Lake Superior Podcast
We are made stronger by story and there’s no better source than the continent's largest body of freshwater, Lake Superior. Join hosts Walt Lindala and Frida Waara as they highlight the five National Parks that ring this Greatest of the Great Lakes - meeting the people, touring the places and learning about the projects that make these parks and body of water so remarkable.
Join our podcast community! Please share your own stories, comments and podcast episode suggestions (www.nplsf.org/community).
Brought to you by The National Parks of Lake Superior Foundation (www.nplsf.org).
Theme song: King Whirl by David Huckfelt (www.davidhuckfelt.com).
Photo Credit: David Guttenfelder.
Podcast sponsored by Café Imports, a Minneapolis-based importers of fine, specialty green coffees.
Episodes
88 episodes
S6 E1: Chasing Sunrise On Lake Superior: An Interview with Bugsy Sailor
New Year Resolutions, if you don’t make them, chances are you thought about it. But do those promises keep? In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Bugsy Sailor, the Official Unofficial Ambassador of ...
S5 E14: The Estivant Pines Story - 50 Years of Conservation with Charles Eshbach
The forests that ring Lake Superior are some of the most magical on the continent. At the tip of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula, in Copper Harbor, you’ll find the Estivant Pines. This 570 acres of old-growth pine has lured hikers for decades. Bu...
S5 E13: Foraging - Rediscover and Reconnect With Nature - An Interview with Tim Clemens
Since time began humans have been foragers. Survival depended on connecting to the natural world. Today, when most of our food comes from a grocery store or is eaten in a restaurant, that link has been lost. But not for Tim Clemens. In this epi...
S5 E12: Capturing the Magic of The Northern Lights: An Interview with Ogetay Kayali
Witnessing the Northern Lights checks a bucket-list for many. The first time you see the sky erupt in waves of pulsing white, green, red, or even blue light makes lifelong memories. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and...
S5 E11: Pictured Rocks: Where Conservation Meets Recreation - An Interview with Hannah Bradburn
Nearly a million visitors came to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in 2023, contributing over $45 million dollars to the nearby economies. For Alger County--with a population of less than nine thousand people—the ...
S5 E10: Isle Royale Through The Lens - An Interview with Tom Haas, Photographer and Author
For those who have backpacked Isle Royale, you know it’s a rugged place. Imagine carrying a 20 pound camera and wooden tripod around, along with a stash of 4x5 black and white film. In 1967, Tom Haas, a 19 year old college student from Connecti...
S5 E9: Great Lakes Shipping - An Interview with Sam Hankinson, Development Coordinator at the Port of Monroe
While we see trucks and trains moving freight around the country, goods are also traveling by freighter, and some of those ships are 1,000 feet long. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Sam Hanki...
S5 E8: The Lutsong Music Festival - An Interview with Co-Founder Scott Schuler
Music. Why is it important? For most--on a personal level--music stirs feelings, memories and sensations. But sharing music is also a way to for people to connect, bond thoughts and emotions when words won’t do. Lake Superior’s waves have been ...
S5 E7: Jon Prain - "The Isle Royale Guy"
A backpacking trip to Isle Royale heads up the Bucket List for many, but with 165 miles of trails and 36 campsites, planning a trip can be overwhelming, particularly for first-timers. Experience counts. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podc...
S5 E6: Jerry Dennis - Award-Winning Great Lakes Author - Traverse City, Michigan
Jerry Dennis is one of the country’s most prolific outdoor writers. With by-lines in The New York Times, Smithsonian, Orion, American Way, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Gray's Sporting Journal as well as 13 books--and most re...
S5 E5: Aidan Lee - Owner of Trek & Trail - Bayfield, Wisconsin
When it comes to kayaking this Sweetwater Sea, a paddler has 2,726 miles of spectacular shoreline to explore as well as three National Parks: Isle Royale, Apostle Islands and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshores. But it’s also a destination where...
