#473: The Solitude of a Fire Watcher

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Gila National Forest covers about 3.3 million acres in southwest New Mexico. During the dry summer season, wildfires pose a serious threat to the area. To spot wildfires in this vast landscape as soon as they start, the U.S. Forest Service relies on fire towers spread throughout the area that are each manned by a lone individual. My guest today wrote a memoir about the unique experience this job offers. His name is Philip Connors, he's a writer and one of the country's few remaining fire watchers. Today on the show we discuss what the life of a fire watcher is like and what it’s taught him about nature, solitude, and time. Along the way, Phillip describes the virtues of listening to baseball games by radio and the value of slowing down in an increasingly rushed world. Get the show notes at aom.is/firewatch.

Transcript

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0:00.0	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
0:15.0	Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:18.6	The HeLa National Forest covers about 3.3 million acres in southwest New Mexico.
0:23.4	During the dry summer season wildfires pose a serious threat to that area.
0:26.8	The spot wildfires in this vast landscape as soon as they start, the US Forest Service
0:30.6	relies on fire towers spread throughout the area that are each man by alone individual.
0:35.4	My guest today wrote a memoir about the unique experience this job offers.
0:38.4	His name is Philip Connors, he's a writer and one of the country's few remaining fire
0:41.5	watchers.
0:42.5	Today on the show we discuss what the life of a fire watcher's like and what it's
0:44.8	taught him about nature, solitude and time.
0:47.3	Along the way, Philip describes the virtues of listening to baseball games by radio and
0:51.1	the value of slowing down an increasingly rushed world.
0:54.2	As the show's over, check out our show notes at a-w-m dot i-s slash fire watch.
0:58.6	Philip joins me now via clearcast dot i-o.
1:01.2	[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪
1:09.2	Philip Connors, welcome to the show.
1:11.2	Thanks, it's great to be with you.
1:13.6	So you're a writer, but you found yourself in an interesting seasonal career as well a couple
1:19.0	years ago as a fire watcher on a fire tower in the Heelah National Wilderness area in
1:26.8	New Mexico.
1:28.3	Before we get to your experience, I don't think a lot of people know about fire towers
	...

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