179: How to Use Science to Create an Emotional Connection to Place.

Andrea Askowitz  0:15  
I'm Andrea Askowitz. 

Allison Langer  0:17  
I'm Alison Langer. And this is Writing Class Radio. You'll hear true personal stories and learn how to write your own stories. Together, we produce this podcast, which is equal parts heart and art. By heart, we mean the truth in a story. And by art, we mean the craft of writing. No matter what's going on in our lives. Writing class is where we tell the truth. It's where we work out our sh***. And there's no place in the world like writing class, and we want to bring you in.

Andrea Askowitz  0:45  
Today on our show, we bring you a story by Kevin Griffin that was originally performed on stage at the Flagstaff festival of science in October 2023. Like on Episode 174 175, and 177. So far, this was a collaboration with ecos, the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University, and story collider, a podcast that airs true science stories.

Well, we explain this on the last few episodes. But very quickly, let's explain again, how Dr. Jane marks and Bruce Hungate, both conservation ecologist and professors at NAU came to us because they understood that they wanted to personalize their own science stories, and then have their PhD students personalize theirs. So we work together with them over several months, both online and then in person and work to make their stories stage ready. So all the stories that you're hearing in this science series worked hold on stage without notes does not easy. No. Then these students nailed it. They nailed them so hard that we got a standing ovation. 

Allison Langer  2:06  
You know that the reason why we find these stories really important and why Jane and Bruce really wanted to develop their writing in a more personal way is so that people listening would start trusting scientists, one scientist at a time, and hopefully long term that will help legislators and people making the rules and the laws start and even just you and me like anybody listening just to start really caring, and believing more about what's going on in our environment, the climate change stuff is real. 

Andrea Askowitz  2:42  
We're trying to change public opinion, and make people care about the environment. And for me, it's working.

Allison Langer  2:49  
They are they really are trying to do this and we feel lucky to be a part of it. So and we hope you guys love their stories too and start trusting them. One story at a time. 

Andrea Askowitz  3:00  
Kevin Griffin story uses science to help understand an emotional connection to a place and she did it by having us the listener fall in love with the place she set the scene and she raised the stakes. Back with Kevin's story after the break.

Allison Langer  3:20  
We're back This is Alison Langer and you're listening to writing class radio. Up next is Kevin Griffin telling her story 'What Grow Back'.

