Episodes - In The Americas with David Yetman

405 – Colombia – Coast to Forest

From a Spanish fortress on the Caribbean coast to a native hamlet on the Amazon River, from a village of descendants of runaway slaves to a renowned city center dedicated to bicycles, this sprawling nation offers a unexpected variety of cultures and urban landscapes. We hop from coast to center...

406 – Argentina – Malbec/Ruta 40

Argentina’s nostalgic Ruta 40—Route Forty—passes along the base of the Cordillera of the Andes from the extreme north to the southernmost road in the nation. On its way Ruta 40 meets the famed wine capital of Mendoza, whose dedication to Malbec wine is recent, but whose wine production dates to...

407 – Favelas-Rio

The shanty towns for which Río de Janeiro is famous (or notorious) play a pivotal role in the city’s cultural history. Favelas, as they are known, rise precipitously from near the ocean far up the hillsides. Often bereft of minimal municipal services, they are home to a rich cultural life,...

408 – Wind River Range

The Wind River Range in western Wyoming is the state’s largest mountain range, nearly one hundred miles from north to south. With dozens of massive peaks, it is also home to the wildest country in the lower 48 states. Much of it is protected in wilderness, which we commemorate on...

409 – Coffee and Culture in Oaxaca

The state of Oaxaca is home to sixteen different Indian groups among whom can be found more than sixty different languages.

410 – Argentina Ruta 40

Argentines maintain that Patagonia begins at the Río Colorado in the Province of Neuquen. Traveling south, we cross that river on Ruta 40—Route Forty—in a volcanic landscape amidst a vast desert, the majestic peaks of the Andes always present on our right. Within the slopes of the Andes are myriad...

101 Slickrocks and monuments in the Four Corners

Nowhere else in the world offers a more graphic view of deep forces of geology at work than the Four Corners portion the Colorado Plateau. The arid climate, the peculiar volcanoes, the powerful forces of erosion, and the clashes of Earth’s tectonic plates makes for the highest concentration of national...

102 Ancient peoples of the Colorado Plateau

More than a thousand years before the arrival of Europeans in the southwestern U.S. native peoples were establishing their occupation of the Colorado Plateau. They learned early how to derive a living in a dry climate where winters were bitter and summers torrid. And they left behind proof of their...

103 The wild and explosive past of northwest New Mexico

For thousands of years, New Mexico’s northwestern quadrant has been home to a wide variety of native peoples. The places they chose to live are a showcase of the powers of volcanoes and erosion. These natural monuments help define the territories these people have chosen and have become symbols for...

104. The Northern Jaguar Preserve: Where the great cats roam freely

A little over one hundred miles south of the U.S-Mexico borders in the state of Sonora, international conservation groups have discovered the ideal habitat for jaguars, mountain lions, and ocelots. Through their efforts, former cattle ranches in some of the roughest country in North America now belong to these top...

105 The Salton Sea. Life and death in an inland ocean.

For more than a thousand years, the Salton Sink In southeastern California has been home to the largest body of water in the state. It is there because the San Andreas Fault is tearing southern California apart and the bottom is dropping out. Three hundred years ago, it was Lake...

106 Whales and their offspring in San Ignacio Lagoon

For millennia, gray whales have made an annual pilgrimage from the cold, rich marine waters in the Gulf of Alaska to the warm, protected waters of San Ignacio Lagoon. The calm bay sits on the west coast of Baja California. There the mother whales feel safe from predators and givebirth...