10 Must-Read Books about the American West, with Mark Kenyon

Mark Kenyon is an author, podcaster, conservationist, and member of the MeatEater crew. You probably know him from his excellent book "That Wild Country: An Epic Journey Through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands," the Wired to Hunt podcast, or his contributions to MeatEater's Netflix show and other video productions. To learn more about Mark and his impressive personal and professional journey, I'd encourage you to go back to our first Mountain & Prairie conversation from a few years ago, which is linked in the episode notes.

In this episode, Mark and I are doing something a little different: We're focusing exclusively on books. Earlier this year, Mark had me on his podcast to discuss our favorite books about conservation, and we both received excellent feedback on that episode. You can find a link to that discussion in the notes. So we decided to have another book conversation, this time focusing on some of our favorite books about the American West. Both Mark and I are voracious readers who share a love of history, conservation, and adventure, so I'm always excited to hear Mark's recommendations and thoughts on a wide range of titles.

The episode starts out with a brief catch-up on Mark's summer adventures and his current work with MeatEater, and then we dive into the books. We each picked five of our all-time favorites to discuss, and, as you'd expect, we veer off into lots of tangentially related titles and subjects. This is an episode where you'll definitely want to check out the episode notes, because there are links to dozens of books, authors, films, and other resources. Mark and I could've easily talked for three or four hours, but we had to keep the conversation relatively short because of tight schedules. However, we're going to try and make these book conversations a regular occurrence on both of our podcasts– so if you like this format, stay tuned for more!

If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to check out Mark's podcast or follow him on social media– he's a smart, thoughtful, hard-working guy that brings tons of value to the world of conservation and outdoor recreation. Please enjoy the episode, and if you do, please share it with a few friends.

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Mark Kenyon
Mark & Ed's first book discussion - 10 Conservation Books
Full episode notes & links: https://mountainandprairie.com/10-books-west/

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TOPICS DISCUSSED:

4:00 - Mark talks about his summer with his family
11:30 - Mark discusses his plans for Meat Eater in the fall
13:15 - Mark talks about the incredible experiences that constitute his job
14:30 - Mark and Ed discuss their five favorite American West conservation books (see full notes on the episode's webpage) starting with Desert Solitaire
27:30 - Blood and Thunder
33:15 - Empire of the Summer Moon
34:45 - Blood Meridian
36:15 - The Course of Empire and
39:15 - Dreams of Eldorado
45:15 - The Emerald Mile
51:00 - The Oregon Trail
54:45 - Leave It As It Is
59:00 - Great Plains
1:03:15 - Badlands
1:05:45 - American Zion

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ABOUT MOUNTAIN & PRAIRIE: