Native American people of the United States
POPULARITY
Categories
98 episodes with Navajo
72 episodes with Navajo
48 episodes with Navajo
25 episodes with Navajo
20 episodes with Navajo
32 episodes with Navajo
34 episodes with Navajo
29 episodes with Navajo
35 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
16 episodes with Navajo
57 episodes with Navajo
17 episodes with Navajo
16 episodes with Navajo
21 episodes with Navajo
14 episodes with Navajo
12 episodes with Navajo
11 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
12 episodes with Navajo
13 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
10 episodes with Navajo
11 episodes with Navajo
18 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
11 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
16 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
27 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
126 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
12 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
15 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
10 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
12 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
12 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
6 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
8 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
9 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
3 episodes with Navajo
5 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
4 episodes with Navajo
2 episodes with Navajo
7 episodes with Navajo
The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing—the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s—Dr. Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users. From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Dr. Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives. Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. 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
The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing—the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s—Dr. Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users. From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Dr. Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives. Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/native-american-studies
The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing—the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s—Dr. Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users. From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Dr. Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives. Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/asian-american-studies
The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the internet was born from the labor of a handful of white male entrepreneurs, recovering the uncredited and unpaid contributions of women of color. Focusing on three key inflection points in computing—the microchip era of the 1960s and '70s, the rise of social media in the 2000s, and A.I.-fueled virtual reality in the 2020s—Dr. Nakamura illuminates these women's instrumental roles in building new technologies and making them coherent to users. From the Navajo women who manufactured the first semiconductor circuits in New Mexico to Tila Tequila, the queer Vietnamese American refugee who became the first true internet influencer in the MySpace age, to Black virtual reality creators, Dr. Nakamura highlights how women's gendered and racialized identities have uniquely positioned them to mediate the development and proliferation of new technologies. She exposes how these women have been structurally excluded from racial capitalism's benefits while their labor is considered as exploitable and inexhaustible as that of machines. Confronting this injustice, she focuses our attention on their work, which undergirds and makes possible the platforms ingrained in our daily lives. Arguing for both recognition and material compensation for these women's labor, The Inattention Economy is a powerful counterhistory of Silicon Valley and a persuasive call to imagine a different kind of internet. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.
For the Marine Corps, the nightmare scenario was a Navajo code talker falling into the hands of the enemy. However, for the code talkers themselves, an equally grim prospect was being mistaken for the enemy by their fellow Marines.
The Chandler Museum in Arizona has a new exhibit called “Being Eddie Basha.” It is a retrospective of the hometown-turned-statewide grocer who died in 2013. And as KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, this 3,800 sq ft installation is all about unpacking the man behind the grocery king persona. Chandler Museum's storytelling coordinator, Sarah Biggerstaff, literally leaned on Basha's own words for one interactive display. “This is our telephone. There's about 20 clips, and they range from, like, 20 seconds to a minute. You can pick it up, give it a couple seconds, but then you hear him actually speaking. And at our opening, it was really moving.” “I would want my epithets to have to say, ‘Eddie Basha, he was a good man, but a bad boy.’ And that's how I want to be remembered.” An interactive telephone display inside the “Being Eddie Basha” exhibit at Chandler Museum. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) Another one of his principles was putting people over profits. The great-grandson of Lebanese immigrants brought his family brand to tribal lands beginning in 1981 with the Diné Supermarket in Chinle. Basha even committed 25 cents of every dollar to the Navajo Nation. “And of course, the relationship with the Navajo became extremely powerful and fruitful and still exists today.” From Tuba City to Window Rock, stores kept popping up. More locations would follow on Apache land in Peridot and Whiteriver. The one-time gubernatorial candidate was also an avid collector of Western and American Indian art. Basha owned one of the world's largest private collections, most of which has since been donated to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. Parker Kenick of Nome competing in the One Hand Reach at the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. (Photo courtesy Carter Photography) Athletes, coaches, and spectators crowded Main Street in downtown Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada Saturday for the closing ceremonies of the Arctic Winter Games, also known as the Olympics of the North. And Team Alaska had a lot to celebrate. Among the six Arctic nations, it led the count for ulus, the medals shaped like the curved knife emblematic of Arctic life. Alaska had 227 ulus, followed by Team Yukon with 174 and Alberta North with 127. As KNBA's Rhonda McBride tells us, Parker Kenick of Nome took home three gold ulus and many lessons about life. Although Parker Kenick started learning traditional Alaska Native games when he was eight, he did not take part in the Arctic Winter Games until later in life. This year he competed in the adult category and won gold ulus in the Two Foot High Kick, the Alaskan High Kick, and the One Hand Reach. Kenick says he is grateful for the community support that made it possible for him to travel to the games. “Our spirits get lifted here because there's so many people here that want to see us do our best, to our absolute limit.” Kenick competed in his first Arctic Winter Games in 2023 and says he was lucky to be mentored by some of the best Indigenous athletes in the world. Now he's returning the favor. One of his coaches, Candace Parker, says when Kenick first started out, he was very quiet and kept to himself. Today, he readily volunteers to coach the younger athletes. “I would say full circle moment for him to be out on the floor passing on the knowledge. May not have been technical but doing more encouraging.” Parker Kenick of Nome, center, enjoys mentoring younger students at the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse. (Photo courtesy Carter Photography) Parker says young people can be self-absorbed, but the games teach them to think beyond themselves. She says it is an important exercise in humility, one that athletes like Kenick have embraced. Parker has been coaching since 1996, but this year she reached an important milestone – having three generations of her family compete in this year's Arctic Winter Games. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Monday, March 16, 2026 – What's in a (tribe's) name?
Please hit Subscribe and tell a freind about the show. Click here to go to our Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/222paranormal Click here to see Jennifer's new book. https://a.co/d/0975TGJO Click here to see Joe's book. https://a.co/d/0chXt3Ag Click here to save on High-end clothing. https://poshmark.com/closet/happie22 Click here to see Joe's poshmark Closet. https://poshmark.com/closet/toledojoe In this chilling episode of the 222 Paranormal Podcast, host Jennifer Shortridge explores one of the most terrifying legends in paranormal lore—Skinwalkers. Originating in Navajo folklore, Skinwalkers are believed to be witches capable of transforming into animals and using dark supernatural powers. Witnesses across the American Southwest have reported disturbing encounters with creatures that move like animals but behave like humans. In this episode we explore: • The origins of Skinwalker legends within the traditions of the Navajo people • Reports of shapeshifting creatures seen in the desert • Terrifying encounters on lonely highways • Stories of voices mimicking loved ones in the night • Witness accounts of animals behaving in unnatural ways • The mysterious paranormal activity surrounding Skinwalker Ranch Are Skinwalkers supernatural shapeshifters? Are they misunderstood folklore? Or could something far stranger be hiding in the deserts of the American Southwest? Turn down the lights and listen closely—because some legends may be more real than we think. Welcome to the 222 Paranormal Podcast, your gateway to the captivating world of the supernatural. Immerse yourself in our expertly crafted episodes, where we delve deep into a wide range of paranormal phenomena, including ghostly hauntings, cryptid sightings, and unexplained mysteries that defy logic. Each episode is meticulously researched and features engaging discussions with leading experts, seasoned ghost hunters, and renowned paranormal investigators. We cover the latest advancements in ghost hunting technology, offer practical tips for both amateur and experienced investigators, and review essential equipment for your paranormal adventures. Our podcast also explores the rich history of haunted locations, sharing true stories and firsthand accounts that will send chills down your spine. Whether you're a die-hard fan of the paranormal or just curious about the unknown, our content is designed to entertain, inform, and ignite your imagination. Stay tuned as we uncover secrets from the most haunted places around the world and analyze the most intriguing supernatural events. We also provide in-depth interviews with notable figures in the field and explore theories that challenge conventional understanding of reality. By subscribing to our Paranormal Podcast, you'll stay updated with the latest episodes, allowing you to join a community of like-minded individuals who share your fascination with the unexplained. Don't miss out on our exclusive content and special features, which bring you closer to the mysteries that lie beyond our everyday experiences. Dive into the world of the unknown with our Paranormal Podcast and experience the thrill of discovering what lies just beyond the veil of reality.
