John Vaillant - A Riveting Exploration of Fire
Mountain & Prairie with Ed Roberson
Mountain & Prairie Media
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 November 2023
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Vaillant is a renowned writer and journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and more, and he's also the author of classic books including "The Tiger" and "The Golden Spruce." His most recent book is "Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World," which is a must-read for anyone interested in wildfires, humans' relationship with fire, and the future of fire-related disasters. And you don't have to take my word for it– the book won the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
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"Fire Weather" tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire– a historic and apocalyptic fire that torched the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, and spread across nearly 1.5 million acres of forest. With this epic disaster as the focal point, John masterfully weaves in the fascinating histories of fire, the fossil fuel industry, and climate science. He also explores 21st-century wildfires– why they are hotter, more aggressive, and more destructive than anything we've seen before. Whether you're interested in the science of fire and forest health, the fascinating relationship between humans and fire, or you're just looking for a book that you won't be able to put down, I give "Fire Weather" my highest endorsement.
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Wildfires are obviously becoming more and more intense and destructive here in the West, so I was excited to chat with John and dig deeper into the history of fire and the outlook for the future. We discussed why he decided to devote many years to writing about this particular wildfire, and how the book's ingenious structure came to him in a dream. We talk about the similarities between living beings and fire, a fascinating idea known as the Lucretius Problem, some of the story's larger-than-life characters, John's long-term goals for the book, some of his favorite books, and much, much more.
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A huge thanks to John for writing such an impactful book and for taking the time to chat with me. I encourage you to pick up a copy of "Fire Weather" as soon as you can, but in the meantime, enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with John Vaillant.
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- "Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World" by John Vaillant
- Sign Up for Ed's Weekly Email: Good News from the American West
- Full episode notes and links: https://mountainandprairie.com/john-vaillant/
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TOPICS DISCUSSED:
- 3:30 - When John realized he wanted to write about fire
- 11:15 - The surprising significance of dreams in John's writing
- 14:15 - How John organizes the information in his head so he can write
- 19:45 - A brief note on pacing, and the similarities between living beings and fire
- 30:45 - The Lucretius Problem
- 35:45 - How John finds the characters for his book
- 44:15 - How John handles writing about someone in a less-than-flattering light
- 52:00 - John's goals for his book, Fire Weather
- 57:30 - John's book recommendations
- 1:02:15 - John's parting words of wisdom
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, it's Ed. Before we get started, I wanted to make sure that you all knew about my weekly email. |
| 0:05.2 | It's called Good News from the American West. For over three years now, I've been sending it out every single Wednesday. |
| 0:11.3 | I send out a few bullet points featuring only good news. |
| 0:15.7 | No bad news, no inflammatory nonsense, no political stuff, nothing that's going to make anybody |
| 0:20.7 | mad. It's only good things that are happening here in the |
| 0:23.9 | American West. Through my work in conservation and work through this |
| 0:27.8 | podcast I've realized that there's a lot of really, really great inspiring, funny, |
| 0:32.3 | fun stuff that will make you feel better than the |
| 0:35.2 | average news story will and so I've started highlighting that I started it back in |
| 0:39.3 | 2020 and I've continued to do it and it's built up a pretty good following. |
| 0:44.4 | No strings attached, no spam, nothing like that, but if you're looking for a |
| 0:49.2 | weekly dose of good news from here in the West I'd encourage you to sign up. You can go to my |
| 0:54.1 | website to sign up or you can follow the link in the episode notes. Thanks so much. This is the Mountain and Prairie Podcast. I'm Ed Roberson. My guest today is John Valiant. John is a renowned writer and |
| 1:16.2 | journalist whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, National Geographic, |
| 1:20.4 | and more and he's also the author of classic books including the Tiger and the |
| 1:25.0 | golden spruce. His most recent book is titled Fire Weather, a true story from a |
| 1:30.5 | hotter world and it's a must read for anyone interested in wildfires, humans |
| 1:35.4 | relationship with fire, and the future of fire-related disasters. And you don't have to take my |
| 1:40.9 | word for it. The book won the 2023 Bailey Gifford Prize for non-fiction, |
| 1:45.8 | and was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Hillary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Non Fiction. |
| 1:53.0 | Fire Weather tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire, a historic and apocalyptic |
| 1:59.4 | fire that torched the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta, and spread across nearly 1.5 million acres of forest. |
... |
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