A conversation with scholar William Grady about their book Redrawing the Western: A History of American Comics and the Mythic West (University of Texas Press, 2024) Dr. William Grady is an independent scholar and library based in the United Kingdom in Manchester. He earned a PhD in English from the University of Dundee and a masters of research and…

A conversation with urban planner and architectural historian James Michael Buckley about their book City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry (University of Texas Press, 2024) James Michael Buckley is an urban planner, recently retired from the University of Oregon where he was an associate professor and vener…

A conversation with historian Amanda Van Lanen about their book The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022). Amanda L. Van Lanen is Professor of History and Humanities Division Chair at Lewis-Clark State College. A historian of the American West, agriculture, and the environment,…

A conversation with historian John William Nelson about their book, Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a Continent (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) John William Nelson is assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University, where he teaches courses on Colonial America, the American West, the Atl…

A conversation with journalist, author, and poet Samuel Western about his book, The Spirit of 1889: Restoring the Lost Promise of the High Plains and Northern Rockies (University Press of Kansas, 2024) Samuel Western is a prolific journalist and writer of the American West. In addition to having taught various courses on Wyoming history and culture…

A conversation with historian James Tejani about their book A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America (W. W. Norton, 2024) James Tejani is associate professor of history at California Polytechnic State University. He holds a BAs in history and political science from the University of California, San Diego,…

A conversation with historian Holly Miowak Guise about her book, Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II (University of Washington Press, Indigenous Confluences Series, 2024). Dr. Guise is Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico and holds a BA in Native American Studies from Stanford University and an MA and PhD in…

A conversation with historian Brent M. Rogers their book Buffalo Bill and the Mormons (Bison Books / University of Nebraska Press, 2024). Brent M. Rogers is the Managing Historian of the LDS Church History Department in Salt Lake City. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an M.A. in Public History from the California…

A conversation with journalist and author Zak Podmore about their book, Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell's Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River (Torrey House Press, 2024). In addition to stories for the Salt Lake Tribune, Podmore also published Confluence: Navigating the Personal & Political on Rivers of the New West (Torrey House Press…

A conversation with poet and author Julie Carr about their book, Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). Julie Carr is Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Chair of the Department of Women and Gender Studies. Her training and degrees from Barn…

A conversation with journalist Lyndsie Bourgon about her book, Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods (Little, Brown Spark, 2022). Lyndsie Bourgon is a journalist, author, oral historian, fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and National Geographic Explorer. Her work intersects the environment, history, culture, ide…

A conversation with geographer Andrew Curley about his book, Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation (University of Arizona Press, 2023). Andrew Curley is a member of the Navajo Nation and an Assistant Professor in the School of Geography, Development and Environment at the University of Arizona. His book, …

A conversation with historian Peter Boag about their book Pioneering Death: The Violence of Boyhood in Turn-of-the-Century Oregon (University of Washington Press, 2022). Peter Boag is Professor and Columbia Chair in the History of the American West at Washington State University. He is a historian of gender, sexuality, the environment, and culture …

A conversation with cartoonist Navied Mahdavian about his graphic novel memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2023). Navied Mahdavian is is a cartoonist and writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker since 2018. You may have also seen his work in Readers Digest, Wired, and elsewhere. …

A conversation with historian Natalia Molina about their book A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community (University of California Press, 2022). Natalia Molina is Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Dean's Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. In 2…

A conversation with Sarah Keyes about their book American Burial Ground: A New history of the Overland Trail (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). Sarah Keyes is an assistant professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno. She earned her PhD from the University of Southern California and studies the intercultural relations between Indig…

A conversation with Heather Hansman about their book Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns, and The Future of Chasing Snow (Hanover Square Press, 2021). Heather Hansman is the author of Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns, and The Future of Chasing Snow (Hanover Square Press, 2021, paperback, 2023), and Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West. She'…

A conversation with historian Molly P. Rozum about their new book, Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies (University of Nebraska Press & University of Manitoba Press, 2021). Molly P. Rozum is associate professor of history and the Ronald M. Nelson Distinguished Professor and Chair of Great Plains and Sou…

