Today, Sedge marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 with comments from A. S. Byatt as she depicts the onset of The Great War in The Children’s Book.

It’s still fire season in the West. Timothy Egan’s timeless account of a massive Montana fire depicts the work of  progressive Republicans under Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot. They fought corrupt wealthy politicians to set aside American forests as public lands and parks. 

Yet some trees are toxic dendrons to we humans. Botanist Amy Stewart identifies the which and how as she explains how her fears are rational and well-informed when walking in the woods and fields.

A. S. Byatt tells a grown-up’s fairy tale of children’s lives over a hundred years ago. The bucolic artsy life led to Peter Pan and Wind in the Willows, the creation of beautiful arts and crafts pottery and other objets d’art. Then the unexpected onslaught of WW1.  It’s beautiful to perceive a pot well-made when held.  Yet how easily and inadvertently things can shatter.

Calamity, illusions, political corruption, and fair warnings today. 

More with Sedge and A. S. Byatt here on the WCL Notables Podcast page.