What do a 17th-century cow pasture, fourteen timber cabins in Rocky Mountain National Park, a limestone elementary school in Kansas, and a brand-new community schoolyard in Boston have in common? They’re all part of the same story — America’s evolving idea of what deserves protecting, and why.

As America marks its 250th year, host Ronda Lee Chapman traces that idea through four eras: Origin, at Boston Common, the nation’s oldest public park; Evolution, at Rocky Mountain National Park, where a 42-acre inholding reveals how unfinished “America’s best idea” remains; Disruption, at the Monroe School in Topeka — a building at the center of Brown v. Board of Education, saved from the wrecking ball; and Revolution, at Boston’s Chittick Elementary, where the students themselves designed the newest kind of public space.

Take action: ​Tell Congress to protect the parks, public lands, and historic sites that preserve our full American story → tpl.org/public-policy#take-action

Featured in this episode

• Brown Revisited, a project of Oyez — brown.oyez.org — The audio of the Brown v. Board
• The Freedom Trail Foundation — thefreedomtrail.org
• Friends of the Public Garden — friendsofthepublicgarden.org
• Boston Parks and Recreation — boston.gov/departments/parks-and-recreation
• Rocky Mountain National Park — nps.gov/romo
• Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park — nps.gov/brvb
• TPL’s Community Schoolyards® program — tpl.org/community-schoolyards
• Find a park within a 10-minute walk of home — tpl.org

People. Nature. Big Ideas. is a production of Trust for Public Land in partnership with PGP Productions. Executive producer: Thomas Clayton Miller. Editorial director: Deborah Williams.

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This month's episode flips the script. PNBI host Ronda Lee takes the hot seat as guest Gabaccia Moreno throws the tough questions.

Ronda and Gabaccia met as strangers on a shuttle to Big Sky, Montana, where both were completing their PSIA/AASI instruction certifications through Women of Winter, a program centering women of color in snow sports. Together, they unpack Ronda's decade in the mountains of Utah, the complicated joy of reclaiming spaces that haven’t always felt welcoming to them, the very real cost of access, and the particular power of age diversity on the slopes.

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Brought to you from the first, Black-owned radio station in the country, WERD Studios, this month’s PNBI recording is a very special one.

Host Ronda Lee traveled to the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia— birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—to celebrate the grand opening of the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, where Dr. King, and many other Black leaders, catalyzed the early Civil Rights Movement.

On the third floor, WERD Studios was the movement’s first communications base. In the newly refurbished space, Ronda sits down with an elite panel of guests instrumental in bringing the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge to life. They talk about the origin of the project, the role of the Masons, the history of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and its future, and what’s next for this important Black historic site.

Trust for Public Land
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