Charm of the Wilderness Ep. 2 - Public Lands & American Mythologies with Betsy Gaines Quammen

About this episode

Elizabeth Doerr interviews Betsy Gaines Quammen about public lands and her book American Zion.

Hello Crammers! I’m excited to bring you the rest of the Charm of the Wildrness podcast directly to your feeds! We’ve gotten some great traction over on the podcast platforms, but many of you haven’t had the chance to hear from the amazing people I brought to the podcast, so here we are in your feed. I’ll be publishing a couple of episodes per week, so you get to hear all 9 episodes of this series and the amazing people I got to talk with. This week I talk with Betsy Gaines Quammen about public lands and her book American Zion! When my family was traveling to the National Parks in Southern Utah last November, I happened to be reading American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God, & Public Lands in the West by Betsy Gaines Quammen , and I became a little bit obsessed. The moment I put it down, I emailed Betsy to interview her for the book I’m working on and to invite her to be one of my inaugural guests for the podcast. I’m excited for you to hear more from Betsy because she’s pretty badass and such a fun person. American Zion was her first book in 2020, so lucky you get a whole set of books to read of hers, all of which focus in some way on the mythologies we tell ourselves in the American…

People in this episode

Host: Elizabeth Doerr

Guest: Betsy Gaines Quammen

Topics covered

• public lands
• American mythologies
• National Parks
• Betsy Gaines Quammen
• American West

Keywords

• public lands
• American Zion
• Betsy Gaines Quammen
• National Parks
• mythologies
• American West

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: American Zion, This Haunted Land: Reckoning with Ghosts and Stories that Shape America, True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America

Places: Southern Utah

More episodes of Cramming for the Apocalypse Podcast

• Charm of the Wilderness Ep. 4 - National Park History & Advocacy with Will De Man · June 6, 2026 · 53 min
• Charm of the Wilderness - Ep. 3 - Indigenous History of Yellowstone National Park and Beyond with Shane Doyle · May 30, 2026 · 35 min
• Charm of the Wilderness Ep. 1 Nature Education with Allison Depuy · April 2, 2026 · 53 min
• "Here Comes the Apocalypse" with Jennifer Heller · October 14, 2025 · 39 min
• Ep. 11 - Talking About Preparedness · May 23, 2025 · 30 min
• Ep. 10 - Community Preparedness · May 16, 2025 · 44 min