When Joey asked Haroon if he’d read Coyote America, he revealed that he had not— but as soon as he started, he knew he was onto something big. Big history. Flores’ has been a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast (one of our peer competitors), made an appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, but he’s finally made it to Avenue M. We’re honored to have him. This was a genuinely fun episode, which’ll challenge you, make you laugh, and reframe how you think of America. In Coyote America, Dan Flores reveals the incredible history of the coyote, its enormous impact on us, how evolution produced a canid that is uncannily like us, and how, over the centuries, despite determined campaigns to wipe them out—campaigns that felled bison and even wolves—the coyotes aren’t just down, they’ve spread across the contiguous United States. We learn the hidden history of our country—and what we Americans can learn from Kenyans, Tanzanians and South Africans. Plus, there’s always Looney Tunes. Seriously. Dan let us know that, on August 28, a full-length Wile E. Coyote movie drops in theaters across America. Will this be enough to challenge the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Because we went there, in the most lightning lightning round ever featured on Avenue M. Flores is, of course, the author of Coyote America, as well as American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals on the Great Plains and Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America. Raised in Louisiana, Flores lives in New Mexico today. He’s a writer, of course, and a historian too, and a former professor, who spent years at the University of Montana. One of your co-host’s wives suggested he beared an uncanny resemblance to Sean Connery, which did not threaten him in the least, because of course men have evolved past such concerns and if we’re all special, we’re all alphas. Our sponsor is The Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier University, here in Cincinnati, which is dedicated to deepening understanding across faiths and promoting systemic change. Avenue M is produced by Bespoken Live with music by Zach Swelber, who plays in Circle It and Mosant.