Kevin Griffin  3:35  
When I woke up, the bear was watching me. He was standing there about five feet away. He'd snuck up on me while I slept this huge animal. And in the moonlight, I could see his fur glinting this beautiful cinnamon color as he breathed. We stared at each other my blue eyes his depthless black ones. And in that moment I recalled with absolute clarity that humans can be prey. We stared a little longer, it must have only been seconds. And then the moment broke. And the Bear turned and ran. He was thundering down the slope to the trees. I get out of my tent and I go up the hill to where my coworker Wesley is sleeping peacefully. He's missed the whole thing and I shake him awake. And I'm like Wesley, you will not believe what the hell just happened to me. I'm telling him the story. And he goes, fuck it and cool, right? I'm like, Yeah, that's amazing. I think he goes, were you scared? And I'm like, obviously. I was recalling, as I sat there, as I told that to him, that I was scared. You know, I realized, even though they tell you sort of your first week in the Sierra Nevada that black bears don't mean you any harm. Knowing that didn't really change it in that moment. You know, black bears don't really see you as food and if you offer them food, they're going to be interested but for the most part, they're not going to fight you unless something's really wrong unle ss circumstances have changed, and they've become dangerous. That was my fourth summer in the Sierra Nevada. And my job was as a biological science technician, right I would hike into these beautiful Alpine fens and wet meadows and I would survey the vegetation there from the smallest moss to the tallest overhanging tree. We would backpack in for eight days at a time and we would look at everything, the groundwater, the hydrology wasn't always easy, but I loved it. And the job was really an excuse for me to pursue my true passion, which was the place this kingdom of gnarled pines and granite peaks and blue lakes that were so beautiful, they made my dusty little desert born heart ache. I saw wonders in the Sierra Nevada, and I know that's corny, but it is absolutely true. One summer I sat at the top of Half Dome and I watched the Perseid meteor showers swing by the stars so close, it felt like I could touch them. Another I sat on the shores of a place called Lake South America and I watched a golden eagle fly by his wings longer than I was tall. And sure there were mosquitoes, lots of mosquitoes and lightning and hunger and sometimes Wesley one of my best friends who I'd known for forever, we would get mad at each other. He'd eat the last piece of chocolate or he'd annoy me that day. And I wrecked my knees and two relationships. And to this day, I cannot eat instant oatmeal without wanting to throw up. Still, it was always worth it. You know, no matter how scary No matter how hard so it's maybe unsurprising that about a month after the incident with the bear Western I have hiked into a new Ridgeline. We're about 200 miles to the south of where we'd seen the bear. We're in Sequoia National Park and we're up high 13,000 feet or above treeline. And that night we sit there when we make our ramen. And we're chatting as the sunsets and the stars come out. And they unfold all around us like this beautiful blanket this tapestry. And it feels like we're at the top of the world. I think to myself how absolutely lucky and how absolutely grateful I am to be there. And this place that I love so much. And this place that I would spend forever in if I could. And I wake up the next morning and my throat is sore, my eyes are crusted shut, and when I pry them open, I rub them on my sleeve. The sky is brown. The sun is coming up. And it's this creepy blood red color. And even though it's like 530 in the morning, I already have a headache. And I know that this fire is different. I climb out of my tent, and Wes is already awake. You know, he couldn't sleep through this one. He's shoving tent poles into his bag. And he looks at me and he goes, we need to get out of here. And I say definitely. And as we're putting our packs back on, he looks at me and he asks, Are you scared? And I say, obviously, Wes and I have an 18 mile hike out to our car. We have a five hour drive around the southern tip of the Sierra, to get back to park headquarters where we start and end every trip and where all of our belongings are all of our coworkers. And that entire 18 miles this day and a half of travel. I'm thinking about how scared I really am. Because the thing about fire in the Sierra is that it shouldn't be scary. It should be a part of the landscape like the bear. It's this thing that really only becomes dangerous when circumstances have gotten wrong. But in the Sierra, things have changed, and things have gone wrong and these gentle fires that are supposed to help the sequoias open their cones and weed out the weak and weedy trees. They've become something terrifying, and I could see it as we drove into town this plume of smoke rising out of Kern Canyon twisting in the light. By the time we got home, the fire had beaten us there. flakes of ash are falling from the sky and the air quality index says that things are unhealthy beyond unhealthy. Our boss tells us that we should be ready to evacuate and Wes and I are we pack our belongings into our matching beat up Subarus and in whatever space is left, our boss starts handing us Tupperware totes full of herbarium specimens. Because in case the park burns down, they want to make sure that these rare plant collections are safe. We check the house we click the lights off. And I see I'm on the porch looking up at these mountains that had been my favorite home. And I realized I'm not really scared for me. I'm scared for the place. I'm scared for what happens after these massive fires. We post this flyer on the door of the house as we lock it for the incoming firefighters to see that says the occupants of this residence evacuated on 916 2020 and we drive away it's been In three years now, since that fire, and these days, I don't swim in alpine lakes, and I don't commune with black bears, and I don't measure my time by how many months have passed since I was last in this era. What I study now is what comes after. I don't want this to be a story about despair or grief, or the loss that I feel watching those mountains burn. I want this to be a story about what grows back. And that's why I'm here so that I can wake up every day, and try to make a tiny piece of this a little bit better. Thank you.

Allison Langer  10:40  
Wow, okay, so I have heard this, a bunch of times live on stage in Flagstaff. We've reviewed it, we've offered feedback. And but this time, I recognize the genius in the way it's set up the emotion that drew me in and made me care. And I just I loved it so much more.

Andrea Askowitz  11:05  
I got chills three times. 

Allison Langer  11:07  
Yeah.

Andrea Askowitz  11:08  
I did. I was so moved by it. And it's been a little while since we've heard it. And so for me, I was like, what? Wow, it really, really good story. Talk about what drew you in at the very beginning. Because I I want to to.

Allison Langer  11:25  
You know, we live in Miami, and we rarely slow down. Occasionally I'll be driving over a bridge and be like, Wow, I live in a really pretty place. There's water, there's beaches, but we don't go like I almost never go. And so the wonder with which this narrator viewed her surroundings made me want to go, I  just fell in love with it. So when she then starts talking about the fire, the stakes were higher for me.

Andrea Askowitz  11:54  
I wanted to say two things about what you're saying. One is like I thought the way she started the story was so captivating. The bear was watching. Like she's eye to eye with a bear. That's different, though. 

Allison Langer  12:09  
Yeah. Well, she brings it back. And she compares that fear. So he's like, Were you scared? She's like, obviously. And then again, when the fire starts, he asked her again. Are you scared? So we see her what scares her, which I thought was really cool. 

Andrea Askowitz  12:27  
But, but you were saying that, that we live in Miami, and we never stopped to think about or look around and be captivated by how beautiful it is outside. So one, she started in a way that completely grabbed me and drew me in because it was so scary and exciting. And also the second thing that that is also true is like I felt so in love with her surroundings. Like she had described them, like with this, like glorious adoration. And I got chills, like one of the times when she was talking about I think it was like when the stars came out and like blanketed a blanket of stars. Like I don't know, it was just so beautiful. You know, we were talking about this another time. And I think on the last podcast episode where we where we talked where we brought into science story. And the science stories really are making me care about this time the Sierra Nevadas I'm so in love with this place because she is. 

Allison Langer  13:30  
Yeah. 

