National Parks Traveler Podcast

Kurt Repanshek started National Parks Traveler as a news site in 2005 and has been covering the park system longer than most working journalists on the beat. The podcast is an extension of that work, and it's less a trip-planning show than a running conversation about what's actually happening inside America's national parks. One week it's a ranger explaining how Yellowstone manages its bison herd. The next it's a historian discussing the legacy of Mission 66 architecture, or a biologist talking about pika populations in the Rockies. Repanshek is a calm, methodical interviewer who lets his guests run. That means the episodes can be dense, and you'll sometimes want a notebook. But if you actually care about the parks as institutions, with budgets and politics and staffing problems and climate pressures, there's nothing else like this. The show also runs trip-focused episodes, usually with writers or guides who know a specific park inside out, which are worth queueing up before a visit. Episodes land weekly and run 30-50 minutes. Best for people who want substance over postcards.