The Wide Open
4 February 2025 - 1 hour 1 minLast week, we delved into story of how the Tennessee Valley Authority, which started out as a public institution, ended up acting like a private for-profit company, and the lawsuit that attempted to finally bring the TVA to its heel. Today, Montana Public Radio’s podcast The Wide Open tells the story of a different lawsuit against the TVA that had even bigger consequences. In the 1970s, the fight to save a tiny fish called the snail darter turned the Endangered Species Act from a minor bit of federal law into the most powerful and controversial piece of environmental legislation of the past 50 years.
The Wide Open
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Series Episodes
100 Objects #5: Blue Back Speller
Why did an ordinary schoolbook become so treasured that enslaved people risked their lives to possess it?
45 mins
19 June Finished
The Horn That Divided the World Cup
Love it or hate it, one buzzing horn changed the sound of the World Cup forever.
33 mins
16 June Finished
100 Objects #4: Lowe's Gas Bag
In 1861, one man and a “gas bag” filled with hydrogen sparked America's obsession with going higher, farther, into the unknown.
38 mins
12 June Finished
Karaoke Videos
Behind every cheesy karaoke track was a surprisingly ambitious filmmaking experiment.
35 mins
9 June Finished
100 Objects #3: The Pension Files
Unearthing a remarkable slave rebellion through dusty Civil War paperwork.
43 mins
5 June Finished
The MAPL Test
Canada reshaped its music industry with a quirky radio rule that changed who got heard.
40 mins
2 June Finished
