PODCAST

The Secret Lives of Parks

National Parks Conservation Association

Unusual stories from some of America’s most beloved and inspirational places — our national parks.

society & culture places & travel

All Episodes

00:27:17

Of Hawks and Hellcats

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/10/31

For most national park enthusiasts, a who’s who of early park champions might include names like John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt and Stephen Mather, among others. One notable omission from that list is a truly fearless and outspoken suffragist turned environmental activist who left behind a considerable conservation legacy ― all while remaining largely unknown to park supporters today.Host Todd Christopher travels to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary ― the world’s first refuge for birds of prey ― to talk with

00:34:41

Parks and the Art of Paying Attention

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/09/30

Study after study has shown that time in nature enriches us mentally and physically. Just a couple of hours outdoors each week can improve our mood, reduce our stress, boost our immune systems and deepen our sleep, among many other benefits. But life has a way of distracting us from simple pleasures like hiking and camping. The demands of work, school and family can overtake our best intentions and our waking hours.Award-winning journalist Nicolas Brulliard devised a plan to get himself into nature

00:39:21

The Bird Nerds of Big Ivy

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/08/19

Neotropical migratory songbirds spend the winter in Central and South America and travel each spring to their breeding grounds in the U.S. and Canada. These species are teeny creatures on average, often weighing under two ounces each, yet their travel plans are bold — some make roundtrips of more than 10,000 miles in a single year. But this colorful cohort of birds, from warblers to thrushes to tanagers, face habitat loss from climate change and development at both ends of their range.But the Big

00:42:15

Florida’s Untenable Alcatraz

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/07/17

In late June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state was moving forward on plans — negotiated without public or Tribal input — to build a tent-based immigration enforcement facility in the Western Everglades. This facility is designed to hold between 3,000 and 5,000 detainees on an isolated airstrip on the border of Big Cypress National Preserve at an estimated cost of $450 million a year. By July 2, just days after the public first learned about these plans, the facility

00:31:32

The Sum of Its Parts

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/06/27

Earlier this month, the National Park Service had a major victory in a place you’ve probably never heard of and didn’t know was in danger. The focus of this good news is a humble warehouse on the outskirts of Charles Town, West Virginia, that houses millions of rare artifacts and employs a dream team of specialized staff devoted to restoring and conserving America’s history.In March, the Department of Government Efficiency made plans to cancel the lease on this Park Service facility, throwing the

00:34:22

Return to the Bat Cave

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/05/30

Over a decade ago, an explorer conducting surveys at Grand Canyon National Park noticed what appeared to be an opening in a red rock cliff face high above him in the park’s remote backcountry. His team discovered a cave that appeared, by all accounts, to have been completely untouched by people. Researchers found a series of passageways with gypsum formations and a variety of wildlife, including thousands and thousands of mummified bats.In episode 4 of the podcast, we talked with several experts

00:47:52

Squeezed Thin: Park Staff in Upheaval

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/04/22

Multiple staffing crises are harming the National Park Service, including mass layoffs, a hiring freeze, forced retirements and delays in onboarding seasonal employees — and a new reduction in force could be imminent. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced plans late last Friday to drastically consolidate land management agencies across the country, and a new round of terminations could affect every level of park management.These reckless, wide-ranging job cuts come at a time when national parks

00:16:46

Bonus: On the Trail with Amy

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/04/15

On April 18, the National Parks Conservation Association will host a 10-day silent auction. As part of this fundraiser, The Secret Lives of Parks cohost Jennifer Errick is offering to produce a podcast-style audio story for one winning bidder or couple, modeled after the stories we create here. Today, we’re sharing what this kind of keepsake can sound like, with excerpts from Jennifer’s recent conversation with NPCA Senior Vice President of Communications Amy Hagovsky. If you'd like to be the star

00:36:02

On the Road Again... and Again

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/04/08

To celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016, journalist Conor Knighton visited all 59 capital-N, capital-P parks in one year — turning that experience into a series of "On the Trail" segments for CBS Sunday Morning and, later, into the New York Times best-selling memoir "Leave Only Footprints."Host Todd Christopher interviews Conor about that year and how his year in the parks shaped his understanding of our public lands, and of himself as well.Original theme music by Chad

00:33:51

The Angel of Glen Echo

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/03/28

The Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo, Maryland, was the first national park site created to honor a woman and one of just 13 such sites across the country. Barton lived and worked in this corner of Maryland thanks to a unique partnership with a local arts institution known as Glen Echo Park, whose founders built the stately building to honor her as a celebrity in residence. It served as a multipurpose homestead and the American Red Cross headquarters during the last 15 years of

