🎙Interview: Nate Hegyi
I’m Nate Hegyi (he/him), the host of Outside/In, a podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio that covers science and the outdoors. I’ve been a public radio journalist for almost a decade – mostly covering public lands, rural communities and tribal affairs in the Mountain West. As host of the show, I’ve gone dogsledding in Alaska, chased bats in Montana, and visited the site of the world’s first atomic bomb testing in New Mexico. I love stories with lots of moral quandaries and no perfect answers.
Learn more about the Outside/In podcast by visiting the Outside/In website.
To start, how did you come to focus on such diverse reporting areas such as “tribal issues, rural economies and culture, right-wing radicalization and the environment”?
I was lucky to get a job that let me chase all sorts of stories. I was a reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, a consortium of NPR member stations covering the West, for about four years. The stories – just like our region – were varied and our editor was flexible enough to let me do stuff like riding a bicycle for 800 miles along the continental divide, interviewing rural voters about the political divide. It was a great job!
You actually won an award for reporting on tribal jails a couple of years ago for a story you did three years ago. How did this come to be a story of interest? And have you kept up with any developments since?
This story started with a phone call from a teacher on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. He mentioned that the son of a friend of his had died in the jail there. I made some phone calls and did some digging and discovered that Willy Pepion wasn’t the only person to die in that jail, or in the 72 other tribal detention centers overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. We got a grant from the Pulitzer Center and spent three months reporting out the story. We uncovered a pattern of mismanagement, negligence and a lack of medical care that led to at least 19 deaths in those centers. The story – which aired on NPR – led to congressional action and more than two dozen promised reforms for the jails.
But those reforms haven’t stopped folks from dying. I try to keep up with developments and report those out for NPR – but I’ve lagged over the past year. This interview reminds me to check in on this!
In addition to tribal communities, rural communities not on tribal lands are often overlooked. Since you have spent a lot of time reporting on issues that affect these communities, what should we know about some of the current environmental issues in rural areas that ultimately will impact those in urban areas?
A lot of our communities are facing a housing crisis right now. Rent is too high, mortgage rates are out of reach, and there is simply not enough inventory to house everyone. But what happens when that housing crisis collides with climate change? That’s a story we recently pursued at Outside/In. We looked at Alaska’s capital city (not rural but definitely remote), where climate change is increasing the risk of severe landslides.
When officials commissioned a set of updated hazard maps for the city, they thought the information would help save lives and spur new development. Instead, the new maps drew public outcry from people who woke up to discover their homes were at risk of being wiped out by landslides.
What followed was a multiyear project – not to address the challenges posed by climate-fueled landslides – but to alter, ignore, or otherwise shelve the maps that outline the threat in the first place.
It’s really a story about what happens when climate change comes knocking at your own door and how we don’t really have a solid government safety net to protect us when our homes are threatened.
Of the mini-series you have gotten to work on for Outside/In, what was the most eye-opening for you?
I really loved our producer Justine Paradis’ two-part series on the rise of anti-protest legislation and the group – the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – that’s proliferating it across the country. Justine grounded the story in great voices from the Oceti Sakowin nation and I think it was a great example of the kind of deep reporting that Outside/In excels at.
What was a particularly impactful episode or series that a listener gave you feedback on?
I’m really proud of the impact our episode, Oppenheimer’s Omission, had on the community of radiogenic cancer survivors in New Mexico. They have been fighting for years to get restitution from the federal government after it tested the world’s first atomic bomb back in 1945. I think the coverage they received from multiple media outlets after the film Oppenheimer was released helped amplify their cause in Congress, and I heard a lot of positive things from that community about our episode.
Is there a topic that you would like to cover or dive deeper into on the show?
Nukes! Mainly, nuclear energy. Most climate scientists say nuclear power plants are a key component to arriving at a net zero future, but they come with a tragic history and some potentially catastrophic side effects. How safe is nuclear energy nowadays? Can we mine uranium in a way that doesn’t make miners sick? These are all fascinating questions.
Can you give us a sneak peek of any topics you all will be airing this summer?
We have a two-part story coming out later this summer about the ethics of studying human remains that I think is going to be really challenging and fascinating. I’m not going to give too much away, though :)
Ultimately, I hope that listeners of social impact podcasts can take action after learning about an issue. What are two or three episodes from the Outside/In catalog that have some calls-to-action that can impact our global audience?
I think we’ve done a couple of episodes that help our listeners navigate how to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle. One investigates what the most sustainable diet is (hint: tofu tacos). Another looks at how to dress yourself in a more sustainable manner. And the third looks at what the “greenest” burial method is – and whether it even matters.
If this show’s topic interests you, you might also want to check out the Sounds Like Impact interview with Sarah Christie of Earth Care podcast.