Home of the Brave

I didn’t know anyone when I got here, but Odesa is famous for its writers and artists, my kind of people. So I searched the web, looking for stories, written in English, by Odesa authors. Then I wrote to them, asking if they would be up for an interview.

Charles Bowden reading an excerpt from "Blood Orchid"

This story is four interviews, with neighbors and friends, about the current political situation in the United States. I was feeling fairly frazzled and wanted to talk to other people about how they felt, so I started close to home. The photo above is an original silk screen by Leia Bell, for sale at Ken Sanders’ Rare Books in Salt Lake City, Utah.

My thoughts on our current situation.

Reports from the Sonoran Desert, sixty miles south of Tucson, in March of 2005.

A trip to Afghanistan in November of 2001.

My first overseas story.

Swim lessons at the Sandwich Aquatic Center in Sandwich, New Hampshire.

An attempt to forget who I am.

a short stint in commercial radio

My first story for This American Life.

A story about trying to make a home during hard times.

A radio play about how we, as a culture, deal with death and dying.

A canoe trip down the Green River, from the top in Wyoming to the confluence with the Colorado River in southern Utah.

A tragic day in the Wasatch Mountains.

A cultural history of the Great Salt Lake Desert.

An audio essay of my neighborhood.

Testing my brother's theory of human evolution by trying to run down a pronghorn antelope in Wyoming.

About being afraid to criticize Israel.

Dr. Nizam Mamode describes his experiences while volunteering at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza last August and September.