Hello, everyone. Welcome back to National Park after dark. We have such a cool episode today. Obviously we have an unofficial book club going and

you're the other one to add to the list. So this is a book that Cassie and I actually read pretty much in sync together when we were on quote unquote vacation in California when we went to Yosemite Kings Canyon in Sequoia. We ripped through the book. It's awesome and Michelle who you will be hearing from very shortly is one of the most interesting and kind people we have had the pleasure of speaking to. Yes, and we're so excited to tell you about this book. We're going to talk about the story.

We read books in sync a lot, but we were actually physically reading the book next to each other in California, and it had a lot of references to not what we were seeing, but kind of because we were in. It was just it was such a cool book and we're excited. You all are going to I feel like go wild over this book and just buy it now.

You don't need any information about it. Just do it. Well, okay, so I will give you a little bit of insight into it. So the episode is going to be a wild one because we're discussing one of the most intense books we have actually read for the podcast and speaking to the woman who lived the experience.

Michelle Dowd grew up on a mountain in the Angeles National Forest, born into an ultra religious cult, the field as members call it run by her grandfather, who believed that his chosen followers must prepare themselves to survive doomsday bound by the group's patriarchal rules and literal interpretation of the Bible.

Michelle and her siblings lived a life of deprivation isolated from outsiders and starved for both love and food. She was forced to learn the skills necessary to battle hunger thirst and cold. She learned to trust animals more than humans and most importantly, she learned how to survive by foraging for what she needed. And as Michelle got older, she realized that she had the strength to break free. And so she did with haunting and stark language and illustrations of edible plants and their uses opening each chapter forager is a fact.

She was forced and empowering coming of age story and a timely meditation on the ways in which harnessing nature's gifts can lead to our freedom.

Michelle Dowd is a professor of journalism and contributor to the New York Times, alponist, the Los Angeles Book Review, catapult, only sky and other national publications.

She founded an award-winning literary journal, advises student media, teaches poetry and critical thinking in the California State prisons and has been recognized as a long reads top five for the thing with feathers on the relationship between environmentalism and hope.

She guides yoga and meditation workshops throughout Southern California where she hikes the peaks with her four dogs.

Hey, she is here with us to discuss her book forager field notes for surviving a family cult and talk about how she's doing today.

Before we get into our interview with Michelle and her book where she details her life and how she survived a cult out in California, we did want to give a little bit of a trigger warning for people listening because there is some harder details that we do talk about including domestic and sexual abuse in this episode.

So if you're not in a space to hear that, just know that this will be in this episode, but it is a very intriguing conversation that we're excited to get into.

Without further ado, I think we have talked about her.

We have a full scope of who she is, but today we have a amazing conversation with her and her journey. Please welcome Michelle Dowd.

Thank you so much, Michelle, for coming on the podcast. We are so excited to have you here today.

Thank you, Cassie and hello, Danielle.

Hello, we absolutely, I know we were just chatting beforehand, but we absolutely adored your book and we just know that our audience is going to immediately rush to wear their local bookstore and grab it to after this conversation because we recommend a lot of books and people take our advice, but when we really say like, you guys have to get it.

They are on it, tag us everywhere and share in just like the joy of a good book and yours was so captivating for so many ways.

The title alone is like hooks you right in. So we're going to kind of get right into it if that's okay with you.

Absolutely. And if readers want to look at me up on social media or tag me or ask me questions, I'm happy to answer them directly as well.

Where can they find you? They can find me on Instagram is Michelle Dowd Z or on Twitter as Michelle Dowd to also via email Michelle at Michelle Dowd.org.

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