Shows
Writing Westward Podcast076 - Jason Heppler - Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech UrbanismA conversation with historian Jason Heppler about their book
Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism
(University of Oklahoma Press, Environment in Modern North America Series, 2024)
Dr. Jason A. Heppler is a historian and digital historian, currently working as Senior Developer at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and an adjunct professor of history at George Mason University. He earned a BA in history from South Dakota State University and an MA and PhD in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Prior to h...2025-07-011h 03
Writing Westward Podcast075 - Coll Thrush - Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the PacificA conversation with historian Coll Thrush about their book
Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific
(University of Washington Press, 2025)
Coll Thrush is Professor of History and associate faculty in Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia. He earned a B.A. from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University and PhD in History from the University of Washington. His first book, Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place (University of Washington Press, Weyerhauser Environmental Book Series, 2007) won the 2007 Washington State Book Award and came out in a 2nd edition...2025-06-011h 08
Writing Westward Podcast074 - William Grady - Redrawing the Western: A History of American Comics and the Mythic WestA 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 bachelors of arts in film and media studies from Manchester Metropolitan University. He held a post-doctoral research post at the University of the Arts in London, and has taught courses on comics...2025-05-051h 13
Writing Westward Podcast073 - James Buckley - City of Wood: San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber IndustryA 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 venerable chair in historic preservation, and the director of the historic preservation program in the School of Architecture and Environment. Previously, he held teaching positions at MIT, San Francisco State University, and the University of California Berkley, w...2025-04-101h 12
Writing Westward Podcast072 - Amanda Van Lanen - The Washington AppleA 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, you can follow her regular blog posting about "cookbooks, stories, and recipes from the back of the fridge," at https://historyreheated.com/.
The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Ren...2025-03-0353 min
Writing Westward Podcast071 - John Nelson - Muddy Ground: Native Peoples, Chicago's Portage, and the Transformation of a ContinentA 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 Atlantic World, and Native American history. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame. In addition to a couple book chapters in Routeledge anthologies, Nelson published award-winning articles in the Michigan Historical Review in 2019 and William and Mary Quarterly...2025-02-011h 11
Writing Westward Podcast070 - Samuel Western - The Spirit of 1889: Restoring the Lost Promise of the High Plains and Northern RockiesA 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 at the University of Wyoming in past years, he was a correspondent for the Economist for over 30 years, published in the Wall Street Journal, LIFE, Sports Illustrated, High Country News, Montana: the Magazine of Western History, a...2025-01-091h 06
Writing Westward Podcast069 - James Tejani - A Machine to Move Ocean and EarthA 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, and a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University. His first book, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles—and America (W. W. Norton, 2024). A decade ago...2024-12-091h 10
Writing Westward Podcast068 - Holly Miowak Guise - Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War IIA 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 History from Yale University. She is the author of multiple books chapters and a 2022 article in the WHQ, “Who is Doctor Bauer?: Rematriating a Censored Story on Internment, Wardship, and Sexual Violence in Wartime Alaska, 1941-1944, " which won the...2024-11-041h 12
Writing Westward Podcast067 - Brent M. Rogers - Buffalo Bill and the MormonsA 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 State University - Sacramento, and BA in history from San Diego State University. One of his first publications, a 2014 Utah Historical Quarterly article on Mormons and Federal Indian Policy won the WHA's Arrington-Prucha Prize for the Best Article on...2024-10-211h 01
Writing Westward Podcast066 - Zac Podmore - Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell's Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River 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, 2019).
Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of the Intermountain Histories project, and author of the 2018 book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the...2024-09-061h 07
Writing Westward Podcast065 - Julie Carr - Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American WestA 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 Barnard College, NYU, and the University of California, Berkeley are in creative writing, poetry, and English. She is the author of 16 books, many of which have won awards and honors. She has also published extensively in journals, poetry collections, popular outlets like The...2024-05-0359 min
Writing Westward Podcast064 - Lyndsie Bourgon - Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s WoodsA 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, identity, and more and has appeared in venues such as National Geographic Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, Maisonneuve, Hazlitt, The Atlantic, The Walrus, The Guardian, and others. Many of those pieces were winners of or finalists for awards and honors. Her book, Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods (Little...2024-04-0559 min
Writing Westward Podcast063 - Andrew Curley - Carbon Sovereignty - Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo ReservationA 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, Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Transition in the Navajo Nation was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2023. He holds a B.A. in sociology from Suffolk University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University. Before joining...2024-03-0158 min
Writing Westward Podcast062 - Peter Boag - Pioneering Death - The Violence of Boyhood in Turn-of-the-Century OregonA 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 in the American West and the Pacific Northwest. Along with countless articles, essays, and chapters, he is the author of four monographs: Environment and Experience: Settlement Culture in Nineteenth-Century Oregon (University of California Press, 1992), Same-Sex Affairs: Constructing and Controlling Homosexuality in the Pacific Northwest (University of Califo...2024-02-021h 00
Writing Westward Podcast061 - Navied Mahdavian - This Country: Searching for Home in Very Rural AmericaA 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.