S5 E4: Tyler Penrod - Program Manager with the Superior Watershed Partnership - Marquette, Michigan
Changing climate is impacting Lake Superior. The lack of ice cover this past winter effects coastal erosion, water levels, fish populations and wildlife. Plus, the unseasonably warm weather has economic and cultural impacts on the shoreline com...
S5 E3: Dan Fountain - Author, Shipwreck Historian and Researcher
Lake Superior is home to an estimated 550 shipwrecks, with approximately half of them still undiscovered. In this episode of the Lake Superior podcast, hosts Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with Dan Fountain, author, shipwreck historian, and ...
S5 E2: Phyllis Green - Former Superintendent of Isle Royale National Park - Ballast Winter
Lake Superior tops the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem as well as the longest deep-draft inland waterway, extending from Duluth, Minnesota, to the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Atlantic Ocean. Roughly 10,000 cargo ships pass through the Soo ...
S5 E1: Dr. Sarah Hoy - Research Assistant Professor at Michigan Technological University - Isle Royale Winter Study Suspended
Unseasonably warm weather along Lake Superior from Sault Ste. Marie to Grand Portage has canceled a host of winter events from sled dog and cross-country ski races to snowmobile rides and ice fishing tournaments. But it’s not just tourism that ...
S4 E12: Craig Blacklock, Photographer & Author - Moose Lake, Minnesota
Craig Blacklock first started taking pictures when he was nine years old, following his father, Les Blacklock, a pioneering nature photographer. By the time he was 15, he had graduated to capturing images on a large format 4x5 camera. Over his ...
S4 E11: Karl Koster, Park Ranger - Grand Portage National Monument
Grand Portage National Monument in northern Minnesota sits right in the middle of the Canoe Capital of the World. The National Park has many boats on display, from smaller crafts used for gathering rice and hunting to huge Voyageur canoes used ...
S4 E10: Beth Kirschner, Author of "Copper Divide" - Ann Arbor, Michigan
Christmas Eve, 1913, was a tragic night in Calumet, Michigan. 73 people—59 of them children--were killed when someone falsely yelled, “Fire,” at a crowded Christmas party on the second floor of the Italian Hall setting off a deadly stampede. Th...
S4 E9: Hannah Bradburn, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Visual Information Specialist & Emma Olechnowicz, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Ranger
78 lighthouses circle Lake Superior, 42 of those navigational aids dot the Michigan shoreline. Au Sable Point Light Station in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore ranks one of the most popular. Built in 1874, it stands 86’ tall and the original t...
S4 E8: John Shepard, Associate Professor and Assistant Director at the Center for Global Environmental Education, Hamline University
Lake Superior is one of the fastest warming lakes in the world. And when it comes to getting people’s attention about the warming, film is a powerful medium. In this episode of the Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala and Frida Waara talk with f...
S4 E7: John Mueller, Owner of the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge
As daylight hours begin to wane, the darkest months of the year are ahead. For many, it means more time to get outside and pay attention to what’s happening through the night in our sky. In this episode of Lake Superior Podcast, Walt Lindala an...
S4 E6: Joe Hughes, Chief Ranger at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore stretches along 42 miles of Lake Superior shoreline from Munising to Grand Marais. The year-round park covers roughly 114 square miles and includes 22 back country camp grounds, many circling the 10 inland lake...
S4 E5: Tomás Sowles, Chief Pilot Isle Royale Seaplanes
Isle Royale ranks the most remote of the five National Parks on Lake Superior. Only two ways to get there; by boat or sea plane. Whether you go by air or water, weather rules. Guests of this podcast concur, "Lake Superior is always the boss.” I...
S4 E4: Victoria Manganiello, Artist in Residence at Rabbit Island
When looking for a place to renew, refresh, reset, where do you go? The fresh air and endless horizon of Lake Superior have long created a place for folks to come to heal, contemplate change, and be inspired forward. In this episode of the Lake...
S4 E3: Anna Deschampe, Chief of Interpretation, Grand Portage National Monument
Lake Superior’s fur trade dates back to the 16th century and the best place to get an understanding of that rich history is a visit to Minnesota’s Grand Portage National Monument. For most people, the best way to learn is by doing and since 197...