A Relationship with the Changing Arctic with Jon Waterman, author of 'Into the Thaw'

Hey folks, we are back with another new episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast.

Our guest for this episode has a new book coming out October 22 published by Patagonia titled “⁠Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis⁠.”

The author is Jon Waterman, who in 1983 started working as a ranger in the Arctic and visited the region dozens of times over a 39 year period. After a 2021 trip with his son that ⁠Waterman wrote about for The New York Times⁠, he decided to take a final extended 500 mile expedition by foot and packraft to the region to document the environmental and cultural changes of the climate crisis.

In addition to his latest book, Waterman has written several books and for publications such as Outside and Men’s Journaland has received frequent grants from National Geographic. His writing has earned him several awards including a Literary Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, three Best Adventure Book nods from the Banff Book Festival, a National Park Services Special Achievement Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.

This episode focuses in on ‘Into the Thaw’ and what Jon witnessed over the course of his nearly four decades worth of travel in the Arctic. We talk about how he came to be interested in the Arctic, the changes he saw in the Arctic due to climate change from his first trip in 1983 to his final trip in 2022, and his relationship with the ⁠Inupiat⁠ people.

There aren’t too many writers and adventurers out there like Jon these days, so it was a real treat to get to speak with him about ‘Into the Thaw’. Make sure to grab your copy on October 22 or you can pre-order it through the link in our show notes, which leads to a little virtual bookshop we set up of some of our favorite reads on Bookshop.org. If you prefer to go straight there, the URL is ⁠bookshop.org/shop/ecosystemmember⁠.

Without further delay, here is the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast with Jon Waterman, author of the new book “⁠Into the Thaw: Witnessing Wonder Amid the Arctic Climate Crisis⁠.”

Links

Preorder “⁠Into the Thaw⁠” - https://bookshop.org/p/books/into-the...

⁠Jon Waterman’s Website⁠ - https://jonathanwaterman.com

⁠Jon Waterman’s Instagram⁠ -   / waterman_jonathan  

⁠Jon Waterman’s piece in The New York Times from his 2021 Arctic Trip with His Son⁠ - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/07/op...