And actor nick offerman. This is your fifth book. Is there a threat that connects all five . For my second book which is called gumption among other people, you interviewed Michael Pollan for a feature i was writing about him and he said your second book is your hardest. Everybody has one book in them. Eventually, if you write two or three or more, you learn the questions that will plague you for the rest of your life. He said of his own work, and he said you can see the through line in my books which are both inspired in our writing somewhat by Wendell Berry who is a great kentucky agrarian writer. The questions of how do we relate to our food and 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 in all of my books. My fourth book was sort of a memoir of my marriage with megan mullally. There is some crossover where i think things that happen in our house get a little agricultural from time to time. Thats maybe not appropriate for this channel. Is your recent book and owed to the National Parks . It is examining the way that we in society in the view of conservation through thinking of National Parks come the big ones like yosemite, the grand canyon, versus the way we think about nature right where we are in our locality. It is espousing the grandeur of our parks and experiencing them but also saying what do we have in our backyards and how do we need to pay more attention to that part of nature . Why did you choose Glacier National park . It was quite simple. My friend jeff suggested that we go somewhere pretty. We have three weight bromance between jeff, George Saunders and myself. He said lets go and have some conversations and you can use them for your book. When a brilliant poet says that to you, i said ok that sounds good. I researched which park seemed like it would be the most conducive to gorgeous hiking and it turned out to be Glacier National park. The National Parks are the nations family jewels . I think crown jewels is the phrase they would prefer. [laughter] Teddy Roosevelt may have been approving of the family jewels. Yes, i think that is a roosevelt quote that he called them the crown jewels. Luminaries like him and john muller john muir were essential in establishing park service and not selling those lands to any developers. Asked how far removed early to the development of our food right now . Thats what inspired my writing. The work of a farmer in kentucky and thats all he writes about is how we have lost touch with where our food is produced and by whom and how. When i read that, i thought day in and day out, i cant tell you where any of my food is sourced so i cant tell you how its grown, if the farmers or fishermen and fisher women are treating the animals with decency or if it is explicated. When you hear terms like the Meat Industry or meatpacking plants and you think about that for a second, i realized i dont ever want my meet to be involved with anything called an industry and i dont want to go through a plant either. I began to Pay Attention to where my food is coming from. Would begin to giveaway the agency for who makes our food, we also disregard our Small Farmers who are the people who are stewards for the health of our land. That is one of the main reasons that the health of our land has become so poor is because we are taking care of it. We are leaving the Small Farmers aside and allowing corporate interests to use the soil to make a profit more than healthy environment. At the same time, doesnt that corporate farming allow for lower prices and more supply . Yes which we are led to believe is a benefit. Thats how we got into this mess is the powers that be said we can make food much cheaper and it turns out there is a cost, it just comes much later. It is a bill we did not expect the end of the meal that says now your dirt is in terrible shape, your communities are in terrible shape, and on and on. It is much more complicated equation that i want to engender that conversation and say our food system is not working. If you take writers like wendell and others, they all have wonderful road signs that say we used to get along with Mother Nature and we have left that far in the dust. How did you connect with Wendell Berry . I read his stories in my 20s and i immediately wrote him a letter and said can i adapt your work . He wrote me back which was great and he said no. He said he is not interested in seeing any interpretations of his work. I kept bugging him, writing him letters and he would write me back. Finally after 15 years or so, i got hooked up with a filmmaker named laura done who was making a documentary about him and i was able to help and thats when he found out i was a woodworker. Wow was when i was an actor, he didnt have any time for me. But his son said hey that guys in my woodworking magazine. So i got to know the family and i became an ally. One of my favorite things to do is introduce as many people as i can to his writing. I have done audiobooks of a couple of his books of essays and im getting ready to do a new book that is coming out of his that is very exciting. He is an incredibly prolific artist and i am glad i am able to pitch in and be part of their crew, but i try to stay out of their hair is much as i can because he has Better Things to do. Nick offerman, what is your writing style . Where do you do it . When . Writing style, printing. I print. My style is bucolic perhaps dont be like voice. I am selfeffacing. I tried to laced some humor into it. I enjoy the writing of mark twain and bill bryson and some of the other writers i have mentioned. I am always a mage amazed by great writers, how economical their sentences are. I am never more aware of that than when i am writing a book and i run on and on. Aspirational is my writing style. Do you sit outside or do you have a desk . I travel a lot for my work as an actor and maturing touring. I have the ability to write in a cabin overlooking a lake in minnesota with a breeze. Thats probably 3 of my writing has been there. Usually, i am in an airplane on my way to south africa or in a hotel room. Anywhere. Im glad that im able to write on the road because im usually on the road. You played the character ron swanson on parks and recreation for several years create weedeater, woodworker, libertarian. How much of that is in you . The base values are strongly similar. We both dont suffer food full glad. We dont suffer fools gladly. Ron is an ideal libertarian. People who attempt libertarianism in this country soon learned that on paper, it sounds great. If we try to engage that system, it would end in anarchy pretty quickly. Ron was an ideal libertarian. He respected everyone the same. He was a wonderful feminist. He was a wonderful ally to everyone who is decent and if you are indecent especially if you crossed one of his friends, that he was quick to take up arms against you. You and your wife got to play characters or on programs that have multiple political viewpoints. Thats a rarity in media. It is and its something im grateful for. Especially as we sit here in a partisan time, its very medicinal to be able to laugh together and say you like peanut butter, i like chocolate. Ive heard they can be combined to some great effect if we can get close enough to shake hands. Where the deer and antelope play, obviously a line from home on the range. Why did you pick that . When i was in college, one of my roommates was a musical theater performer and he was learning on the guitar home on the range. A lot of these classic americana songs have versus, more than what people are familiar with. There was one that i heard him singing around the appointment apartment, the red man was pressed from his home in the west, it is unlikely he will ever return to the banks of red river where seldom if ever is flickering campfires burn. I said come again . That was home on the range . It was an awakening for me all of the nuance in stories like our treatment of the Indigenous Peoples of america for example. How they are addressed then they fade then they come back up. How so many of our human stories in our country need to continue to be part of the conversation. That was something that stuck with me until now. I was going to write a book about my perspective on our relationship with nature. I said that reminds me of back in kansas when that was written, their relationship with the local tribes that once were there leading healthy lives in an agrarian way getting along with Mother Nature. Then the europeans came in and said we would like to do a less good job with your topsoil. Until we eventually were able to get that right, i think we have to keep having that conversation. Where the deer and the antelope play is the book. It is Nick Offermans fifth