Find him at @naviedm on Instagram, on his substack ToonStack, or his at https://www.naviedm.com/.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of H...2024-01-2659 min
Writing Westward Podcast060 - Natalia Molina - A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a CommunityA 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 2020 she was named a MacArthur Fellow. Her most recent book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community (University of California Press, 2022). It will be released in paperback in early 2024 and a 30% discount code will be included in a forthcoming edition of Molina's n...2023-12-011h 04
Writing Westward Podcast059 - Sarah Keyes - American Burial Ground: A New History of the Overland TrailA 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 Indigenous and Euro-American peoples. After securing publications of articles in field-defining outlets like the Journal of American History and the Western Historical Quarterly, she published her first book, which we discuss today, American Burial Ground: A New history of the Overland Trail (University of Pennsylvania...2023-11-0355 min
Writing Westward Podcast058 - Heather Hansman - Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns, and the Future of Chasing SnowA 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's a contributing editor at Outside magazine, and an award-winning journalist whose work appears in places like the Atlantic and the New York Times. She lives in Durango, Colorado, where she's working on her next book, Fierce Country, which is about underrepresented wome...2023-10-061h 01
Writing Westward Podcast057 - Molly P. Rozum - Grasslands GrownA 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 South Dakota History at the University of South Dakota. She holds degrees in American Studies, Folklore, and History. She is editor, co-editor, and author of multiple books and articles on Plains history. Her most recent book is Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S...2023-09-221h 08
Writing Westward Podcast056 - Michael K. Johnson - Speculative WestsA 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 literature and culture of the American West.
Johnson's other works include:
Black Masculinity and the Frontier Myth in American Literature (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002)
Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West (University Press of Mississippi, 2015)
C...2023-08-0159 min
Writing Westward Podcast055 - Ellen Wohl - The Secret Life of Mountain Ecosystems and the Afterlife of TreesA 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 additional titles by Wohl include:
Rain Forest Into Desert: Adventures in Australia's Tropical North (University of Colorado Press, 1994)
Inland flood hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Virtual Rivers: Lessons from the Mountain Rivers of the Colorado Fron...2023-07-0357 min
Writing Westward Podcast054 - Andrea Geiger - Converging Empires, Citizens and Subjects in the North Pacific BorderlandsA 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, India, and elsewhere, she had a successful first career as an attorney, culminating with a position representing the Confederated Tribes of the Coleville Reservation in NE Washington State. Inspired by her upbringing, she then earned a PhD in history from UW. Her first book, Subverting Exclusion Transpacific E...2023-06-011h 05
Expeditions – Lewis & ClarkJefferson II: Geographies [MM3.2 E13]Jefferson’s geographic upbringing — on Emily Millicent Sowerby, western lands, good and bad faith, “symmetrical geography” and height-of-land, the Ouragan, travel narratives and a love of books./ 38° 53′ 19″ N, 77° 0′ 17″ W/ @expeditionspod: instagram | twitter | linktree/ support the podcast: patreon | ko-fi/ intro/outro by aldous ichnite — “You'll Have a Plan Before You Try to Get Your Horse on the Trailer” and “Our Entire Bodies Have Always Been the Most Powerful Form of Visual Expression”/ additional music by me!/ sources:* “Sowerby Catalogue” ****https://tjlibraries.monticello.org/tjandreading/sowerby.html* E. MILLICENT SOWERBY, 94; AN EXP...2023-05-2616 min
Writing Westward Podcast053 - Melissa L. Sevigny - Brave the Wild RiverA 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 American southwest. She earned a BS in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of Arizona and an MFA in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University. In her new book, Brave the Wild River: The U...2023-05-2356 min
Writing Westward Podcast052 - Bryce Andrews - Holding Fire: A Reckoning with the American WestA 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 Ragged Edge of the West (Atria Books, Simon & Schuster imprint, 2014) won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Reading the West Book Award for nonfiction, and the High Plains Book Award for both nonfiction and debut b...2023-04-0355 min
Writing Westward Podcast051 - Craig Childs - Tracing Time, Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado PlateauA 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 and writings at his website, www.houseofrain.com.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of...2023-03-171h 11
Humanities on the High PlainsThe ERA in the WestOur guest this episode is WT history professor Dr. Chelsea Ball, author of “‘I Oppose the ERA, but I Do Approve of Equal Rights for Women’: Gender and Politics in the Aftermath of the Equal Rights Amendment Campaign in the U.S. West.” This piece can be found in The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink and published by the University of Nebraska Press. In our talk, Ball explains how the ERA came to symbolize more than just “equality” and how this symbolism prompted resistance among ‘70s-era conservatives, especially in the West. She also describes...2023-03-1333 min
