The Devil's Postpile

Subscribe | Patreon | WebsiteI’ve been thinking about the radioAbout the towers on the mountainAnd the people far away who choose what’s on them.Some Scared and angry and building bunkers, the men who own the ways we communicate,  all just a line item somewhere in the lowest dustiest corner of a spreadsheet. Some of this thought path has been paved — the short postcard form of this program is now on a dozen terrestrial stations and counting. Though these are of course of the public radio variety, with different gate keepers. Though the gates abound, it seems that swinging them open is more likely than pleasing the algorithms: the response controlled, non-human machine-learned attention-eating beasts that have snuck into our dining rooms, our living rooms our bedrooms, the place where I stack mybooks. But the place where my desk is, out in the mountains, still feels a bit untethered, even as I tether it with my presence. Likewise it is Not untouched, as there is no such thing, as it’s all touching each other all the time. Here by default, the sound is an archive. The artisan well and all the willows that the out of place water has fostered, how the long grass it’s grown moves in the wind. The missing limbs and branches of trees long felled, the planes and cars and whirring of snow makers on distant but earshot mountains. All the story of the place in wave form This year I’ve been digging into my own archives, examining the sounds I’ve collected, and assembling them in new ways. As the access to information feels increasingly precarious, flooded, owned, bent…I’ve been imagining new networks of distribution, looking for some that others have built; networks that flow both ways. I’ve been examining my own archive of ideas and audio and, somewhere on the edge of the landscape that the algorithms can just barely reach, I keep a folder of sounds it could never understand. What does wind —or a wind harp—or an idea that can’t quite be explained, what does that sound like to an artificial ear? Probably nothing. But to us, it can sound like everything. I’m Fil CorbittAnd this is year 6 of the wind To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

!! More at https://www.futureecologies.net/ !!Dear Wind Listeners. It’s the off season right now; currently working on Year 6 but I’m here to ask for a quick favor, and then play a guest episode from one of my favorite podcasts, Future Ecologies.In this algorithmic big-tech world, it can be very difficult to find new listeners. For the last 5 years one of the ways I’ve been trying to reach new people is by turning to public radio. In addition to this long-form podcast here in the feed, I also make a 2-minute segment specifically for public radio. It’s called "Postcards from The Wind" and it airs on 7 stations now across the US, including on my home station KUNR in Reno. BUT, I’d really like to get Postcards on more stations, and that is where you come in.I’m asking Wind Listeners to reach out to your local public radio station and request that they air Postcards from The Wind. If you’re up for helpin’ out with that, I will send a Wind Listener Patch and sticker as a thank you. Here’s how it works:1. Email me: fil (at) thewind (dot) org2. Use subject line “listener”, and include your mailing address.3. I’ll send an envelope with a pre-stamped postcard and a form note to copy, plus a Wind patch + sticker enclosed. You will then copy that short form letter by hand, or write your own and address it to your local station.4. Then drop the postcard in the mail.That’s it. So if you’re up for helping out, send your mailing address to Fil AT thewind DOT ORG subject line listener.---The guest piece in this episode comes from one of my all-time favorite shows, Future Ecologies (website here) You can subscribe to them in your podcast app, or HERE. This piece is called Cosmopoetics, and it's one of their episodes that has stuck with my long after listening. Hope it'll do the same for you.  To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

The end of Year 5 of The Wind. Thank you for being here // and keep listening. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

The Wind is a podcast from a desk in the mountains. This episode was recorded live in the woods as a self-titled sort of thesis.This episode is also available as a video -- if you'd like to watch me read this piece at the desk, visit https://thewind.org or head to https://www.youtube.com/@thewind_podcast Thank you to everybody who made this season of The Wind possible. This episode features the voices of Irvin Jim Jr., Jennifer Runyon, Sandra Coutinho, and John Luther Adams.This independent podcast is listener supported. If you’d like to join the community, head to www.Patreon.com/TheWindThank you for being here // and keep listening. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

