Adams was part of an initiative to protect natural darkness in northern Michigan — in other words, dark sky parks.
"In 2011, we achieved International Dark Sky status for the headlands — only the ninth dark sky park in the world at the time," she said. "A year later, we got the state of MI to protect 23,000 acres of state land."
Then, the planet Venus transited the sun — a rare event.
"I knew that it was big news and we were in the part of the world where you could see it," Adams said. "This really stirred a lot of interest. It really lifted the awareness. ... It really drove the interest in being able to talk about the stars from a human-centered perspective."
IPR invited Adams on the air for a recurring interview, and the first episode of The Storyteller's Night Sky aired in August 2012, eventually transitioning to a segment that Adams produced herself.
Adams bills herself as a "star lore historian."
"I'm imagining you want to know what that is," she told IPR's Tyler Thompson. "I will confess that it's a title I created, because there was not an easy way to capture what I was doing. What I wanted to do was look at all of this and say, 'Now, how does it support or hinder my ability to be human on the earth, and to support my thinking about what it is to be human in natural environments?'"
The final episode of "The Storyteller's Night Sky":
ICYMI ...
Nuclear power: Last week, climate reporter Izzy Ross brought us in-depth reporting on the plans to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant in southwest Michigan. Electrical co-ops here in northern Michigan are hoping to benefit if the plant comes back online.
Endorsing a candidate: Sunday host Cheryl Bartz put in her vote for who should win IPR's State Bird CAWcus, and her choice is a bit unorthodox. Listen to her explain why she's getting behind the turkey vulture.
We noticed ...
... that The Cooks' House chefs Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson are semifinalists for a James Beard Award. They’ll know if they’re finalists April 2nd. Winners are announced in June. There have been winners downstate, but not yet in northern Michigan. We have had some Up North contenders in the past, though. Chef Harlan "Pete" Peterson at the former Tapawingo restaurant, in Ellsworth, was nominated four different times. And Chef Myles Anton at Trattoria Stella in Traverse City has been a repeat semifinalist.