Speak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's historyReissued: “Intermountain Histories,” the Podcast “Writing Westward” and More: A Conversation with Brenden Rensink (S1, E9 - Part 2)Date: January 13, 2020 (Season 1, Episode 9 — Part 2: 23 minutes long). For the entire show notes and additional resources for this episode, click here. Are you interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click here. The episode was co-produced by Brad Westwood and Chelsey Zamir, with help (sound engineering and post-production editing) from Conner Sorenson of Studio Underground. This SYP episode is a conversation with Brigham Young University historian Brenden Rensink with SYP host Brad Westwood, regarding his 2018 book “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the...2023-03-0923 minSpeak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's historyReissued: “Intermountain Histories,” the Podcast “Writing Westward” and More: A Conversation with Brenden Rensink (S1, E9 - Part 1)Date: January 13, 2020 (Season 1, Episode 9 — Part 1: 26 min. and 39 sec. long). For the entire show notes and additional resources for this episode, click here. Are you interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click here. The episode was co-produced by Brad Westwood and Chelsey Zamir, with help (sound engineering and post-production editing) from Conner Sorenson of Studio Underground. This SYP episode is a conversation with Brigham Young University historian Brenden Rensink with SYP host Brad Westwood, regarding his 2018 book “Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refug...2023-03-0926 min
Writing Westward Podcast050 - Anne F. Hyde - Born of Lakes and Plains, Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American WestA 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 Nation, vols 1 & 2, co-edited with William F. Deverell (Bedfords/St. Martins, 2020)
Shaped by the West: A history of North America, vols. 1 & 2, co-edited with William F. Deverell (University of California Press, 2018)
Emp...2023-02-101h 08
Writing Westward Podcast049 - Timothy Bowman - You Will Never Be One of Us - Rural Roots of Radical ConservatismA 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 Center for the Study of the American West. Bowman earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University in 2002, a masters degree from the University of Texas – Arlington in 2005, and a Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University in 20...2023-01-131h 11
Behind the BookBrenden W. Rensink, "The North American West in the Twenty-First Century" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the generational process of meeting and conquering the supposedly uncivilized western frontier is what forged American identity. In the late twentieth century, “new western” historians dissected the mythologized western histories that Turner and others had long used to embody American triumph and progress. While Turner’s frontier is no more, the West continues to present America with challenging processes to wrestle, navigate, and overcome.The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (U Nebraska Press, 2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink, takes stories of the late twentieth-century “modern West” and carefully pulls them...2022-12-2159 min
New Books in the American WestBrenden W. Rensink, "The North American West in the Twenty-First Century" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the generational process of meeting and conquering the supposedly uncivilized western frontier is what forged American identity. In the late twentieth century, “new western” historians dissected the mythologized western histories that Turner and others had long used to embody American triumph and progress. While Turner’s frontier is no more, the West continues to present America with challenging processes to wrestle, navigate, and overcome.The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (U Nebraska Press, 2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink, takes stories of the late twentieth-century “modern West” and carefully pulls them...2022-12-2159 min
New Books in Environmental StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "The North American West in the Twenty-First Century" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the generational process of meeting and conquering the supposedly uncivilized western frontier is what forged American identity. In the late twentieth century, “new western” historians dissected the mythologized western histories that Turner and others had long used to embody American triumph and progress. While Turner’s frontier is no more, the West continues to present America with challenging processes to wrestle, navigate, and overcome.The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (U Nebraska Press, 2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink, takes stories of the late twentieth-century “modern West” and carefully pulls them...2022-12-2159 min
New Books in Native American StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "The North American West in the Twenty-First Century" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the generational process of meeting and conquering the supposedly uncivilized western frontier is what forged American identity. In the late twentieth century, “new western” historians dissected the mythologized western histories that Turner and others had long used to embody American triumph and progress. While Turner’s frontier is no more, the West continues to present America with challenging processes to wrestle, navigate, and overcome.The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (U Nebraska Press, 2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink, takes stories of the late twentieth-century “modern West” and carefully pulls them...2022-12-2159 min
New Books in Canadian StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "The North American West in the Twenty-First Century" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)In 1893 Frederick Jackson Turner famously argued that the generational process of meeting and conquering the supposedly uncivilized western frontier is what forged American identity. In the late twentieth century, “new western” historians dissected the mythologized western histories that Turner and others had long used to embody American triumph and progress. While Turner’s frontier is no more, the West continues to present America with challenging processes to wrestle, navigate, and overcome.The North American West in the Twenty-First Century (U Nebraska Press, 2022), edited by Brenden W. Rensink, takes stories of the late twentieth-century “modern West” and carefully pulls them...2022-12-2159 min
