Encounters Podcast

Join Richard Nelson as he paddles his kayak at the mouth of Indian River which runs through Sitka, Alaska. Learn about the amazing life cycle of the salmon as you watch the fish jump and skip on the water as they prepare to swim up river to spawn. This program is funded by the Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund.

The reknowned naturalist Georg Steller had a rocky road to fame. He was an amazing naturalist for his time, describing many plants and animals on the famous 1733 Vitus Bering voyage from Russia to Alaska. When he arrived in Alaska, after a 10 year journey he was allowed only 10 hours to go ashore. And many of the animals that Steller described(that were later named for him) are now either threatened, endangered or extinct. He was cursed. Go with Elizabeth Arnold over to Russia during her own cursed voyage on this history of science episode of Encounters.

Get a close listen to some of the biggest grizzly bears on earth in Katmai National Park where you get a feel for the importance of wildness.

he world's biggest herring fishery takes place in Sitka, Alaska. It's a sign of Spring when the million dollar fishery takes off in Sitka Sound.

Richard Nelson drifts in his skiff above a cloud of herring in the Southeast Alaska Spring. He uses a fishing tool that is called a herring rake to harvest these fish. The rake has a wonderful history wrapped in Native American knowledge.

The silence of solitude in the natural world, is often far from quiet. Being outdoors often means one is lucky enough to hear the sounds of the wild. Yet many natural sounds may soon be extinct. Richard Nelson shares his appreciation of wild sounds.

Sit on a clear blue river in autumn as the coho salmon swim up followed by black bear in Glacier Bay National Park.

Learn about the life history of the Black Bear from the Native American tradition, knowledge that has been passed along from generation to generation as we watch black bears in Glacier Bay National Park.

It moans like a cow, but you can't mistake the bison for its more domesticated cousin. Head to Delta Junction, Alaska as host Richard Nelson sits among a heard of 200 bison.

Often called nature's engineers or nature's hydrologist, the beaver is a rodent that has figured out how to manipulate its environment sometimes to the chagrin of human beings.

Camping in the far north brings many sounds of the northern wild. Join host Richard Nelson as he floats down the Bonnet Plume River in the Yukon Territory of Canada.

Most people only hope to see Dall sheep as a tiny dot in binoculars, but on this blustery day above the Alaska Highway, Richard Nelson heads up some very steep rugged mountains to get incredibly close to these charismatic animals.

Many Alaskans live in Alaska because they love to see wildlife, but just how close to they like their wildlife. On this Encounters, head out with Elizabeth Arnold and local fish and wildlife officers to see just what kind of issues abound in the biggest city in Alaska.

hile she can't see Russia from her house, Elizabeth Arnold heads to one of the wildest Russian geographies in the country to get sprayed and hopefully not boiled in the Valley of the Geyers, a protected area on the Kamchatka Pennisula.

The City parks in Anchorage have some of the most unusual wildlife in the nation. Far from urban jungles, these parks offer wonderful opportunities for birdwatching and even some charasmatic megafauna watching!