David Kennedy, Stanford historian and co-founder of the Lane Center, brings the American West to life in conversation with Michael Krasny

On his "Grey Matter" podcast, long-time public radio host Michael Krasny will be conducting a series of four conversations focused on the North American West, a place whose natural beauty and heritage is matched only by the challenges it faces. Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West is supporting these episodes in order to draw attention to the region’s significance and complexity, particularly in the age of climate change. 

The Lane Center was co-founded in November of 2005 by the first guest in the series, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Kennedy. As the premier place of study for Western land and life, the Bill Lane Center has become a national hub of scholarship, programming, and reporting focused on three broad areas: Western governance and policy; environment and energy; and history, arts, and culture.  With historians, writers, thinkers, and tribal leaders, Krasny will be spending several podcast episodes defining and understanding the region, which is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. 

In this episode, Kennedy explores the real and the mythic American West, the region's water and wildfire crises, its energy and equity issues, its people, its politics, its economy, its borders, and the need for educating future leaders who can serve as stewards of the region and its magnificent natural resources. Listen at the link below.

David M. Kennedy on the American West