REI Co-op Launches ‘Hello, Nature’ Podcast Series Offering BIPOC Perspectives of the Outdoors While Touring National Parks

Peter Verry
·2 min read

For the outdoor enthusiast looking for new podcasts to listen to, REI Co-op has you covered.

The outdoor retail giant, through its REI Co-op Studios content division, has teamed up with Dustlight Productions to create a new podcast series dubbed “Hello, Nature.” The series, REI said, tours the National Parks stateside with host and producer Misha Euceph, and features stories about access to public lands and the work of Black, Indigenous and people of color in the parks.

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“As REI’s podcast listenership increases, we have a responsibility to engage our member community and future members with new shows that inspire them and challenge historically narrow depictions of the outdoors,” REI director of content and media Paolo Mottola said in a statement. “In ‘Hello, Nature,’ Misha takes listeners on an adventure connecting with diverse experts, sharing her personal anecdotes and confronting the parks’ history with a lens on representation and inclusion.”

The series is sponsored by Subaru, and the first episode, “Hello, Yosemite,” is available to listen to now. New episodes will arrive every Friday until Nov. 5 via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast platforms.

REI said Euceph will explore the national parks and look to have a question answered: “If the parks are public, aren’t they supposed to be for everyone?”

“Nature for me has been a place of reverence, awe and healing. I want to share that with other people like me,” Euceph said in a statement. “To really make the outdoors accessible to BIPOC folks, we need to center ourselves in the story that’s told about these places. We have always been here, from indigenous people who have lived in these lands long before American colonization and genocide, to enslaved people who first explored Mammoth Cave to AAPI scientists and artists, to present day LGBTQ+ outdoor recreation groups. And we will always be here. It’s finally time our voices tell the story of the national parks, and the story of America.”

The podcast will feature episodes with visits at the Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia, Yellowstone and more.

REI said this series is part of a larger goal of prioritizing storytelling from BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented groups, as well as to tell stories “that reflect the human impact on and opportunity to protect the environment.”

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