00:42:11

Save the Dinosaurs

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/02/27

Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah is the original Jurassic Park, created 110 years ago to protect a trove of more than 1,500 fossils, including the Allosaurus, the Diplodocus, the Stegosaurus and many others. Visitors can even touch real dinosaur bones from 149 million years ago.This area has long been a target for oil and gas development, but earlier this month, incoming Interior Secretary Doug Burgum raised the threat level when he issued a new secretarial order directing his

00:29:08

Photographing Parks After Dark

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2025/01/28

“Half the park is after dark.” This phrase was coined by the astronomer and artist Tyler Nordgren in 2010 as part of a series of posters he created of nightscapes at public lands. National parks are some of the best places in the country to see dark night skies. Still, many visitors head home after sunset, not even considering the sights they’re missing out on. This episode, photographer and night-sky enthusiast Jeff Pfaller speaks with host Jennifer Errick on some of the techniques he uses to take

00:34:55

A New Park for an Old Hero?

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/12/16

The Mojave Desert of Southern California is a place where creatures move and grow at a slow pace. In this vast, harsh landscape, the desert tortoise has served as a hard-working hero that has helped life flourish around it for centuries. But its population has been plummeting for decades, and activists have been working to preserve more than half a million acres that will help the tortoise, and many other species, survive.In this episode, host Jennifer Errick travels to the Mojave Desert to speak

00:34:39

A School Year on Wheels

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/11/05

Have you ever dreamed of living on the road and exploring national parks for months at a time? One Minnesota couple uprooted their lives to go on a year-long adventure with their twin daughters, building a curriculum for their girls’ education at public lands around the country.How did they do it? This episode, we explore some of the joys and challenges of “roadschooling.”Host Jennifer Errick speaks with Jen Goepfert, Travis Pedersen, and their daughters Aela and Eva. From the seed of the idea to

00:33:51

The Woman Behind the Weekend

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/10/01

If you enjoy having time off on the weekend, you can thank the woman who standardized the 40-hour workweek and made the concept possible. Frances Perkins also created Social Security and unemployment insurance, banned child labor, and put many safety measures and workplace protections in place that we simply take for granted. Yet, few people know much about the first female U.S. cabinet secretary and how she continues to shape our lives decades later.Giovanna Gray Lockhart is executive director of

00:28:48

In the Footsteps of Grizzlies

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/09/10

Since childhood, award-winning author Kevin Grange has been fascinated with one of the most fearsome and misunderstood predators on the continent: grizzly bears. His passion has taken him to remote and colorful destinations, and he has spent many long, rugged days following in the pawprints of grizzlies — and occasionally having those pawprints charging back in his direction.Now, Grange shares his wealth of bear knowledge and advice in a new book, “Grizzly Confidential: An Astounding Journey into

00:35:21

For the Love of Dog

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/08/28

Our pets are family, and when we travel, it only makes sense that we want to bring our dogs with us. Many national park sites are ideal places for our canine companions, with accessible trails and programs geared just for them — but not every site is a good choice for a dog, and many can present serious dangers to our pets.A new system-wide map and guide to dog accessibility can take some of the mystery out of planning a park trip, and knowing the park regulations and best practices can make trips

00:36:47

It Takes a Village

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/07/30

Last month, several hundred people gathered in Greenwich Village to celebrate the opening of a new visitor center at Stonewall National Monument and to honor the movement Stonewall set in motion as the “birthplace for Pride.” Mark Segal is a longtime activist and journalist who participated in the momentous events that took place here in June 1969, and he curated the interpretive exhibit featured in the new visitor center.In this episode, host Jennifer Errick speaks with Segal on the events of the

00:42:25

Before the Gate

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/06/27

On the remote Sea Islands of South Carolina, golf courses and gated developments are changing the rural character of some of the first African American-owned lands in the country.The Gullah/Geechee are the direct descendants of the enslaved people who once worked on the area's rice, cotton and indigo plantations; now, the island that serves as the epicenter of their culture is at risk from a new development threat. The Gullah/Geechee and their lands played a critical role at a turning point in the

00:28:23

A Brief Shining Moment

The Secret Lives of Parks ·

2024/05/31

They say the stars at night are big and bright deep in the heart of Texas... but what about the middle of the day? Not just any day—in this episode, we experience the recent total solar eclipse at Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and discover how the history of this Hill Country ranch connects it to the night sky and the heyday of the U.S. space program.Host Todd Christopher captures the sounds of the awe-inspiring celestial event from the LBJ Ranch as ranger Kevin Goodwin shares LBJ’s

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