Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are honored to welcome one of their absolute favorite authors David Quammen as their first guest of season 2 of Halteres Presents. David stops by to discuss just how he predicted a global zoonotic viral pandemic in his book Spillover all the way back in 2012, the lessons we've learned (or not learned) about pandemic preparedness in the aftermath of COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2, why bats are such notable reservoir hosts, and much more, including his new page-turner The Heartbeat of the Wild about his years of globetrotting the very wildest places on the planet Earth while reporting for National Geographic Magazine. Please enjoy this swashbuckling thriller of an episode with David Quammen.

Three-time winner of the National Magazine Award (the Ellie) and author of 17 previous books, David Quammen is one of the world’s top science writers. His 2012 book Spillover, which predicted a worldwide pandemic, was shortlisted for eight national and international book awards, and won three, including the Premio Letterario Merck, in Rome. That book, and his 2022 book Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus, have made him one of the most sought-after commentators on the coronavirus.

His newest book, 2023's The Heartbeat of the Wild: Dispatches from Landscapes of Wonder, Peril & Hope (National Geographic Books), is his inspiring collection of essays from some of the planet’s wildest locales, imparting how keeping remote regions alive and well—even as human activities encroach upon them—is essential to our future. Throughout 21 tales, from two decades of his assignments with National Geographic,
Quammen takes readers to places where civilization meets raw nature and explores the challenge of balancing the needs of both. Each piece has been revised to reflect current observations and linked with an awareness of the bigger conservation story that together they tell.
David is a regular contributor of features and Op Eds to National Geographic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other journals. He lives in Bozeman, Montana.