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Season 12

1201 – Ketchikan and Alaska’s Panhandle Forests and Sea

Alaska’s Panhandle preserves vast tracts of the planet’s dwindling temperate rain forests. Ketchikan, the largest town in the panhandle, lies at the edge of these forests, accessible only by boat or airplane. It perseveres in the shadows of former robust salmon fisheries, but now attracts tourists, undeterred by incessant rains,...

1202 – The Lacandons of Chiapas: Guardians of the Ancient Mayas

Chiapas is Mexico’s southeasternmost state, bordering on Guatemala. A century ago, it was covered mostly with tropical rainforest in the lowlands and coniferous forests in the highlands. The Lacandon Maya were peoples of the rainforest, tracing their tenancy back thousands of years. Within their lands lie some of the world’s...

1203 – Brazilian Agriculture: From Industrial Megafarms to Intimate Minifarms

Central Brazil is home to the world’s largest farms, industrial agricultural landscapes with individual farms covering thousands of square miles. At the periphery, sequestered at the base of a rugged plateau are farms of smallholders who preserve ancient knowledge of seeds, crops and harvest. With the help of scientists, they...

1204 – Oaxaca’s People of the Sea and the Seaside

In recent decades, tourists have begun flocking to the Pacific coast of Oaxaca. Centuries earlier, indigenous communities flourished there, exploiting the bounty of the sea and forests. Some of these remain, living with their ancient traditions. Other communities included enclaves of escaped slaves, who founded their towns in labyrinthine estuaries,...

1205 – The Cascade Mountains of Washington: Gifts of the Volcanoes.

The Cascades, a chain of mountains extending from northern Canada well in British Columbia in Canada, are formed from a long string of volcanoes, some of which are still active. East of Seattle, built along the shores of Puget Sound, the mountains rise to great heights, covered with thick boreal...

1206 – Oaxaca’s Indigenous Guardians of the High Forests

Video Coming Soon Much of the Mexican state of Oaxaca lies in forested mountains, some reaching over 12,000 feet in elevation. Indigenous communities for millennia have inhabited towns deep within the forests, even at the highest elevations. Many of these communities guard their forests as part of their inherited rights....

1207 – The Estrada Real–Brazil’s Highway of Gold

Video Coming Soon For nearly two centuries Portuguese explorers, settlers, and prospectors combed the Brazilian countryside in vain, searching for deposits of gold. At the end of the 17th century rich lodes were finally discovered far inside the Brazil’s interior in a mountainous, craggy region. The King ordered a highway...

1208 – Brazil’s Salvador: Preserver of African-Brazilian Patrimony

For nearly three centuries, slaves were imported into Brazil by the millions. The largest port of entry was the city of Salvador. That city is now center of the nation’s Afro-Brazilian culture, which has become internationally celebrated, especially for its distinctive culinary tradition. The brutality of slavery and the ingenuity...

1210 – Basin And Range: The Making of the West

Video Coming Soon The Basin and Range Province defines the landscape of the interior western U.S. from southern Oregon to northwest Mexico, from Salt Lake City to Reno. This vast region of parallel high mountain ranges bordered by lengthy valleys contains much of the wealth and lore of the West...

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