Will Hoyt‘s Ohio River Journey to the Middle Ages

Host:  John Murdock Guest:  Will Hoyt Will Hoyt, author of The Seven Ranges, discusses his journey along the Ohio River into the physical, historical and philosophical interior of the strip-mined region where he lives.  In the book, Hoyt transforms the area’s colorful past into a lament over the loss of an “integrative center” last seen in feudal Europe.  Well read and well spoken, this carpenter joins everything from surveying techniques to Jimmy the Greek into a compelling narrative of despair and hope. Highlights 2:15   Unhoused Hoyt, Unhoused Ohio 7:00   This book brought to you by Ingram Barge Company 10:00 Big Coal comes to town 14:30 Corporate Power and the 14th Amendment 21:30 Polarization and the destruction of the medieval inheritance 22:30 The Civil War, then and now, explained 27:00 False opposites 32:15 Power chosen over contemplation 33:00 Make America Medieval (Again?) 37:00 Lightning round begins! 37:30 Jimmy the Greek and the Little Las Vegas 39:30 “Play that Funky Music” (almost) 41:00 Camp meeting revival 42:45 Surveying changes the world 44:00 Wendell Berry gets the Incarnation right and wrong 49:00 Wallace Stegner and the American Inklings 50:30 What’s on the cover? Resources Buy the book Preview of The Seven Ranges from FPR Hoyt’s FPR articles “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads Ingram Barge Company “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry And if you need help getting that last song out of your head, try this very topical one:  “Paradise” by John Prine   Also, our thanks as always to Wendell Kimbrough for the use of “The Ballad of Freida the Goose”