This independent podcast is listener supported. If you'd like to help me make this show, visit https://patreon.com/thewind to set up a monthly donation.Thank you to Dean Barlese for trusting me with this story. Also a big thank you to BC Zahn Nahtzu (a co-defendant in the case that also held a long-distance staring contest through binoculars with mine security. BC is an artist with an Etsy store here), Max Wilbert (a co-defendent who provided pictures), Olive Greenspan, Tara Tran, Ray Pang, Kate Cowie-Haskell, Taylor Wilson for talking to me about the chemical properties of Lithium and Daniel Rothberg for speaking about mining’s effect Great Basin water tables. Daniel has a newsletter called Western Water Notes which I highly recommend if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Also a shout out to the podcast Boomtown; a Uranium Story by Alec Cowan.Tags, Topics and Mentions: Peehee Mu'huh, Thacker Pass, Thacker Pass Lithium Mine, Ox Sam Camp, Ox Sam, Protect Thacker Pass, People of Red Mountain, Snake War, Fort Mcdermitt, Nevada, Lithium, Lithium Mining, Protest against lithium mine, Dean Barlese, Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation, Numaga, Pyramid Lake, Sand in a Whirlwind, Mountain Lion Harrah's Casino in Reno, Sagebrush, Mining, Lithium Carbonate, Winnemucca To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

The sun sets over Sunset Boulevard; the palm trees silhouette. In the front garden of a big house off the main drag, the puppet show begins.••This independent podcast is made with listener support. If you like to become a patron, head to patreon.com/thewind and set up a monthly donation.A huge thank you to all of the residents of Ag Lago for speaking with me and for hosting me over the years. Reve, Jeremy, Vita, Josh, Donnie, Storai, Theo, Arden, Sarah and Eleanor. Also a big thanks to Emily, Spoorthi, Greyson, and all the folks that were part of the puppet show and the countless folks that were part of the Ag Lago community.Music in this episode was Timex by pas Doo, thanks to Pat Mesiti-Miller for letting me use it, Deville by friend of the show Yclept Insan and 2 songs from the public domain, Auld Lang Syne performed by the Princes Band and this song Marionette by Felix Arndt. The chapter markers were read by the great Cal Bannerman of the podcast Stories from The Hearth. Highly recommended.Photos, links and more at www.thewind.org/episodes/aglago To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Up the freeway a few miles from Downtown Los Angeles, the streetlights flicker on and I approach the warm glow of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Inside, I meet organist Edward Torres. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewind Subscribe at thewind.org

Cowboy poetry is often very structured. The good poets play with that structure and surprise you with twists or a pauses, jokes, word play. Henry’s poems do somethin’ else entirely. They feel like suddenly you’re walking down a path and you don’t know where it’s goin’, or if it’s goin’ anywhere, but it usually does and then you’re somewhere a little different and he says thanks and puts his hat back on and sits down in a chair at the back the stage.The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering started in 1985, becoming an annual roundup of cowboys, ranchers, poets, artists and the many combinations therein, hailing from all parts the American west and sometimes beyond. Hosted by the Western Folklife Center, the gathering is always held in January/February when folks’ ranches are dormant. Elko’s oft-snowy streets are then marked by the soles of boots, mostly of the cowboy variety, some rounded, some pointed, and most of them pointing into the Western Folklife Center’s Pioneer Saloon, or up the front steps of the Elko Convention Center. To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

Subscribe hereLinks, photos and more at www.thewind.orgA song bounces from slope to slope, emerging from the valley as an echo. Just of out earshot from Spokane Falls we meet star Taiwanese yodeler, Ho Lan.Ho Lan • Bandcamp | Website /// Tags, Topics and Mentions: Ho Lan, Echo from Deep Valley, Yodeling, Yodel, Taiwanese Yodel, Puli, Spokane, Washington, Spokane River, Spokane Falls, Expo '74, Manito Park, Yodeling cowboys, Hawaiian yodel, Mike Hanapi, Vicente Fernandez, Josaya Hadebe, Bulawayo Blue Yodel, yodeling in nature, waterfalls, birdsong, Hsia-jung Chang, the wind, eastern washington, high desert, silent night To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org

The word “transit” comes from the Latin “transitus”, meaning to pass across or through. Off the subway in Brooklyn, down the stairs into the busy green room of On Air Fest, we meet Jazmine (JT) Green.|| Ephemera, change, sound. ||This episode features a piece called:Transformation through Repetition (feat. Jemma Rose Brown) - aired on Jazmine’s experimental audio podcast U+1F60CThanks to: Eleanor Qull, Jemma Rose Brown, Ray Pang, all the folks at On Air Fest.Jazmine's album "As A..." available here To support The Wind, become a patron at www.patreon.com/thewindSubscribe at thewind.org