Close Encounters with the Natural World with Jennifer Kingsley and Deni Bechard
Hosted by The Ottawa Citizen’s Matthew Pearson
In Person Big Ideas Science History
As Kingsley reflects upon her experience, she also explores contemporary dependence on communication technology and writes about wilderness as a reprieve from modernity.
Join us in welcoming two remarkable writers whose journeys into the natural world inspire us to explore what wilderness means to us.
Paddlenorth: Adventure, Resilience, and Renewal in the Arctic Wild tells the riveting story of Jennifer Kingsley’s 54-day paddling adventure on the Back River, in the northern wilderness of the subarctic, as she and her five companions battle raging winds, impenetrable sea ice, and treacherous rapids. The perils include rising tensions among the group, but these are tempered by grizzly sightings, icy swims, and the caribou’s summer migration. Woven through this spellbinding narrative are the harrowing accounts of earlier explorers, some of whom perished, leaving traces along the river that warn us against romantic notions of the wild.
When acclaimed author Deni Béchard learned of the last living bonobos—matriarchal great apes which are, alongside chimpanzees, our closest relatives—he was astonished. How could we accept the disappearance of this majestic species, along with the rainforest it calls home? Part polemic, part travelogue, part natural history, Bonobo Inc: The Race to Save Bonobos in the Congo and Make Conservation Go Viral offers a moving story of how a few committed people can affect great and lasting change, while pointing out a path that may allow us to emulate them.
