Understanding Alaska & John McPhee's 'Coming into the Country' w/ Paul Forward (Blister Book Club)
BLISTER Podcast
BLISTER
4.8 • 560 Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alaska is very much in the news these days, and understanding more about it and the Arctic has never been more important. That’s why Paul and Jonathan are discussing John McPhee’s book, Coming Into the Country, since it’s arguably the best book ever written about Alaska.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
New BLISTER+ Members (0:56)
A book that came out in 1977, feeling more relevant in 2025 (1:56)
John McPhee’s background & The Salmon River (5:04)
Changes happening in the blink of an eye (11:22)
Recent flooding (13:13)
Permafrost (17:12)
What does Alaska look like in 2075 if we continue in this direction (21:53)
Human values & preserving landscapes (28:37)
The state capital (35:31)
Current CRA of land management on Trump’s desk (39:59)
Alaska is one of the most important landscapes in the world (47:12)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Blister Podcast on the Blister Podcast Network. |
| 0:07.1 | I'm Jonathan Ellsworth, and you can check out everything we're doing and reviewing over at |
| 0:13.3 | blisterreview.com. |
| 0:16.6 | Today, we are talking about Alaska and arguably the greatest book ever written about Alaska. |
| 0:24.0 | And this is very timely, it turns out, because Alaska is very much in the news these days. |
| 0:31.1 | And we would argue that understanding more about it and the Arctic has never been more important. So that is why I am |
| 0:40.9 | very happy to be having this conversation today with my good friend Paul Forward, who lives in |
| 0:47.0 | Girdwood, Alaska, and also works in Katsabu, about this terrific book from John McPhee called Coming Into the Country. |
| 0:57.2 | Now, before we get going here, I want to just give a shout out to a few of our newest Blister |
| 1:01.5 | Plus members that includes Elliott in Oakland, California, Michael in Park City, Utah, Richard |
| 1:09.3 | in Longmont, Colorado, Ward in Laguna Nigel, California, |
| 1:15.4 | Johann in Fairfield, Iowa, Edgar in Sandy, Utah, and finally for today, Tim, in Greenwich, Connecticut. |
| 1:24.6 | So welcome to all of you, and for anyone who has not yet checked out Blister Plus, |
| 1:30.3 | please take two minutes and do so. I think it is one of the smartest things you can learn about |
| 1:36.5 | if you are someone who likes to do any of the 30 activities that Blister Plus covers anywhere |
| 1:43.9 | in the world. |
| 1:46.1 | And with that, let's now get to my conversation with my good friend, Paul Forward. |
| 1:52.9 | Here we go. |
| 1:56.7 | Well, Paul, very happy to be talking with you about a book that actually you and I first started talking about as we were on the river together in Alaska, in July, on your birthday. |
| 2:17.4 | That's right. |
| 2:18.3 | I forgot the birthday part. |
| 2:19.5 | Yeah. |
... |
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