Writing Westward Podcast048 - Alaina E. Roberts - I’ve Been Here All the While - Black Freedom on Native LandA 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 day. Dr. Roberts is the author of I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), which was awarded the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize from the Center for Great...2022-12-091h 00
Writing Westward Podcast047 - Cameron Blevins - Paper TrailsA 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 historian and a leader in the growing field of digital history. In his recent book, Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West was published by Oxford University Press in 2021. The book is accompanied by a website, Gossamer N...2022-11-0458 min
Writing Westward Podcast046 - Kevin Waite - West of SlaveryA 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 Empire won the 2022 Wiley-Silver Prize from the Center for Civil War Research and was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize from the Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is...2022-10-2655 min
Writing Westward Podcast045 - Josh Garrett-Davis - What is a Western?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, and penned a number more, for his richly illustrated essay collection, What is a Western? Region, Genre, Imagination (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an As...2022-09-091h 03
Writing Westward Podcast044 - Robert Chaney - The Grizzly in the DrivewayA 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 environment and the thorny issues of managing our public lands and resources in the West. In his new book, The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West (University of Wash...2022-08-3159 min
Writing Westward Podcast043 - Christian S. Harrison - All the Water the Law AllowsA 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 Henderson, NV, and is a board member of the nonprofit Preserve Nevada, where he works to engage public school teachers in historic preservation efforts throughout the state. His book that we discuss today, All the Water the Law Allows: Las V...2022-07-011h 05
Native CirclesA Conversation about San Carlos Apache History with Marcus MacktimaThis episode features a conversation about San Carlos Apache history with Dr. Marcus Macktima, a San Carlos Apache scholar. He received a BA in History with a minor in Native American Studies in 2015; and his MA in Native American Studies in 2018 at the University of Oklahoma. Marcus received his doctoral degree in History at the University of Oklahoma in 2023. His dissertation is titled, “Issues of Forced Political Identities: The San Carlos Apache Peoples.” In 2022, he accepted a position at Northern Arizona University as a pre/post-doctoral fellow.Look for his chapter, “Sacred Space and Identity: The Fight for Ch...2022-06-1647 min
Writing Westward Podcast042 - Jon T. Coleman - Nature Shock, Getting Lost in AmericaA 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, 2004), Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation (Hill & Wang, 2012), and Nature Shock: Getting Lost in America (Yale University Press, 2020).
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W...2022-06-101h 04
Writing Westward Podcast041 - Corinna Cook - LeavetakingsA 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: Essays, was published in 2020 by the University of Alaska Press in their Alaska Literary Series.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at BYU, General Ed...2022-05-131h 05
Writing Westward Podcast040 - Sarah Deutsch - Making a Modern U.S. WestA 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 by the University of Nebraska Press in 2022 in the "History of the American West Series." Deutsch is also the author of Women and the City: Gender, Space and Power in Boston, 1870-1940 (Oxford University Press, 2000), From Ballots t...2022-04-271h 01
Writing Westward Podcast039 - Sara Humphreys - Manifest Destiny 2.0, Genre Trouble in Game WorldsA 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 in English, and my PhD at the University of Waterloo in English Language and Literature. Her most recent book, Manifest Destiny 2.0: Genre Trouble in Game Worlds was published by the University of Nebraska Press in the Postwestern Horizons Series in 2021.
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Writing Westward Podcast038 - James McGrath Morris - Tony Hillerman, A LifeA 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 titles that the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post listed among the best books and biographies of the year. Today we talk about his most recent biography, Tony Hillerman: A Life, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2021.
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Writing Westward Podcast037 - Ryanne Pilgeram - Pushed OutA 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.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of the Intermountain Histories project, and author of the 2018 book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands. Links to ot...2022-01-311h 04
Writing Westward Podcast036 - Andrea Ross - Unnatural SelectionA 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 awards from the California Arts Council, the Mesa Refuge, and other organization. In earlier years she worked as a National Parks Service ranger and a wilderness guide. In 2021 CavanKerry Press published her book, Unnatural Selection: A Memoir of Adoption and Wilderness, w...2021-08-091h 07
Writing Westward Podcast035 - Erika Wolters & Brent Steel - The Environmental Politics & Policy of Western Public LandsA 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 School of Public Policy at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on environmental behavior, adaptation and policy in response to resource use and conservation in an era of rapid climate change. Focusing primarily on the Western United States, Dr. Wolters examines the interface of science and p...2021-07-0257 min
Writing Westward Podcast034 - Benjamin Hoy - A Line of Blood and DirtA 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 topic including Indigenous history, borderlands, game-based learning, Indigenous representations in board games, and extradition policy. Today we discuss his first book, A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands (Oxford University Press, 2021). In it, Hoy...2021-06-011h 01
