A conversation with historian Martha A. Sandweiss about their book The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West (Princeton University Press, 2025).

Martha A. Sandweiss is Professor Emerita of History from Princeton University. A historian of the American West and photography in particular, Sandweiss is the recipient of innumerable awards and honors, served as President of the Society of American Historians and Western History Association, and was the founder of the Princeton and Slavery Project. In addition to an extensive record of articles, chapters, and sundry other publications, she is author or editor of 13 books, including:

• Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line (Penguin Press, 2009)
• Print the Legend: Photography and the American West (Yale University Press, 2002)
• The Oxford History of the American West (Oxford University Press, 1994)
• Photography in Nineteenth-Century America (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991)
• Eyewitness to War: Prints and Daguerreotypes of the Mexican War, 1846-1848 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989)
• Laura Gilpin: An Enduring Grace (Amon Carter Museum, 1986)

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with Neil Mathison about their book Airstream Country: A Geologic Journey Across the American West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

Neil Mathison is an award-winning author based out of the Pacific Northwest. In addition to essays published in a wide variety of outlets, he is the author of two books:

• Volcano: an A to Z and Other Essays About Geology, Geography, and Geo-Travel in the American West (Bauhan Publishing, 2017)

• Airstream Country: A Geologic Journey Across the American West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with Mark Sundeen about their book Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

Mark Sundeen is an award-winning novelist, essayist, and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. In addition articles for The New York Times Magazine, Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, McSweeney's, and other outlets, Sundeen is the author of 5 books.

• Car Camping: The Book of Desert Adventures (Quill HarperCollins, 2000)
• The Making of Toro: Bullfights, Broken Hearts, and One Author's Quest for the Acclaim He Deserves (Simon & Schuster, 2003)
• The Man Who Quit Money (Riverhead Books, 2012)
• The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America (Riverhead Books, 2018)
• Delusions + Grandeur: Dreamers of the New West (University of New Mexico Press, 2025)

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or X/Twitter, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com