write, "It is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals." In a work that is at once a lyrical evocation of that lost splendor and a detailed natural history of these charismatic species of the historic Great Plains, veteran naturalist and outdoorsman Dan Flores draws a vivid portrait of each of these animals in their glory - and tells the harrowing story of what happened to them at the hands of market hunters and ranchers and, ultimately, a federal killing program in the 19th and 20th centuries.Follow us on InstagramFollow us on Facebook It's super easy to access our archives! Here's how: iPhone Users:Access Mysterious Radio from Apple Podcasts and become a subscriber there, or if you want access to even more exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Android Users:Enjoy over 800 exclusive member-only posts to include ad-free episodes, case files, and more when you join us on Patreon.  Please copy and Paste our link in a text message to all your family members and friends! We'll love you forever! (Check out Mysterious Radio!)

My special guest is author and researcher Dan Flores who's here to discuss the onslaught to wipe out millions of animals that once lived in the American Great Plains. Get his book American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains on Amazon.  Enjoy the AD-FREE versions of our latest episodes and our archives right now. Visit our home on the web: https://www.mysteriousradio.com Follow us on Instagram @mysteriousradio Follow us on TikTok mysteriousradioTikTok Follow us on Twitter @mysteriousradio Follow us on Pinterest pinterest.com/mysteriousradio Like us on Facebook Facebook.com/mysteriousradio Check Out Mysterious Radio! (copy the link to share with your friends and family via text America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghorn antelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than 200 years ago these creatures existed in such abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudes of these animals". In a work that is at once a lyrical evocation of that lost splendor and a detailed natural history of these charismatic species of the historic Great Plains, veteran naturalist and outdoorsman Dan Flores draws a vivid portrait of each of these animals in their glory - and tells the harrowing story of what happened to them at the hands of market hunters and ranchers and, ultimately, a federal killing program in the 19th and 20th centuries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains by Lucas Bessire An intimate reckoning with aquifer depletion in America's heartland The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home.

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com.

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/food

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. The imminent depletion of the Ogallala and other aquifers around the world is a defining planetary crisis of our times. Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021) offers a uniquely personal account of aquifer depletion and the deeper layers through which it gains meaning and force. Anthropologist Lucas Bessire journeyed back to western Kansas, where five generations of his family lived as irrigation farmers and ranchers, to try to make sense of this vital resource and its loss. His search for water across the drying High Plains brings the reader face to face with the stark realities of industrial agriculture, eroding democratic norms, and surreal interpretations of a looming disaster. Yet the destination is far from predictable, as the book seeks to move beyond the words and genres through which destruction is often known. Instead, this journey into the morass of eradication offers a series of unexpected discoveries about what it means to inherit the troubled legacies of the past and how we can take responsibility for a more inclusive, sustainable future. An urgent and unsettling meditation on environmental change, Running Out is a revelatory account of family, complicity, loss, and what it means to find your way back home. Marshall Poe is the editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

We hitch up our wagons and head out to the American Great Plains, where many Pokemon we take for granted get their inspiration. bison, prairie dogs, and more survive in this unique ecosystem and its our job to tell you about them. Enjoy!! We got Videos, y'all!: www.youtube.com/channel/UCrrXBG8Dju6HRr8bU4-3YkQ Patreon: www.patreon.com/pokescience T-shirts: www.teepublic.com/user/pokescience Twitter: twitter.com/pokemonscience Facebook: www.facebook.com/PokeScience-154569195131952/ Discord: discord.gg/ZmhZm87

Technology and nature used to reside at the opposite ends of the spectrum. But like our environment, that relationship has changed over the years and the two have a cyclical relationship of preservation and innovation. The commitment to conserve and heal our diverse ecosystems has pushed technology further and with urgency. Because there’s no time to waste. From the American Great Plains and the African Sahara to the furthest depths in the ocean, we’re talking to the trailblazers who are innovating everyday to save the planet.  For more on the podcast go to delltechnologies.com/trailblazers

