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NPR's Book of the Day

Cory Richards' memoir covers mountains, photography and mental health

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 β€’ 671 Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 6 August 2024

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cory Richards made a name for himself taking photographs across the globe for National Geographic. His new memoir, The Color of Everything, grapples with the harsh realities of high-end climbing, fame, mortality – and some of the not-so-great things he's done. In today's episode, Richards speaks with NPR's Sacha Pfeiffer about why he jokes the book is a bit of 'memoir, mountains, mea culpa' and what it means for public figures to open up about their pitfalls.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. When the writer of a memoir reveals

0:07.2

they've done something bad, what are they hoping to accomplish? Sometimes it's a public

0:12.4

apology, sometimes it's a, oh, here's how that went down from my perspective. But is there a third

0:17.8

option here? It's a question I thought about listening to today's interview.

0:21.2

It's between NPR Sasha Fifer and the renowned photographer Corey Richards,

0:25.3

whose new memoir is titled The Color of Everything.

0:28.2

In the interview, they talk about him copping to some of the kind of crappy things he's done

0:32.8

and his intention behind talking about it publicly.

0:35.9

And Sasha presses him on,

0:39.1

Is this an earnest attempt at communicating something about yourself, or is this just attention seeking? That's after the

0:44.7

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

0:52.0

conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.

0:57.2

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

1:02.2

events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your

1:08.1

podcasts. Corrie Richards has climbed some of the world's highest peaks and almost lost his life on some of them.

1:17.3

You may have seen his famous self-portrait of his ice-crusted face after he was caught in an avalanche while mountain climbing in the Himalayas.

1:25.8

He says he loved the outdoors, starting when he was young, but also had a troubled childhood.

1:31.1

I was a gifted kid.

1:32.3

I went to high school two years early.

1:34.8

So my second year in high school, my grades sort of fell off a cliff.

1:40.3

And there was more and more upset in the home.

1:44.9

And then I ended up dropping out of high school altogether.

...

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