John Ford's 1956 film, “The Searchers”, is often lauded as a masterpiece. It follows Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) as an unapologetically racist ex-Confederate soldier on an obsessive odyssey to find his niece who was kidnapped by Comanches. The question of what he does when he finds her is a central tension of the plot. It was one of the first films added to the National Film Registry and ranks among the greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute. But its harmful stereotypes and other obvious drawbacks make it difficult watching for modern, informed audiences. As it marks 70 years since its release, we’ll hear from Native filmmakers and others about the place “The Searchers“ holds in film history. Still image from the 2026 film, “Ceremony” (Photo: courtesy Banchi Hanuse) We’ll also hear from Nuxalk filmmaker Banchi Hanuse about her documentary film, “Ceremony“, that premieres this week at South by Southwest. The documentary examines the cultural role of ooligan fish in Hanuse’s community in Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada. GUESTS Sunrise Tippeconnie (Commanche, Navajo, and Cherokee), director of programming at deadCenter Film and co-host of the “Reel Indigenous” podcast Julianna Brannum (Comanche), documentary filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit), filmmaker Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk), filmmaker, co-founder of Nuxalk Radio, and director of “Ceremony” Break 1 Music: Country Man (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album) Break 2 Music: Place I Call Home (song) Native Roots (artist) A Place I Call Home (album)
On today's newscast: Navajo and Hopi leaders testify in support of water rights settlement, Arizona featured on USPS stamps for Route 66 centennial, Prescott ends downtown hotel parking requirement exemption, and more.
John Ford's 1956 film, “The Searchers”, is often lauded as a masterpiece. It follows Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) as an unapologetically racist ex-Confederate soldier on an obsessive odyssey to find his niece who was kidnapped by Comanches. The question of what he does when he finds her is a central tension of the plot. It was one of the first films added to the National Film Registry and ranks among the greatest films of all time by the American Film Institute. But its harmful stereotypes and other obvious drawbacks make it difficult watching for modern, informed audiences. As it marks 70 years since its release, we’ll hear from Native filmmakers and others about the place “The Searchers“ holds in film history. Still image from the 2026 film, “Ceremony” (Photo: courtesy Banchi Hanuse) We’ll also hear from Nuxalk filmmaker Banchi Hanuse about her documentary film, “Ceremony“, that premieres this week at South by Southwest. The documentary examines the cultural role of ooligan fish in Hanuse’s community in Bella Coola, British Columbia, Canada. GUESTS Sunrise Tippeconnie (Commanche, Navajo, and Cherokee), director of programming at deadCenter Film and co-host of the “Reel Indigenous” podcast Julianna Brannum (Comanche), documentary filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit), filmmaker Banchi Hanuse (Nuxalk), filmmaker, co-founder of Nuxalk Radio, and director of “Ceremony” Break 1 Music: Country Man (song) Blue Moon Marquee (artist) Scream, Holler, and Howl (album) Break 2 Music: Place I Call Home (song) Native Roots (artist) A Place I Call Home (album)
*BONUS EPISODE*Tonight's stories come from the deserts of the American Southwest — places where Navajo legend warns of something that should not exist. People who encountered these things describe glowing eyes, voices that mimic loved ones, and creatures that run beside moving vehicles in the dead of night. These are four disturbing accounts of alleged Skinwalker encounters that witnesses say changed them forever.Linktree: https://linktr.ee/its_just_creepyStory Credits:►Sent in to https://www.justcreepy.net/Music by:►'Decoherence' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.auBusiness inquiries: ►creepydc13@gmail.com#scarystories #horrorstories #skinwalker
This week on the Regional Roundup, we hear about an animal sanctuary in Wyoming that looks after animals who used to spend their days in laboratories. We find out what happens to patients when a rural health facility closes. Then we meet a Navajo basket weaver who is keeping the tradition alive for the next generation. We round out the show with a story about a recent community event on Colorado's Western Slope to educate young community members about the reality of drought and water conservation.
[Native American Art] Today's episode features three artists who sat down with us during the 2026 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market on March 7 and 8 in Phoenix. Our guests are multitalented Comanche artist and film director Peshawn Bread, Hopi carver Tayron Polequaptewa, and Navajo weaver Marlowe Katoney. Native American Art is the official magazine of the Heard Market, so our whole team was there handing out magazines, greeting artists and subscribers, and celebrating the incredible art brought to Phoenix by more than 500 artists. Learn more about this show and others like it at nativeamericanartmagazine.com.
The Navajo code premiered at Guadalcanal in 1942, and soon proved its worth as it went from island to island, wherever there was combat. And with it went the code talkers themselves, who had to survive everything the Japanese could throw at them.
Hair might seem trivial, but for many of us it carries history, identity, and meaning far beyond keratin. In this week's episode, both of our storytellers explore the unexpected power their hair holds.Part 1: Being half Navajo and half white, Carissa Sherman turns to genetics to better understand her identity. As she questions where she belongs, her hair becomes a quiet but powerful marker of how she sees herself.Part 2: Growing up, Ria Spencer believed “good hair” meant long hair but when a medical condition forces her to shave it all off, she's challenged to rethink what that belief really means.Carissa Sherman is Diné (Navajo) and from Arizona. She's a rising 5th year PhD Candidate in the Human Medical Genetics and Genomics program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Carissa is a member of Dr. Katrina Claw's Lab. Her current work has involved community-based participatory research gathering perspectives of genetics research as well as examining population-level pharmacogenetic variation. Her research interests include examining ethical, legal, social and cultural implications of genetic research and learning potential ways to advance inclusivity and equity in public health medicine. She is interested in science policy and/or academia. Carissa and her husband like to craft, draw, go to renaissance fairs, and have two cats; she loves horror movies! Ria Spencer is an aspiring world traveler and wannabe foodie who's spent years belting classic rock and sweet soul music for marginally sober audiences with her band Girls on Top. She's also delighted to be a grown-ass woman who's lived long enough to have some stories to tell. Ria produced and hosted Where Are They Now: The GenX Years in the New York Frigid Festival and has also appeared in the No Name Comedy/Variety Show, RISK!, Better Said Than Done, Dead Rock Stars and The Volume Knob.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Deep within Navajo culture lives a creature that was once human — a witch who murdered their own family to gain the power to shapeshift, possess the living, and control the dead.*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*IN THIS EPISODE: The Navajo believe there are places where the powers of both good and evil are present and that those powers can be harnessed for either. And the masters of these powers are the skinwalkers. (Skinwalking Witches) *** If you hear the words “murder” and “London” you immediately think of Jack the Ripper – but he is only one of many brutal murderers who prowled the foggy city looking for victims. We'll look at some of the most gruesome in London's history. (Murderous London) *** Since it was built in 1981, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge connecting St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida has been a harbinger of tragedy. The four-mile-long bridge rises like a mastodon 430 feet into the bright sunlight. On or around the bridge, there have been hundreds of suicides, as well as deadly shipwrecks. And in 2016, there was the heinous murder of a child let down by the very system designed to protect her. (The Bridge to Tragedy) *** You've probably seen a street artist in person or on video appearing to defy gravity – floating as in mid-air, hoping you'll give them some of your pocket change. And of course you've seen magicians levitate the beautiful assistant, or levitate themselves. But then there are those who say they can do it for real – no trickery involved. Some are laughable, but others make you wonder. (Gravity-Defying Geezers)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:00:53.244 = Show Open00:03:10.733 = Murderous London00:14:22.509 = Skinwalker Witches ***00:27:05.454 = Bridge To Tragedy00:35:20.391 = Gravity-Defying Geezers ***00:49:26.863 = Show Outro*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakHELPFUL LINKS & RESOURCES…https://WeirdDarkness.com/MUSIC = Songs and Videos by our Weird Darkness punk band, #DarkWeirdnesshttps://WeirdDarkness.com/STORE = Tees, Mugs, Socks, Hoodies, Totes, Hats, Kidswear & Morehttps://WeirdDarkness.com/HOPE = Hope For Depression or Thoughts of Self-Harmhttps://WeirdDarkness.com/NEWSLETTER = In-Depth Articles, Memes, Weird DarkNEWS, Videos & Morehttps://WeirdDarkness.com/AUDIOBOOKS = FREE Audiobooks Narrated By Darren Marlar SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Murderous London” by Lea Rose Emery for Unspeakable Times: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/9fs2mcwk“Skinwalking Witches” by Kathy Weister-Alexander for Legends of America: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/35pskwcv“The Bridge to Tragedy” by Robert A. Waters for Kidnapping, Murder and Mayhem: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/8ss6j3jy“Gravity-Defying Geezers” by Ben Gazur for ListVerse: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2vcbc4em=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: December 27, 2022EPISODE PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/SkinwalkersABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: #WeirdDarkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all things strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold cases, conspiracy theories, and more. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “20 Best Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a blend of “Coast to Coast AM”, “The Twilight Zone”, “Unsolved Mysteries”, and “In Search Of”.DISCLAIMER: Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