In this continuation of the four-part series Tota Americana, Alex continues traveling through the wide open spaces of the American Great Plains, coming across an odd, lonely girl sitting by herself on a train platform. She asks for little more than some company, but things aren't always what they seem out there on the road.Let us remind you that today’s story is the third of a four-part series. Our suggestion is that you return here after enjoying part one and two, but no worries if you’d like to listen out of order. We here at the Westside Fairytales sometimes eat our dessert before dinner as well.This episode brought to you by: HelloFreshSupport us on PatreonFollow us on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Join the Westside Fairytales Horror and Lit ClubSend us an emailArtwork by Yui BreedloveThis month’s recommendations:Literature recommendation: ”Preacher” by Garth Ennis and Steve DillonRandom horror recommendation: Night in the Woods See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cymene’s sushi confessions on this week’s podcast lead us to the idea that supporting daydrinking and carb-heavy lunches in the oil industry might be an effective way to slow down the advance of petroculture (Behold, the Napocalypse!) Then (14:25) we welcome to the podcast the fantastic Lucas Bessire (University of Oklahoma). We talk with Lucas about his award-winning book Behold the Black Caiman (U of Chicago Press, 2014) and how it synthesized years of fieldwork in the Chaco region of Paraguay on indigenous Ayoreo reactions to environmental transformation and devastation. We talk about myths of “first contact” with isolated peoples as a kind of governmental fiction and turn from there to topics such as: Ayoreo irreverence to stable form, anthropology as a bedeviling practice, surviving contact, indigenous radio and poetic realignment, and the need to talk about rebecoming as a value that coexists with loss. We then move to Lucas’s work on the Ayoreo video project https://lucasbessire.net/yocoredie-the-ayoreo-video-project/) and the resource frontier resonances between the Chaco and his native Kansas in the era of fracking. We close talking about his current research ventures including “After the Aquifer”—which grapples with groundwater depletion and responsibility in the American Great Plains—and the Arctic Futures Working Group.

THE FARM HANDS are one of the most exciting and in demand bands in Bluegrass Music. Since their inception in 2010, the band has won an unprecedented 24 major awards including BAND OF THE YEAR at the 2018 Bluegrass Music Awards. Personnel includes Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee Tim Graves on resophonic guitar, #1 hit songwriter Daryl Mosley, super picker Keith Tew, and champion banjo player Don Hill. The four are known for their exquisite quartet harmonies and tight instrumental talent. ‘Colors' is the band's current release on Pinecastle Records. GRANT MALOY SMITH is a singer/songwriter of heartfelt country/roots music - an artful blend of country, bluegrass, folk, and pop music. His songs tell heartfelt stories about real people, and are unfailingly optimistic and forward looking. His current album "Dust Bowl - American Stories" spent 17 weeks on the Billboard charts. On this epic album, three years in the making, Smith takes you on a trip back through time, to the American Great Plains of the 1930s where over-farming, combined with a terrible drought that went on year after year, turned lush farmland into a wasteland. But within the hardship lie stories of love, joy, and the solid backbone of the American rancher and farmer. These stories are told in each song on this album. WoodSongs Kid: Phoebe White is an award winning 8-year-old singer from London, Kentucky.

THE FARM HANDS are one of the most exciting and in demand bands in Bluegrass Music. Since their inception in 2010, the band has won an unprecedented 24 major awards including BAND OF THE YEAR at the 2018 Bluegrass Music Awards. Personnel includes Bluegrass Hall of Fame inductee Tim Graves on resophonic guitar, #1 hit songwriter Daryl Mosley, super picker Keith Tew, and champion banjo player Don Hill. The four are known for their exquisite quartet harmonies and tight instrumental talent. ‘Colors’ is the band’s current release on Pinecastle Records. GRANT MALOY SMITH is a singer/songwriter of heartfelt country/roots music - an artful blend of country, bluegrass, folk, and pop music. His songs tell heartfelt stories about real people, and are unfailingly optimistic and forward looking. His current album "Dust Bowl - American Stories" spent 17 weeks on the Billboard charts. On this epic album, three years in the making, Smith takes you on a trip back through time, to the American Great Plains of the 1930s where over-farming, combined with a terrible drought that went on year after year, turned lush farmland into a wasteland. But within the hardship lie stories of love, joy, and the solid backbone of the American rancher and farmer. These stories are told in each song on this album. WoodSongs Kid: Phoebe White is an award winning 8-year-old singer from London, Kentucky.