Burn Wild: Episodes 1 & 2

Burn Wild: Episodes 1 & 2

From BBC Sounds

Leah Sottile presents a story of two fugitive environmentalists, an eco-terrorist cell and a burning question: How far is too far to go to save the planet?

Episodes 1 and 2 currently posted for listening here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0cx6tw7

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More information:

New podcast Burn Wild tells the story of two of America’s most wanted fugitive environmentalists
From BBC

On BBC Sounds and Radio 5 Live. Award-winning journalist and producer Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt present the gripping tale of environmental fugitives Joseph Mahmoud Dibee and Josephine Sunshine Overaker, an eco-terrorist cell, and ask the burning question: how far is too far to go to save the planet?

For over a decade the mugshots of Joseph Mahmoud Dibee and Josephine Sunshine Overaker sat side by side on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Domestic Terrorists.

Those pictures and the FBI’s descriptions have been about all that was known of two environmental fugitives. But now, after more than a decade on the run, one of them has been caught.

For the past two years journalist Leah Sottile, writer for the Washington Post and New York Times, and producer Georgia Catt, from award-winning podcast The Missing Cryptoqueen, have been granted unprecedented access, recording with Joseph Mahmoud Dibee - arrested in Cuba in 2018 after 12 years on the run - as his case goes through the courts in America and as he faces charges that could mean a sentence of more than 30 years in prison, ahead of his sentencing on 28 September.

In this eight-part investigative podcast, award-winning team Leah and Georgia team up to investigate what the truth is behind the mugshots, and how a group who never killed or injured anybody were, in 2005, declared by the then-Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, as the number one domestic terror threat in America.

Understanding this has taken Leah and Georgia into environmental activist communities past and present on both sides of the Atlantic. They meet with people who were part of a group called the Earth Liberation Front, and who served lengthy sentences because of their crimes and have been branded as terrorists. People like Chelsea Gerlach - whose arson of a ski resort in Colorado caused $26 million in damages - who are finally ready, after all this time, to weigh up what they did.

They spend time with activists from contemporary groups including Earth First and the founders of Extinction Rebellion and ask: with environmental actions around the world becoming increasingly disruptive and widespread, how far is too far to go to save the planet? What are the ramifications of stepping over the line?

Leah Sottile says: “Burn Wild is an investigative deep dive into why one group of secretive activists decided to take radical action on behalf of the environment, long before we were all talking about climate change. This project takes a hard look at the ripple effects of those actions, and how they are perceived all these years later. And it happened in a place I hold dear - the forests of my home state - so this is a project that is deeply important to me.”

Georgia Catt says: “Burn Wild tells the high stakes, high-drama story of how a group of environmentalists became a domestic terror priority. But it’s also a way into something far more familiar. Leah and I grew up an ocean apart but are a similar age, and making this series has brought us face to face with questions we’ve both heard asked by environmentalists today - about what the most effective way to bring about change is. It couldn’t feel more urgent that we tell this story now.”

Much of this story is set deep in forests and composer and sound designer Phil Channell (The Missing Cryptoqueen, Death In Ice Valley, Things Fell Apart) has incorporated recordings high in the trees and out in nature with new music composition to create the sound for this programme.

The theme is an original, new composition by Echo Collective, composed, performed and produced by Neil Leiter and Margaret Hermant. Elements of that theme are incorporated throughout the main episode music in this series.

Burn Wild series trailer is available now on BBC Sounds.

Episode One of Burn Wild launches on 6 September and new episodes will be released weekly on BBC Sounds. The series will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Presenter: Leah Sottile

Producer: Georgia Catt

Written by: Leah Sottile and Georgia Catt

Series Editor: Philip Sellars

Commissioner: Dylan Haskins

Burn Wild is a BBC Audio Documentaries Production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Leah Sottile is an American freelance journalist whose investigative work on extremist ideologies, the anti-government movement and fringe cultures has been featured by the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone Magazine, High Country News and several other publications. She is the author of the book When The Moon Turns To Blood (released June 2022) about religious extremism in the Western United States, and is the host and reporter of the podcast Bundyville: nominated twice for the National Magazine Award.

Georgia Catt is a producer for BBC Audio Documentaries. Series include: creator and producer of The Missing Cryptoqueen, The Untold: Missing, Green Inc, Two Minutes Past Nine, Life Chances.

There is 1 Comment

https://earthfirstjournal.news/2022/09/22/dousing-the-bbcs-fake-news-bef...

Green & Red podcast interviews former ELF member Daniel McGowan about the BBC’s new podcast series called “Burn Wild.” The BBC production tells the story of radical environmental movements 20 years ago, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the subsequent “Green Scare.”

Red & Green talked to McGowan about the flawed analysis in the series, including the juxtaposition of right-wing extremists and left-wing “extremism,” the imbalance of law enforcement and industry voices in the series and platforming ELF member turned snitch Chelsea Gerlach without discussing her cooperation with the feds.

From Red & Green: In our latest, we discuss the BBC’s series (or at least the first two episodes) with former ELF member, and return G&R guest, Daniel McGowan (@support_daniel). We discuss the series, how liberals make heroes of the FBI, the current media discuss around “climate sabotage” and more.

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