If you've read any great new public lands journalism in the past week or so—especially in out of the way places—please tell me about it. Thanks. Does not have to be set in the West.
Boyce Upholt
@boyceupholt.bsky.social
🖊 EIC/Found of Southlands 📖: THE GREAT RIVER: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi (W.W. Norton) 🏆: Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing
That country should face a crisis of credibility in the eyes of the entire world. Trump is announcing that the US isn't really a country if he won't defend Blue states against Iranian attacks. Iran has exposed a division far deeper than it could have hoped.
Like the hypocrisy and the open corruption, the naked, brazen lying is itself aspiring authoritarianism. They aren't lying to cover anything up. They're saying, "We know we're lying. You know we're lying. And we know you know we're lying. And there's nothing you can do about it."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.BASH: But it peeled off. Why did that happen? BURGUM: It didn't peel off. There was vandalism. There was box cutters. There have been 7 arrests. BASH: There are photographs of people cutting a 350 foot gash in the reflecting pool? BURGUM: Dana, I'm not sure why you keep questioning it
Field Notes from a July visit to SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase, where the launch gantries tower over one of our wildest coastal wildernesses, and the alligators bellow back when the rockets fire: fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/p/rocket-sum...
Rocket Summer
No. 199
fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com
Think you could've done a better job editing this piece? Good news, you can apply to do that. 6 figure journalism job plus health insurance, can work from anywhere heartlandsignal.com/jobs/editor-...
Heartland Signal - Job Opening - Editor in Chief Job | Heartland Signal
Heartland Signal is hiring a remote editor in chief to lead a growing state-politics newsroom. Edit daily, set the agenda, build the team. Apply by Aug. 6.
heartlandsignal.com
Subscribe to Radio Free America (link in bio)@kleinman.bsky.social · 2w agoThis week's newsletter is out and it's on one of my least favorite trends in politics - nonprofit executives pretending they're fighting the establishment. They ARE the establishment link.heartlandsignal.com/v/443/b6619d...
Next year, I'll be teaching a seminar about "writing the [Mississippi] River," focused on nature and nationhood -- exploring how those two concepts shaped and were shaped by the way people documented and described the river through the years. What are some must-include texts?
One of the best writers I know is publishing a book through Kickstarter. Check it out! The book includes stories from both international and domestic trips, including some travel along the Mississippi River. DeanKlinkenberg.com/BetterSafeThanSorry
Better Safe Than Sorry?
A travel memoir about what happened when I stopped asking, “What if something goes wrong?”
deanklinkenberg.com
Having a 3-week-old kept me from Chicago, and my award category (feature reporting) came on the livestream, I was amid a diaper change. So my second James Beard Award was christened with a sprinkling of baby pee. Proud to be a 2x JBF media award winner!
"As Louisiana disappears, a vast amount of water should become public property, open to fishermen—but, officially, it’s not." —Carlyle Calhoun for Southlands Magazine
Losing Paradise
As rising seas swallow Louisiana’s marshes, oil companies are pretending nothing has changed — and that now floatable, fishable waters remain their private property.
southlandsmag.com
I spoke with Southlands editor @boyceupholt.bsky.social about his new magazine and the challenges of writing about a region one has adopted as home. This tension sits with me every time I write about Appalachia. commonappalachian.substack.com/p/who-gets-t...
Pocket change for many wealthy Californians! I hope someone/some place steps up.
Colin Schultz@colinschultz.bsky.social · 3mo agoI really, really hate to sharing this, but last week, we @biographic.bsky.social learned that the California Academy of Sciences will no longer be providing the magazine with financial support, including money we were expecting to receive this year. We're in a real bind.
I’ll be curious to see what the more thoughtful hunting groups make of this, but it strikes me as an effort to break apart the coalition that has come together to protect public lands. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/c...
Trump Administration Orders Rapid End to Some Hunting Rules on Federal Lands
nytimes.com
A fun and unexpected assignment: The St. Louis Museum of Art asked me to record a short little essay reflecting on a river-related sculpture, part of their audio guide to their outdoor sculpture garden. Live online now -- though better in person, of course! www.slam.org/audio/outdoo...
Outdoor Sculpture - Saint Louis Art Museum
Explore art outside our galleries in the Grace Taylor Broughton Sculpture Garden and the wider campus.
slam.org
Red wolves -- the "wolves of the South," as I think of them -- is one of the world's most endangered canids. So I was intrigued to hear Colossal Biosciences claim to have cloned the species. My latest, the cover story of the upcoming "Nature" issue of @technologyreview.com: ter.li/3475yjiw
Colossal Biosciences said it cloned red wolves. Is it for real?
