In a moment when outrage dominates public discourse, Terry Tempest Williams invites us back to attention, reciprocity, and the discipline of presence.

Terry Tempest Williams is a writer, conservationist, and longtime voice for wild lands whose work bridges story, spirit, and public life. In this conversation, she joins Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds to reflect on her newest book, The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, and to explore what it means to remain present in a time marked by ecological crisis, political strain, and personal loss.

Rather than offering easy optimism, Terry reframes hope as something active, something rooted in engagement. Drawing on experiences from the pandemic, her advocacy for the Great Salt Lake, the fight for Bears Ears, and life in Castle Valley, Utah, she speaks about neighbors, ritual, ancestors, and the importance of local love. Story, she argues, bypasses rhetoric and returns us to our deepest selves.

This episode considers grief and joy as siblings, resistance and compassion as intertwined, and wildness as something that includes human community rather than excluding it. In a moment when outrage dominates public discourse, Terry invites us back to attention, reciprocity, and the discipline of presence.

In this episode:

• Hope as engagement, not mood
  Terry challenges the idea of passive hope, describing it instead as action grounded in faith, presence, and responsibility to place.
• Joy and grief as inseparable
  A reflection on how joy is not the absence of suffering, but the willingness to remain open to the full range of human emotion.
• Wildness and human presence
  A discussion about ancestors, family, and why meaningful experiences in wild places often include other people.
• Local community as conservation practice
  Stories from Castle Valley, Utah, where neighbors across political lines came together after flooding to ask a simple question: where does the water want to go?
• Resistance and discernment
  Terry shares a firsthand account of protest at Lafayette Square after the reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, and reflects on when to resist and when to recalibrate.
• The Great Salt Lake and writing what you know
  Encouraged by Barry Lopez, Terry describes why turning toward one’s home landscape is both an act of love and a political commitment.
• Ritual as grounding
  From star dances to singing in desert wind, ritual emerges as a way to bind community to land and mark moments of uncertainty.

Links & Resources

Connect with Terry Tempest Williams:

• Upcoming Tour Schedule
• The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary by Terry Tempest Williams
  A collection of essays exploring grief, faith, ancestors, and presence during the pandemic and beyond

Organizations & Initiatives:

• Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
  A Utah-based conservation organization mentioned in the context of Bears Ears advocacy.

• Grand Canyon Trust
  A regional nonprofit involved in public lands conservation across the Colorado Plateau.

Places & Landmarks:

• Bears Ears National Monument
  A national monument in southeastern Utah discussed in relation to monument reductions and tribal advocacy.

• Great Salt Lake
  A terminal lake in northern Utah whose declining water levels frame conversations about climate, policy, and responsibility.

• Antelope Island
  A state park within Great Salt Lake where Terry and her students gathered during a field seminar on grief.

• Sun Tunnels
  A land art installation in Utah’s West Desert where students sheltered and sang during high winds.

• Lafayette Square
  The park across from the White House where a rally was held following the reduction of Bears Ears National Monument.

Government & Policy:

• Endangered Species Act (1973)
  Referenced in discussion of petitions related to species protection and the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.

People Mentioned

• Barry Lopez
  Writer and mentor to Terry Tempest Williams who encouraged her to write about the Great Salt Lake.

• Rebecca Solnit
  Writer and friend referenced in a discussion about hope as an active discipline.

• Martha Williams
  Public lands leader previously interviewed on the podcast; referenced in conversation about species protection and policy.

• Nancy Holt
  Creator of Sun Tunnels, the land art installation discussed during the Great Salt Lake field seminar.

Terry Tempest Williams is the award-winning author of seventeen books of creative nonfiction, including the environmental classic, Refuge – An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Among her other books are Leap; Finding Beauty in a Broken World; When Women Were Birds; The Hour of Land – A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks; and Erosion – Essays of Undoing. Her work has been translated and anthologized worldwide. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and is currently the writer-in-residence at the Harvard Divinity School. She divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Castle Valley, Utah.

Photo credit: Barb Kinney

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