Picking the perfect paint color can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack, but luckily, Wendy Glaister from Wendy Glaister Interiors is here to transform our color woes into wins! Eric G and John Dudley dive deep with Wendy as they unravel the mysteries behind choosing the right shades and share some nifty painting tricks that'll have your walls looking fresh and fabulous. From the resurgence of bold jewel tones to the perils of picking paint in the wrong lighting, this episode is packed with insights that will elevate your DIY game without sending you into a color-induced panic. So, whether you're stuck in a beige rut or just looking to spice things up, we've got the tips and tricks to help you paint like a pro. Let's roll up those sleeves and get ready to splash some color into our lives! Color is the name of the game in this lively chat with Wendy Glaister from Wendy Glaister Interiors, where Eric G and John Dudley dive deep into the colorful world of paint choices. As spring rolls around, the trio discusses how a fresh coat of paint can lift your spirits and change the vibe of your space, especially after the post-holiday slump. Wendy brings her expertise on color trends, revealing that deep jewel tones like hunter green and Bordeaux are making a comeback. She argues that while many have overdone the '50 shades of gray' look, it's time to embrace vibrant hues that reflect our personalities and lifestyles. The conversation moves beyond color palettes to practical tips on choosing the right sheens and finishes, emphasizing that the way a paint looks can dramatically shift based on the lighting and the surfaces being painted. Wendy's insights into the challenges of picking the right color while considering undertones and lighting conditions are not just informative but also entertaining, as the trio shares their own blunders and triumphs in the world of painting. Get ready to take notes, because you'll want to avoid those ‘Navajo white' moments and instead, find your perfect color match.Takeaways:Choosing the right paint color can transform your space and uplift your mood, so don't be shy—go bold!Wendy dropped some serious knowledge on using proper lighting when selecting paint colors; it can make or break your choice!Using larger color samples instead of tiny chips is crucial for making confident color decisions—size matters, folks!Paint prep is everything; skip the primer at your own peril, or you'll end up regretting that 'great' color choice.Don't let your painter convince you that a different brand will match your chosen color—trust me, it rarely works out!Sheen matters just as much as color; a matte finish can hide imperfections, while gloss will show every flaw!Links referenced in this episode:aroundthehouseonline.comCompanies mentioned in this episode:Wendy Glaister InteriorsChip and Joanna GainesBenjamin MooreSherwin WilliamsRalph LaurenMaria KillamPacific Shore StonesMentioned in this episode:Take a second and leave us a review on your favorite podcast player! Quick favor—if you're enjoying the show, the absolute best way you can support us is by leaving a quick review on your favorite podcast player. Subscribe to the podcast Make sure and Subscribe on your favorite podcast player or the link below! Podcast Subscribe 2026Around the House 2026 YouTube! Make sure and Subscribe to our YouTube page! Around the House YouTube SiteHype Designs Visit SiteHype Designs and lets build a website that works as hard as you do! Use Promo Code "Eric G" for your free website audit and 30 minute consultation. Site Hype Designs InstaBid: Stop losing jobs to slow estimates Turn 3 hours of manual estimating into 5 minutes. Real material prices. Real labor rates. Professional PDF quotes delivered instantly. Try it free at instabid.pro. Use code ATH50 for 50% off your first month. That's instabid.pro — code ATH50InstabidSubscribe to our YouTube Channel to see every part of the project for Blacktail Ranch Exciting collaboration alert! This playlist documents our joint project renovating Cam Anderson's new farm property on Blacktail Ranch—the home base for his adventures beyond the workshop. Cam (the woodworking wizard behind Blacktail Studio, with millions of fans loving his epoxy tables, live-edge builds, and creative furniture tutorials) is stepping into brand-new territory: his first-ever full home renovation and remodel. From the charming (but dated) farmhouse with its "lead paint chic" vibes to tackling structural updates, layout changes, and modern upgrades, we're transforming this 17-acre property into a functional, beautiful living space. I'm Eric G from Around the House, bringing my remodeling, construction, and design expertise to guide the process—planning layouts, solving real-world renovation challenges, handling the practical home improvement side, and making sure the build is smart, efficient, and homeowner-friendly. Expect step-by-step progress, honest discussions on budgets/timelines/hiccups, tool tips, design decisions, and the fun dynamic of blending Cam's woodworking flair with pro remodeling know-how. Whether you're a Blacktail Studio fan curious about Cam's new chapter, a DIYer tackling your own home reno, or just love watching big transformations, this series is for you! https://www.youtube.com/@aroundthehouseEricG/playlistsBlacktail Ranch InstaBid: Stop losing jobs to slow estimates Turn 3 hours of manual estimating into 5 minutes. Real material prices. Real labor rates. Professional PDF quotes delivered instantly. Try it free at instabid.pro. Use code ATH50 for 50% off your first month. That's instabid.pro — code ATH50Instabid
In this installment, Daniel finds something he never expected: normalcy. A job at a local pizza place, the simple rhythm of work and home, the blessed absence of danger. After everything they've survived, boring feels like a gift.Meanwhile, Brian's podcast has exploded beyond anything he imagined. Five million downloads.Tens of thousands of community members. Emails pouring in from witnesses who've carried their secrets for decades, finally finding a place where someone believes them. A seventy-eight-year-old woman writes to share an encounter she's hidden since 1952, and Brian remembers exactly why he does this work.But success brings complications. For every credible witness, there are a dozen others whose stories fall apart under scrutiny. A construction worker from British Columbia claims an intimate encounter with a female Sasquatch, and Brian is forced to draw hard lines about what belongs on the show.Then a retired nurse from New Mexico shares something different entirely: a story of a young Navajo man brought to her hospital in 1992, speaking of being taken by "the big people," and the federal agents who confiscated every piece of evidence before intimidating him into silence. The wheat and the chaff. Sorting one from the other becomes Brian's constant burden. Then the men in black return. Different faces, same cold authority. They come with an offer: classified documents revealing decades of suppressed research, interdimensional hypotheses, everything Brian has been searching for. The price? Stop pushing for official disclosure. Become a partner in managing the truth rather than forcing it into the light. Brian refusesEighteen months later, they burn his studio to the ground. But fire has a way of spreading what it's meant to destroy. The attack makes national news. Donations flood in. A major network offers a television deal with full editorial control. And soon Brian finds himself leading an expedition into the Pisgah with a full production crew, thermal cameras, and night vision equipment.On the eighth night, in a hollow near where Austin Mercer vanished, the forest comes alive with wood knocks and howls. The creatures stay just beyond the cameras, too smart to be caught clearly, but their presence is undeniable.It isn't definitive proof.But it's evidence the world will have to reckon with.And at a simple wooden cross marking where Austin was last seen, Brian says a quiet prayer for all those who've disappeared into these ancient mountains, and for the truth still waiting to be found.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sasquatch-odyssey--4839697/support.Have you had a Bigfoot encounter, Sasquatch sighting, Dogman experience, or other cryptid or paranormal encounter? We'd love to hear your story. Email brian@paranormalworldproductions.com to be featured on a future episode of Sasquatch Odyssey.Sasquatch Odyssey is a leading Bigfoot and cryptid podcast exploring real encounters, field research, and scientific analysis of the Sasquatch phenomenon.Follow the show and turn on automatic downloads so you never miss an episode.