The red wolf has long been a contentious species. The debate over its preservation got even messier last year, when Colossal said it had cloned the animal.
ter.li
The New Yorker has long been the magazine I've read closest, most frequently, etc. My model for an ideal magazine. So delighted to have this byline, about a phenomena that's perplexed me for more than a decade. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
How White South Africans Are Reshaping the Mississippi Delta
As Donald Trump offers U.S. asylum to Afrikaners, thousands are already working in the country on agricultural visas.
newyorker.com
This week's Top 5 #longreads: • ICE fighter, @spiegel.de • Tectonic researcher, @highcountrynews.org • Prairie preserver, @noemamag.com • Regal grandmother, Southlands (@boyceupholt.bsky.social) • Wild timekeeper, @emergencemagazine.bsky.social longreads.com/2026/01/16/t...
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week - Longreads
In this edition: ICE fighter, tectonic researcher, prairie preserver, regal grandmother, wild timekeeper.
longreads.com
This week Jesse talks to Southlands founder and editor @boyceupholt.bsky.social about Southerners' relationship to our natural surroundings — and about a new book Upholt has also written, about the history and destiny of the Mississippi River. theprogressivesouth.org/headlights-e...
Love seeing @anyagroner.bsky.social's feature for Southlands on this list. (Ugh, do we need a Southlands bluesky account?)
Longreads@longreads.com · 10mo agoWe’ve curated nearly 14,000 stories in the past 16 years and published hundreds of original pieces. Today, we’re kicking off a member drive to keep the stories coming. Won’t you join us? longreads.com/2025/10/15/2...
With Southlands Issue No. 01 getting set to ship next week -- it's time to start thinking about the next issue! See pitch guidelines here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Southlands - Issue No. 2 - Contributor Guidelines.docx
Issue No. 2 Pitch Guide Theme: PUBLIC / PRIVATE Updated: October 10, 2025 What is Southlands? Southlands is a new print journal that explores the diverse ways Southerners connect with the natural wo...
docs.google.com
"Disconnected from the grid after Hurricane Ida, New Orleans went without power for 10 days. That dark week marked the beginning of a social movement that has become a political cause." @boyceupholt.bsky.social spoke w/ New Orleanians fed up with unaccountable energy providers and ready for change.
Power Shift
In New Orleans, residents frustrated by an unaccountable energy utility are building a network of community resilience hubs to take back their power.
placesjournal.org
When Places Journal asked if I wanted to write about "climate urbanism" in New Orleans, I decided to tackle what felt like the most pressing problem: our rickety old electrical grid. The reporting was, by turns, frustrating, terrifying, and empowering. placesjournal.org/article/powe...
Power Shift
In New Orleans, residents frustrated by an unaccountable energy utility are building a network of community resilience hubs to take back their power.
placesjournal.org
Y’all! I’m nervous about it, but I’m gonna be live on a PBS News Hour “Tipping Point” special about the Mississippi River on Wednesday night. Tune in here at 6pm CST, July 16: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLoq...
youtube.com
Ten-ish years ago, I contemplated the academic path, and a PhD in environmental history. I decided that journalism might be more lucrative and (yikes) jury is still out. But it's a field that means a lot to me, so I'm so honored by this review!
Jeff Manuel@jeffmanuel.bsky.social · last yr.As Twain wrote, the Mississippi River is well worth reading about. If you agree—and you should—check out @boyceupholt.bsky.social's book THE GREAT RIVER, which I had the pleasure of reviewing for H-environment. www.h-net.org/reviews/show... 🗃️ #EnvHist
This is big news that I wish I had the capacity to drill into much further www.nola.com/news/environ...
More trouble for Louisiana's largest coastal project after Army Corps pulls permit
Here's what we know.
nola.com
I love a good bridge but also -- these last remaining forests matter so much... www.tclf.org/environmenta...
An Environmental Impact Statement is Needed for Plaquemine Point | TCLF
Advocates for Plaquemine Point, a peninsula in a bend of the Mississippi River some eight miles south of Baton Rouge, LA, which contains a nationally significant old growth forest, are calling for an ...
tclf.org
Seeking artists and illustrators who love to spend time outdoors in the South. If you know anyone who fits that bill, please link me to their portfolio 🙏
Get your eyes on the Mississippi, y'all. We haven't seen anything like this since I started writing the book in 2020. Or more than that: my friend John Ruskey is telling me in his 30 years on the river he's never seen it come up so fast.
