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PODCAST

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance

Eleven Dollar Bill

America holds hundreds of millions of acres of land in trust for the public — national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and the waters off our coasts. Right now, that inheritance is being taken, not in secret, but in plain sight, while the country"s attention is elsewhere.On Common Ground: An American Inheritance is a six-part documentary podcast about the immediate threats to America"s public lands. In 2025, a proposal to sell three million acres of public land set off a national

sports wilderness

All Episodes

29:46

Episode 6: The Inheritance

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/27

The finale of this 6-part documentary series offers hope and a vision of what public lands could still become if people are willing to stand up for the places they love."The Inheritance" opens with Ada Limón, the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, who spent her tenure installing poems in national parks. Beauty, she says, is what makes us brave — and we need our bravery now. In a country where so much can be bought, public land remains one of the few places the promise of equality still holds.Bill Hedden and

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22:41

Episode 5: The Cost

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/26

In the 1970s, Bill Hedden took a job at the Atlas uranium mill on the banks of the Colorado River in Moab. He was lucky: a spot on the construction crew kept him away from the mill's most lethal work — the acid tanks, the yellowcake hearth, the men spreading fiberglass resin with their bare hands, who'd been told nothing about what it would do to them. Those jobs went to people without the education to know the danger, many of them Native laborers who commuted hours for the work, and many of them

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27:58

Episode 4: The Lies

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/24

Every argument for dismantling America's public lands is built to sound reasonable: we need affordable housing; the West shouldn't be run by faceless bureaucrats in Washington; public lands represent a broken promise to the states. Episode four, "The Lies," pulls those arguments apart, and asks a more consequential question: who profits when we believe them?The episode opens with Scott Fitzwilliams, who spent his career in the U.S. Forest Service and rose to supervise Colorado's White River National

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28:47

Episode 3: The Plunderers

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/17

Who really owns America's public lands, and who is trying to take them away?Episode three, "The Plunderers," follows the money. It opens with four hunters from Missouri who crossed from one corner of public land to another without ever touching a wealthy landowner's ranch — and were sued for eight million dollars for it. That case is the small version of a much larger story: how enormous private wealth is converting what belongs to all of us into what belongs to them.Hosts Bill Hedden and John Leshy

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42:03

Episode 2: The Land

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/17

Episode two, "The Land," is the origin story: how the United States came to hold 640 million acres in trust for the public, how concentrated wealth plundered and privatized much of it in the 1800s, and how the nation pulled back from the brink to build a system of parks, forests, and monuments that became the model for the rest of the world. But it's happening again: the richest Americans now command a share of the nation's wealth outstripping even the Gilded Age barons who plundered these lands the

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39:30

Episode 1: The Theft

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/08/04

Last summer, millions of Americans rose up to defeat Senator Mike Lee's plan to sell off 3.5 million acres of public land. Hunters and anglers, climbers, veterans, and tribal nations all joined the fight.It felt like a victory. It turned out to be a diversion.While the country celebrated, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, forcing open more than 200 million acres of America's public lands to industrial development: 60 times what the Lee amendment proposed selling. There were no

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2:24

Trailer: On Common Ground

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance ·

2026/07/27

Public lands belong to all of us. Right now, that inheritance is being taken, not in secret, but in plain sight.Last year, Americans rallied to stop a plan to sell off public land — and won. But the fight that made headlines mattered far less than the one that didn't. While the country celebrated, a far larger giveaway had already begun.On Common Ground: An American Inheritance is hosted by Bill Hedden and John Leshy. Produced by Sarah Hedden, Dagny Scott, and Del Feltz. Sound engineering by Joe

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