Dr. Jason Herbert

Trained as an American historian, he focuses on Indigenous history and environmental history, exploring how the past continues to shape the ground we stand on—politically, culturally, and physically.

He is the host of Reckoning with Jason Herbert, a podcast that brings historians, writers, and artists into conversation about the forces that define our world. Blending rigorous scholarship with an instinct for storytelling, the show moves fluidly between academic insight and popular culture—pairing serious historical inquiry with film, media, and contemporary debates. His Substack extends that work, offering essays that connect history to lived experience, often through reflections on land, memory, and identity.

Professionally, Herbert serves as a Tribal Liaison with the United States Forest Service in Colorado, where he works with Tribal nations on consultation, relationship-building, and the stewardship of public lands. His work sits at the intersection of policy and memory, helping ensure that Indigenous perspectives remain central to how landscapes are understood and managed.

A native of Kentucky, Herbert brings a Southern sense of place and storytelling to everything he does. Now based in the Rocky Mountain West, his scholarship is shaped as much by mountains and rivers as by archives and books. An outdoorsman who splits his time between the gym and the backcountry, he approaches history not as something distant, but as something lived—felt in the land, carried in memory, and reckoned with in the present.

Across his work—academic, public, and personal—Herbert has built a distinct voice: one that bridges scholarship and storytelling, connects past and present, and reminds us that history is not behind us. It’s all around us.