Barret Baumgart: The Desert is a Haunted House
Update: 2025-10-28
Description
Author and essayist Barret Baumgart joins Bill and Anders for a Halloween special that leans into the stranger side of wild nature. His latest book, Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree, explores how this desert icon went from being despised as grotesque and “demonic” to adored as a backdrop for modern desert dreams. In a conversation that ranges from natural history to horror, they dig into what the Joshua Tree reveals about human nature, the stories we project onto wild places, and the uneasy line between wonder and fear.
Find out more and access the links and resources mentioned in today's episode at our website, thewildidea.com.
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