Writing Westward Podcast033 - Steven L. Peck - King Leere in a Post-Apocalyptic WestA 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, mathematical modeling, and other associated fields, Peck moonlights as a writer of creative fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and essays. These writings range from religion to the environment, and from magic realism to science fiction. Many are set in the American West, especially a...2021-05-0750 min
Writing Westward Podcast032 - Tiffany Midge - Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’sA 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 other publications, and taught writing and composition at Northwest Indian College. She is the author of the award-winning books The Woman who Married a Bear: Poems and Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-Up Halfbreed, and contributor many others....2021-04-161h 07
Writing Westward Podcast031 - Susan Lee Johnson - Writing Kit CarsonA 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 affiliations in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Latinx and Latin American Studies. In 2021 Johnson serves as the President of the Western History Association. Johnson is a historian of the North American West and its borderlands, specializing in the s...2021-03-011h 08
Writing Westward Podcast030 - Janne Lahti - The American West and the WorldA 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 American West and the World: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2019). Rather than a project based in new archival work, this text is a useful synthetic overview of a variety of topics and drawing from a robust literature of recent scholarship. By o...2021-02-041h 08
Writing Westward Podcast029 - James Skillen - This Land is My LandA 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 The Nation's Largest Landlord: The Bureau of Land Management in the American West (University of Kansas Press, 2009) and Federal Ecosystem Management: Its Rise, Fall, and Afterlife (Kansas University Press, 2015). Building on these previous works on the history of the...2021-01-121h 09
Writing Westward Podcast028 - Bathsheba Demuth - Floating CoastA 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, Barnes & Noble, and Kirkus Review named it a best book of 2019, and it was a New York Times "Editor's Choice" pick for the year as well. On the academic side, Floating Cost won the 2020 George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society fo...2020-12-161h 13
Writing Westward Podcast027 - Barney Scout Mann - Journeys NorthA 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 Canada, and the 2,190 mile Appalachian Trail which stretches from Maine to Georgia, he is one of the few in the long-distance thru-hiking world to boast triple-crown status. In addition to putting in miles on the trail and writing about them, he has m...2020-11-131h 06
Writing Westward Podcast026 - Sherry L. Smith, Bohemians WestA 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 in Twentieth-Century America (Hey Day Books, 2020), Smith tells the story of the interwined lives of Sara Bard Field and Erskine Scott Wood, who were married to others when they met in 1910 in Portland, but negotiated and built a life together on the philosophy of free lo...2020-10-231h 02
Writing Westward Podcast025 - Dewey, O’Brien, & Powell - Great Plains Weather, Bison, & BirdsA 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 maintains the Lincoln Weather and Climate website and provides a regular Weather segment on local Nebraska radio station, KLIN.
Dan O'Brien is a wildlife ecologist, essayist, novelist, educator and rancher. He runs the Wild Idea Buffalo Company, raising buffalo in...2020-09-041h 24
Writing Westward Podcast024 - Justin Farrell - Billionare WildernessA conversation with sociologist Justin Farrell about his book, Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West (Princeton University Press, 2020).
Justin Farrell is associate professor of Sociology in the Yale School of the Environment.
He is also the author of The Battle for Yellowstone: Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict, published by Princeton University Press in 2015.
To view the new research on COVID-19 in the rural west, mentioned at the end of this episode, visit www.CovidRuralWest.org.
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Writing Westward Podcast023 - Jeff Metcalf - Back Cast, Fly-Fishing and Other Such MattersA discussion about the late Jeff Metcalf 's book, Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters (University of Utah Press, 2018), along with a handful of experiences from host Brenden Rensink.
Jeff Metcalf was assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. He was an award-winning essayist and playwright, and an avid fly-fisher.
Sadly, he passed away the very week we were set to record an interview about his latest book, Back Cast: Fly-Fishing and Other Such Matters. Still wanting to share his writings, I restructured this episode to work as best as i...2020-07-2138 min
Writing Westward Podcast022 - Maurice Crandall - These People Have Always Been a RepublicA conversation with Professor Maurice Crandall about his book, These People Have Always Been a Republic: Indigenous Electorates in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1598-1912 (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).
Maurice Crandall is a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation of Camp Verde Arizona and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. He holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of New Mexico and has received multiple honors, awards, and fellowships for his scholarship. Prior to his position at Dartmouth College, Crandall was the Clements Fellow for the Study of Southwestern America a...2020-06-081h 09
Writing Westward Podcast021 - Robert Lee - Land-grab UniversitiesA conversation with historian Dr. Robert Lee about his High Country News article "Land-grab Universities" and companion website, landgrabu.org.
Dr. Robert Lee is a University Lecturer in American History at the University of Cambridge. He earned is Ph.D. in History from US Berkeley and has a long list of awards and honors to his name. At the end of March 2020, he and journalist Tristan Ahtone published an article with High Country News entitled "Land-grab Universities" and released a companion digital history website landgrabu.org that provide data vizualizations to accompany the article.
