Greetings from What is California? HQ, where this week we pack a few gallons of water and an ice chest and head straight for the desert for a talk with Ken Layne.
Layne is the creator of Desert Oracle, a magazine and radio show/podcast that brings stories of the parched, rocky, wondrous wilderness to a devoted following in California and beyond. In dreamlike essays and audio expeditions, Layne limns a narrative space somewhere between Mark Twain and David Lynch—or is it between Hunter S. Thompson and Art Bell? Or none or all of the above? It’s likelier that Layne is a singular California figure in the tradition of all of our great storytellers, who impose their unique grace on our unique state as it heaves and teeters maddeningly into the future. There’s no place like it, and there’s no place like the desert. Ken Layne and Desert Oracle are exceedingly adept at showing us why.
This episode was a delight that went some unexpected places. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks as always for listening, and keep your eye on the bear! 🐻 ❤️
Episode Notes
Ken Layne is the creator of Desert Oracle magazine and Desert Oracle Radio.
I like a mythological landscape, you know? If you can figure out how to live in a landscape like that–at least for my temperament–that’s everything.
Notes and references from this episode:
@KenLayne - Ken Layne on Twitter
Desert Oracle magazine - home page
Desert Oracle Radio - home page
Desert Oracle Radio - Apple Podcasts
Desert Oracle Vol. 1 - MCD/Picador
Robinson Jeffers - Poetry Foundation
The Land of Little Rain, by Mary Austin
Art Bell - Radio Hall of Fame
“Out in the wild: how Ken Layne created an alternative to clickbait in the desert,” by Dominic Rushe, The Guardian
Ambrose Bierce - Wikipedia
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