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About Ryan Tate

Ryan Driskell Tate writes on fossil fuels, climate change, and the American West. He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, and is completing a book on fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin.

Ryan Driskell Tate writes on fossil fuels, climate change, and the American West. He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, and is completing a book on fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin.

Ryan's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Ryan:

American West September 1, 2021

Black Snake

Standing Rock, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and Environmental Justice

Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys

Hosted by Ryan Tate
The controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) made headlines around the world in 2016. Supporters called the pipeline key to safely transporting American oil from the Bakken oil fields of the …
American West March 2, 2021

The Port of Missing Men

Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest

Aaron Goings

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In the early twentieth century so many dead bodies surfaced in the rivers around Aberdeen, Washington, that they were nicknamed the "floater fleet." When Billy Gohl (1873-1927), a powerful union …
American West October 1, 2020

Race and the Wild West

Sarah Bickford, the Montana Vigilantes, and the Tourism of Decline, 1870–1930

Laura J. Arata

Hosted by Ryan Tate
After Laura Arata first visited Virginia City, Montana in graduate school, she became fascinated by the story of one historical figure—Sarah Bickford, a former slave, who migrated to this frontier …
American West May 18, 2020

American Zion

Cliven Bundy, God &amp

Betsy Gaines Quammen

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In 2014, the cattle rancher Cliven Bundy entered the national spotlight after a showdown against federal officials over grazing rights on public lands. Two years later, his sons seized the …
American West May 6, 2020

Carbon County, USA

Miners for Democracy in Utah and the West

Christian Wright

Hosted by Ryan Tate
During the early 1970s, a movement of rank-and-file coal miners rose up in Appalachia to challenge mine bosses and stodgy union officials. They sought greater control over the workplace and …
American West February 19, 2020

Subduction

Kristen Millares Young

Hosted by Ryan Tate
Kristen Millares Young’s debut novel, Subduction (Red Hen Press, 2020), provides a lyrical exploration of cultural encounters in the Pacific Northwest. After a Latina anthropologist, Claudia, flees a fractured marriage …
American West January 6, 2020

Cleantech Con Artists

A True Vegas Caper

Jim Rossi

Hosted by Ryan Tate
After Jim Rossi began writing his M.A. thesis in History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the project took an unexpected turn. His research on the solar industry in …
American West December 30, 2019

Red Meat Republic

A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America

Joshua Specht

Hosted by Ryan Tate
Why do Americans eat so much beef? In Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton University Press, 2019), the historian Joshua Specht provides a history …
American West November 6, 2019

Imagining Seattle

Social Values in Urban Governance

Serin D. Houston

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In Imagining Seattle: Social Values in Urban Governance (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), the geographer Serin Houston complicates Seattle’s liberal and progressive reputation through a close ethnographic study of its …
American West October 15, 2019

Chemical Lands

Pesticides, Aerial Spraying, and Health in North America’s Grasslands since 1945

David D. Vail

Hosted by Ryan Tate
Over fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) scolded the agricultural industry for its profligate spread of “poison” and pesticides “indiscriminately from the skies.” Now, in Chemical Lands: Pesticides …
American West August 30, 2019

Empire of Timber

Labor Unions and the Pacific Northwest Forests

Erik Loomis

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In Empire of Timber: Labor Unions and the Pacific Northwest Forests (Cambridge University Press, 2015), the historian Erik Loomis examines the relationship between workers and their environments in this century-long …
American West August 2, 2019

Assembling the Dinosaur

Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle

Lukas Rieppel

Hosted by Ryan Tate
After the discoveries of dinosaur fossils in the American West in the late nineteenth century, the United States became world renown for vertebrate paleontology. In his new book Assembling the …
American West July 17, 2019

Copper Stain

ASARCO’s Legacy in El Paso

Elaine Hampton and Cynthia Ontiveros

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In Copper Stain: ASARCO’s Legacy in El Paso (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019), Elaine Hampton and Cynthia Ontiveros tell the story of how a Mexican American community in El Paso …
American West July 10, 2019

Legacies of Dust

Land Use and Labor on the Colorado Plains

Douglas Sheflin

Hosted by Ryan Tate
The “Dust Bowl” remains a mainstay in American history textbooks. When dust storms swept over the southern plains in the 1930s, they upended farming communities and left thousands of migrants …
American West June 24, 2019

Our History is the Future

Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance

Nick Estes

Hosted by Ryan Tate
The historian Nick Estes traces two centuries of Indigenous-led resistance and anti-colonial struggle. Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of …
American West June 20, 2019

Beyond the Rebel Girl

Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924

Heather Mayer

Hosted by Ryan Tate
The Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of labor radicalism in the early twentieth century, where the revolutionary Industrial Workers of the World (commonly known as the “Wobblies”) fought for better …
Architecture November 23, 2016

Invention and Reimagination in Built Conservation

The Unfinished Drawing and Building of St Peter's, the Vatican

Federica Goffi

Hosted by Ryan Tate
Assistant Professor Federica Goffi fills a blind spot in current architectural theory and practice with this book, Time Matter(s): Invention and Re-Imagination in Built Conservation: The Unfinished Drawing and Building …
Education April 8, 2016

Across Three Continents

Reflections on Immigration, Education, and Personal Survival

Katerina Bodovski

Hosted by Ryan Tate
Dr. Katerina Bodovski, Associate Professor of Education, Department of Education Policy Studies, College of Education, Penn State University, joins New Books in Education to discuss her new and very personal …