The Nation's Heartbeat: Engineering, History, and the Mississippi River cover art

The Nation's Heartbeat: Engineering, History, and the Mississippi River

The Nation's Heartbeat: Engineering, History, and the Mississippi River

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

The Mississippi River Basin covers over a million square miles across the southeast and midwest US. Despite growing up far away in the northeast US, Boyce Upholt thinks about the nation's largest waterway more than most: he's the author of "The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi." The book began nearly eight years earlier with a paddling trip, a sunken steamboat, and love-at-first-sight for the iconic southern river.

Upholt speaks to our hosts Alysha and Todd about his intertwining passions for history and nature, and why this work centers on "the Great River." The book covers how humans have thought about, related to, and altered the region over centuries, and how the river changes to meet us in new ways.

"We know it's out there, this sort of heart beating in the middle of America, but most Americans don't know what it looks like."

Boyce's Haiku (The Edgelands Wander Haiku):
Shopping cart half-sunk
Into the crust-dried batture mud
Nothing lasts too long

Links:
Check out the book: https://www.boyceupholt.com/
Southlands Magazine, a new project by Boyce Upholt, is launching later this year: https://www.boyceupholt.com/southlands

What listeners say about The Nation's Heartbeat: Engineering, History, and the Mississippi River

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.