Wilderness

For more than two decades, award-winning science and nature writer David Quammen has traveled to Earth’s most far-flung and fragile destinations, sending back field notes from places caught in the tension between humans and the wild. A new book “The Heartbeat of the Wild” features 20 of those assignments: elegantly written narratives, originally published in National Geographic magazine and updated for today. He shares encounters with African elephants, chimpanzees, and gorillas (and their saviors, including Jane Goodall); the salmon of northeastern Russia and the people whose livelihood depends on them; the lions of Kenya and the villagers whose homes border on parks created to preserve the species; and the champions of rewilding efforts in southernmost South America, designed to rescue iconic species including jaguars and macaws.

If I were to ask you to craft a list of words that represent your connection to the natural world, which words immediately pop into your mind? Of course, President Theodore Roosevelt said, “There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm.”

David Quammen joins us on this episode to discuss his new book 'The Heartbeat of the Wild' which features 20 elegantly written narratives, originally published in National Geographic magazine and updated for today.

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For those who go in search of the isolation, silence and adventure of wild places it is―perhaps ironically―to the man-made shelters that they need to…

For those who go in search of the isolation, silence and adventure of wild places it is―perhaps ironically―to the man-made shelters that they need to…

Glyph: a word that might evoke images in the mind of ancient Egyptian pictures recounting the trials and triumphs of pharaohs and their people; or Native…

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The Bureau of Land Management is reconsidering travel routes for off-road vehicles on more than 6 million acres of Utah land. BLM-Utah will revisit plans…