Podcasts Culture Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson Pete McBride, Part 2: In Search of Silence

Pete McBride, Part 2: In Search of Silence

Published: July 18, 2022, 5:48 p.m.

Pete McBride is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker whose work is regularly featured by National Geographic, Smithsonian, The Nature Conservancy, and other renowned institutions. His most recent book is titled \u201cSeeing Silence: The Beauty of the World\u2019s Most Quiet Places,\u201d and it features photographs and stories from more than two decades of his adventures on all seven continents. \u201cSeeing Silence\u201d uses stunning imagery and engaging storytelling to highlight the importance of places free of man-made noise, and it educates the reader on just how quickly silence is disappearing from the world.

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For more than twenty years, Pete has been using his skills as a storyteller to inspire action on a wide variety of conservation issues. He has highlighted the multitude of threats facing the Grand Canyon in both his documentary "Into the Grand Canyon" and his book "Grand Canyon: Between River and Rim." He\u2019s also documented the West\u2019s ongoing water crisis by focusing on the myriad of challenges affecting the Colorado River basin\u2013making the important but sometimes confusing topic of water in the West accessible to a broader audience. And now, with "Seeing Silence," he\u2019s turned his focus to noise pollution and natural sounds, and I personally learned a lot from the book and this conversation.

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This is Pete\u2019s second appearance on the podcast, so if you\u2019d like to learn more about his personal backstory and adventures in the Grand Canyon, you can find a link to that conversation in the episode notes. In this conversation, we go deep into Pete\u2019s new obsession with silence and natural sounds, and why noise pollution is such a critical conservation issue. We started out talking about Pete\u2019s expedition to South Georgia Island back in March of 2020 and how he had to make a hasty escape from the island when Covid descended on the world. We talk about his experience during Covid, and how the pandemic shifted his interests from the visual to the auditory. We discuss how artificial noise affects wildlife, why Pete feels a responsibility not to share specific wilderness locations on social media, how Pete\u2019s family keeps him grounded, the larger purpose that drives his professional work, his recent photography work in Lake Powell, and we also included some sounds that Pete recorded during his South Georgia Island expedition.

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It was great to chat with Pete again, and I\u2019d encourage you to check out "Seeing Silence"\u2013 it\u2019s an excellent book. And be sure the check out the episode notes for a complete list of all the topics we discussed and links to everything. Thanks to Pete for taking the time, and thanks to you for listening. I hope you enjoy.

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

  • 3:30 - Where Pete was during the start of the pandemic
  • 5:30 - Thousands of King Penguins
  • 10:15 - How Pete, as an outgoing person, adjusted from a career of traveling for films to pandemic isolation
  • 13:30 - An example that Pete observed of how pandemic silence affected wildlife
  • 23:30 - Pete reflects on shifting his focus from more visual media to auditory
  • 26:45 - Pete discusses a search for quiet and how human-made sound and industry impacts wildlife
  • 32:30 - Pete and Ed discuss the impact of human-caused light pollution along with the impacts sound has on humans
  • 36:45 - Pete describes why he became interested in sound
  • 40:00 - Pete discusses the responsibility he feels as a photographer to not inspire destructive over-visitation of beautiful natural places\xa0
  • 44:45 - Pete discusses how he and his family keep him humble and grounded despite widespread attention
  • 49:45 - Pete talks about weaving adventure into work for conservation, and follows up on our first conversation regarding the state of water in the western US
  • 59:30 - Pete gives us some conservation optimism

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