Featured : MIMI ZIEMAN, Tap Dancing on EverestWe humans are a risky bunch. It seems part of our make-up, or at least the make up of one small expedition of four climbers. Their mission: attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, summitted only once before. That’s not all, though. They would climb without using supplemental oxygen, porter support, or chance for rescue. And going with them: Mimi Zieman, a woman still in her third year of medical school, as team doctor. And we have to ask… why? According to Zieman, she felt called—something she couldn’t resist drawing her on. In ways not so dissimilar to WHALE FALL by last year’s guest Daniel Kraus, Tap Dancing on Everest offers up a coming of age story about finding your own authentic self. As Zieman goes solo hiking through Nepal, she weaves her childhood as the daughter of Jewish immigrants raised in 1970's New York City, with adventure, medicine, and empowerment. Join us for a chance to ask Zieman about the how and the why, about what drives a person to extremes and what we can make out of such experiences.

Episode was recorded live May 22, 2025.

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An exquisite, lyrical foray into the world of deep-sea divers, the obsession and madness that oceans inspire in us, and the story of submarine inventor Peter Madsen's murder of journalist Kim Wall—a captivating blend of literary prose, science writing, and true crime.

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Featured: RILEY BLACK, When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest RomanceA favorite author returns! Once again featuring the marvelous Riley Black, author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, whose latest book takes a long look at prehistoric plants! It’s so rare that we see this type of book, one that gives us the actual landscape of history. Fossils plants allow us to touch the lost worlds from billions of years of evolutionary backstory. Each petrified leaf and root show us that dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and even humans would not exist without the evolutionary efforts of their leafy counterparts. It has been the constant growth of plants that have allowed so many of our favorite, fascinating prehistoric creatures to evolve, oxygenating the atmosphere, coaxing animals onto land, and forming the forests that shaped our ancestors’ anatomy. It is impossible to understand our history without them. Join us as we travel back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Ask Riley questions, live! Scramble with us up the Tree of Life—with another of out alum, Bethany Brookshire (author of PESTS). Two authors for the price of one! Maybe we can get two cocktails. Hmm… A VIP event, only on the Peculiar Book Club! (Join Patreon to be live with us!)

Episode was recorded live May 9, 2025.

Email: peculiar@bschillace.com

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