Ep. 102: Cynthia Barnett

"There is something about seashells that stretches through human time and memory. They are a wonderful way to draw people to what is happening to the ocean and our environment."

Support Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk.

Naturalist writer Cynthia Barnett is here, out with a new book that is at once history, future, and love letter to seashells and the oceans. Using seashells as an entry point for how she teaches us (in a non-dogmatic way) about the perilous state, but also history and beauty of the seas, Cynthia paints a picture of love and immense respect for the great waters. The conversation moves in many interesting directions-- from mangrove forests to seafood-- as Daniel and Cynthia take listeners on a brief guided tour of her ode to the sea. 

Cynthia Barnett is an award-winning environmental journalist who has reported on water and climate change around the world. Her new book, The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans, is out in July 2021 from W.W. Norton.

Ms. Barnett is also the author of Rain: A Natural and Cultural History, longlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the 2016 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s Water Crisis, which articulates a water ethic for America. Blue Revolution was named by The Boston Globe as one of the top 10 science books of 2011. The Globe describes Ms. Barnett’s author persona as "part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist." The Los Angeles Times writes that she "takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Michael Pollan led us from our kitchens to potato fields and feed lots of modern agribusiness."

Her first book, Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. won the gold medal for best nonfiction in the Florida Book Awards and was named by The St. Petersburg Times as one of the top 10 books that every Floridian should read. "In the days before the Internet," the Times said in a review, "books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ River of Grass were groundbreaking calls to action that made citizens and politicians take notice. Mirage is such a book."

Ms. Barnett has written for National Geographic magazine, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Discover magazine, Salon, Politico, Orion, Ensia and many other publications. Her numerous journalism awards include a national Sigma Delta Chi prize for investigative magazine reporting and eight Green Eyeshades, which recognize outstanding journalism in 11 southeastern states.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and master's in American history with a specialization in environmental history, and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she spent a year studying water science and history.

Ms. Barnett teaches environmental journalism at the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications in Gainesville, where she lives with her husband and teenagers.