2020-05-131h 16Speak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's historyBrenden Rensink, Mobile App “Intermountain Histories,” Podcast “Writing Westward" (Season 1, Episode 9 - Part 2)Guest BioBrenden Rensink is one of Utah’s brightest and most digitally savvy young historians. A true scholar at heart; he understand nonetheless how and why scholarly products--studies, books, presentations, etc.--need to make their way into the everyday life and interests of the general public. An historian of the North American West (borderlands, indigenous peoples, public history, and Western wilderness and the environment), Rensink earned his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He spent his early life in the Pacific Northwest. He is Associate Director of the Charles Redd Center for W...2020-05-0623 minSpeak Your Piece: a podcast about Utah's historyBrenden Rensink, Mobile App “Intermountain Histories,” Podcast “Writing Westward" (Season 1, Episode 9 - Part 1)Guest BioBrenden Rensink is one of Utah’s brightest and most digitally savvy young historians. A true scholar at heart; he understand nonetheless how and why scholarly products--studies, books, presentations, etc.--need to make their way into the everyday life and interests of the general public. An historian of the North American West (borderlands, indigenous peoples, public history, and Western wilderness and the environment), Rensink earned his Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. He spent his early life in the Pacific Northwest. He is Associate Director of the Charles Redd Center for W...2020-05-0626 min
Writing Westward Podcast020 - Miroslava Chávez-García - Migrant LongingA conversation with author Miroslava Chávez-García about her book, Migrant Longing: Letter Writing across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
Miroslava Chavez-Garcia is a Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with affiliations in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Feminist Studies. She is an award winning scholar, widely praised for her intersecting the study of gender, race, immigration, incarceration, borderlands, and family. Her books include Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s (University of Arizona Press, 2004), States of Delinquency: Race and Sci...2020-04-031h 02
Writing Westward Podcast019 - Monica Martinez - The Injustice Never Leaves YouA conversation with author Monica Muñoz Martinez about her book, The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas, published in 2018 by Harvard University Press.
Monica Munoz Martinez is the Stanley J. Bernstein Assistant Professor of American Studies at Brown University, an award winning author, and engaged public historian. She is the primary investigator for Mapping Violence, a digital project that documents histories of racial violence in Texas, and a founding member of Refusing to Forget, a non-profit organization that calls for a public reckoning with racial violence in Texas.
Her first bo...2020-03-161h 02
Writing Westward Podcast018 - Megan Kate Nelson - The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the WestA conversation with writer and historian Megan Kate Nelson about her new book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner Books, 2020).
Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian of the American Civil War, American West, popular culture, and the 19th century more broadly.
Nelson's new book, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner, 2020), unfolds in the American Southwest, pulling our gaze of the U.S. Civil War away from Eastern battlefields. In N...2020-02-0757 min
Writing Westward Podcast017 - Jack Nisbet - The Dreamer and the DoctorA conversation with author Jack Nisbet about his dual-biography,The Dreamer and the Doctor: A Forest Lover and a Physician on the Edge of the Frontier, published in 2018 by Sasquatch Books.
Jack Nisbet lives and works with his wife Claire in Spokane. He has authored several collections of essays that explore the human and natural history of the Northwest, award-winning biographies of cartographer David Thompson (Sources of the River) and naturalist David Douglas (The Collector), and additional illustrated volumes. In 2018, the Washington State Historical Society presented Nisbet with the Robert Gray medal for distinguished and l...2020-01-2453 min
Writing Westward Podcast016 - Frank Bergon - The New Old WestA conversation with Frank Bergon about his 2019 collection of essays, Two-Buck Chuck and the Marlboro Man: The New Old West (University of Nevada Press, 2019)
Frank Bergon is Professor Emeritus of English at Vassar College. He is a novelist, essayist, and critic of the American West, and member of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. His new collection of essays, Two-Buck Chuck and the Marlboro Man: The New Old West, was published by University of Nevada Press in 2019. These essays focus on the San Joaquin Valley in California, bringing its history and present into conversation with on...2019-12-0657 min
Writing Westward Podcast015 - Manu Karuka - Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental RailroadA conversation with Prof. Manu Karuka about his 2019 book, Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad (University of California Press, 2019)
Manu Karuka is Assistant Professor of American Studies, and affiliated faculty with Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at Barnard College. Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad was published by the University of California Press in 2019 in their "American Crossroads" series.
Empire's Tracks takes familiar histories of American westward expansion and transcontinental railroad construction and retells them through the often missing contexts of captialism, finance, and what Kar...2019-11-0158 min
Writing Westward Podcast014 - Rebecca Robinson and Stephen E. Strom - Voices and Views from Bears EarsConversation with Rebecca Robinson and Stephen E. Strom about their books, Voices from Bears Ears: Seeking Common Ground on Sacred Land (University of Arizona Press, 2018) and Bears Ears: Views from a Sacred Land (George F. Thompkins Publishing, 2018).
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Associate Director of the Redd Center, an Associate Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of the Intermountain Histories project, and author of the 2018 book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands. Links to other publications and projects here: https://li...2019-10-141h 01
Writing Westward Podcast013 - Leah Sottile - The Bundyville Podcast and Longform Western JournalismA conversation with Leah Sottile about her Bundyville Podcast and longform journalism. Visit https://longreads.com/bundyville.
Leah Sottile is a freelance journalist whose features, profiles, investigations and essays have been featured by the Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Outside, The Atlantic, Vice and several others. She is currently the T. Anthony Pollner Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana School of Journalism.
Sottile's National Magazine Award-nominated Bundyville podcast is paired with a textual longform journalism version at Longreads.com and was produced in collaboration with Longread and Or...2019-09-1858 min
Access UtahRevisiting 'Native But Foreign' With Brenden Rensink On Monday's Access Utah“Northern Indigenous Crees were native to Montana and the northern Plains long before the US-Canada border divided the region. But bisected by the line, Crees became asylum-seekers on their own lands 150 years ago. Though some were granted political refugee status, Crees were still denied basic rights. Instead, many were killed, ignored and deported on both sides of the border. … The Chippewa Cree story is little-known outside the tribe, but it echoes the uncertainty in the immigration crises the US faces today.”2019-08-2654 min
Writing Westward Podcast012 - Debra Gwartney - I Am a Stranger Here MyselfA conversation with Debra Gwartney about her book I Am a Stranger Here Myself, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2019.
Debra Gwartney is a former journalist and current author and memoirst who teaches in the MFA program at Pacific University. I Am a Stranger Here Myself was published in 2019 by the University of New Mexico Press and won the River Teeth Literary Nonfictin Prize. In this book Gwartney pairs the 19th century history of missionary Narcissa Whitman, who was killed in an 1847 massacre by Cayuse Indians, with her own life and complicated r...2019-08-1252 min
Writing Westward Podcast011 - Eric Perramond, Unsettled WatersA conversation with Eric Perramond about water in the American West and his book, Unsettled Waters: Rights, Law, and Identity in the American West, published by the California University Press in 2019.
Eric P. Perramond is Professor of Environmental Science and Southwest Studies and W.M. Keck Director of the Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies at Colorado College. Unsettled Waters: Rights, Law, and Identity in the American West was published by University of California Press in 2018. His previous books include An Introduction to Human-Environment Geography: Local Dynamics and Global Processes, published by WILEY-Blackwell in 2013, and Political Ec...2019-07-2257 min
Writing Westward Podcast010 - John Branch - The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New WestA conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, John Branch, about his book The Last Cowboys: A Pioneer Family in the New West.
John Branch is a New York Times sports reporter. Branch's previous work has received considerable acclaim. In 2011 and 2012 he ws a finalist for Pulitzer Prizes in feature writing, and in 2013 his multimedia project "Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" on a deadly avalanche in Washington State won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing. In 2015, his biography, Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard, won the 2015 Pen/ESPN...2019-06-2151 min
Writing Westward Podcast009 - David A. Chang - Native Hawaiian Geographies of ExplorationConversation with historian David A. Chang about his award-winning book The World and All Things Upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2016.
A conversation with David A. Chang about his award-winning book The World and All Things Upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2016. This book won the Albert J. Beveridge Award for the best book in English on the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada from 1492 to the present from from the American Historical Association, th...2019-05-151h 09
Writing Westward Podcast008 - Beth Lew-Williams - The Chinese Must GoA conversation with Professor Beth Lew Williams and her award-winning 2018 book, The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America (Harvard University Press, 2018)
Beth Lew-Williams is an Assistant Professor and Philip and Beulah Rollins Bicentennial Preceptor in the Department of History at Princeton University. The Chinese Must Go recently won the 2019 Ray Allen Billington Prize and 2019 Ellis W. Hawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians, as well as the 2019 Vincent P. DeSantis Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era.
2019-04-1252 minAccess Utah'Native But Foreign' With Brenden Rensink On Thursday's Access Utah“Northern Indigenous Crees were native to Montana and the northern Plains long before the US-Canada border divided the region. But bisected by the line, Crees became asylum-seekers on their own lands 150 years ago. Though some were granted political refugee status, Crees were still denied basic rights. Instead, many were killed, ignored and deported on both sides of the border. … The Chippewa Cree story is little-known outside the tribe, but it echoes the uncertainty in the immigration crises the US faces today.”2019-04-0454 min
Writing Westward Podcast007 - Terence Young - Heading Out, A History of American CampingA conversation with geographer Terence Young about his book, Heading Out: A History of American Camping (Cornell University Press, 2017)
Terence Young is a professor emeritus of geography at California State Polytechnic University. He has published widely on camping, parks, sustainability, and other topics of the environment, geography, and history. Heading Out won the 2018 Hal K. Rothman Award from the Western History Association for the Best Book of Western Environmental History, and the 2018 J.B. Jackson Prize from the American Association of Geographers. He also published Building San Francisco's Parks: 1850-1930 in Johns Hopkins University Pres...2019-03-221h 04
The Mountain Stories PodcastBrenden Rensink: Running and Writing MountainsBrenden Rensink, BYU historian and assistant director of the Charles Redd Center, talks about how his trail-running hobby influences his scholarship.
