In this 13-minute podcast, Samantha Schoech of Independent Bookstore Day (April 30) shares with us the origins of the day, how they learned from the vinyl industry about keeping declining media relevant, her favourite place to read, her desert island five and taking the day to a global audience.
www.indiebookstoreday.com
Next month, immigration with Justin Akers Chacón in two episodes.
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Grant Lee Phillips has been a staple on the California, and indeed the national, music scene for the last two decades. Fronting Grant Lee Buffalo in the 1990s, he ventured out on his own in 2000 and has just released The Narrows, his eighth solo adventure.
In this 41-minute interview, Grant-Lee discusses a few tracks off of The Narrows and songwriting more generally (min. 9). He then reflects on the recent passing of Merle Haggard, the influence of the Bakersfield sound (min. 14) and the musical differences between Nashville (his current home) and Bakersfield.
Grant-Lee recounts his first brushes with the entertainment industry as a 13-year old magician in the night clubs of Stockton, just off Route 99, getting ideas across in his music, mixing up performances and closes with the influence that California has on his work.
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Without John Muir (1838-1914), Yosemite Valley as the world knows it (Apple users included) may not be as pristine as it is today.
Muir, born in Scotland, grew up in the US and eventually made his way to California, where he fell in love with Yosemite. Over the course of several decades, Muir changed the way that America looks at nature, spurring the creation of the environmental movement and the designation of countless national parks.
In this 37 minute episode, Mary Colwell, author of John Muir - the Scotsman who saved American’s wild places, discusses Muir’s life, works and legacy. She covers Muir’s austere, religious upbringing and touches on his inventions and adventures (min. 4) and then considers the increasing role of religion in the current environmental agenda, particularly in Brazil, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Russia (min. 7). Mary continues, summarising Muir’s scientific theories, his advocacy work and disappointment over the Hetch Hetchy dam (including a meeting with Ralph Waldo Emerson, min. 17).
Finally, she closes the interview (min. 28) with how the book came about and her upcoming 500 mile walk from the west of Ireland to the east of England for the curlew bird.
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