The Latest

In Episode 6, the final episode of Season 3, host Emily Harwitz talks to Agnes Vianzon (she/they), the founder and Executive Director of Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps (ESCC) and a first-generation, queer filipinx. They founded ESCC in 2017, starting with an initial all-women crew, and the organization has served over 100 alumni and counting. ESCC is changing the demographics of outdoor stewardship and parks employment and visitation while providing jobs for young people who want to experience working in the outdoors.

In episode 5, host Emily Harwitz chats with Michelle Warren, the Vice President and Co-founder of Black Girls Trekkin Inc. (BGT). BGT is a Los Angeles based 501c3 nonprofit for Black women who choose to opt outside. BGT seeks to inspire and empower Black women to spend time outdoors, appreciate nature, and protect it. BGT is building a community that will show the world that Black women are a strong and present force in the outdoors. Emily and Michelle talk about BGT’s origin story, how to build and nurture community, and the importance of affinity spaces in the outdoors.

As long as we have obsessed over the height of coast redwoods and giant sequoias, we’ve also pondered over their age. After all, these trees live on a timeline that extends hundreds, even thousands, of years longer than ours. And we’ve all been taught that the best way to learn the age of a tree is to cut it down and count tree rings, which unfortunately kills the tree. But is that the only way?

EPISODE 1

If you go online and look for historical photos of redwoods, you’ll find lots of photos of people driving their cars through tunnels that have been cut into the trees. And you might ask yourself, how did this become a thing? Who wants to drive their car through a tree? Maybe you’ve driven a car through a redwood. In this first episode of This Is Big, we take a deep dive into this strange phenomenon and learn how it’s connected to the entire culture we’ve built around these magnificent forests.