Threshold

Series produced by Auricle Productions

Series image

Threshold is a Peabody Award-winning podcast that tells captivating stories about people and the planet. Each season, we do a deep dive into one pressing environmental story, exploring it through the intersections of science, politics, culture, and environmental justice. We aim to make space for thoughtful, honest, and intersectional conversations about human relationships with the natural world.

Season 4: "Time to 1.5" documents this profound moment in human history, when the window for keeping global heating to 1.5ºC is still open—just barely.

Season 3: "The Refuge." The controversy over drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Season 2: "Cold Comfort." Climate change in the Arctic through the eyes of people who live there.

Season 1: "Oh Give Me a Home." Can we ever have wild, free-roaming bison again?


47 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Piece image
Remember the Sámi family from episode six? The Aleksandersens face threats to their reindeer herding from both climate change and climate change so...

  • Added: Mar 11, 2019
  • Length: 35:40
Caption: Jim White is the director of INSTAAR (Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research) and a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder., Credit: Jim White
18 months of reporting. All eight Arctic countries. So many fascinating people. On the final episode of season two of Threshold, we pull back a lit...

Bought by KSKQ, Prairie Public, Prairie Public, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., and Wyoming Public Radio


  • Added: Dec 17, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Graduate student Ian MacDowell, undergrad Aidan Stansberry, and principal investigator Joel Harper at work on the Greenland ice sheet, Credit: Amy Martin
The Greenland ice sheet is basically a giant ice cube the size of Alaska. What happens when it melts? We spent five days camping out on the ice wit...

Bought by KSKQ, Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Dec 11, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Iqaluit is the capital city of Nunavut, the largest territory in Canada., Credit: Nick Mott
All across the Arctic, indigenous languages are on the decline. But in many communities, people are finding new ways to reclaim both language and c...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Dec 03, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Parades are held across Russia on May 9 to commemorate the end of the war and to honor the 26 million Soviet citizens who lost their lives., Credit: Amy Martin
Half of the Arctic is in Russia, and half of Russia is in the Arctic. Oil, minerals, pollution -- it's a web of complicated environmental stories t...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Nov 27, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Two men carry a Soviet flag, Credit: Amy Martin
Russia has more land in the Arctic than any other nation. It's also a regime that does not tolerate dissent. What does this mean for residents of M...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Nov 22, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Bowhead whale skull, Credit: Amy Martin
What happens when the thing you can't live without in the short term threatens your very existence in the long run? Meet two whalers in Utqiagvik, ...

Bought by KSKQ, Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Nov 15, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Richard Beneville, mayor of Nome, Alaska, Credit: Nick Mott
If there's one thing everybody's heard about the Arctic, it's that sea ice is melting, and that's bad news. But what's less well-known is that some...

Bought by KSKQ, Prairie Public, Prairie Public, and Wyoming Public Radio


  • Added: Nov 05, 2018
  • Length: 30:01
  • Purchases: 4
Piece image
Take a trip through the Norwegian archipelago, meet workers in the tourism industry, and get a glimpse of some charismatic Arctic megafauna. Plus, ...

Bought by KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Nov 01, 2018
  • Length: 18:33
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Ulf Isak Aleksandersen is 10 years old, and speaks three languages: Norwegian, Sámi and English. , Credit: Amy Martin
After thousands of years of tradition, a shifting climate is forcing changes in the way Sámi families herd reindeer. But some climate solutions are...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Oct 29, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Amanda Kernell, film director and screenwriter, Credit: Carla Orrego Veliz
Everyone's heard of Vikings -- their daring North Atlantic voyages, their mysterious runes. But there's another ancient culture in Arctic Scandinav...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, and Wyoming Public Radio


  • Added: Oct 22, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: A trombonist plays on installation day, Credit: Studio Granada Architects
An eight-ton concrete ball and a 32,000-year-old needle collection. What's all this got to do with the Arctic? Find out on this episode of Threshold.

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo., WMPG and more


  • Added: Oct 15, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: A group of researchers collect data on methane releases from Arctic lakes and wetlands., Credit: Amy Martin
All across the Arctic, frozen soil is thawing out. A lot of stuff is buried there -- plants and animals that lived more than 10,000 years ago. What...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, PRX Remix, Wyoming Public Radio, KBUT Crested Butte, Colo. and more


  • Added: Oct 09, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 6

  • Added: Oct 05, 2018
  • Length: :58
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Winter storms are eating away at the island, but moving the whole community is expensive., Credit: Amy Martin
When a major storm hit Shishmaref, Alaska in 2005, it became a poster child for climate change in the Arctic. Dramatic pictures of houses falling i...

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, KPIP-LP, and KBUT Crested Butte, Colo.


  • Added: Oct 01, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Brent and Elmer play along the shoreline at dusk, Credit: Nick Mott
In Shishmaref, Alaska, no one’s asking if climate change is real. What they want to know is how bad it has to get before the world decides to act.

Bought by Prairie Public, Prairie Public, Wyoming Public Radio, KPIP-LP, KSFR and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2018
  • Length: 29:32
  • Purchases: 6
Caption: Grímsey Island from the air, Credit: Studio Granada Architects
What is the Arctic, how is it changing, and why does this matter to all of us?

Bought by KPIP-LP


  • Added: Sep 17, 2018
  • Length: 04:09
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Inside the National Bison Range, Credit: Amy Martin
A few last bison stories before we turn our gaze to the north!

Bought by KPIP-LP and KUFM - Montana Public Radio


  • Added: Feb 16, 2018
  • Length: 29:03
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Bison on the Blackfeet Reservation, Credit: Amy Martin
In the final episode of season one of Threshold, listeners will encounter pearls of wisdom from youth who have grown up with bison in their midst, ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, PRX Remix, Prairie Public, Yellowstone Public Radio, and Wyoming Public Radio


  • Added: Mar 15, 2017
  • Length: 29:44
  • Purchases: 5
Caption: Phillips County, MT is the roughly the size of Connecticut, Credit: Amy Martin
Visit the American Prairie Reserve, a conservation project in the heart of Montana that could eventually be home to 10,000 bison. The vision is to ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, PRX Remix, New Hampshire Public Radio, Prairie Public, Yellowstone Public Radio and more


  • Added: Mar 09, 2017
  • Length: 29:00
  • Purchases: 6