Sep 22, 2026 · 35 min · 10 segments
Send us Fan Mail Find me @ bookclues.com The Mississippi looks familiar on a map, but it gets weird fast when you…
Boyce UpholtGuest
Michelle McAloonHost
Where are the headwaters? That, I think, that's an interesting story in itself.
I actually, yeah, there's a talk I give now about thinking like a watershed, which is, yeah, informed by this question.
So most people who know the Mississippi River will tell you it starts at Lake Itasca in Minnesota.
When it comes to a river like the Mississippi, I mean, I think what is so striking, I've always lived on the Mississippi in the South, where it pulls together lots of different waters, the Ohio, the Missouri, and makes this giant world-shaping river.
And so from my point of view, that river up at Lake Itasca is really different.
And there's an argument to be made that the Missouri River is as... is the real river, right? It's a much longer river than the Mississippi coming down from Minneapolis to where Lake Itasca to where they meet in St.
And so to me, to call Lake Itasca the single headwaters is to kind of oversimplify the Mississippi and to try and like reduce it into something smaller than what it really is.
And so I could go on about that at more length, but I, in the book, I say that anywhere that's kind of rainfalls in this million plus square mile watershed, that is a headwaters because rivers are these complex threaded things that run through our backyards.
When I was reading your book, I was wondering, is there any other river in the world that is so diverse through the landscape that actually, if you think of it, begins in cold, chilly Minnesota all the way down to the bayous of New Orleans? And I've been at the mouth of the Mississippi or supposedly whatever they call the mouth of the Mississippi going off into the Gulf.
So is there any other place do you think that is as diverse as the Mississippi River is?
So I haven't looked as intensely at the other couple of rivers, right? So like...
Do you care about the area of the watershed, the length of the river, all this? There's the Congo, there's the Amazon, there's the Yangtze, there's other rivers in the discussion.
And I think any river that big, you know, will have some headwaters and some mountains.
Where are the headwaters? That, I think, that's an interesting story in itself.
I actually, yeah, there's a talk I give now about thinking like a watershed, which is, yeah, informed by this question.
So most people who know the Mississippi River will tell you it starts at Lake Itasca in Minnesota.
When it comes to a river like the Mississippi, I mean, I think what is so striking, I've always lived on the Mississippi in the South, where it pulls together lots of different waters, the Ohio, the Missouri, and makes this giant world-shaping river.
And so from my point of view, that river up at Lake Itasca is really different.
And there's an argument to be made that the Missouri River is as... is the real river, right? It's a much longer river than the Mississippi coming down from Minneapolis to where Lake Itasca to where they meet in St.
And so to me, to call Lake Itasca the single headwaters is to kind of oversimplify the Mississippi and to try and like reduce it into something smaller than what it really is.
And so I could go on about that at more length, but I, in the book, I say that anywhere that's kind of rainfalls in this million plus square mile watershed, that is a headwaters because rivers are these complex threaded things that run through our backyards.
When I was reading your book, I was wondering, is there any other river in the world that is so diverse through the landscape that actually, if you think of it, begins in cold, chilly Minnesota all the way down to the bayous of New Orleans? And I've been at the mouth of the Mississippi or supposedly whatever they call the mouth of the Mississippi going off into the Gulf.
So is there any other place do you think that is as diverse as the Mississippi River is?
So I haven't looked as intensely at the other couple of rivers, right? So like...
Do you care about the area of the watershed, the length of the river, all this? There's the Congo, there's the Amazon, there's the Yangtze, there's other rivers in the discussion.
And I think any river that big, you know, will have some headwaters and some mountains.
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