This week on The Write Question, conservation journalist Ben Goldfarb discusses Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet (W. W. Norton & Company), out now in paperback. In Crossings, Ben investigates how humans have altered the natural world: A million animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill. In this conversation, host Lauren Korn concentrates their discussion on smaller fauna (e.g., Monarch butterflies, salamanders), marginalized human populations affected by roadways, and the political considerations of roadways and rewilding.
This conversation has been edited for time.
About Ben:
Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist and the author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet, named one of the best books of 2023 by the New York Times, and Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
Ben Goldfarb recommends:
Wild Souls: What We Owe Animals in a Changing World by Emma Marris (Bloomsbury Publishing)
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen (Scribner)
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction by Michelle Nijhuis (W. W. Norton & Company)
Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals by Christopher J. Preston (MIT Press)
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life by Ferris Jabr (Penguin Random House)
Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie (W. W. Norton & Company)
Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-Than-Human World by Brandon Keim (W. W. Norton & Company)
Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar (Penguin Random House)
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry Holt & Company)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet (W. W. Norton & Company) and Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Chelsea Green Publishing) by Ben Goldfarb
Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals by Christopher J. Preston (MIT Press)
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction by Michelle Nijhuis (W. W. Norton & Company)
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger (HarperCollins)
Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World (Alfred A. Knopf) and The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Vintage Books) by John Vaillant
Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie (W. W. Norton & Company)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Bookworks of Whitefish, offering new books of all genres, stationery, and puzzles. Open 11AM to 6PM Monday through Saturday. Located in downtown Whitefish, Montana, in the Third & Spokane Building.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
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