From cartel-defended forests in Mexico to quiet Monarch groves near your home, war journalist Anjan Sundaram invites you on a powerful immersive journey that connects you with the Indigenous communities risking everything to protect our planet.
What if your next walk through a peaceful butterfly grove became a portal into the lives of those risking everything to protect it?
Today, we’re honoured to launch Risking Lives for Butterflies—a free immersive journalism experience created in collaboration with award-winning war correspondent Anjan Sundaram, adapted from his powerful feature for Vox Media.
This walk isn’t just about butterflies. It’s about land, life, and the frontline defenders risking everything to protect the environment we all depend on. Right now. Today.
Where Journalism Meets Immersion
We first met Anjan at SXSW 2024, where he joined a panel that delivered one of the most gripping talks we’d ever heard on the ethics of documenting conflict zones, from photojournalists to influencers. One takeaway was clear: we need new storytelling formats. Ones that don’t just tell us about injustice and environmental collapse, but let us feel them.
That’s what we aim to do at Story City. We believe stories are strongest when you can stand inside them. When you’re physically present—feet on the ground, eyes on the trees—the impact is no longer just intellectual. It becomes emotional.
So over a virtual coffee (and some very enthusiastic nerding out), we asked Anjan:
What would it look like to turn investigative journalism into something you walk through? Something that doesn’t just inform, but moves you, literally and figuratively.
We reviewed several of Anjan’s works (you can dive into his extraordinary reporting on his official site), and one story rose to the top: a feature for Vox’s climate crisis series, examining the Indigenous community of Crescencio Morales in Mexico, who’ve taken up arms to protect their butterfly forest from cartel-backed logging.
The themes? Climate, Indigenous land defense, global biodiversity, and justice.
The location? Universally resonant across North America.
So we worked with Anjan to turn it into a Universal Adventure, a GPS-triggered walkable experience designed for Monarch butterfly habitats across North America.
What You’ll Experience
Set in a local Monarch grove near you, Risking Lives for Butterflies is a free, 6-stop, GPS-triggered audio journey that brings you face-to-face with a story a world away.
As you walk beneath trees speckled with migrating butterflies, Anjan’s voice will guide you through the story of a community fighting for their forest—and for their lives.
At each stop, you’ll uncover:
- How cartel-backed and illegal logging threatens the Monarch Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán, Mexico
- Why Mazahua Indigenous communities have formed communal armed guards to protect the forest
- How their survival ties into the global food chain—and why this struggle impacts what ends up on your plate
- Why climate justice requires Indigenous sovereignty and safety
Bonus: Each location unlocks deeper links to Ajan’s reporting, context, and photographs—turning your walk into an act of slow, reflective storytelling.
Why This Story Matters Now
The Monarch butterfly has long been a symbol of transformation—but it’s also a symbol of fragility.
This one species, whose epic migration connects Canada to Mexico, is a canary in the climate coal mine. numbers are plummeting, mirroring the collapse of pollinator populations globally—populations that support 1 in 3 bites of food we eat.
But the fight to protect them is more than environmental.
And as Anjan’s reporting reveals, the fight to protect them is about more than the environment.
It’s about people.
It’s about land.
And it’s about justice.
Indigenous defenders are standing alone against powerful forces: cartels, corrupt industries, and political indifference. They face threats, displacement—and, far too often, violence. Yet they remain the last line of defense for some of the planet’s most precious ecosystems.
According to Global Witness, nearly 2,000 land defenders have been murdered in the last decade. The need for attention, support, and action has never been greater. We can’t afford to look away.
How You Can Join the Walk
Risking Lives for Butterflies is part of our Story City Universal Adventures platform—meaning it can be placed in any Monarch habitat or butterfly-friendly green space across the U.S., Canada, or Mexico.
It’s completely free to access through the Story City app.
If there isn’t one near you yet, we’d love to change that. Just send us a pin drop of your local butterfly grove via our contact form, and we’ll get to work.
This is a GPS-triggered experience.
When you’re at the habitat, the story unfolds in real time—layered onto your real-world surroundings. No headsets. No gear. Just you, your phone, and a story that will stay with you long after you complete your journey.
🦋 Now live in:
Clovis, CA | Saint Paul, MN | Toronto, ON
Help Amplify This Story
We’re aiming to bring this walk to 30+ Monarch habitats across North America in 2025—but we can’t do it alone.
This project was created with younger audiences in mind—especially Gen Z and Millennials who care deeply about climate justice but don’t always connect with traditional journalism. This story is for them. To walk. To feel. To share.
And most importantly—to act.
Here’s how you can help:
- Share the story with educators, activists, and community leaders
- Request a local placement at your nearest butterfly grove
- Donate to support Anjan’s ongoing reporting on Indigenous climate defenders → Donate Here
- Support your local Monarch habitat by volunteering, planting milkweed, or contributing to the organizations featured along the walk
Why We Made This
At Story City, we believe storytelling can change the world—especially when it’s rooted in place.
With Risking Lives for Butterflies, we hope to help people draw a powerful connection between a peaceful walk through a butterfly grove… and the life-or-death battle unfolding in another part of the world.
Between the quiet beauty of a migrating Monarch—and the people carrying rifles to keep them alive. We hope you’ll join us. Not just in walking the story, but in sharing it.
Because awareness is action.
And stories—when lived—can inspire more than empathy.
They can inspire change.
