Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Candice Millard's new nonfiction book,

River of the Gods, is about these two guys, who in 1857, went off to find the source of the Nile River.

And just to be clear, these guys weren't friends. In fact, they were bitter rivals who hated each other.

But off they went, getting into all sorts of trouble, which you'll hear about in this interview

with NPR's Scott Simon.

But as Millard's describing them getting stabbed or speared or stabbed again, she makes an

important point that at its core, this is a story about arrogance.

The kind of hubris it takes to believe that you've discovered a place where people have been living for generations.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand

why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The quest to find the headwaters of the Nile River was the space race of the middle of the 19th century.

Candice Millard's book, River of the Gods, Genius, Courage, and Betrayal, and the search for the source of the Nile

tells the true-life tales of men who trekked into uncharted places contending with the forbidding terrain of heat, drought, fever, typhoid, smallpox,

and beetles that burrowed into ears. The men wound up with contending claims.

Candice Millard, author of previous bestsellers, including River of Doubt, joins us now from

Kansas City. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thanks so much for having me.

I want to get you to tell us about each of these three distinctive personalities. Let's put

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