Simon Winchester

Later, that bright young writer Lech Blaine will join us to share wild and, at times, terrifying stories of his childhood growing up in Queensland pubs stalked by Christian fanatics.

But first, Simon Winchester reading the wind.

It's invisible, and it's all around us.

It can drive us crazy, but without it, we're lost.

There are, of course, scientific explanations for why a body of air would cross the landscape, perhaps leveling cities as it goes.

But in our hearts, we've always understood wind is the work of gods.

Simon Winchester, after nailing the Raj, Krakatoa, the Oxford English Dictionary, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Alice of Alice in Wonderland, several earthquakes, and a tsunami, has written The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind.

Simon Winchester joins me from New York.

It shows that sometimes you have to be bold and put forth your ideas, even when the world may not be ready for them or appreciates them.

For more, read the fascinating book, The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester, one of my all-time favorite books.

I also want to impart the following note.

I visited Smith's map hanging in the Geological Society of London while I was teaching GIS and geography there.

Absolutely.

So today we are taking you on a deep dive into excerpts from Simon Winchester's remarkable book, Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, 27 August 1883.

And our mission today isn't just to talk about a big bang, right? We want to trace how a single, seemingly insignificant volcanic island off the coast of Java sits at the absolute crossroads of global history.

Yeah, we're going to see how this one remote patch of geography connects the invention of modern capitalism, the discovery evolution and the mind bending revelation that the continents beneath our feet are actually moving.

OK, let's unpack this.

We really should start with the aftermath to understand the scale of what we're dealing with here.

In the 1970s, the author, Simon Winchester, visited the remains of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait, which is right between Java and Sumatra.

Right.

6.

I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

Listen and repeat I read the book Krakatoa by Simon Winchester a few months ago.

I

in like modern times yeah

i think that's krakatoa yeah you know the one i was talking about was simon winchester's book he wrote a book on it it was really fascinating how the islands started to come back come back to life literally like within years yeah

well i better pop on to my feature piece here hopefully it doesn't garble on us

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I think that's Krakatoa, yeah.

The one I was talking about was Simon Winchester's book.

He wrote a book on it.

It was really fascinating how the islands started to come back to life literally within

I used to be a social scientist and I had read The Surgeon of Crowthorne in America.

It's called The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.

Oh.

And it's a nonfiction book about one particular volunteer who worked for the Oxford English Dictionary.

And in many ways, you've written the definitive novel about words.

Is that a coincidence? Yes.

You know, I told you I read Simon Winchester's book and when I'd finished, I looked at my shelf, all the dictionaries that were on my shelf.

There are so many, I have so many dictionaries.