Talking oceans, climate change with PBS' White House Chronicle

Llewellyn King, host of the public television series "White House Chronicle" was kind enough to pay me a visit at the Portland Press Herald newsroom to film an interview on the crisis in the world's oceans, climate change in the Gulf of Maine, and my first book, Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas.

The segment has been airing this week on 200 public and community television stations across the country -- including WETA in Washington, DC and Rhode Island Public Television -- as well as Voice of America and Sirius XM radio's POTUS channel. It's also now available for online viewing.

For those interested in learning more about how climate change is effecting the Gulf of Maine, the six-part Portland Press Herald series we discuss in the segment -- "Mayday" -- can be read from here. On the oceans crisis more broadly, there's Ocean's End and my subsequent reporting from places like Greenland, the Adriatic, and Iceland.

While in Maine, King also interviewed me for a segment on American Nations, my book on North American regionalism, which aired last month.

On the Midlands, from the Omaha World-Herald

I've been greatly appreciative of all the attention paid over the past ten days to American Nations, but especially so this thoughtful meditation on life in a Midlands city on the front of  Sunday's Omaha World-Herald.

Many journalists and commentators have thoughtfully captured and described the book's framework, but columnist Erin Grace's column went further. It contributed and furthered the discourse on what that great swing region, the Midlands, is all about, with the voice of someone who -- unlike me -- actually lives there. She writes:

"If you want to test this theory, look at how we do things in Omaha. We are a Republican mayor and a Democratic-majority City Council. We are concealed-carry permits and legal protections for gays and transgender people. We are a 2nd Congressional District that went blue for Obama in 2008 but still elects Republican Lee Terry cycle after cycle.

We are also the reason [area Republican Congressman] Lee Terry has to eke out his wins with, I'm guessing, an ulcer or two. This makes us share more in common with places as far-flung as the City of Brotherly Love than our reliably Republican neighbors to the west, such as North Platte. [...]

When it comes to our individual views, you can drive down any street in America and find people on opposite poles.

 The difference in Omaha, it seems, is that we accept that, work with that and come out somewhere in the Great American Middle."

And, to top it off, her World-Herald colleagues even made a fresh color version of the map. Thanks, Omaha.