Episode 125: Boyce Upholt - The Great River

Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” and author whose writing explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. Originally from Connecticut, Upholt moved to the Mississippi Delta in 2009, where he discovered an unexpected wilderness amid an agricultural empire: the Mississippi River. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Boyce describes the natural and human histories of the wild and unruly Mississippi River and the centuries of human efforts to control it. Ambitious and sometimes contentious programs of engineering -- government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams -- has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer.