We’re back! After a long hiatus due to professional/ life stuff, I’m happy to share with you my interview with Gary Shaw, Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University. Continuing our series on horses, we explore another angle of the long-standing relationship between humans and horses, looking at the role that horses played in human transportation and warfare. As we brace ourselves for the impact of A.I., I find it instructive to look back to a time when our transportation and military technologies depended on other animals. It’s impossible to fully comprehend the impact of the shift from horse and buggy to car, but, as we grapple with the scope and limitations of our humanity - and, I would argue, with our animality -, thinking back to a time when other animals were more fully embedded in our lives may serve as a useful counterpart and help us in our attempts to make sense of our present moment.  In our conversation, Gary Shaw and I discuss two areas of his scholarship - the development of horse travel in twelfth-century Europe and the role that horses, such as the Duke of Wellington’s horse Copenhagen, played in battle during the period of the Napoleonic wars.

<description>&lt;p&gt;We’re back! After a long hiatus due to professional/ life stuff, I’m happy to share with you my interview with Gary Shaw, Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University. Continuing our series on horses, we explore another angle of the long-standing relationship between humans and horses, looking at the role that horses played in human transportation and warfare. As we brace ourselves for the impact of A.I., I find it instructive to look back to a time when our transportation and military technologies depended on other animals. It’s impossible to fully comprehend the impact of the shift from horse and buggy to car, but, as we grapple with the scope and limitations of our humanity - and, I would argue, with our animality -, thinking back to a time when other animals were more fully embedded in our lives may serve as a useful counterpart and help us in our attempts to make sense of our present moment.  In our conversation, Gary Shaw and I discuss two areas of his scholarship - the development of horse travel in twelfth-century Europe and the role that horses, such as the Duke of Wellington’s horse Copenhagen, played in battle during the period of the Napoleonic wars.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

We’re back! After a long hiatus due to professional/ life stuff, I’m happy to share with you my interview with Gary Shaw, Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Wesleyan University. Continuing our series on horses, we explore another angle of the long-standing relationship between humans and horses, looking at the role that horses played in human transportation and warfare. As we brace ourselves for the impact of A.I., I find it instructive to look back to a time when our transportation...

Horse Travel and Horse Warfare: A Conversation with Historian Gary Shaw

The title of Lydia Millet’s last novel - Dinosaurs - seems to wink at the threat of human extinction, and, yet, its explicit referent in the book is to birds, those sometimes-alien creatures who survived the impact of the asteroid that wiped out most of their kind. This kind of double meaning, something like a sign that points in multiple directions, abounds in Dinosaurs, which is at once a moving human narrative and a reflection on the ways in which our frailty puts us at the mercy of our shortcomings as a species but also, ultimately, serves as an opening to discovering how much we care about the natural world. It was, as always, a great pleasure to talk to Lydia Millet about these and other matters. I hope you too will enjoy our conversation.

<description>&lt;p&gt;The title of Lydia Millet’s last novel - &lt;em&gt;Dinosaurs&lt;/em&gt; - seems to wink at the threat of human extinction, and, yet, its explicit referent in the book is to birds, those sometimes-alien creatures who survived the impact of the asteroid that wiped out most of their kind. This kind of double meaning, something like a sign that points in multiple directions, abounds in &lt;em&gt;Dinosaurs,&lt;/em&gt; which is at once a moving human narrative and a reflection on the ways in which our frailty puts us at the mercy of our shortcomings as a species but also, ultimately, serves as an opening to discovering how much we care about the natural world. It was, as always, a great pleasure to talk to Lydia Millet about these and other matters. I hope you too will enjoy our conversation.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

The title of Lydia Millet’s last novel - Dinosaurs - seems to wink at the threat of human extinction, and, yet, its explicit referent in the book is to birds, those sometimes-alien creatures who survived the impact of the asteroid that wiped out most of their kind. This kind of double meaning, something like a sign that points in multiple directions, abounds in Dinosaurs, which is at once a moving human narrative and a reflection on the ways in which our frailty puts us at the mercy of our sh...

Dinosaurs with Lydia Millet

A continuation of my earlier episode in which Trevien Stanger - instructor of environmental studies at St. Michael&apos;s College in Vermont - and I discuss Abram&apos;s book, which, I think it&apos;s fair to say, has had a profound effect on both of us. This time, we focus on Abram&apos;s argument about the impact of the invention of the alphabet on our relationship with the natural world.  If you&apos;d like to listen to part 1 of this discussion - https://www.buzzsprout.com/356774/11992722 If you&apos;d like to listen to my conversation with Johanna Drucker about the invention of the alphabet -  https://www.buzzsprout.com/356774/11826284

<description>&lt;p&gt;A continuation of my earlier episode in which Trevien Stanger - instructor of environmental studies at St. Michael&amp;apos;s College in Vermont - and I discuss Abram&amp;apos;s book, which, I think it&amp;apos;s fair to say, has had a profound effect on both of us. This time, we focus on Abram&amp;apos;s argument about the impact of the invention of the alphabet on our relationship with the natural world. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;If you&amp;apos;d like to listen to part 1 of this discussion - https://www.buzzsprout.com/356774/11992722&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;If you&amp;apos;d like to listen to my conversation with Johanna Drucker about the invention of the alphabet - &lt;br/&gt;https://www.buzzsprout.com/356774/11826284&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A continuation of my earlier episode in which Trevien Stanger - instructor of environmental studies at St. Michael's College in Vermont - and I discuss Abram's book, which, I think it's fair to say, has had a profound effect on both of us. This time, we focus on Abram's argument about the impact of the invention of the alphabet on our relationship with the natural world.   If you'd like to listen to part 1 of this discussion - https://www.buzzsprout.com/356774/11992722  If you'd like to ...

