Scott Huler has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as Backpacker, Fortune, and Child. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. Read More>
|
On the Grid A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems that Make our World Work Wires, pipes, roads, and water support the lives we lead, but the average person doesn't know where they go or even how they work. Our systems of infrastructure are not only shrouded in mystery, many are woefully out of date. In On the Grid, Scott Huler takes the time to understand the systems that sustain our way of life, starting from his own quarter of an acre in North Carolina and traveling as far as Ancient Rome. Each chapter follows one element of infrastructure to its source -- or to its outlet. Huler visits power plants, watches new asphalt pavement being laid, and traces a drop of water backward from his faucet to the Gulf of mexico and then a drop of his wastewater out to the Atlantic. Huler reaches out to guides along the way, bot the workers who operate these systems and the people who plan them.
Mesmerizing and often hilarious, On the Grid brings infrastructure to life and details the ins and outs of our civilization wigh fascinating, back-to-basics information about the systems we all depend on.
|
From the The Blog
An Open Letter from a Jilted Admirer Sunday, February 28, 2010 Dear Debra Goldman: For about 36 hours, I was in love with you, and I carried around in my head the letter I planned to write you. A love letter, to be sure, but don't worry -- my wife was in on the whole thing, and she was just as besotted with you as I was. Here's why: you had admitted that the Wake County School Board majority of which you are a part had left reason behind in its headlong rush to dismantle the Wake schools' diversity policy. . .
[More]
The Monkey Story
|
Click here to see Scott's own photos of his epic journey.
Click here to see Scott's well-traveled copy of The Odyssey.
Click here to see what Scott brought back.
An illustrated map of his journey can be found here.
Listen to the NPR commentary that started it all where Scott Huler officially gives up on Ulysses.
In this commentary, Scott Huler finds himself, against his better judgment, "Stuck in Dublin with the Bloomsday Blues."
Listen to the NPR commentary on the Beaufort Scale.
Listen to an interview about Defining the Wind from The State of Things on WUNC radio.
Listen to an interview about Defining the Wind from "Talk of the Nation" on NPR.
A Little Bit Sideways
Listen to a commentary about the attempted gentrification of NASCAR.
Scott Huler Q&A
Click here for 8 questions with Scott Huler.
