Turning Corners is a new podcast offering inspiring stories about the people and organizations working to make life better in the Four Corners states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. It’s produced in Santa Fe, NM, by me, Wade Roush.
As I say in the trailer: I feel like we’re immersed every day in discouraging news about how our broken politics and failing institutions are keeping us from accomplishing real change. You know, the kind of change that could lift people up and remind us that we really are in this together. But here in the West and Southwest there are a lot of real people doing creative, groundbreaking work to strengthen communities, bridge old divides, reduce inequality, and save the planet.
They’re bringing their unique cultures and histories to bear. They also bring a uniquely Southwestern type of courage and public spirit, along with a can-do, no-bullshit attitude. They’re tackling hard problems—and so they don’t always succeed. But I think their stories can be an inspiration for people all over the country. And I’m starting this show because I want to bring those stories to you.
Episode 1—about a groundbreaking new exhibit at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico—is coming very soon. (Update 2/6/26: It’s out now!) Subscribe to Turning Corners on Substack to get that episode and every future episode (plus full transcripts) in your email inbox, or hit follow or subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
TRANSCRIPT
Georgia O’Keeffe archival tape: When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country. I had never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly. It’s something that’s in the air. It’s just different. The sky is different. The stars are different. The wind is different.
Wade Roush: That was the voice of Georgia O’Keeffe. She was the most famous painter ever to depict the southwestern United States, and probably the most famous woman painter in American history, period.
And when it comes to New Mexico, I kinda know what she was talking about.
My name is Wade Roush.
I’ve been writing for the last 30 years or so about science, technology, innovation, history, and culture.
The three places I’ve spent the most time in my life are Michigan, Massachusetts, and California. But a few years ago, for my first real vacation after the pandemic, I decided to visit Santa Fe. And just like Georgia O’Keeffe, I immediately fell in love with the place, and felt like it fitted me exactly.
I moved here permanently in 2023. And the more time I’ve spent here trying to absorb the complicated history of my adopted home city, the more I’ve come to see that what defines this land today and makes it so special isn’t just its air and its sky and its stars but its people.
There’s something special about the mix of people and ideas here in the Southwest and about the way communities here think about big challenges.
You know how people say that New Englanders are a little frosty, and Midwesterners are super polite, and Californians are friendly, at least in a superficial way? Well, having lived in all those places, I can tell you that those stereotypes are all just…stereotypes. But they’re also based on something a little bit real about the cultures of those regions.
And here in the West and the Southwest, I think what you can say is that people are generally no-nonsense and maybe a bit cantankerous, with an independent streak and a deep attachment to the land. That’s true here in New Mexico and I think it’s also true in the other Four Corners states of Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.
Now, from 2017 to 2025 I made an indie podcast called Soonish that was sort of about technology and sort of about national politics. But after I moved here to Santa Fe I felt an urge to start a different show that’s more tied to this region and this community.
I feel like we’re immersed every day in discouraging news about how our broken politics and failing institutions are keeping us from accomplishing real change. You know, the kind of change that could lift people up and remind us that we really are in this together.
But here in the West and Southwest there are a lot of real people doing creative, groundbreaking work to strengthen communities, bridge old divides, reduce inequality, and save the planet.
They’re bring their unique cultures and histories to bear. They also bring a uniquely Southwestern type of courage and public spirit, along with a can-do, no-bullshit attitude.
They’re tackling hard problems -- and so they don’t always succeed. But I think their stories can be an inspiration for people all over the country. And I’m starting this show because I want to bring those stories to you.
The Four Corners monument on Diné land is the only place in the country where the boundaries of four states all meet up at one geometrical point. In fact there’s a bronze marker there where if you stand right on top of it, you can be in all four states at once.
What I like most about the Four Corners monument is the way it unites four states with such amazing people, such beautiful landscapes, such ancient cultures, such a huge role in America’s westward expansion in the 19th century, and such unique ways of adapting and innovating for the 21st century.
That’s why I’m calling the show Turning Corners.
Our first episode is coming very soon, and when you hear it you’ll understand why I wanted to start with Georgia O’Keeffe.
There’s an exhibit running right now at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum here in Santa Fe that does something remarkable.
It acknowledges that, from one perspective, O’Keeffe became almost too famous.
Her images of New Mexico grew so familiar over the decades that tourist agencies started calling the land she painted “O’Keeffe Country.”
But as you can imagine, the label didn’t sit well with the people who have actually occupied that land for thousands of years—meaning members of the six Tewa-speaking pueblos of northern New Mexico.
The new exhibit starts to reverse decades of erasure by spotlighting a dozen Tewa artists, each with their unique way of expressing their love of the landscape.
Bess Murphy (curator, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum): I think there’s absolutely space for critique of O’Keeffe in the exhibition…Not an implicit critique of O’Keefe as an individual, but maybe an implicit critique of the idea of having one iconic figure speak for an entire place.
Wade Roush: That’s all coming up in Episode 1 of Turning Corners. To hear it, just go to turningcorners.org, or hit subscribe or follow in your favorite podcast app.
