Kevin Fedarko is a writer, journalist and river guide explores the interface between wilderness and industrialization, most recently through the lens of the Grand Canyon. Fedarko recently published "A Walk In the Park," the story of his somewhat ill-conceived but ultimately successful quest to walk the trail-less expanse of desert wilderness that hides beneath the canyon's rims. We talk about the struggle to tell a story about the Colorado and the canyon that contains it that avoids the conventional morality tale of environment good, technology bad; the astonishing feat of engineering, unseen since the Great Pyramids that holds back Lake Powell; the punishment of untrailed nature; and the mythology of science, man as an island, and the wilderness as something we both crave and fear. Sign up for our Patreon and get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasB AND rock some Demystify Gear to spread the word: https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/ OR do your Amazon shopping through this link for Kevin Fedarko's book: https://amzn.to/4g2cPVV (00:00) Go! (00:06:42) The Process of Writing and Sharing (00:14:15) Parallels in Creative Industries (00:18:51) Interplay of Wilderness and Modernity (00:23:03) Natural vs. Industrial Forces (00:30:21) The 1983 Spillway Crisis (00:35:22) Contradictions of Nature and Technology (00:40:44) Stories Tell Themselves (00:47:00) How Humans Understand the World (00:50:12) Science and Storytelling Paradox (01:01:03) Challenges of Long-held Beliefs (01:09:57) River Dynamics and Geology (01:13:58) The Great Unconformity (01:19:11) Hiking the Grand Canyon (01:24:22) Trail Challenges (01:33:42) Navigating the Desert (01:40:05) No Trail is Walked Alone (01:42:07) Nature and Solitude (01:48:37) Deep Immersion #sciencepodcast, #longformpodcast, Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci: https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience AND our material science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671