Conversation with Terry Tempest Williams

Terry Tempest Williams is a writer and activist who is well known and well loved for her environmental literature and essays. She tirelessly advocates for a path to resilience for the Great Salt Lake, for the lake birds and animals that rely on its ecosystem, and for the people that have lived on those shores for centuries.

In a January conversation, the first large New School gathering in our gallery since COVID, Terry and Michael explored her journey of inner resilience throughout decades of grappling with loss in the ecosystems she loves—but also in her family's dance with cancer, her beloved brother's experience at Commonweal in the Cancer Help Program, and her position as an advocate in her community. Throughout the journey, she has catalyzed her experiences into words that continue to inspire generations toward environmental stewardship.

In closing, Terry read: "This is more than an ecological crisis or a political crisis. It is a spiritual one. The earth will survive us. We are the ones being baptized by fire."

You can watch the entire conversation on The New School's YouTube channel, or listen on their Soundcloud, Apple podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music channels.