Advocates working to accurately portray Native Americans in the K-12 education system in Texas scored a victory when the State Board of Education renewed a curriculum that was years in the making. The approval came at a time when the Trump administration and state officials pushed hard to scrub any hint of diversity from public school classrooms. Among other things, opponents of the Texas Native Studies course worried instruction about the Catholic Church's role in Indian Boarding Schools might demoralize Christian students. We'll look at what saved the Texas lessons and get a status update on some other states wrestling with efforts to accurately depict Native Americans throughout history. GUESTS Cheyenne Rendon (Apache and Navajo), senior policy officer for the Society of Native Nations, a member of American Indian Movement of Central Texas Stephen Silva-Brave (Sicangu Lakota), parent, licensed social worker, and Ph.D student Sashay Schettler (Hidatsa and Nueta from the MHA Nation), assistant director in the office of Indian and Multicultural Education for the North Dakota Office of Public Instruction and a member of the National Johnson-O’Malley Association board of directors representing Region 5 Dr. Sherry Johnson (Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), education director for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
Travels With Randy Route 66 Episode 7 is here! New Mexico! Gallop To Grants To Albuquerque Route 66 Maintenance Challenges Discussion Bubba and Randy discussed their experiences with Route 66, including Bubba's ongoing fascination with the route and Randy's recent travels through California, Arizona, and New Mexico. They explored the challenges and variations in maintaining the original route across different states, highlighting efforts in California and the difficulties in Arizona and New Mexico. Randy shared insights about the route's presence in Navajo tribal lands, noting the remnants and trading posts along the way, while both expressed frustration over the lack of official recognition and signage for Route 66 in some areas. Route 66 in New Mexico The discussion focused on Route 66 in New Mexico, particularly around Gallup, which was described as a former commercial and rail hub for the Navajo Nation. The conversation highlighted the differences between New Mexico and Arizona's architectural styles, with New Mexico having a distinct Spanish and Indian influence. They discussed the challenges of navigating Route 66, noting that while the signs were improved after Randy's first visit, some areas still lack clear routing information. Bubba and Randy also discussed the upcoming Centennial celebration on November 11th and the Four Corners monument, which Bubba had previously visited. Gallup New Mexico Visit Discussion Randy discussed his visit to Gallup, New Mexico, highlighting the El Rancho Hotel, a historic stop for Hollywood stars filming westerns, and Richardson's Trading Post, a century-old institution for Native American art. Bubba inquired about the 49er Lounge at the El Rancho, which Randy had not visited. They also talked about Gallup's four-lane Route 66, its split by the interstate, and its status as the "Indian capital of the world" dominated by Navajo art and culture. Century-Old Store Visit Experience Randy shared an experience visiting a century-old store in Richardson, where an employee allowed them to explore and take photos of the unique items, including vintage rugs, Kachina dolls, and an antique cash register. Bubba and Randy discussed the store's profitability, noting the high markup on items like rugs and the employee's reluctance to allow photos of the safe due to security concerns. Randy mentioned that approximately 1,000 U.S. businesses have been in operation for over 100 years, highlighting the longevity of some brands despite market changes. Route 66 Journey Discussion Randy described his journey along Route 66, highlighting the scenic high desert landscapes, abandoned buildings, and remnants of the historic route. He noted the survival of some old businesses and the presence of car graveyards with 1940s and 1950s vehicles. Bubba and Randy discussed the affordability of classic cars in the past, with Randy mentioning his difficulty in capturing the stories behind abandoned structures. They also discussed the population history of Grants, New Mexico, which saw a significant increase due to uranium mining in the 1950s and 1960s, and its current population decline. Route 66 and AI Discussion The discussion focused on the historical and current state of Route 66 towns, particularly Grants, New Mexico, and its connection to the uranium industry and Los Alamos. Bubba shared that Grants was founded in the 1880s by three Canadian brothers who built a section of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and its economy later boomed due to uranium mining. The conversation then shifted to the role of AI in modern learning and memory, with Bubba and Randy discussing how AI could serve as an informational companion while driving, and the generational differences in technology adoption and social skills. Technology's Impact on Social Interactions Bubba and Randy discussed the impact of technology on social interactions, noting that while young people can communicate effectively online, they may lack face-to-face confrontation skills. They also talked about a woman who wanted to marry her AI, highlighting the growing trend of people seeking artificial relationships. Randy shared a story about the Santa Fe Loop, a section of Route 66 in New Mexico that was created after a political dispute, and expressed interest in driving the original route rather than the modernized version. Route 66 and Business Ideas Randy discussed the historical Route 66, focusing on La Bajada Hill, a challenging dirt road segment that was bypassed in 1937. He expressed interest in exploring the area further with a four-wheel drive vehicle and highlighted the potential for adventure tours in the region. Bubba shared information about the high number of Starbucks locations in Albuquerque and New York City, suggesting a potential business idea for Randy to document her visits to different Starbucks locations for sponsorship opportunities. Travel and Sports Discussion Bubba and Randy discussed their upcoming travel plans, including a trip to Alaska and exploring national parks. They also talked about Albuquerque, New Mexico, its attractions, and the history of Blake's Lotta Burger. Bubba mentioned his son's interest in baseball and spring training. Randy expressed frustration with the ownership of the Los Angeles Angels and his decision to boycott the team. They concluded by discussing the growth of their Facebook page and podcast, with Bubba mentioning plans to develop perks for subscribers. SO. MANY. PHOTOS - Come join the conversation on Facebook with our 28,000 friends! https://www.facebook.com/travelswithrandypodcast Have a great idea for the guys? Want to sponsor us? Want us to sell something National Park or Route 66 related? Want to be a guest? Want to pay for both of us to go to Alaska? Want me to stop asking questions? bubba@travelswithrandypodcast.com !!
Chester Nez In 1942, 29 men were locked in a room and told to come up with a code the enemy couldn't break. The result would be an unbeatable encryption that sounded to outside observers like a cross between gibberish and random noises. But now came the tricky part - teaching the code to hundreds of men who needed to commit it to memory.
Diana and Renee break down Dark Winds Season 4, Episode 2 - an episode filled with secrets, emotional tension, and powerful cultural meaning. Bernadette is carrying the weight of a secret from Chee, and you can feel how deeply it affects her. Meanwhile, Joe shares an important moment with Bern at the crime scene, reinforcing the trust, responsibility, and emotional burden they both carry in protecting their community. Chee continues to evolve this season, showing vulnerability in his relationship with Bern while also stepping further into his role as an investigator — culminating in his unsettling decision to enter the Death Hogan. Diana and Renee explore what that moment means not just for the investigation, but for Chee's internal journey and his connection to culture, intuition, and leadership. They also discuss the danger surrounding Albert and Billie, and how their family bond raises the emotional stakes as the threat against them grows. Plus, a deeper look at the spiritual significance of the Death Hogan, ghost sickness, and how Dark Winds continues to honor Navajo cultural beliefs in a meaningful and powerful way. This episode highlights why Dark Winds stands out, through its emotional storytelling, layered characters, and profound cultural depth. 00:00 Intro 00:18 Bern's Secret and Emotional Stakes 01:41 Opening Crime Scene: Joe and Bern 04:48 The Assassin Mystery 07:32 Chee and Bern's Relationship Shift 11:24 Joe and Bern's Trust and Partnership 14:43 Albert and Billie: Family and Loyalty 18:10 Death Hogan Cultural Significance 19:50 Chee Enters the Death Hogan 23:06 What It Means for Chee 27:46 Rapid Fire Highlights 31:33 Question of the Day: Keeping Secrets 34:33 Recommendations 40:37 Final Thoughts Renee Hansen: https://linktr.ee/renee.hansen https://reneehansen.journoportfolio.com Follow and subscribe to Screens in Focus. Website: www.screensinfocus.comEmail: screensinfocus@gmail.com Instagram: @screensinfocuspodcast Facebook: Screens in FocusTikTok: Screens in FocusYouTube: Screens in Focus Feedback and TV/Movie Recommendations: Google Voice: (669) 223-8542 Free background music from JewelBeat.com: www.jewelbeat.com
In 1919, the brother of one of the West's most famous Indian traders was shot to death in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation.Part history, part true crime, The Sons of Gunshooter: A Navajo Resistance Story (U Arizona Press, 2026) reexamines the killing and subsequent murder trial, while simultaneously embedding the story in a much larger saga of colonization and resistance. The result is a book that's sweeping in its scope and surgical in its approach. Rewinding the clock to 1868, the authors follow the intertwining paths of two families to offer a riveting, deeply personal account that has been hailed as “a new way of doing historiography.”One of the authors is a descendant of participants in the case; the other is an investigative journalist. By merging Diné oral traditions with archival evidence, they succeed in upending one false narrative after another. This interview was conducted by Mary Reynolds, publicity manager for the University of Arizona Press. Her book, The Quake That Drained the Desert (forthcoming in 2026) investigates the 1887 borderlands earthquake that changed surface water and groundwater in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. 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
Welcome to Afternoon Tea w/ Killah Bee! ☕️
In 1919, the brother of one of the West's most famous Indian traders was shot to death in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation.Part history, part true crime, The Sons of Gunshooter: A Navajo Resistance Story (U Arizona Press, 2026) reexamines the killing and subsequent murder trial, while simultaneously embedding the story in a much larger saga of colonization and resistance. The result is a book that's sweeping in its scope and surgical in its approach. Rewinding the clock to 1868, the authors follow the intertwining paths of two families to offer a riveting, deeply personal account that has been hailed as “a new way of doing historiography.”One of the authors is a descendant of participants in the case; the other is an investigative journalist. By merging Diné oral traditions with archival evidence, they succeed in upending one false narrative after another. This interview was conducted by Mary Reynolds, publicity manager for the University of Arizona Press. Her book, The Quake That Drained the Desert (forthcoming in 2026) investigates the 1887 borderlands earthquake that changed surface water and groundwater in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
In 1919, the brother of one of the West's most famous Indian traders was shot to death in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation.Part history, part true crime, The Sons of Gunshooter: A Navajo Resistance Story (U Arizona Press, 2026) reexamines the killing and subsequent murder trial, while simultaneously embedding the story in a much larger saga of colonization and resistance. The result is a book that's sweeping in its scope and surgical in its approach. Rewinding the clock to 1868, the authors follow the intertwining paths of two families to offer a riveting, deeply personal account that has been hailed as “a new way of doing historiography.”One of the authors is a descendant of participants in the case; the other is an investigative journalist. By merging Diné oral traditions with archival evidence, they succeed in upending one false narrative after another. This interview was conducted by Mary Reynolds, publicity manager for the University of Arizona Press. Her book, The Quake That Drained the Desert (forthcoming in 2026) investigates the 1887 borderlands earthquake that changed surface water and groundwater in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west
