Episode 206: The Thundering Herd, The Vanishing American

the memory palace

Nate DiMeo

Radiotopia, Publicradio, History, Natedimeo

4.8 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Music

Halcyon and Photosynteses and Embryo by H. Takehashi
Intro by Library Tapes
The Florist Wears Knee Breeches by M. Sage

Notes

I found Andrew Isenberg's book, The Destruction of the Bison, An Environmental History, completely fascinating.
If you want to do a deep dive on Madison Grant, I'd recommend Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant by John Peter Spiro.
If you want to do a deep dive on the Catalina Buffalo, this site is a fun place to start.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the memory palace, the Nittimao, a postcard from Catalina Island, 23 miles off
0:08.6	the coast of Los Angeles, summer 2023.
0:14.7	The buffalo aren't here anymore.
0:17.1	The guy in the Hawaiian shirt and sandals tells us down by the good bathrooms that are
0:20.4	worth the walk down the hill from the campground.
0:23.4	He is happy to tell us that he has been coming to Catalina for years, but he is sad to tell
0:27.4	us that he has never seen its famous buffalo herd in the area toward which we are planning
0:31.1	to hike.
0:32.8	Not at this hour, just as the morning ferry from San Pedro unloads and boy scouts pull
0:37.7	on their packs and frat guys seal cases of third-tier beer with duct tape to keep them safe
0:42.8	in the back of the truck and the ride out to the cabins.
0:47.6	And so before we even begin our hike, we abandon our hopes of seeing the buffalo.
0:52.5	Before bison, I read on my phone on the boat ride over that they are the same thing.
0:57.4	Until we make our way to another trail, cutting through the tiny seaside resort town of two
1:02.2	harbors, past its cabanas and rustic pavilions in mid-century beige, as the ice cream shop
1:07.9	prepares to open up.
1:09.8	As a bachelorette party, freshly disembarked, discovers that their weekend in the island coincides
1:14.2	with winefest, with its unlimited pours and a DJ spending till midnight, that will echo
1:19.9	among the hillsides that cradle the harbor, and the boats within it flying flags that signal
1:24.4	their allegiance to America, California, the life of the pirate or the parrothead or
1:29.3	no-shoes nation, and the bachelorette and her girls are super stoked.
1:33.9	There will be ocean views in this hike along the cliffs edge, waves in white sails, a
	...

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