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October 16, 2019
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David Gessner

David Gessner is the author of numerous books, most recently All the Wild That Remains, and was the host of Born to Be Wild on the National Geographic Channel.

A Planet in Peril

A Planet in Peril

Can humanity engineer its way out of trouble?

by David Gessner | Monday, March 05, 2018
Dangerous Ground

Dangerous Ground

When confronting matters of race, some boundaries are more easily breached than others

by David Gessner | Tuesday, September 04, 2018
The Taming of the Wild

The Taming of the Wild

As we celebrate the centenary of the National Park Service, a meditation on “the best idea that America ever had”

by David Gessner | Monday, June 06, 2016
Smarty Pants Podcast

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THIS WEEK’S ARCHIVE PICK

2nd Look

What Does Columbus Day Really Mean?

by William J. Connell

Whether you celebrate Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Discoverers’ Day, or Native Americans’ Day, historian William J. Connell observes that, in the end, this controversial civic holiday is just that: a holiday. In his essay “What Columbus Day Really Means,” Connell writes that President Benjamin Harrison created the holiday in 1892 to honor both Native Americans and the many immigrants who were only then arriving in the country. “It was to be a national holiday that was not about the Founding Fathers or the Civil War, but about the rest of American history,” Connell writes—a day for celebrating the country and all its people. Sounds to us like a pretty good reason to take the day off of work.