Host now on book tv, were joined by actor and author nick nickakerman where the deer and antelope play. Mr. Offerman, this is your fifth book. Is there a thread that connects all five . Thats a great question. For my second book calmed gumption, among other people i interviewed michael pollen for a feature i was writing about him. It can become a through line in the books and inspired in the writing by wendel berry, a great kentuckyen writer and hes my favorite writer and the questions of how do we relate to our food and how do we relate to nature through who produces our food and how they treat the land and the produce and so forth. Our awareness of that relationship i think is prevalent. My fourth book was a memoir of legendary megan mallaly and theres some crossover where i think things that happen in our house do get a little agricultural from time to time. But thats maybe not appropriate for this channel. Host is your most recent book an ode to the National Parks . Guest in some ways. Its examining the way we as a society view nature in the sense of conservation through thinking of National Parks, the big ones, yosemite, grand canyon versus the way we think about nature right where we are in the localities. So its espousing the grand jury of our park granjury of our parks and saying what about them do we have in our own backyards and how do we need to pay more attention to that part of nature. Host why did you choose Glacer National park for the most recent trips . Guest it was quite simple, my friend jeff tweedy of the band wilko suggest that we go somewhere pretty and we have a threeway bromans and said why dont the three of us go somewhere beautiful and have conversations and when a brilliant poet says that to you, i said, okay, that sounds good to me. Jutted National Parks is kind of the nations family jewels in a sense. Guest crowned jewels is the phrase theyd prefer. Not selling them to any developers. Host how removed are we from the production. Guest thats a great question. I mean, thats what first started inspiring my writing for the work of wendel berry whos a farmer in kentucky and thats all he writes about is how weve lost touch with where our food is produced by whom and how. I read that in my mid 20s and thought, gosh. I grew up in a farm family in illinois and day in and day out i couldnt tell you where any of my food is sourced and therefore i cant tell you how its grown, if the farmers are or the fishermen and women are treating nature are treating the animals with decency or exploy at a timive and w when you hear terms like the Meat Industry or meat packing plants and you just think about that for a second, i realized, oh, i dont ever want my meat to be involved with anything called a industry, and i dont wantn it to go through a plant either. So i began to Pay Attention to simply where my food is coming from and its funny, the way we make food is disregarded for people who are stewards for the health ofe our land. So thats one of the main reasons that the health of our land has become scoffer is because were not taking so poor is because were not taking care of it and leaving Small Farmers aside and allowing corporate interests to use the soil to make a profit more than make a healthy environment. Host but at the same time, doesnt that corporate farming allow for lower prices and more supply . How did you get host how did you get connected with wendel berry . Guest i read his stories in my mid 20s and immediately wrote him a letter and said can i please adapt your work . Im an actor to the stage or screen and he wrote me back, which was great and he said no. I kept bugging him and hed write me back and 15 or so years i got hooked up with a great film maker laura dun making a great documentary about wendel and produced a great documentary and found out i was a wood worker. When i was an actor, he didnt have any time for me but his son happens to be a wood worker and knew of my work as a wood worker and said that guy is in my fine wood working magazine and wendel said, oh, lets have him over. Then i got to finally befriend the family and become an ally to where one of my favorite things to do is introduce as many people as i can to his writing. Im done audio books of a couple ofi books of essays and im getting ready to do a new book thats coming out of his thats very exciting. So, i mean, hes an incredibly prolific artist and im glad to pitch in and be part of the crew and i try to stay out of their hair as much as i can because hes got Better Things to co. Host nick offerman, a very cspanstyle question. Where do you do your writing . Guest printing. I mean, i dont know, my style is i think a bucolic perhaps donkeylike voice. Im selfafacing and i try to lace a sense of humor into my repertoire and i like mark twain and bill burke and some of the other writers and im amazed by great writers how economical their sentences are, and im never more aware of that than when im writing a book and run on and own and so aspirational is my writing style. Host do you sit outside when youre writing or have a desk . I travel a lot for my work as an l actor and touring mountabak and ive had the ideal opportunity to write in a cabin on a hillside overlooking a lake in minnesota with a breeze coming through. Thats probably 3 of my writing has been there. Usually imin in an airplane ony way to south africa or in a hotel room or, you know, anywhere. Im glad that im able to write on the road because im usually on the road. Host nick offerman, you played the character ron swanson ond parks and recreation for years and workers libertarian, how much ophryon swanson is in ron swanson is in you . Guest i think the base values are strongly similar. We both dont suffer fools gladly. We are wed rather show you what we mean with our actions or make you something with our hands rather than write you an essay. On paper is sounds great but if we tried to engage that system, it i would end in anarchy and rn was an ideal libertarian and he respected everyone the same. Host thats kind of a rarity in media. Guest it is and something im grateful for because especially as we sit here in a very partisan time, its very medicinal to laugh together and say, you know, you like peanut butter, i like chocolate, ive heard they can be combined to some great effect if we can just get close enough to shake hands. Host where the deer and antelope play, whyd you pick that . Its pressed from his home in the west andnd likely to return from the banks of the red river and seldom in ever his flickering campfires burn. Say again, it was home on the range and he said it was an awakening for me of all of the nuance in stories of the treatment of the Indigenous People of america for example. Thats something that stuck with me. Till now i was going to write this book about my perspective and our relationship with nature, and i said oh, that reminds me of back in kansas when that relationship with the local tribes that once were there leading healthy lives in the way of getting along with mother nature. Europeans came in and said, excuse me, wed like to do a less good job with your topsoil if you dont mind. And we keep having that conversation. Host the pastoral observations of one ignorant americans that love to walk outside. Thanks for being on book tv with us. Guest thank you, sir. Host grade schooled morning and welcome to the histo good morning and welcome to the history and biography stage at the library of congress festival. Im mark sweeny, the Deputy President of congress. Books bring us togr