Shows / Rooted in the Plains
Rooted in the Plains
Rooted in the Plains is a podcast about the people, places and moments that shaped the Great Plains. We'll dig into stories of resilience, curiosity and courage. These are the voices that whisper through the wind and are written in the dirt beneath our feet.
This summer, we're taking it to the field. New episodes dropping all season, subscribe so you don't miss the adventure.
Episodes
Rooted in the PlainsPrairie Dog Holes: Rachel Lloyd, Beyond the Laboratory
Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Prairie Dog Holes: Digging a Little Deeper, a bonus series from Rooted in the Plains that follows interesting stories, unexpected…
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Rachel Lloyd: The Science Behind the Beet
Send us Fan Mail In 1888, a farmer near Grand Island, Nebraska, grew a crop of sugar beets from French White Imperial seed. When those beets reached a…
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Rooted Turns One And We Brought a Gift
Send us Fan Mail Rooted in the Plains turns one today! And I have a big announcement... Rootedintheplains.com is LIVE Come check out the timeline and episode…
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Lincoln: It Has a Ring to It
Send us Fan Mail On July 29th, 1867, three men sat down in a private home in Lancaster, Nebraska, a settlement of fewer than fifty people and voted to make it…
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The Capital Ring: Power of the Platte
Send us Fan Mail For thirteen years, two sides of the Platte River fought over the same prize: Nebraska's capital city. The stakes weren't just political —…
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The Cheyenne Ring: Cattle Country’s Power
Send us Fan Mail The cowboy myth says it was all grit and open range: noble ranchers, hardworking cowhands, civilizing a wild frontier. The truth is messier…
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Fort Atkinson - The People Who Keep It Alive
Send us Fan Mail The fort is still standing. And so are the people who keep its story alive. In the final episode of our Fort Atkinson summer series, we go to…
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Fort Atkinson - We Are Still Here...
Send us Fan Mail Summer Season Episode 2 Last week, we left you on a bluff above the Missouri River. November 1819. A Nebraska winter is closing in. Something…
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Fort Atkinson - The Fort at the Edge of the World
Send us Fan Mail Summer Season Episode 1 On a bluff above the Missouri River, 200 miles from the nearest American settlement, the United States built its…
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Deep Roots, Wide Open Future
Send us Fan Mail Two years ago, I took a walk around a lake. The tallgrass was moving in the wind, and if I was lucky, a red-winged blackbird. That's where…
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Off the Record
Send us Fan Mail Every episode leaves something on the research desk. The details that didn't quite fit. The rabbit holes that led somewhere unexpected. The…
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What the Prairie Knew
Send us Fan Mail Before the plow broke the prairie, the prairie was already a library. Every plant had a name. Every name carried a use. Every use carried a…
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A Line in the Sod: Oklahoma Land Runs
Send us Fan Mail Note: This episode opens with a gunshot sound effect. On September 16, 1893, a gun was fired at noon, and 100,000 people surged across the…
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What Couldn't Be Erased: Deadwood's Chinatown
Send us Fan Mail In 1876, Chinese immigrants arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota, building restaurants, laundries, medical practices, and a temple that smelled…
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Temples of Literature: Nebraska's Carnegie Libraries
Send us Fan Mail Between 1901 and 1922, Andrew Carnegie funded 69 libraries across Nebraska, giving the state the second-highest per capita rate of Carnegie…
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Bass Reeves? You Seem Familiar.
Send us Fan Mail Content Warning: This episode discusses historical violence, including domestic violence, murder, and attempted suicide. While not graphic…
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When Fences Became Phone Lines
Send us Fan Mail In the 1890s, Great Plains farmers faced a problem: they desperately needed telephones, but the Bell Telephone Company thought rural areas…
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Meadowlarks, Cottonwoods, Honey Bees, Oh My!
Send us Fan Mail In this Season 2 premiere of Rooted in the Plains, we will explore how the Great Plains states chose their official symbols, flowers, birds…
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Stories from the Plains Sky- Part 1
Send us Fan Mail The Pawnee people have long looked at the sky for guidance, meaning and connection. In this episode, Matt Reed, the Tribal Historic…
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Stories from the Plains Sky- Part 2
Send us Fan Mail The sky tells its story in many ways through observation, science and technology. In this episode, Dr. Randy Peppler from the University of…
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White Gold of the Plains
Send us Fan Mail Nebraska is far from the ocean, but the land remembers water. More than 100 million years ago, it was the floor of a vast inland sea, and its…
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The Pony Express: Short-Lived with Lasting Effects
Send us Fan Mail From gunfights at Rock Creek to hot peaches at Liberty Farm, this episode traces the short but powerful run of the Pony Express. Though it…
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From Slavery to Service on the Frontier
Send us Fan Mail In the years after the Civil war, newly freed men stepped into uniforms and became part of the U.S. Army’s first Black regiments. Known later…
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Mountains, Tribes, and Truth: Grinnell’s American West
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Rooted in the Plains, we follow the life of George “Bird” Grinnell, naturalist, writer and advocate for the American West…
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Curtains Up on the Prairie: Nebraska’s Opera Houses, 1870-1920
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Rooted in the Plains, we open the doors to Nebraska’s opera houses, cultural centers that stood at the heart of prairie…
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Barbed Wire and the End of the Open Range Podcast
Send us Fan Mail A deceptively simple invention reshaped the Great Plains. In this episode, we explore how barbed wire transformed farming, ended the era of…
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The Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart: Homesteading with Grit and Grace
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Rooted in the Plains, we explore the life and letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart, whose homesteading experience in early…
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Rooted in the Plains Trailer
Send us Fan Mail Rooted in the Plains is a podcast about the people, places, and moments that shaped the Great Plains. From sod houses and opera halls to…