In 1919, the brother of one of the West's most famous Indian traders was shot to death in a remote corner of the Navajo Nation.Part history, part true crime, The Sons of Gunshooter: A Navajo Resistance Story (U Arizona Press, 2026) reexamines the killing and subsequent murder trial, while simultaneously embedding the story in a much larger saga of colonization and resistance. The result is a book that's sweeping in its scope and surgical in its approach. Rewinding the clock to 1868, the authors follow the intertwining paths of two families to offer a riveting, deeply personal account that has been hailed as “a new way of doing historiography.”One of the authors is a descendant of participants in the case; the other is an investigative journalist. By merging Diné oral traditions with archival evidence, they succeed in upending one false narrative after another. This interview was conducted by Mary Reynolds, publicity manager for the University of Arizona Press. Her book, The Quake That Drained the Desert (forthcoming in 2026) investigates the 1887 borderlands earthquake that changed surface water and groundwater in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-west
Canadian energy firm Enbridge will reimburse a northern Wisconsin county for the cost of policing protests expected with construction of the company's Line 5 reroute. As Danielle Kaeding reports, the Ashland County board approved the deal Tuesday. The Wisconsin Counties Association negotiated an agreement where Enbridge will reimburse local governments for public safety costs tied to the Line 5 project in northern Wisconsin. Funds will be deposited into an escrow account managed by the association. Some residents worried the deal would turn local authorities into a private security force. Bad River tribal member Edith Leoso warned against signing the agreement to get reimbursed by Enbridge. “They will feed you what you want to hear, and then they will take everything from this area and leave you to pick up the pieces.” An Enbridge spokesperson said the company volunteered to fund the account. Enbridge also said it received a final US Army Corps permit that the company says will allow construction to move forward, but state approvals for the project are being challenged in court. Enbridge previously paid millions for public safety costs tied to protests of its Line 3 replacement project in Minnesota. ZenniHome founder Bob Worsley shares his excitement about opening up his facility in 2024 atop the former Navajo Generating Station near Page, Ariz. (Photo: Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) A civil lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court in Arizona alleges a factory on the Navajo Nation was “squandering millions on improper and mysterious expenditures” before suddenly shutting down in July. KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio has more. The Albuquerque, N.M.-based firm Indigenous Design Studio + Architecture (IDSA) alleges that Mesa subcontractor ZenniHome breached its $50 million deal to build 160 modular homes. “There's a whole lot of money that got dumped into Zenni and obviously only to produce 18 homes, it's a mystery how that occurred.” Attorney Jay Curtis says IDSA is looking to repair the reputation of its founder, Tamarah Begay, in addition to recouping roughly $22 million from the American Rescue Plan Act for the Navajo Nation. ZenniHome CEO Bob Worsley says there will not be a refund of any amount. “No, the money is gone … It's not sitting in somebody's account somewhere, so the company has been liquidated. There's no more assets. It's just almost theater when we spent every dime they gave us, and about $4 million more than that – out of my pocket – so yeah, that's not going to happen.” Worsley also faces a separate federal class action lawsuit after laying off more than 200 employees last year. Rex Lee Jim, Vice President of the Navajo Nation prepares notes prior to a media call in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Radio Studio in Washington, D. C., Monday, March. 3, 2015. (Photo: Bob Nichols / USDA) Former Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim is being remembered for his advocacy for Navajo people, including in education and culture, and as an international diplomat. Jim served as vice president from 2011 to 2015 with Navajo President Ben Shelly. He also served on the Navajo council, was a poet, playwright, author, and traditional medicine man. The Navajo Nation Council said Jim passed away on Tuesday and recognized his dedication to Navajo people, cultural preservation, and global Indigenous advocacy. JoAnn Chase (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara), former executive director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), is being remembered for strengthening NCAI's national presence and advocating for Native rights. Chase served as executive director from 1994 to 2001. In a statement Tuesday, NCAI said of Chase's passing that her leadership help the organization become stronger and more visible, working with tribal leaders, Congress, and others. She later worked in philanthropy, policy, and arts, including most recently serving as vice chair of the board for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Wednesday, February 25, 2026 — The Menu: Commod Bods, a standout frybread stand, and Afro-Indigenous mutual aid in Minneapolis
Michelin "inspectors" are visiting the state, and it's expected that they'll hit Colorado Springs this time around.
It turns out that Navajo is an incredible rich and astoundingly complicated language, which made it perfect to become the secret weapon of the Allies in their fight against the Japanese in the Pacific.
Photo: The entrance to the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Ganado, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation. (Gabriel Pietrorazio / KJZZ) The Interior Department is reviewing signs posted at more than a dozen national parks and monuments as part of President Donald Trump's agenda to “restore truth and sanity to American history”. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, one figure featured at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site on the Navajo Nation is now in the crosshairs. To Navajos, Ganado Mucho (Many Cattle) is like a folk hero. He went on the “Long Walk”, marching hundreds of miles to be held at a New Mexico fort until he and other leaders signed an 1868 treaty. “And he wasn't defeated in the easy binary of stories that are winners and losers, but peacemaker doesn't mean you're not a resistor.” University of Oklahoma professor Farina King (Diné) says Mucho's legend may be at odds with how the U.S. wants to remember its past on the heels of the nation's 250th anniversary. “The thorn in the side is a disruption to the celebratory stories of Manifest Destiny, conquering the West, taming it and subjecting, you know, Indigenous peoples as if they're just a part of a wild landscape.” Three Navajo men, Tiene-su-se, left, Ganado Mucho, and Mariano in 1874. (Courtesy National Anthropological Archives / Smithsonian Institution) Once freed, Mucho then met fellow trader John Lorenzo Hubbell and kept making peace in the Southwest, settling disputes – often between Mormon ranchers and Navajos. In 1878, Hubbell set up his iconic trading post – still open to this day – and would rename that area. Hence Ganado, Ariz. Health care officials say a new Level IV EMS trauma facility opened by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska will mean faster and more efficient care for residents who need emergency medical attention. Mark Moran has more. Winnebago Comprehensive Healthcare Services completed a $15 million emergency department in December, which then received a Level IV trauma center designation from the Nebraska Department of Public Health. Marketing Specialist Halle Murray says the new facility is a dramatic upgrade over calling 911. “Maybe the response time for Winnebago is longer if you try to call 911. So, here we actually have our own emergency line. It’s just a quicker response time, whether that’s needing help with something, or a ride to the hospital in an ambulance.” It took six years for Winnebago’s emergency department to earn the trauma center designation, which included rigorous training for the medical professionals and other staff who work there. In additional to advanced training and updated treatment protocols, the site itself was subject to a series of inspections and reviews prior to its Level IV designation. Murray says the trauma center fills a big need. “There’s always people who need help here on the reservation. Again, just getting to them quicker and helping them out the best that we can, and helping them get the care that they deserve, and I would say it’s a huge need in the Winnebago community right now.” Nebraska has one Level I trauma center, located in Omaha. A bill in the New Mexico Legislature that would have allowed state driver's licenses and identifications to include Native American designations failed as the session closed last week, New Mexico In Depth reports. The bill would have allowed applicants to request a mark to appear on their license or ID as Native American. Supports say it is in response to federal immigration actions taking place across the country, as Native Americans have been among those confronted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and having the designation would be another layer of identification. A handful of tribes in the state reportedly supported the bill. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode
The documentary aired on a Tuesday night in October, and nothing was ever the same. Within hours it was trending worldwide. Scientists came forward. Former government employees reached out. And across the country, people started paying closer attention to the forests around them.This episode brings the first volume of Born Wild to a close — but not before we hear from some of the most compelling voices in the archives. Russell Crawford, a Tennessee hunter with over fifty years in the Cherokee National Forest, describes the morning he had a clear shot at something massive and chose not to take it. Not because he couldn't — but because pulling that trigger would have felt like murder.Margaret White spent thirty years teaching biology in rural Washington and debunking every Sasquatch story her students brought to class. Then she came face to face with one on a trail in Olympic National Park, and every rational explanation she ever had turned to dust.James Whitehorse carried his story for fifty-four years. He was eight years old, herding sheep near the Chuska Mountains on the Navajo reservation, when a towering figure stepped out of the junipers and raised its hand in greeting. His grandfather told him the white world would never understand. James kept quiet — until now. Maria Santos worked the graveyard shift at a gas station on the edge of the Gila Wilderness. One night at two in the morning, something eight feet tall walked up to the pumps and started examining them like a curious child discovering something new.Thomas Erikson came from four generations of Oregon loggers. They called them the Wood Apes, and every logger in the Pacific Northwest knew about them. Thomas shares three encounters spanning decades — including the day one of them spoke to him and pointed at the trees, at him, and at itself. Like it was saying they were all part of the same thing. Thomas passed away six months after this interview.We hear from Eddie McGraw, a long-haul trucker who watched a creature stroll across a Montana rest area at two in the morning like it owned the place. From David Baker, a National Geographic photographer who captured three frames of the clearest Sasquatch image ever taken — then locked them in a safe for fifteen years. From Patricia Morgan, a Yellowstone ranger who reveals a secret file of sightings passed down from ranger to ranger since the 1950s. And from Dr. Michael Brooks, a primatologist who spent fifteen years hiding evidence that would have validated everything. Then comes the revelation no one expected. Brian's own mother, Jean Patterson, finally shares a secret she kept for decades — she saw one of the creatures on the Lyerly property a full year before Brian ever did. She stayed silent to protect him. To give him the choice to walk away.He couldn't walk away. He never could. The episode closes on the eve of the final expedition. The witnesses gather at the mountain house. The sun sets over the Appalachians. And deep in the forest, the creatures begin to sing.Tomorrow, everything changes.This is the end of Book One. The odyssey continues.
