Producer Rick White speaks with Hal Herring, one of our all-time favorite writers and thinkers. Rick met up with Hal near Augusta, Montana in September 2020 to chop wood and chat about the exquisitely agonizing work of writing. Their conversation uncovers some of Hal's history: his migration West, his forays into fiction writing, and his formative work in the woods. Hal is the host of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers podcast, a contributing editor at Field & Stream, one of the most dedicated researchers of our time, and a fierce protector of public lands. Hal reads excerpts from his 2011 High Country News essay on white bark pine; an old fiction piece called "Vacation"; and his astounding 2016 account of the Bundy occupation at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge - arguably one of the greatest pieces of environmental reporting to come out of the last decade.
