meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

BEAVERS AWAKEN SPRINGTIME! 4/8: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

BEAVERS AWAKEN SPRINGTIME! 4/8: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip

https://www.amazon.com/Beaverland-Weird-Rodent-Made-America/dp/153875519X

Beginning with the early trans-Atlantic trade in North America, Leila Philip traces the beaver’s profound influence on our nation’s early economy and feverish western expansion, its first corporations and multi-millionaires. In her pursuit of this weird and wonderful animal, she introduces us to people whose lives are devoted to the beaver, including a Harvard scientist from the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, who uses drones to create 3-dimensional images of beaver dams; and an environmental restoration consultant in the Chesapeake whose nickname is the “beaver whisperer”.

What emerges is a poignant personal narrative, a startling portrait of the secretive world of the contemporary fur trade, and an engrossing ecological and historical investigation of these heroic animals who, once trapped to the point of extinction, have returned to the landscape as one of the greatest conservation stories of the 20th century. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, BEAVERLAND reveals the profound ways in which one odd creature and the trade surrounding it has shaped history, culture, and our environment.

1890 BEaver and Baby

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

My brother-in-law died suddenly and now my sister and her kids have to sell their home.

0:05.0

That's why I told my husband we could not put off getting life insurance any longer.

0:10.0

An agent offered us a 10-year $500,000 policy for nearly $50 a month.

0:15.8

Then we called select quote.

0:17.6

Select quote found us identical coverage for only $19 a month,

0:22.0

a savings of $369 a year.

0:25.0

Whether you need a $500,000 policy or a $5 million policy,

0:30.0

select quote could save you more than 50% on term life insurance.

0:34.0

For your free quote go to selectquote.com.

0:37.0

Selectquote.com.

0:38.0

That's select quote.

0:40.0

Select quote. We shop, you save.

0:44.0

Full details on example policies at selectquote.com slash commercials.

0:48.0

I'm John Dash with Professor Lila Philip, the author of Beaverland, how one weird

0:57.0

rodent made America.

0:58.8

This is everything you never knew to ask about beavers.

1:01.6

Well, here they are are and that question arises in the 1930s

1:07.0

hard-scrabble America. We go to Little Falls New York with the professor. Little

1:12.3

Falls was once I learned these things from the professor. Little Falls was once, I learned these things from the

1:14.8

professor, it was once the cheese capital of America. Did Wisconsin know this?

1:18.6

Apparently, yes at the end of the Mohawk River Valley, but it attracted a young family and Dorothy Richards was

1:26.6

born there in the early part of this of the 20th century and she grew up to be a Beaver Whisper. Please explain Beaver Spied Professor.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.