Episodes - In The Americas with David Yetman

608 – Oregon: Violent Past and Verdant Present

More than any other of the contiguous United States, Oregon has been shaped by volcanoes. East and west of the Cascade Range are two different landscapes. On the east side, we climb through lavas of volcanic glass and follow a mountain bike trail at the edge of a flow, then...

609 – Cuba’s Far East

Santiago de Cuba, a thousand kilometers southeast of Havana, was once Cuba’s most important city. Ravaged by hurricanes and impoverished by the U.S. blockade, it has endured and still celebrates its African roots and an ancient religious shrine. Residents of African descent celebrate an old French custom.

610 – Chiapas Highlands: Mexico’s Indian Empire

In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, we find nations apart from mainstream Mexico. Populated for centuries by peoples speaking Mayan languages, they retain their customs and dress–while struggling to protect their homelands. Their towns and villages retain traditional pre-Columbian governments. They have invited us to one of their...

701 – Father Kino and the Southwest

In the late 1600s the Spanish Crown sent Catholic missionaries to northwest Mexico to pacify Indians and make the way for European settlers. One cleric is remembered for his charisma, his geographical wandering, and his penchant for founding missions, including the architectural masterpiece of the Southwest, the Mission San Xavier del...

702 – Brazil’s Pantanal: Wetlands and Wildlife

In southwestern Brazil, the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater swamp is home to a startling variety of wildlife, especially birds and caimans. Throughout this vast swampland, cowboys still roam America’s oldest ranches on specially adapted horses to follow herds of swamp cattle.

703 – Pororoca: Brazil’s Famous Wave

The Amazon is famous for being the world’s largest river, but less well known for the massive tidal bore, a colossal wave that appears at the river’s mouth around the equinoxes. It’s called the Pororoca and surfers now flock from around the world to ride it. But it has also nearly destroyed...

704 – Baracoa: Cuba’s Outpost on the Atlantic

About 700 miles east of Havana, Cuba’s capital, sits the old town of Baracoa. Nearly cut off from the rest of the nation by high mountains, it has become self-sufficient in a nation that stresses self-sufficiency. The long road trip shows us Cuba’s vast sugar cane fields, and the convoluted geology of...

705 – The Road from Oaxaca to Chiapas

The states of Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico are culturally different from the rest of the country. We descend from the mezcal-producing fields of Oaxaca into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the native culture is dominated by women, then on to Chiapas, where a river town is home to ancient...

706 – Dry Times in the Southwest: The New Realities

Nowhere are the realities of climate change more sharply defined than in the American Southwest. Here rivers are drying and reservoir levels have reached at all-time lows. Cities and countryside alike must adapt to drought, but the strategies used by municipalities are far different from those used by ranchers.

707 – The Blue Ridge Parkway: From Virginia to North Carolina

Begun during the Great Depression as stimulus to the local economy, the 500 mile-long Blue Ridge Parkway is now part of our national park system and winds through some of our fairest hardwood and coniferous forests in their mountainous setting. We choose segments to show the landscape, places, and people along...

708 – Galápagos: The Great Climatic Seesaw

The Galápagos Islands are especially affect by climate changes. During El Niño years, the islands receive more rain and land critters prosper, but the water is warm, endangering the life of all marine creatures. During La Niña, rains are sparse, threatening terrestrial life, but the colder water brings bounty to marine creatures. It’s...

709 – Galápagos: Volcanoes and Nature on the Islands

Volcanoes created the Galápagos Islands and made life possible they, and they continue to create and destroy. The islands force cold water to the surface and with it wildlife in profusion, while their isolation makes a showcase for evolution in action. Nowhere else in the world is such a living laboratory,...