Congress approved billions for federal grants and programs through the EPA during the Biden administration. Those dollars were meant to help disadvantaged communities and fund community resilience projects, public health programs, and initiatives to reduce energy insecurity on tribal lands. But just as these projects were getting underway, the Trump administration froze many of the grants, put others under indefinite review, or canceled them outright. Now, some of the groups that were awarded federal funds have banded together and are suing the federal government for the money they're owed. Others are seeking alternative funding streams. In this episode, we speak with people whose projects are on hold, but who continue to serve their communities. Episode Guests: Ben Grillot, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center Wahleah Johns, Former Director, U.S. DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs Ilyssa Manspeizer, CEO, Landforce Bryan Cordell, Executive Director, Sustainability Institute For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Skill Up for Earth: https://skillup.earth Highlights: 00:00 Intro 03:01 Ilyssa Manspeizer on what her organization, Landforce 06:29 Ilyssa Manspeizer on the impact of federal grant funds 08:58 Ilyssa Manspeizer on losing the grant funding 11:38 Ilyssa Manspeizer on Landforce joining the lawsuit against the EPA 14:08 Ben Grillot on the original EPA grantees 19:08 Ben Grillot on the politicization of the grants 24:54 Ben Grillot on the loss of trust with the federal government 26:42 Bryan Cordell on the work of the Sustainability Institute 30:38 Bryan Cordell on the status of their work after federal grants were pulled 33:51 Wahleah Johns on growing up on a Navajo reservation 45:59 Wahleah Johns on the community response to IRA rollbacks 48:20 Wahleah Johns on working toward the future ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Congress approved billions for federal grants and programs through the EPA during the Biden administration. Those dollars were meant to help disadvantaged communities and fund community resilience projects, public health programs, and initiatives to reduce energy insecurity on tribal lands. But just as these projects were getting underway, the Trump administration froze many of the grants, put others under indefinite review, or canceled them outright. Now, some of the groups that were awarded federal funds have banded together and are suing the federal government for the money they're owed. Others are seeking alternative funding streams. In this episode, we speak with people whose projects are on hold, but who continue to serve their communities. Episode Guests: Ben Grillot, Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center Wahleah Johns, Former Director, U.S. DOE Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs Ilyssa Manspeizer, CEO, Landforce Bryan Cordell, Executive Director, Sustainability Institute For show notes, related links, and episode transcript, visit climateone.org/podcasts. Skill Up for Earth: https://skillup.earth Highlights: 00:00 Intro 03:01 Ilyssa Manspeizer on what her organization, Landforce 06:29 Ilyssa Manspeizer on the impact of federal grant funds 08:58 Ilyssa Manspeizer on losing the grant funding 11:38 Ilyssa Manspeizer on Landforce joining the lawsuit against the EPA 14:08 Ben Grillot on the original EPA grantees 19:08 Ben Grillot on the politicization of the grants 24:54 Ben Grillot on the loss of trust with the federal government 26:42 Bryan Cordell on the work of the Sustainability Institute 30:38 Bryan Cordell on the status of their work after federal grants were pulled 33:51 Wahleah Johns on growing up on a Navajo reservation 45:59 Wahleah Johns on the community response to IRA rollbacks 48:20 Wahleah Johns on working toward the future ********** Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you'll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today at patreon.com/ClimateOne. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The NTSB report of a fatal Piper Navajo crash in Medford, Oregon in December 2021 leaves important aviation safety questions unanswered. This fatal crash is attributed to spatial disorientation but facts available lead to serious questions about the fuel tanks and more. The pilot had flown from his home in Nevada to Medford but had to have the fuel system repaired. Days later when the repairs were complete, the pilot took off in low ceiling conditions. The aircraft made a sharp right turn, entered the clouds, and then descended sharply, with the pilot pulling up shortly before hitting the ground After reentering the clouds, the aircraft made an inverted loop and crashed into the ground in a near vertical attitude.The NTSB identified the probable cause as spatial disorientation followed by an uncontrolled descent, with flicker vertigo as a possible factor in the crash. John Goglia and Todd Curtis discuss how the sharp right-hand turn just after takeoff could have been caused by the pilot attempting an immediate emergency landing, possibly due to fuel system issues related to the recent repairs. They also look at the timing of the pilot's travels to pick up his airplane. The time from his home to the airport was about eight hours. The NTSB noted that the pilot turned in his rental car less than 45 minutes before the accident. Did he do sufficient preflight checks? Was he sufficiently rested? Don't miss what's to come from the Flight Safety Detectives - subscribe to the Flight Safety Detectives YouTube channel, listen at your favorite podcast service and visit the Flight Safety Detectives website. Want to go deeper with the Flight Safety Detectives? Join our YouTube Membership program for exclusive perks like members-only live streams and Q&As and early access to episodes. Your membership support directly helps John, Greg and Todd to deliver expert insights into aviation safety.Interested in partnering with us? Sponsorship opportunities are available—brand mentions, episode integrations, and dedicated segments are just a few of the options. Flight Safety Detectives offers a direct connection with an engaged audience passionate about aviation and safety. Reach out to fsdsponsors@gmail.com. Music: “Inspirational Sports” license ASLC-22B89B29-052322DDB8 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. This segment introduces the "Jesse Scouts," a Union special forces unit formed by John Frémont and named after his wife. Led by figures like John Charles Carpenter, these men wore Confederate disguises to infiltrate enemy lines. Despite their effectiveness as commandos, their lack of discipline led to friction with the regular Army. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Richard Blazer leads the "Legion of Honor," a hunter-killer team using Jesse Scout tradecraft to fight Confederate partisans in West Virginia. Blazer employs detective work to track down the ruthless Thurman brothers, who attack Union supply lines in the rugged terrain of the Appalachians. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. A failed Union raid on Richmond carrying orders to kill Jefferson Davis prompts the Confederacy to escalate irregular warfare and political influence operations. As the Confederate Secret Service aids the Copperhead movement, author Herman Melville embeds with Union cavalry to witness the hunt for the elusive John Mosby. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Confederate General Jubal Early threatens Washington, D.C., where Lincolnwitnesses the battle at Fort Stevens. Meanwhile, partisan leader John Mosby operates independently, capturing Union forces at Mount Zion Church. O'Donnell notes that better coordination between Early and Mosby could have endangered the capital. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Grant orders total war in the Shenandoah Valley to crush Mosby's Rangers. Although Richard Blazer's scouts initially have success with Spencer carbines, they are eventually lured into a trap and annihilated by Mosby's men at Kabletown, where Blazer is captured by Ranger Lewis Powell. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Lewis Powell, the Ranger who captured Blazer, is revealed to be a Confederate Secret Service operative working with John Wilkes Booth. Powell returns to Baltimore to aid in a plot to kidnap Lincoln, while Mosby deploys troops to secure a potential escape route for the conspirators. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Harry Harrison Young takes command of the Jesse Scouts, serving as Sheridan'sstrategic eyes in Confederate uniforms. These daring scouts deceive enemy forces and carry messages through enemy lines, enabling Sheridan to move his army effectively to join Grant and trap Lee. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Robert E. Lee rejects the option of guerrilla warfare at Appomattox, choosing surrender to preserve the nation. Years later, former partisan John Singleton Mosby becomes close friends with U.S. Grant and joins the Republican Party, earning the enmity of many Southerners but symbolizing reconciliation. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. At Appomattox, Grant offers generous terms allowing Confederates to keep horses and sidearms. However, Lincoln does not immediately declare the war over; in his final speech, he focuses on the complex path to peace and suffrage, viewing the surrender as a step rather than a conclusion. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Following Lincoln's assassination, General Sherman negotiates a surrender with Confederate General Johnston at Bennett Place. Sherman attempts to secure a comprehensive peace including civil matters, but officials in Washington, seeking stricter retribution, reject the terms as too generous, forcing a second, purely military surrender. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. While the Grand Review celebrates victory in Washington, General Sheridan is sent to the Texas border with 50,000 troops to counter French imperial ambitions in Mexico and suppress remaining Confederate resistance. Meanwhile, Confederate General Kirby Smith flees to Mexico rather than surrender his western forces. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. The government utilizes military tribunals to try Lincoln's assassins and Andersonville commandant Henry Wirz, arguing the war is ongoing. Prosecutors hope to pressure Wirz into implicating Jefferson Davis in prisoner atrocities to justify hanging the Confederate president, but Wirz refuses and is executed alone. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Vorenberg discusses Richard Henry Dana's "Grasp of War" speech, which argued the war could not end until the victor secured guarantees against future conflict. This philosophy, demanding the enemy be held down, contrasted sharply with Lincoln's "let 'em up easy" wrestling metaphor, fueling Congressional debates over reconstruction. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Vorenberg explains how President Johnson's racism and desire for a hasty peace alienated Congress. Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights and Freedman's Bureau Acts, arguing the war was over. Republicans, however, insisted war powers remained necessary to protect freedmen, leading them to override Johnson and unite against him. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. To undercut radicals, Johnson followed Seward's advice to declare the insurrection ended by executive proclamation in 1866. Vorenberg notes this "official" peace ignored realities like the New Orleans massacre. Simultaneously, Senator Doolittle was misled by General Carlton regarding the mistreatment of the Navajo at Bosque Redondo during his peace commission tour. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. General Grant found himself caught between a hostile President Johnson and Secretary Stanton. Vorenberg describes the disastrous "swing around the circle" tour, where Johnson used Grant'spopularity as a shield while making embarrassing speeches. Witnessing Johnson's behavior, Grant ultimately sided with Stanton, realizing the President was unworthy of his loyalty.
