A conversation with Mark Sundeen about their book Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

Mark Sundeen is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. In addition articles for The New York Times Magazine, Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, McSweeney's, and other outlets, Sundeen is the author of 5 books.

• Car Camping: The Book of Desert Adventures (Quill HarperCollins, 2000)
• The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts, and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
• The Man Who Quit Money (Riverhead Books, 2012)
• The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America (Riverhead Books, 2018)
• Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with Ernesto Sagas about their book Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State (University Press of Colorado, 2025)

Ernesto Sagás is Professor of Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University. He is the author of an enormous body of scholarship, including articles and book chapters in a variety of disciplines, and 5 books:

• Race and Politics in the Dominican Republic. University Press of Florida, 2000.
• The Dominican People: A Documentary History. Co-edited with Orlando Inoa. Markus Wiener Publishers, 2003.
• Dominican Migration: Transnational Perspectives. Co-edited with Sintia E. Molina. University Press of Florida, 2004.
• Dominican Politics in the Twenty First Century: Continuity and Change. Co-edited with Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco. Routledge, 2023
• Latino Colorado: The Struggle for Equality in the Centennial State. University Press of Colorado, 2025.

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with historian Adam M. Sowards about their weekly Taking Bearing essays series, "Being Historically Faithful in Public" article, and broader work in public writing.

Dr. Adam Sowards is an environmental historian and writer, specializing in public lands and conservation in the US West especially the Pacific Northwest. Much of his public writings can be accessed at adamsowards.net. Dr. Sowards earned his Ph.D. in History from Arizona State University and was professor of history from the University of Idaho 2003-2022. He is now retired with emeritus status and working as a freelance writer. His published books include the following (links to purchase here):

• Making America’s Public Lands: The Contested History of Conservation on Federal Lands. American Ways series, ed. John David Smith. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2022.
• An Open Pit Visible from the Moon: The Wilderness Act and the Fight to Protect Miners Ridge and the Public Interest. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020.
• Editor. Idaho’s Place: A New History of the Gem State. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.
• The Environmental Justice: William O. Douglas and American Conservation. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2009
• United States West Coast: An Environmental History. Nature and Human Societies Series, ed. Mark Stoll. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007.

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com