David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous with Trevien Stanger, Part 2

There’s a funny little corridor tucked away behind a park in the Village of Pleasantville, New York where I live, where bears and bobcats amble through, walking atop the Catskill Aqueduct, the 100-year-old artery that delivers water from the Catskill mountains to New York City. Fellow resident, Michael Inglis, who has been hiking this patch of semi-wilderness for the past twenty-five years, has recently written a book about it, <a href='https://www.amazon.com/Woods-Water-Walking-Yorks-Nanny/dp/B0C22WPS2J#:~:text=Woods%20and%20Water%3A%20Walking%20New%20York%27s%20Nanny%20Hagen%20Brookshares,River%20in%20the%20Hudson%20Valley.'>Woods and Water: Walking New York’s Nanny Hagen Brook</a>. He calls this a “liminal space,” existing as it does at the margins of a human-dominated landscape. After reading his book, I asked him if we could take a walk along the Nanny Hagen brook together. As we explored off-trail, he pointed out the surprising number of native plants but also the corrosive effects of human influence, including the predominance of invasive plants that have escaped from suburban backyards into the wild. What ensued for me was a reflection on how human culture literally shapes the natural world, but also the ways in which nature can push back and be surprisingly resilient, when given the chance.

<description>&lt;p&gt;There’s a funny little corridor tucked away behind a park in the Village of Pleasantville, New York where I live, where bears and bobcats amble through, walking atop the Catskill Aqueduct, the 100-year-old artery that delivers water from the Catskill mountains to New York City. Fellow resident, Michael Inglis, who has been hiking this patch of semi-wilderness for the past twenty-five years, has recently written a book about it, &lt;a href='https://www.amazon.com/Woods-Water-Walking-Yorks-Nanny/dp/B0C22WPS2J#:~:text=Woods%20and%20Water%3A%20Walking%20New%20York%27s%20Nanny%20Hagen%20Brookshares,River%20in%20the%20Hudson%20Valley.'&gt;&lt;em&gt;Woods and Water: Walking New York’s Nanny Hagen Brook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. He calls this a “liminal space,” existing as it does at the margins of a human-dominated landscape. After reading his book, I asked him if we could take a walk along the Nanny Hagen brook together. As we explored off-trail, he pointed out the surprising number of native plants but also the corrosive effects of human influence, including the predominance of invasive plants that have escaped from suburban backyards into the wild. What ensued for me was a reflection on how human culture literally shapes the natural world, but also the ways in which nature can push back and be surprisingly resilient, when given the chance.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

There’s a funny little corridor tucked away behind a park in the Village of Pleasantville, New York where I live, where bears and bobcats amble through, walking atop the Catskill Aqueduct, the 100-year-old artery that delivers water from the Catskill mountains to New York City. Fellow resident, Michael Inglis, who has been hiking this patch of semi-wilderness for the past twenty-five years, has recently written a book about it, Woods and Water: Walking New York’s Nanny Hagen Brook. He calls t...

Study of a Liminal Corridor with Michael Inglis

When we think of major innovations in human history, what comes to mind are inert technologies - from the wheel to the computer - but one of the most significant developments occurred as the result of the relationship between humans and another animal, horses. The domestication of horses brought about a major sea-change in human society, as we became much more mobile.  It affected everything from agriculture to warfare to the dissemination of language and culture. To discuss the domestication of horses and the impact of this relationship, I spoke with  <a href='https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/william-taylor'>William Taylor</a>,  Assistant Professor and Curator of Archeology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  As Taylor explains, our understanding of this history continues to evolve thanks to new scientific tools, such as new types of genomic sequencing, but also due the work of anthropologists who observe present-day horse culture in Mongolia, contemporary Ukraine and other parts of the Eurasian steppes where the domestication of horses first took place.

<description>&lt;p&gt;When we think of major innovations in human history, what comes to mind are inert technologies - from the wheel to the computer - but one of the most significant developments occurred as the result of the relationship between humans and another animal, horses. The domestication of horses brought about a major sea-change in human society, as we became much more mobile.  It affected everything from agriculture to warfare to the dissemination of language and culture. To discuss the domestication of horses and the impact of this relationship, I spoke with  &lt;a href='https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/william-taylor'&gt;William Taylor&lt;/a&gt;,  Assistant Professor and Curator of Archeology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  As Taylor explains, our understanding of this history continues to evolve thanks to new scientific tools, such as new types of genomic sequencing, but also due the work of anthropologists who observe present-day horse culture in Mongolia, contemporary Ukraine and other parts of the Eurasian steppes where the domestication of horses first took place. &lt;/p&gt;</description>

When we think of major innovations in human history, what comes to mind are inert technologies - from the wheel to the computer - but one of the most significant developments occurred as the result of the relationship between humans and another animal, horses. The domestication of horses brought about a major sea-change in human society, as we became much more mobile.  It affected everything from agriculture to warfare to the dissemination of language and culture. To discuss the domestic...

William Taylor on the Domestication of Horses

In the weeds explores how culture shapes our relationship to the natural world through interviews with a wide range of guests, from scientists to artists to cultural critics and theologians.

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