Guest: Michael Vorenberg. To undercut radicals, Johnson followed Seward's advice to declare the insurrection ended by executive proclamation in 1866. Vorenberg notes this "official" peace ignored realities like the New Orleans massacre. Simultaneously, Senator Doolittle was misled by General Carlton regarding the mistreatment of the Navajo at Bosque Redondo during his peace commission tour.1880 GAR BUILDING
As immigration enforcement actions continue across the country, Indigenous people are increasingly concerned they are being targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And some have been detained. For the Mountain West News Bureau, Daniel Spaulding has more. On the morning of December 5, ShyLynn Allen received a panicked phone call from Jose Joaquin Sanchez Alvarado, the father of her children. Alvarado was driving from his home in Meridian, Idaho to pick up their 10-year-old son to take him to school. Suddenly, he was surrounded by police. “He called me from inside the car and he’s like, ‘I think,’ he’s like, ‘I think they’re taking me.’ And he was just like, ‘I’m pretty sure.’ He’s like, ‘I’m pretty sure they’re detaining me.” Allen is a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe in Idaho and Nevada. Alvarado, who is undocumented and not a tribal member, came to the United States from Mexico when he was just 11-years-old. “He doesn't have a criminal record. I don't even know why they're really targeting him. You know, he's a good person. He's not. He's never been in trouble like he always works like that's all he does is work.” Alvarado is now being held in an ICE detention facility near Las Vegas, Nev. Allen says the emotional toll has fallen heavily on their children. “Now they don't even want to go outside or do anything.” As ICE ramps up operations across the country, that fear is widespread in Native communities. Despite being U.S. citizens and members of sovereign tribal nations, Indigenous people are increasingly being questioned – and in some cases detained – by immigration agents. In January, Peter Yazzie, an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, was detained by ICE in Phoenix before being released later that day. “We are the first peoples of the country, and our citizenship should never be questioned or challenged by anyone.” That is Crystalyne Curley, the Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council. In January, the council passed legislation calling on ICE to formally recognize Navajo Nation identification documents. Many tribes across the country are urging their citizens to carry tribal IDs at all times. In January, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) hosted a know your rights webinar. Over a thousand people attended. Beth Wright (Laguna Pueblo) is a senior staff attorney at NARF. “Yeah, we’re getting a lot of outreach from folks all over the country. I think there’s a lot of concern about what to do if tribal citizens are stopped by ICE and what their rights are in different encounters with ICE. I think one of the important messages to convey is that tribal citizens are citizens of the U.S.” But many Native parents are worried that tribal IDs won't be enough. Eva Flores is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe in Arizona. She lives in Caldwell, Idaho. “You know, I fear for my kids to go out, even just to school or activities, not knowing if, you know, they're coming home or if they're going to be picked up.” In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said its agents are trained to determine a person's immigration status and whether they are subject to removal. As tribal leaders call on federal authorities to respect tribal sovereignty, parents like ShyLynn Allen are focused on protecting their children. “We don't need ICE on our street. They're only terrorizing brown people. And it's not doing any good. They're violating constitutional rights, they're killing people.” Defending adult division world hoop champ Josiah Enriquez wins his third title in a row at the Heard Museum on February 15, 2026. (Courtesy Heard Museum / Gila River Broadcasting Corporation) The annual Indigenous hoop dancing championships was held over the weekend, returning to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Ariz. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, the reigning titleholder made history by defending his crown once more. A two point difference – 214 points – a three-time champion, Josiah Enriquez…” The three-peat adult division champ, who is Navajo and from the pueblos of Isleta and Pojoaque in New Mexico, made history Sunday night. His victory marks a very rare feat no one else has achieved, except the sport's most decorated dancer three decades ago. Arizona's Derrick Suwaima Davis (Hopi and Choctaw) won three of his record-setting seven world titles in a row between 1996 and 1998. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Tuesday, February 17, 2026 – Will limiting commercial trawler bycatch save salmon in Alaska?
This episode of Science Moab continues the exploration of the Navajo sandstone with Marjorie Chan, Professor Emeritus at the University of Utah. The unique coloration of the sandstone is influenced by iron oxides that have analogies with the iron oxide 'blueberries' found on Mars and have implications for groundwater evidence on the planet. Margie elaborates on the concretions and weathering patterns within the Navajo sandstone and how these differ from the Wingate sandstone. We also discuss the challenges of geological research funding, the importance of fieldwork partnerships, and the significance of preserving natural geological features and educating the public on their value.
In this episode, we explore the remarkable experiences of Terry, a Navajo woman and longtime seasonal national park worker who has spent much of her life in some of the most remote landscapes of the American West. Raised on the Navajo Nation and later working across national parks and wilderness areas, Terry shares a series of encounters and stories that span decades and vast geography.From time spent harvesting pine nuts in isolated mountain terrain to moments along quiet roads near the Grand Canyon, Terry describes experiences that left lasting impressions and raised profound questions. She also recounts stories passed through family and community, along with observations made while living and working in places few people ever see after dark. Her perspective is shaped by cultural understanding, deep respect for the land, and years of firsthand exposure to the natural world.This conversation weaves together personal encounters, regional history, and reflections on what it means to share space with something intelligent and elusive. Terry's account offers listeners a grounded, thoughtful look at Sasquatch as more than a fleeting mystery, rooted in place, memory, and lived experience. Join us as we listen closely to a voice shaped by the land and the stories it carries.
For years, investigator JC Johnson documented cases in the American Southwest that defied conventional wildlife encounters. Livestock are killed without being fed. Massive 'Furry Ones.' Upright predators are seen pacing vehicles. Winged humanoids returning night after night. And families targeted in ways that left lasting fear.In this episode of Phantoms & Monsters Radio, I present a focused selection of JC's most disturbing Four Corners investigations. These are not legends. These are documented cases with recurring patterns that continue to surface across the region.What emerges is not a single explanation, but a convergence. Cryptids. Predators. Cultural memory. And a landscape that does not let go of what moves through it.More cases remain. This is only the beginning.JC Johnson was a Southwest-based investigator and lead researcher for Crypto Four Corners, known for documenting cryptid encounters, livestock mutilations, and unexplained predation across the Four Corners region. His work emphasized field investigation, witness testimony, and indigenous knowledge, particularly on Navajo lands. Rather than offering simple explanations, Johnson focused on recurring patterns involving upright predators, winged humanoids, Sasquatch activity, and bloodless animal deaths. His investigations and collaborations with researchers & investigators continue to be referenced in ongoing discussions of anomalous activity in the American Southwest.As always, these accounts are presented without exaggeration, without conclusions forced upon the listener, and with respect for the witnesses who came forward.If you have experienced an unexplained encounter or sighting, visit Phantoms and Monsters https://phantomsandmonsters.com to submit & share your story.