Andrea Askowitz  13:31  
Yeah. And I also want to spend a little bit more time outside here. Yesterday, I actually took pictures of wildflowers that are growing in my yard. Like I'd never seen it before. But there was like yellow and purple, like different colored flowers. But okay, let's get back to this story. So yeah, she it's a great start. And then she's really funny, like humans can be prey. 

Allison Langer  13:53  
Oh, shit. 

Andrea Askowitz  13:55  
And then she did that thing that you just mentioned where he said, Were you scared? And she said, obviously and then she brought it back. That was so satisfying. 

Allison Langer  14:03  
Yeah. 

Andrea Askowitz  14:03  
And then she brought back the same language again. And this is just brilliant storytelling. When she said later in the story, fire should only be dangerous when things have gone wrong. That was the exact same language she used with the bear. I felt like I don't know when writers do that. There's like a pack packed or something like between us. I don't know. I just feel like it's so I feel thankful. I feel like I'm leaded. It's that's what it is. I feel super wedded on on their thinking.

Allison Langer  14:36  
Yeah, absolutely. I also think that what she did really cool is because now we love this area just as much as she does. That we're also scared, right? And so it becomes personal to us. We're not just like, Oh her house burned down. It's the or whatever her area burned down. It's that we love this and want to go visit now. So now we can't see it making it personal, then people want to protect it. So, for instance, like with a lot of these science stories, we see them as like, well, it's really not going to happen to our generation. Why should I stop using plastic? You know, it's inconvenient to me. But and I'm not even gonna be around when this occurs. But if somebody says, well, your grandchildren or your children are not going to be able to leave their house, because climate change, like everything that's going on right now will affect them, they won't be able to swim in the waters, they won't be. And we kind of see a little bit of that now. But it doesn't affect us in a big way.

Andrea Askowitz  15:38  
This woman is showing it to us in real time, it happened to her. And she was in the mountains in this beautiful, beautiful location that she described in a way that gave me chills. And then she had to rush out 

Allison Langer  15:52  
And leave a note. I was like, Oh, my God, this is serious.

Andrea Askowitz  15:56  
What about the 18 mile walk? 

Allison Langer  15:58  
Yeah.

Andrea Askowitz  15:59  
That's a long walk. Walking takes three miles an hour on Flatland. God. So yeah, you're gonna have? Oh, yes. Yeah.

Allison Langer  16:15  
The way this is set up. And I really want to reiterate that because, you know, to tell a really good story. You have to build the stakes, you have to lay the groundwork. You have to show us why we care why you care. And then what happened. So there was a real moment where like, every all of this something big happened, that changed everything. And so then she shows us that and then the resolution...

Andrea Askowitz  16:39  
So she was the morning when the sky was brown. 

Allison Langer  16:41  
Yeah.

Andrea Askowitz  16:42  
 That was it. 

Allison Langer  16:43  
And then she doesn't just say, and this sucked, like an ending is huge. So why do we love the story so much is because her ending was so thoughtful. And also it told us what the story is about, yes, bad shit is going to happen. But why? Why are we telling the story? It's because we want to show you that we can repair and that that's what she cares about repairing and making things better as we move forward, which I thought was just a beautiful message.

Andrea Askowitz  17:11  
I agree the way she ended with I want this to be a story about what grows back. God 

Allison Langer  17:17  
Yeah. Excellent. 

Andrea Askowitz  17:18  
That's why she's here. And that's why she's doing all of this. She was great detail. 

Allison Langer  17:23  
This story is so good.

Andrea Askowitz  17:27  
Yes. 

Allison Langer  17:28  
Thank you Kevin for sharing your story. Thank you ecos NAU story collider and Bruce Hungate and Jane Marks for bringing science to the mainstream. Kevin Griffin is a PhD student at NAU in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University. She is interested in how communities respond to disturbance in extreme environments. And her research is primarily focused on using biological soil crusts for restoration applications, their tolerance for extreme environments, and their responses to global change.

Justina Shandler  18:11  
(Extro song)

Allison Langer  18:11  
Writing Class Radio is hosted by me, Alison Langer.

Andrea Askowitz  18:14  
And me Andrea Askowitz.

Allison Langer  18:18  
Audio production is by Matt Cundill, Evan Surminski, Chloe Emond-Lane and Aiden Glassy at the Sound Off Media Company. The music is by  Justina Shandler. There's more writing class on our website including stories we study editing resources, video classes, writing retreats, and live online classes. If you want to write with us every week, or if you're a business owner, community activist, scientist, group that needs healing entrepreneur and you want to help your team write better check out all the classes we offer on our website, writing class radio.com. Join the community that comes together for instruction and excuse to write in the support from other writers. To learn more, go to our website or patreon.com/writing class radio. A new episode will drop every other Wednesday.

Andrea Askowitz  19:10  
There's no better way to understand ourselves and each other than by writing and sharing our stories. Everyone has a story. What's yours? produced and distributed by the sound off media company