The Wide Open
4 February 2025 - 1 hour 1 minLast week, we delved into story of how the Tennessee Valley Authority, which started out as a public institution, ended up acting like a private for-profit company, and the lawsuit that attempted to finally bring the TVA to its heel. Today, Montana Public Radio’s podcast The Wide Open tells the story of a different lawsuit against the TVA that had even bigger consequences. In the 1970s, the fight to save a tiny fish called the snail darter turned the Endangered Species Act from a minor bit of federal law into the most powerful and controversial piece of environmental legislation of the past 50 years.
The Wide Open
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Series Episodes
100 Objects #20: AA Sobriety Chip
Imbued in the Alcoholics Anonymous chip is a hidden history of America’s relationship to gender, religion, and morality.
52 mins
2 October Finished
Tootle of a Devilish Song
How a Swiss mountain call crossed the Atlantic and helped define the sound of country music.
32 mins
29 September Finished
100 Objects #19: Western Electric 500 Series
Former MythBuster Adam Savage joins Roman Mars to explore the history of the 500 Series Telephone and what we lost when we eventually decided to leave it behind.
38 mins
25 September Finished
The Rocky Statue
How a movie prop became one of Philadelphia’s most beloved monuments, and sparked a decades-long fight over where it belonged.
32 mins
22 September Finished
100 Objects #18: Hair Relaxer
How a single product—the hair relaxer—became a mirror for all of America's contradictions.
35 mins
18 September Finished
Doves Type
A legendary typeface, a spectacular friendship breakup, and one extremely committed act of revenge.
37 mins
15 September Finished
