The following podcast contains explicit language.

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Welcome to the Slate Audio Book Club's discussion of Wild by Cheryl Stray.

I'm Dan Cois. I'm the editor of the Slate Book Review, and I'm here at the Slate's New York Recording Studio this month.

Joining me right here is Parle Sagan, who's an editor at the New York Times Book Review. Hello, Parle. You're doing. Welcome. And joining us from Washington is a brand new addition to our audiobook club roster, Slate assistant editor Katie Waldman. Hey, Katie. Hey. So, as always with the audiobook club, we will be talking about all the various plot twists and turns and the momentous events of Cheryl Strait's life as recounted in Wilde.

So if you were a person who doesn't want to be spoiled for a book before you read it, go read the book and then come back and listen to us.

If you don't care about that stuff, then just continue listening.

Pay no mind.

Wild is Cheryl Strait's bestselling memoir of her hundred days spent hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in California and Oregon. She was 26 in 1995 and trying to piece her life back together after it fell apart in the wake of her mother's death from cancer. She's ill-prepared for the rigors of a long backpacking journey, but while the trail takes six of her toenails, it gives her back some ineffable sense of herself.

The film version of Wilde starring Reese Witherspoon comes out this fall, and I can only hope it does not skimp on the bleeding foot shots.

But for now, we're talking about the memoir.

Today, I want to talk with you guys about the indelible scenes that pepper this book, about the way that Cheryl Strayd folds in the stories of her past into this concurrent story of hiking the trail.

And about, of course, Cheryl Strad's seaside honey Fantasia with a Hot Wilco fan.

But first, let's talk about this 1,000 mile hike and how Strayd makes both its beauty and

awfulness so vivid. She is pretty ruthless with herself about how unprepared she really was

for this trail. So to start out, Parnell and Katie, what is your favorite Cheryl Strayed

fucking blows it on the Pacific Crest Trail moment? Mine is when she yells moose at a bowl.

That's my favorite moment. What about you guys? What did you like the best? I think for me,

the ongoing drama of her boots is just amazing. So she gets these fancy hiking boots from

R.E.I. And from the beginning, she's in a tremendous amount of pain. Her feet just become hamburger, essentially. And almost every person she meets on the trail says, you know, I think your boots are too small. And it's this ongoing thing. Again and again, people keep telling her, she keeps losing toenails. She's hobbling along and excruciating amounts of pain. And guess what? Her boots are too small. Her boots are too small.

...