Ally Audio: What You Listened To Most in 2025

Did you tune into Ally Audio this year? The Sierra Nevada Ally ‘s new podcast delivered news and information your community relies on in a brand new format, thanks in large part to funding from Press Forward, and from you.

Ally Audio is part of our team’s expanding effort to reach you where you’re at. We understand that everyone gets their news differently. It’s why the Sierra Nevada Ally team is adapting our stories to be shared across all media formats.

Right now, all donations made to the Sierra Nevada Ally between now and the end of the year are matched (up to $1,000) by our friends at NewsMatch.

We’re grateful for whatever you can afford to give. Every dollar counts. 

As a token of our thanks, take a walk back in time with us as we look back on your favorite Ally Audio episodes from 2025. Ally Audio will return on your favorite podcast platform in 2026.

Our most-downloaded podcast episode came as several political storylines were taking effect in Nevada. The show introduced our new format covering three major headlines before taking a deep dive into the “big issue” of the week.

In this early February episode, Executive Editor Noah Glick and Managing Director Scott King covered the budget Governor Joe Lombardo submitted to the Nevada State Legislature, despite initially having a $335 million deficit, the Reno Planning Commission’s request to the Reno City Council to place a moratorium on data centers, and other updates from the start of the 2025 Nevada legislative session. 

Then the guys introduced the early steps the second Trump administration was taking for stricter immigration enforcement, while exploring the economic value immigrants bring to the Silver State and the rights of Nevadans when confronted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

In our second-most downloaded episode, Noah and Scott talked about a bill in the Nevada state legislature that proposed $200 million for affordable housing development, which eventually passed and was signed into law by Gov. Lombardo. The guys also discussed clean energy tax credits and using sheep to fight wildfires, before hearing from Hannah Truby about her work covering the 50501 protests early in the year.

Nevadans remain interested in water and healthcare. That was proven in this early September episode of Ally Audio in which Noah and Scott break down the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Humboldt County, and a water rights settlement that took place with a local rancher, changes in policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the pending loss of the rural hospital in Glenn County, Calif.

Then the guys provide water level updates for key bodies of water in Nevada, including Lake Tahoe and Lake Mead, and what their changing water levels mean for local residents. 

The Sierra Nevada Ally took a “way-too-early” look at the 2026 election races, but apparently these candidates are exactly who Nevadans want to hear about. But that wasn’t all Noah and Scott covered in this mid-summer episode, as they also talked about planned cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and updates on lithium mining projects throughout the state.

Then in light of ongoing tension between President Trump and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell, the guys dive into the Federal Reserve and how it was designed with a dual-mandate to maintain maximum employment and stable inflation.

The One Big Beautiful Bill was the signature legislation signed during President Trump’s first year back in office. But that wasn’t the only thing Nevadans were paying attention to this summer, as Noah and co-host Alex Couraud shed light on vandalism at Reno High School, increases to the Child Tax Credit, and a proposal from students to make Truckee an official Bee City USA affiliate.

Then Noah and Alex explore a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that reauthorizes a compensation program created to support people who lived downwind of the 1950s-1990s nuclear testing sites in Nevada. The compensation program stemmed from the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that was enacted in 1990. The program also covers uranium miners who got sick due to exposure and is now extended through 2028.

Thanks again for joining us as we look back on your favorite podcast episodes from 2025 and please consider donating to keep our coverage going in 2026.

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Press Forward is a national coalition investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms and close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage. Donate to join the movement and support coverage on civics, climate and community in the Sierra Nevada region.