Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Lydia Millet writes a devotion to the species disappearing from our planet

A photo of an author and their book cover.
Lydia Millet's new book, "We Loved It All," is a lament laced with hope.
Photo by Civory Orchid Photography | Cover provided by W.W. Norton

Birds, bats, freshwater mussels and a small catfish. They all slipped away in 2023, among the 21 species declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Grief is a rational response. So are the questions novelist and conservationist Lydia Millet articulates in her new book, “We Loved It All.” A blend of memoir and ecological truth-telling, Millet’s first nonfiction work examines what the vanishing will mean for the coming generations and for our sense of self.

“No one wants to tell our children how glorious it was before you were around,” she writes.

Millet joins host Kerri Miller on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about how she carries hope, even as she mourns the destruction in the natural world.

Guest:

Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsRSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.