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EPISODE #223: THE BLUE CROW

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Destruction of High Desert forest on public land has led to a 78% drop in pinyon jay populations over the past 50 years. This is EPISODE #223: THE BLUE CROW.

The pinyon jay is the steward of the pinyon forests, for which the forest feeds and houses this crucial blue crow. Of the thousands of pinyon nuts the blue crow puts away for the winter, usually working with its mate and both returning to the spot throughout the year to store or collect, the few pine nuts left behind grow into new pinyons, expanding the reach of the woodland. More woodland means more wildlife, more carbon-breathing conifers, more precious Western water stored in the ground, more wildlife corridors that connect mule deer and desert bighorn and mountain lions along mountain and valley to vast zones of wilderness. Now this iconic corvid of the West is threatened with extinction, and up for Endangered Species designation. You can take action, and the Pinyon Juniper Alliance and Great Basin Bird Observatory are good places to start.

Listen tonight on KCDZ 107.7 FM in the Mojave High Desert, or on the podcast now, and thanks for supporting DESERT ORACLE via our Patreon page and online store at DesertOracle.com. Back issues, signed hardcover books & our classic yellow-vinyl bumper stickers are currently in stock, as we dig our way out of many mysterious boxes.

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New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page.

EPISODE #222: RANTIN’ & RAVIN’ AT THE RAVEN’S FUNERAL

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Tonight we’re talking ravens, fishes & loaves, and the soul-crushing indoor indoctrination of the Empire’s State Religion. Sir James George Frazer, Pliny the Elder and the Gospel of Mark are all involved, whether they like it or not. (And the “Bible Friends” podcast mentioned on this episode can be found here.)

Thanks for listening EPISODE #222: RANTIN’ & RAVIN’ AT THE RAVEN’S FUNERAL, and for supporting the DESERT ORACLE via our Patreon page and online store at DesertOracle.com.

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New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page. Only on the podcast tonight; but some interesting repeats on the radio at 10.

EPISODE #221: ‘MATERIA MEDICA’ ON THE DESERT TRAIL

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Nolinas a-burstin'

Dr. John Milton Bigelow did not shy away from hard work or adventure. At the age of 46, he signed on as surgeon and botanist for the Mexican Boundary Survey, following the U.S.-Mexican War that fulfilled the gold-hungry manifest destiny of the Americans. 

This expedition of discovery took him through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, where he catalogued the great variety of desert plants along with several other botanists — including C.C. Parry, namesake of Parry’s Nolina. Bigelow has a similar nolina plant to his name, and both are known for their tall, cream-colored plumes of flowers that can reach a dozen feet into the sky.

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New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page. Tune your High Desert radio to 107.7 FM, Fridays at 10 p.m., or listen to the podcast now:

EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE

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This is EPISODE #220: STANDING WITH GIANTS, AT MARIPOSA GROVE. Mariposa Grove was a sacred forest for millennia before it became part of the U.S. Yosemite Grant, lovingly tended by Yosemite Guardian Galen Clark for more than a quarter century.

Sacred groves and forests are protected for their spiritual and ecological importance. Such groves are found today throughout India (home of more than a million holy forests), Japan (many thousands of chinju no mori surrounding Shinto temples), and Ethiopia (35,000 primal forests circling Ethiopian Orthodox churches).  (more…)

EPISODE #219: THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA

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On this Easter weekend, let’s do our best to bring back the ghosts, the supernatural. Let us recognize and respect the mysterious entities that come not from some imagined, distant star system in the cold lifeless vacuum of space, but from right here where we experience them: backroads, mountains, spooky desert trails at dusk. Jesus loved wilderness and often talked to ghosts, after all. And that’s something people of any philosophy can enjoy.

This is EPISODE #219: THE OLD, WEIRD AMERICA.

New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page.

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EPISODE #218: SPOOKY TALES FOR THE ST. PATRICK’S STORM

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The pyramids of Guinness 12-packs at our High Desert grocery stores reminded us of St. Patrick’s Day coming up, but the grey cloudy skies and green hillsides of the Mojave Desert this month are reminders that the old pagan tales are with us still, wherever the landscape is haunted and strange. And that supernatural entities always gather in their ancient homes: wild forests, dramatic outcroppings of rock, and any lonesome place whipped by the winter winds.

This is EPISODE #218: SPOOKY TALES FOR THE ST. PATRICK’S STORM. Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & all over the Mojave High Desert, or enjoy the podcast now.

New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page.

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EPISODE #217: VOICE OF THE DESERT

The storms continue, the wildflowers begin to appear, and Chantel (our mysterious PCT through-hiker) probably made it to the Canadian border without any kind of Mountain Monster getting her, which is good. Also: What is the Voice of the Desert?

This is EPISODE #217: VOICE OF THE DESERT. Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & all over the Mojave High Desert, or enjoy the podcast right now:

New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at our Desert Oracle Patreon page.

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EPISODE #216: MAKE IT SACRED

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Nothing is sacred unless we set it aside as sacred. As Americans rapidly abandon organized religion, and the formerly sanctified church and temple sites go up for sale as designer homes, where are the places that are truly sacred? The places set aside for contemplation, meditation, festivals, the rituals of life & death?

There ain’t much. Not nearly enough. But that can be fixed. New soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast at Patreon.com/desertoracle.

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This is EPISODE #216: MAKE IT SACRED. Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & all over the Mojave High Desert, or enjoy the podcast right now:

EPISODE #215: AMONG THE STATELY TREES

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The Sacred Grove

Where’s the beautiful part, anyway? Well, start by walking about a mile past the last parking lot or dirt road or residential car-parts dump or informal halfway house or accidental pit-bull breeding farm, and keep going in the direction of the difficult terrain: the hills and the mountains and the boulders. Not the hills covered in radio relay towers, but the ones with nothing up there at all, nothing except more boulders, more spiky yucca trees that slash your arms, gnarled junipers and needle-armed Joshua trees, up to the craggy peak where the stately pinyons stand proud. Keep going that way.

On the second half of the program, Patrick Donnelly (newsletter) from the Center for Biological Diversity returns to talk about an international land grab dreamt up by a local commissioner in Lincoln County, Nevada, along with the nation of Denmark, which plans to destroy centuries-old forests of pinyon and juniper on your public lands to mush into “bio-fuel” for container ships. What?!

Thanks for supporting this advertising-free show via our Desert Oracle Patreon.

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Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver; written & produced by Ken Layne. This is EPISODE #215: AMONG THE STATELY TREES. Listen to the radio broadcast Friday nights at 10 p.m. on KCDZ 107.7 FM in Joshua Tree & the Mojave High Desert, or enjoy the podcast right now:

EPISODE #212: THE TYPING LIFE, w/ GUEST MATT WELCH

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We are releasing this beast from the Patreon Archives — where you can find many more Patreon-only/Patreon-first episodes. A month ago, our old friend & collaborator Matt Welch joined us by telephone from New York City to talk about a magical time in California. Between 1999 and 2002, a wave of “news bloggers” washed over the calcified Los Angeles media landscape, and the effects were both surprising and long-lasting. Your host Ken Layne was part of that strange time, along with Mr. Welch and a cast of dozens.

We ain’t whining about it, nor excessively celebrating it. Just telling funny stories from the turn of the century. This episode wasn’t on the radio, which it why it runs 35 minutes instead of the usual 28 minutes. Thanks for supporting this advertising-free podcast on our Patreon Desert Oracle page. EPISODE #212: THE TYPING LIFE, WITH GUEST MATT WELCH

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