Simon Winchester Charts History and Future of the Wind in 'The Breath of the Gods'

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Journalist and author Simon Winchester says that wind is “a universal….It lifts seeds and supports birds and insects. It warms and it chills. It builds and creates; it ruins and destroys.” From a vibrating oboe reed to the fury of a hurricane, we talk to Winchester about how wind has shaped our lives and our planet — and how it’s shifting with climate change. His new book is “The Breath of the Gods.” Guests: Simon Winchester, journalist and author, "The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind" - his other books include "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary" and "A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KGBD podcasts comes from Landmark College, offering a fully online graduate-level
0:06.1	certificate in learning differences in neurodiversity program. Visit landmark.edu slash certificate to learn more.
0:13.9	Support for this podcast comes from Post, Peninsula Open Space Trust. Post is protected and
0:20.1	cared for more than 93,000 acres of open space
0:23.1	on the peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all. Learn more at openspacetrust.org.
0:32.2	From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. In his new book, The Breath of the Gods, the history and future of the wind,
0:41.6	journalist and author Simon Winchester writes,
0:44.5	Wind is a familiar thing, a thing whose very existence brings a kind of reassurance,
0:49.5	yearned for when absent, delighting when gentle, accursed when either biting cold or parching hot, feared
0:55.7	when violent. But familiar nonetheless, an ever-present reminder of the living presence of nature
1:01.2	and of the planet that is so uniquely bathed in its presence. Listeners, when has the wind either
1:06.7	scared or soothed you? Simon Winchester, welcome to Forum. Well, thank you very much.
1:13.1	Wind, as you say, is universal, constant, and influences the activity of just about every living
1:19.2	thing. So you call it an ever-present reminder of the living presence of nature. Is wind's
1:25.6	constancy part of what has captivated you so much about it?
1:29.1	I think so. I first experienced a period when there was no wind at all. When I was sailing
1:35.8	to the American base in Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and I had started
1:42.2	with a friend of mine in a yacht from Cochin in South India.
1:46.8	And we sailed down through Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
1:50.7	And then suddenly the wind stopped.
1:54.0	The sea became like glass.
1:56.3	The sails hung impotently from the masts.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 28 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.