For years, investigator JC Johnson documented cases in the American Southwest that defied conventional wildlife encounters. Livestock are killed without being fed. Massive 'Furry Ones.' Upright predators are seen pacing vehicles. Winged humanoids returning night after night. And families targeted in ways that left lasting fear.In this episode of Phantoms & Monsters Radio, I present a focused selection of JC's most disturbing Four Corners investigations. These are not legends. These are documented cases with recurring patterns that continue to surface across the region.What emerges is not a single explanation, but a convergence. Cryptids. Predators. Cultural memory. And a landscape that does not let go of what moves through it.More cases remain. This is only the beginning.JC Johnson was a Southwest-based investigator and lead researcher for Crypto Four Corners, known for documenting cryptid encounters, livestock mutilations, and unexplained predation across the Four Corners region. His work emphasized field investigation, witness testimony, and indigenous knowledge, particularly on Navajo lands. Rather than offering simple explanations, Johnson focused on recurring patterns involving upright predators, winged humanoids, Sasquatch activity, and bloodless animal deaths. His investigations and collaborations with researchers & investigators continue to be referenced in ongoing discussions of anomalous activity in the American Southwest.As always, these accounts are presented without exaggeration, without conclusions forced upon the listener, and with respect for the witnesses who came forward.If you have experienced an unexplained encounter or sighting, visit Phantoms and Monsters https://phantomsandmonsters.com to submit & share your story.
Bedtime History: Inspirational Stories for Kids and Families
The Navajo people, also called the Diné, are one of the largest Native American tribes in the United States. They have lived for centuries in the Southwest, in areas that are now Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The Navajo are known for their strong traditions, beautiful weaving, silver jewelry, and deep connection to the land. Family, storytelling, and respect for nature are central to Navajo life. Today, the Navajo Nation continues to preserve its language and culture while also living in the modern world.
This week John Poz's TMPT welcomes into the show for the feature episode, former CWFH Tag champion, The Navajo Warrior The former WWE and WWF Superstar joins the show to talk about his entire professional wrestling career. Host John Poz and Scott talk about breaking into the business, strongman competitions, wrestling Samoa Joe in his retirement match, John Cena, UPW, NWA, WWE, WWF, Tatanka, and so much more.Store - Teepublic.com/stores/TMPTFollow us @TwoManPowerTrip on Twitter and IG
What happens when a young family with almost no biblical training gets dropped into one of the most spiritually active places on the planet? Darcy and her daughter Kristen share their firsthand account of life as missionaries on the Navajo reservation during the 1970s and 80s. Their incredible story that includes dark apparitions, physical demonic attacks, skinwalker activity, witchcraft aimed directly at their infant son, and a series of divine interventions that feel straight out of the book of Acts. Become a member here: Blurrycreatures.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry
Today’s episode is a classic from the archives, a conversation from 2019 with current Navajo Nation Poet Laureate Jake Skeets about his debut poetry collection Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers. Winner of the Whiting Award in poetry and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, there is no better time to revisit this remarkable collection, and this unforgettable conversation with Skeets, as we await his new book Horses coming this March from Milkweed Editions. For the bonus audio archive Jake contributed a reading and analysis of a poem by the first Navajo Nation Poet Laureate, Luci Tapahonso, a poem called “Hills Brothers Coffee.” He talks about it in relation to his thoughts on Diné or Navajo poetics. This joins supplemental readings by many past guests including Tommy Pico, Layli Long Soldier, Brandon Hobson, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Natalie Diaz, Elissa Washuta, Morgan Talty and many others. To learn how to subscribe to the bonus audio and about the many other potential benefits and rewards of joining the Between the Covers community as a listener-supporter, head over to the show’s Patreon page.
Photo: Kipnuk resident Larry Kalistook asks village and state officials questions about possible relocation during the meeting on January 31, 2026. (James Oh / Alaska Public Media) The Alaska Native village of Kipnuk is at a crossroads. A powerful storm last fall destroyed homes, contaminated water, and left residents with a critical decision: rebuild in the same spot or move to higher ground? As the Alaska Desk’s Alena Naiden from our flagship station KNBA reports, the conversation is just getting started. Kipnuk resident Rayna Paul fights back tears as she talks about how the remnants of Typhoon Halong ravaged her village — and why relocating is so important for the next generation. “We want them to have a livable life too.” She shared her thoughts at a recent meeting in Anchorage, where more than 50 Kipnuk residents discussed the future of their community. Village Council President Daniel Paul says it'll be up to the residents to decide what's next. “I had many calls from our tribal members, half of them wanna stay, half wanna go.” Kipnuk is about four miles inland from the Bering Sea coast and was once home to about 700 people. Nearly everyone evacuated after the October storms. Paul says about 100 residents are back now, working to rebuild, but there's a lot to do. The storm demolished about 150 homes, wiped out vital infrastructure, and left lands and water contaminated. During the meeting, residents spoke predominantly in Yup'ik, asking what relocation could look like. They asked about how to choose a new site and secure land ownership. And they pondered what it would take to set up critical infrastructure at a new place. Village Council Vice President Chris Alexie says that would include a school, airport, and health clinic. “This isn’t going to be an easy process to do, but we have to do that.” Village officials say the relocation process can take years. Kipnuk elder David Carl says he supports relocating. “We’re not thinking about ourselves, who we are now, we just want to fight for our upcoming generations.” But for Daniel Paul, Kipnuk is home and he hopes to live there again one day. “For me, I’m gonna stick with Kipnuk, regardless of how the situation is. I was raised there, and I’ll stay there.” Paul says the meeting was just the first step in the relocation discussion, and residents have a lot of factors to weigh. But Kipnuk leaders also feel a sense of urgency. Paul says the village expects only one substantial influx of federal funding. To make the best use of it, he says they need to decide soon whether they want to stay or move. Navajo County Complex. (Courtesy Navajo County) For decades, public health officials in Navajo County, Ariz. have been helping tribal members and elders who were not born inside a hospital with obtaining birth certificates. As KJZZ's Gabriel Pietrorazio reports, they have seen a spike in applicants following reports of Native people getting caught up in ICE crackdowns nationwide. Last year, 305 residents applied for delayed birth certificates across Navajo County, two thirds of which covers tribal lands belonging to Navajos, Hopis, and White Mountain Apaches. Violet Redbird-Nez (Kiowa and Diné) is a vital records specialist with county public health. She treks to Kayenta quarterly to help residents get documented and for the last three months, Redbird-Nez says there is an uptick. “They're worried that they might get deported.” There were 22 applicants last month alone. Once the paperwork is filled out, it typically takes six weeks. “And it's so endearing to know that they came by to say, ‘Hey, thank you for helping me get my birth registered. I'm legal now,' is what they say. So that's awesome.” Indian Health Service is headquartered in Rockville, Md. (Photo: Antony-22 / Wikimedia) U.S. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NM) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced this week the Stronger Engagement for Indian Health Needs Act. The legislation elevates the role of the Indian Health Service (IHS) Director to Assistant Secretary for Indian Health within the Department of Health and Human Services. Senators say elevating the position would give IHS greater authority to address the health care needs of Native communities. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out the latest episode of Native America Calling Thursday, February 5, 2026 – Can caribou slow the drive for oil and mineral development in Alaska?
This episode originally aired on April 5th, 2022. In this hour, stories of learning from our elders. A mechanic, a teacher, a patriarchy-busting grandmother, and Star Wars in translation. This hour is hosted by regular Moth host Angelica Lindsey-Ali. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media. Storytellers: Ishmael Beah is separated from his beloved grandmother during the war in Sierra Leone. Rose Saia feels understood by her new 4th grade eacher. Charlotte Mooney helps a man wandering on the highway. Manuelito Wheeler wants to help preserve the Navajo language by dubbing Star Wars. Podcast # 759 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Navajo Connection with SasquatchIn 1999, after moving to Denver, Colorado, a Navajo man, Nightwolf, surprised his brother, whom he hadn't seen in seven years. The brothers, both Navajo, decided to drive up Berthoud Pass to catch up. While enjoying the mountain scenery, they spotted a large, black, furry figure that they first mistook for a bear. Nightwolf pulled over, tossed an apple from their bag toward the creature (accidentally hitting it), and quickly realized it was not a bear but Bigfoot. Drawing on Navajo stories about the creature, he felt a mix of fear and awe. The being stood about nine feet tall, with a massive head, no visible neck, a barrel-like chest, thick leathery skin, and alert, intelligent eyes. Despite his brother's frantic warnings that it would kill him, Nightwolf chose to show respect by calmly approaching with the bag of apples. He knelt, bowed his head to expose his neck in submission, and placed the bag in front of the creature. It briefly grasped his neck—leaving an oily residue—then released him, took the apples, and walked away. Shaken but deeply honored by the encounter, Nightwolf rejoined his brother in the car. He describes the experience as life-changing and ends with blessings to the reader.Join my Supporters Club for $4.99 per month for exclusive stories:https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/what-if-it-s-true-podcast--5445587/support
© 2020-2026 Ivy Podcast Discovery LLC