A conversation with literary scholar Michael K. Johnson about their book, Speculative Wests: Popular Representations of a Region and Genre (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). Michael K. Johnson is Professor of American literature at the University of Maine at Farmington. His primary research areas are African American Literature and the literatur…

A conversation with geoscientist Ellen Wohl about their books, Something Hidden in the Ranges: The Secret Life of Mountain Ecosystems and Dead Wood: The Afterlife of Trees (Oregon State University Press, 2021 and 2022). Dr. Ellen Wohl is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Colorado State University. Selected add…

A conversation with Andrea Geiger about their new book, Converging Empires: Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific Borderlands, 1867-1945 (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). Andrea Geiger is professor emerita of history from Simon Frasier University in British Columbia. With an international childhood spent in Japan, the Netherlands, In…

A conversation with Melissa L. Sevigny about their book Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon (W. W. Norton, 2023). Melissa L. Sevigny is a science journalist at the Arizona Public Radio station KNAU in Flagstaff. Her writing intersects science, nature, and history, with a focus on the America…

A conversation with Bryce Andrews about their book, Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American West (Mariner Books, Harper Collins imprint, 2023). Bryce Andrews is an award-winning author originally from Seattle but who has spent the majority of his adult life as a rancher and farmer in western Montana. His first book, Badluck Way: A Year on the R…

A conversation with Craig Childs about their book, Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau (Torrey House Press, 2022). Craig Childs is a multiple-award winning author with more than a dozen books (and countless shorter pieces) on outdoor adventures, wilderness, and science to his name. You can find information on his other books a…

A conversation with Anne F. Hyde about her book, Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West (W. W. Norton, 2022). Anne Hyde is Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma and Editor-in-Chief of the Western Historical Quarterly. Some of her other publications include: The West in the History of the Nat…

A conversation with Timothy Paul Bowman about his book You Will Never be One of Us: A Teacher, A Texas Town, and the Rural Roots of Radical Conservatism (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022). Timothy Paul Bowman is Associate Professor History and Chair of the Department of History at West Texas A&M University where has also helped adminsiter the Cen…

A conversation with Prof. Alaina E. Roberts about her book, I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). Alaina E. Roberts is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, where she studies the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to the modern…

A conversation with Prof. Cameron Blevins about his recent book, Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West (Oxford University Press, 2021), and his associated digital history and mapping website, Gossamer Network. Cameron Blevins is associate professor in the History Department at the University of Colorado Denver. He is a histo…

A conversation with historian Kevin Waite about his award-winning book, West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire (University of North Carolina Press, 2021). Kevin Waite is an assistant professor of history at Durham University in the United Kingdom. His 2021 book, West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Emp…

A conversation with Josh Garrett-Davis about his essay collection, What is a Western? Region, Genre, Imagination (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019). Josh Garrett-Davis is the Gamble Associate Curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, author of multiple books and many public-facing shorter articles and pieces. He collected some of these, a…

A conversation with Robert Chaney about is book, The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West (University of Washington Press, 2020). Robert Chaney is a journalist based in Montana and the managing editor of one of the region’s major newspapers, The Missoulian. Much of his work in the past decades has focused on the e…

A conversation with historian Christian S. Harrison about his book, All the Water the Law Allows: Las Vegas and Colorado River Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). Christian S. Harrison is an environmental historian in Nevada. He hold a PhD in History from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, teaches government at Coronado High School in H…

A conversation with historian Jon T. Coleman about his book, Nature Shock: Getting Lost in America (Yale University Press, 2020). Jon T. Coleman is the Andrew V. Tackes College Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He his author of three books, the multiple-award winning Vicious: Wolves and Men in America (Yale University Press, 200…

A conversation with Corinna Cook about her collection, Leavetakings: Essays (University of Alaska Press, 2020). Corinna Cook is a former Fulbright Fellow, an Alaska Literary Award recipient, and a Rasmuson Foundation awardee. She has a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Missouri. Her collection of essays, Leavetakings: Ess…

A conversation with Sarah Deutsch about her book, Making a Modern U.S. West: The Contested Terrain of a Region and its Borders, 1898-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, 2022). Sarah Deutsch is a professor of history at Duke University. Her book, Making a Modern U.S. West: The Contested Terrain of a Region and its Borders, 1898-1940, was published b…

