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On Common Ground: An American Inheritance

Eleven Dollar Bill 7 Episodes Jul 27, 2026

A six-part documentary podcast about the immediate threats to America's public lands. In 2025, a proposal to sell three million acres of public land was defeated, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act mandated opening more than 200 million acres to industrial development. The series follows a broad coalition of hunters, anglers, Tribal leaders, climbers, scientists, poets, public servants, and local communities who believe some places are worth protecting.

Episodes

Trailer: On Common Ground Jul 27, 2026 144 Public lands belong to all of us. Right now, that inheritance is being taken, not in secret, but in plain sight.Last year, Americans rallied to stop a plan to sell off public land — and won. But the fight that made headlines mattered far less than the one that didn't. While the country celebrated, a far larger giveaway had already begun.On Common Ground: An American Inheritance is hosted by Bill H

Episode 1: The Theft Aug 4, 2026 2370 Last summer, millions of Americans rose up to defeat Senator Mike Lee's plan to sell off 3.5 million acres of public land. Hunters and anglers, climbers, veterans, and tribal nations all joined the fight.It felt like a victory. It turned out to be a diversion.While the country celebrated, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, forcing open more than 200 million acres of America's public l

Episode 2: The Land Aug 17, 2026 2523 Episode two, "The Land," is the origin story: how the United States came to hold 640 million acres in trust for the public, how concentrated wealth plundered and privatized much of it in the 1800s, and how the nation pulled back from the brink to build a system of parks, forests, and monuments that became the model for the rest of the world. But it's happening again: the richest Americans now comm

Episode 3: The Plunderers Aug 17, 2026 1727 Who really owns America's public lands, and who is trying to take them away?Episode three, "The Plunderers," follows the money. It opens with four hunters from Missouri who crossed from one corner of public land to another without ever touching a wealthy landowner's ranch — and were sued for eight million dollars for it. That case is the small version of a much larger story: how enormous private w

Episode 4: The Lies Aug 24, 2026 1678 Every argument for dismantling America's public lands is built to sound reasonable: we need affordable housing; the West shouldn't be run by faceless bureaucrats in Washington; public lands represent a broken promise to the states. Episode four, "The Lies," pulls those arguments apart, and asks a more consequential question: who profits when we believe them?The episode opens with Scott Fitzwilliam

Episode 5: The Cost Aug 26, 2026 1361 In the 1970s, Bill Hedden took a job at the Atlas uranium mill on the banks of the Colorado River in Moab. He was lucky: a spot on the construction crew kept him away from the mill's most lethal work — the acid tanks, the yellowcake hearth, the men spreading fiberglass resin with their bare hands, who'd been told nothing about what it would do to them. Those jobs went to people without the educati

Episode 6: The Inheritance Aug 27, 2026 1786 The finale of this 6-part documentary series offers hope and a vision of what public lands could still become if people are willing to stand up for the places they love."The Inheritance" opens with Ada Limón, the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, who spent her tenure installing poems in national parks. Beauty, she says, is what makes us brave — and we need our bravery now. In a country where so much can be

On Common Ground: An American Inheritance

Episodes

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