In 2019, 1.2 million people stepped off a cruise ship into the small, south-east Alaskan town of Ketchikan. The next year, in 2020, zero did. After decades of diligent work building a sleepy fishing, mining, and logging town into one of the most sought after cruise destinations in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed Ketchikan into an empty shell—lined with restaurants, shops, and attractions for the visitors who no longer come. Now, the town must find a way to survive without its key economy until the day arrives when cruise visitors once again pour into its docks.

The story behind the construction and operation of the first-ever airport on Saint Helena Island. St. Helena, a British Overseas Territory located in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, is one of the most isolated islands in the world. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is well below that of the rest of the United Kingdom. The reduction in travel times from days to hours will hopefully create an economic boom on the island.

The Colorado River is the foundation of the American Southwest. But the confluence of a once-in-a-millennium drought, a hundred-year-old mistake, and a generations-old conflict have put the river-–and the civilization built atop it––in crisis, and at a crossroads. As the southwest continues to grow, and the river continues to shrink, time is running out to solve the problem of the Colorado.

Land is supposed to be the embodiment of permanence, but what happens when it's not? What is life like when the nation you live in has an expiration date?