A Conversation with Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns

I'm late in pushing this one live, so I'm going to be brief: Here is an interview with collaborators Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns about their new book The National Parks: America's Best Idea (September; Alfred A. Knopf). It's the first time we've had an authorial duo on The Book Studio, and I think it worked beautifully. Of course it helps that these two gentlemen are so well-informed and well-spoken. 

While Burns and Duncan have created a beautiful and meticulously researched book, they've wisely opened and closed it with chapters offering their personal meditations on trips to National Parks with their families. These un-researched chapters come straight from the authors' hearts, and truly help to ground a book filled with facts in individual experiences. 

I know that I, like most other PBS viewers, am eagerly anticipating this new production on screen as well as in print, but the personal chapters are something you have to get from the book. Also, in this interview you'll hear more about what's coming next from Ken Burns...