Join us in this episode for the field trip of a century. Our guest, geologist-historian David B. Williams, illuminates the Pacific Northwest’s characteristic highlands and waterways as landscapes of perpetual transformation.
With a wry wink, this raconteur’s stories fuse the sensitivity of a naturalist with the diligence of a research geek. Amble through Seattle with David as he reveals his city’s subterranean secrets: A mosquito fleet schooner lost somewhere below downtown’s streets; old growth forests immersed under Lake Union; an art deco office tower whose foundation stones invite us to touch “deep time”—almost unimaginably greater than the time scale of human lives and human plans we hold so dear.
David’s tales animate the experiences of early Seattleites who swung picks and shot water cannons to forcefully reshape our glacially-formed landscape into a modern metropolis; a progression that continues today in response to climate change.
"I’m interested in connections…How are we influenced by the landscape around us? And then, it’s the connections between people and place." - David B. Williams
Here is David & Edward recording in the studio at Jack Straw Cultural Center, December 2022:
