The Terrain.org Podcast
In this episode, Tamara Dean talks with Tara Lohan, longtime environmental journalist and author of Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life, published by Island Press in 2025. Undammed describes how we’ve attempted to control the path and flow of nearly every major river in the U.S. It reveals the consequences for the integrity of animal and plant life as well as soil, water, and air quality. Tamara and Tara discuss dam removal projects across the country and how people and ecosystems are transformed by returning rivers to their free-flowing state.
The Terrain.org podcast is…
Fascinating conversations with authors, artists, scientists, and others who share Terrain.org’s passion for place and focus on climate, community, and justice. We delve deeply into guests’ work and imagination, exploring internal and external landscapes to reach the soul of place.
Tara Lohan has been working as an environmental journalist and editor for more than 15 years. Her work has been published by The Nation, The American Prospect, Salon, High Country News, Grist, Adventure Journal, The Revelator, and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis and is the author of the new book, Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life (Island Press, 2025).
Read Tara Lohan’s guest editorial “Crossroads of a Water Crisis” in Terrain.org.
Tamara Dean is the podcast editor of Terrain.org and author of Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless, which invites readers to consider how we tend the earth in times of uncertainty, what we owe our neighbors, and ways we thrive in community. Her work has appeared in The American Scholar, Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, the Guardian, One Story, Orion, The Southern Review, STORY Magazine, and other publications. More at tamaradean.media.
Music: “Liftoff” by Nature Connection.
Header photo of Elwha River by Tara Lohan.
