The Land I Trust is an audio series by the Sierra Club that brings powerful stories about special places into your home. We travel throughout the United States, to discuss clean energy solutions and moving beyond coal with locals.
Season 2
Season 2 of the Land I Trust brings you storytellers from across the Western US who share their experiences in harvesting, protecting, and living with the four natural elements: water, fire, wind, and air. Narrator Mary Anne Hitt weaves together the tales of individuals across the Western part of the country as they share their tales of climate change, clean energy and everything in between.
Make sure to check out Season 1: Stories from the American South.
Episodes
Profiles
Hear more from the individuals featured in our Season 2 episodes.
Aaron Cage moved to Colorado to work in the oil and gas industry. But it wasn’t long before he made the switch to working in wind energy. Here, he talks about what led him to change jobs.
Gabriel Hunt is a fourth-generation coal miner living in Carbon County, Utah. He’s also a hip-hop artist. In this piece, he remembers using his rapping skills to quit his job in the mines.
Kayla Molloy is an 8-year-old climate activist. Here, she talks to her mom, Rachel, about how she got into activism, and what she likes best about planet Earth.
Krystal Two Bulls is an Oglala Lakota / Northern Cheyenne activist from Lame Deer, Montana. She visits Crazy Head Springs, a source of natural spring water on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, to talk about her work to protect the land.
Larry Dozier is the pastor of St Johns United Methodist Church in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. Here, he talks about how outsiders view Watts, and his efforts to improve his community by installing solar panels at his church.
Mishka Banuri is a 17-year old student in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this piece, she talks about being one of the young people who got Utah to pass a climate resolution—and how her faith informs her activism.
Patty Gladstone is a junior high math and science teacher in Seely Lake, Montana. Here, she talks about the challenge of teaching young people about climate change—and how recent wildfires have affected her community and her family.
Percy Deal lives on the Navajo Reservation, just south of the Peabody Energy coal mine. In this piece, he talks about how the mine has impacted his life, and his hopes for the future.
Richard Grant raises cattle on his family ranch in Wyoming. Wind is not always a rancher’s friend—it can chill newborn calves and blow away hay. But in this piece, Richard talks about how he found a way to make the wind work for him.
Vickie Simmons lives on the Moapa Reservation in Nevada, not far from Las Vegas. Here, she talks about the impacts that a nearby coal mine has had on her and her family.
About the Producers
This series was produced by the award-winning team of Isaac Kestenbaum and Josephine Holtzman. Their climate change audio project Frontier of Change, a series documenting climate change in Alaska, recently won the 2017 Online Journalism Award for Audio Digital Storytelling. Kestenbaum and Holtzman explore connections between climate and culture through immersive audio, experiential storytelling and live events.