Writing Westward Podcast
Conversations with writers and scholars of the North American West, hosted and produced by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the BYU Charles Redd Center for Western Studies
Episodes
A conversation with Mark Sundeen about their book Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)
Mark Sundeen is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. In a...
A conversation with Ernesto Sagas about their book Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State (University Press of Colorado, 2025)
Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University. He is the author of an enormous body of scholarship, including articles and ...
A conversation with historian Adam M. Sowards about their weekly Taking Bearing essays series, "Being Historically Faithful in Public" article, and broader work in public writing.
Dr. Adam Sowards is an environmental historian and writer, specializing in public lands and conservation in the US West especially the Pacific Northwest. Much of his public writings can be accessed at adamsowards.net. Dr. S...
A conversation with historian Robert Sullivan about their book
Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's Most Mysterious War Photographer
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A conversation with historian Jason Heppler about their book
Silicon Valley and the Environmental Inequalities of High-Tech Urbanism
(University of Okla...
A 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 W...
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 Manc...
A conversation with urban planner and architectural historian James Michael Buckley about their book
San Francisco and the Architecture of the Redwood Lumber Industry
(University of Texas Press, 2024)
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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 a...
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...
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)
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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 Stat...
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).
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 th...
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 Br...
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 Barnard College, NYU, and t...
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, identity, and more and has appeared in venues such as Nat...
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, Carbon Sovereignty: Coal, Development, and Energy Tran...
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 in the American West and the Pacific Northwest. Along ...
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.
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