Brenden W. Rensink (Ph.D., 2010) is the Assistant Director of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies and an Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. Rensink recently published the monograph book, Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands (Connecting the Greater West Series, Texas A&M University Press, 2018), co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, Essays on American Indian and Mormon History (University of Utah Press, 2019), co-editor of Documents Vol. 4, and...2019-02-1528 min
Writing Westward Podcast006 - Flannery Burke - A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the 20th CenturyA conversation with historian Flannery Burke about her award winning book A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century (University of Arizona Press, 2017)
Flannery Burke is Professor of History at Saint Louis University. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and B.A. in history from Bryn Mawr College. Burke is an historian of the environment, the American West, gender and sexuality, and history education. Her recent book, A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century, was pu...2019-02-1557 min
Writing Westward Podcast005 - Tacey M. Atsitty - Rain Scald, PoemsA conversation with poet Tacey M. Atsitty about her new collection, Rain Scald: Poems, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2018.
Atsitty holds undergraduate degrees from Brigham Young University and the Institute for American Indian Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in multiple collections and journals and earned her such accolades as the Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, the Corson-Browning Poetry Prize, Morning Star Creative Writing Award, and the Philip Freund Prize. She currently serves as the director of Native American programming and ev...2019-01-2841 minNew Books in Native American StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands" (Texas A&M UP, 2018)In his new book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands(Texas A&M University Press, 2017), Brenden W. Rensink asks the question "How do national borders affect and react to Native identity?" To answer this question he compares indigenous peoples who traversed North American borders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--emphasizing migrations of Crees and Chippewas who crossed the border with Canada into Montana and Yaquis from Mexico who migrated into Arizona. Countering the popular myth otherwise, Dr. Rensink employs experiences of the Yaquis, Crees, and Chippewas to depict Arizona and Montana as an...2018-12-1358 minNew Books in Canadian StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands" (Texas A&M UP, 2018)In his new book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands(Texas A&M University Press, 2017), Brenden W. Rensink asks the question "How do national borders affect and react to Native identity?" To answer this question he compares indigenous peoples who traversed North American borders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--emphasizing migrations of Crees and Chippewas who crossed the border with Canada into Montana and Yaquis from Mexico who migrated into Arizona. Countering the popular myth otherwise, Dr. Rensink employs experiences of the Yaquis, Crees, and Chippewas to depict Arizona and Montana as an...2018-12-1358 min
New Books in Latin American StudiesBrenden W. Rensink, "Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands" (Texas A&M UP, 2018)In his new book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in the North American Borderlands(Texas A&M University Press, 2017), Brenden W. Rensink asks the question "How do national borders affect and react to Native identity?" To answer this question he compares indigenous peoples who traversed North American borders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries--emphasizing migrations of Crees and Chippewas who crossed the border with Canada into Montana and Yaquis from Mexico who migrated into Arizona. Countering the popular myth otherwise, Dr. Rensink employs experiences of the Yaquis, Crees, and Chippewas to depict Arizona and Montana as an...2018-12-1358 min
Writing Westward Podcast004 - Pyne, Stephen - Fire in the American WestA conversation with historian Stephen Pyne about his ongoing work on the history of Fire in America.
In 2015, the University of Arizona Press published his Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America. As companion pieces to that book, his is currently published a 9-volume series entitled "To the Last Smoke." Volumes 1-6 on Florida, California, The Northern Rockies, The Southwest, The Great Plains, and The Interior West are already available. The forthcoming Volumes 7-9 will include The Northeast, Slopovers: Fire Surveys of the Mid-American Oak Woodlands, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska, and a comparative o...2018-12-1254 min
Writing Westward Podcast003 - Johnson, Benjamin - Escaping the Dark Gray CityA conversation with Benjamin Johnson about his book Escaping the Dark Gray City: Fear and Hope in Progressive-Era Conservation, published by Yale University Press in 2017.
Benjamin Johnson is an Associate Professor of History at Loyola University in Chicago. He is also the author of Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans (Yale University Press, 2003), and Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place (Yale University Press, 2008), and editor or co-editor of Steal this University: The Labor Movement and the Corporatization of Higher Education (Routledge, 2003), The Making of the Am...2018-11-0657 min
Writing Westward Podcast002 - Lamont, Victoria - Westerns, A Women’s HistoryA conversation with Victoria Lamont about her book Westerns: A Women's History, published in 2016 by the University of Nebraska Press as part of the "Postwestern Horizons" Series.
Victoria Lamont is an Associate Professor of English and the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Waterloo.
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is Assistant Director of the Redd Center, an Assistant Professor of History at BYU, General Editor of the Intermountain Histories project, and author of the 2018 book Native but Foreign: Indigenous Immigrants and Refugees in t...2018-10-0348 min
Writing Westward Podcast001 - Louis Warren - God’s Red SonA conversation with Louis S. Warren about his book, God's Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America, published in 2017 by Basic Books and recipient of the 2018 Bancroft Prize.
Louis Warren is the W. Turrentine Jackson Professor of Western U.S. History at the University of California, Davis. He previously authored The Hunter's Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America (Yale University Press, 1999), and Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and The Wild West Show (Vintage Books, 2006).
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Podcast Notes:
Host and Producer Brenden W. Rensink is A...2018-09-211h 04