A conversation with Sara Humphreys about her book, Manifest Destiny 2.0: Genre Trouble in Game Worlds (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Dr. Sara Humphreys is an assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She holds a BA at Nipissing University in English, my MA at the University of Toronto …

A conversation with James McGrath Morris about his new biography, Tony Hillerman: A Life (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). James McGrath Morris is a biographer and writer of narrative non-fiction. His biographies have been more than well-received, boasting a New York Times best-seller, winner of the Benjamin Hooks National Book Prize, and title…

A conversation with Ryanne Pilgeram about her new book, Pushed Out: Contested Development and Rural Gentrification in the US West, published by the University of Washington Press in 2021. Ryanne Pilgeram is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho. ----more---- Podcast Notes: Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Dire…

A conversation with Andrea Ross about her new book, Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness (CavanKerry Press, 2021). Andrea Ross is a writer who currently teaches in the University Writing Program at the University of California at Davis. Her writing has appeared in various popular outlets and has been supported by fellowships and…

A conversation with Erika Wolters and Brent Steel about their edited collection The Environmental Politics & Policy of Western Public Lands (Oregon State University Press, 2020). Erika Allen Wolters (PhD, Oregon State University) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Public Policy Undergraduate Program in the …

A conversation with historian Benjamin Hoy about his book A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands (Oxford University Press, 2021). Benjamin Hoy is an Associate Professor of History and the director of the Historical GIS Lab at the University of Saskatchewan. He has published on a wide range of topi…

A conversation with Steven L. Peck about his novel The Tragedy of King Leere, the Goatherd of the La Sals (By Common Consent Press, 2019). Steven L. Peck is an evolutionary biologist and associate professor in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University. In addition to being a widely-published scholar in genomics, entomology, mathemati…

A conversation with author Tiffany Midge about her book, Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese's (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) Tiffany Midge is a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She is a former columnist for Indian Country Today, has written for McSweeney's, Lit Hub, World Literature Today, and ot…

A conversation with Prof. Susan Lee Johnson about her new book, Writing Kit Carson: Fallen Heroes in a Changing West (University of North Carolina Press. 2020). Dr. Susan Lee Johnson is the inaugural Harry Reid Endowed Chair for the History of the Intermountain West in the Department of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with faculty af…

A conversation with Dr. Janne Lahti about his book The American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge: 2019) Dr. Janne Lahti teaches history at the University of Helsinki, is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow, and the editor of the journal American Studies in Scandinavia. Today we talk about his 2019 book The…

A conversation with Dr. James R. Skillen about his book This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West (Oxford University Press, 2020). James R. Skillen is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Calvin University. His new book, This Land is My Land: Rebellion in the West was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. Skillen is also author…

A conversation with Dr. Bathsheba Demuth about her book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait (WW Norton, 2019). Bathsheba Demuth is Assistant Professor of History at Brown University. Popular and academic organizations have praised Floating Coast in rare fashion. Nature named it a Top 10 book for 2019, NPR, Library Journal,…

A conversation with hiker and author Barney Scout Mann about his book Journey's North: The Pacific Crest Trail (Mountaineer Books, 2020). Barney Mann, known on the trails as "Scout," is avid hiker, writer, and storyteller. Having completed the 2,650 mil Pacific Crest Trail, the 3,100 mile Continental Divide Trail, both of which span from Mexico to …

A conversation with Sherry L. Smith about her book Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals in Twentieth-Century America (Hey Day Books, 2020). Explore more at www.sherrylsmith.com. Sherry L. Smith is University Distinguished Professor of History (Emerita) at Southern Methodist University. In Bohemians West: Free Love, Family, and Radicals i…

A conversation with Kenneth F. Dewey, Dan O'Brien, and Larkin Powell about their books in the University of Nebraska Press "Discover the Great Plains" series, Great Plains Weather (2019), Great Plains Bison (2017), and Great Plains Birds (2019). Ken Dewey is professor emeritus of geography and climatology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He…