Inescapable Reckoning: Fire, Consumption, and Writing with John Vaillant

Mind, Body, and Soil

In this episode of the Ground Work podcast, Kate sits down with author John Vaillant to begin to tease out some of the themes of his 4 incredible books, 3 works of non-fiction, and one work of fiction. At the recording, John had just been awarded as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. John and Kate talk about what it means to consume, how we as human animals interact with our environments and resources, and about how we reconcile the cognitive dissonance we experience born into the Petrocene age. It’s about the multi-dimensional reckoning we’re in right now, as human and geologic time scales merge, and we are thrust into an acceleration of everything we know. A lot of this interview comes down to a sense of urgency many of us are feeling and this one fact: what happens next is not inevitable. John also shares some about his process as a writer and what it means to tell stories at this moment in time.

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Resources Mentioned:

Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins

Find John:

X: @JohnVaillant

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

The Jaguar’s Children: A Novel

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