SANDI AULT—Reporting from the WILD

This story is about a time when I lived in a high mountain valley. In the middle of the worst snowstorm in years, an infant needed to be taken to the hospital but the roads were closed and packed with three feet of snow. A small team of volunteer firefighters and community members banded together to relay the baby down the cliff-edged mountain road in the driving snow and darkness to meet an ambulance waiting below. When this creative and committed team needed to rescue something precious, they got innovative, bold, and brave.

Will we be able to do this in this country against the deluge of threats and danger? This is a true story of hope that might help us feel better about the challenges so we can face them together.

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My friends, most of you have heard this term: hurt locker. It means: a place of profound pain and deep discomfort.

And maybe you saw the film by the same name, so if you called up the image of actor Jeremy Renner in his blast-resistant suit making his way towards a suicide bomber, you have it about right.

That's where we are now. Except... few of us have the suit. Some of us are bare-assed naked. But the richest among us have bunkers in the mountains in New Zealand, or they own islands they can retreat to. We may have thought we had protection from the harm that is befalling us, but we are more vulnerable than most of us ever imagined.

My friends, most of you have heard this term: hurt locker. It means: a place of profound pain and deep discomfort.

And maybe you saw the film by the same name, so if you called up the image of actor Jeremy Renner in his blast-resistant suit making his way towards a suicide bomber, you have it about right.

That's where we are now. Except... few of us have the suit. Some of us are bare-assed naked. But the richest among us have bunkers in the mountains in New Zealand, or they own islands they can retreat to. We may have thought we had protection from the harm that is befalling us, but we are more vulnerable than most of us ever imagined.

I have a story to tell you about how—when things can change suddenly in your path—you can find your way around the danger.Too many have been too silent as the new oligarchy takes power in Washington, including our elected representatives. This has left us with the sound of silence and a vacuum in leadership. But how about you? Are you still silent, or have you sprung into action to defend our democracy? Or are you someplace in-between?

We can meet this challenge together.

Welcome back from the silence to the WILD

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 I have a story to tell you about how—when things can change suddenly in your path—you can find your way around the danger.
 Too many have been too silent as the new oligarchy takes power in Washington, including our elected representatives. This has left us with the sound of silence and a vacuum in leadership. But how about you? Are you still silent, or have you sprung into action to defend our democracy? Or are you someplace in-between?

We can meet this challenge together.

Welcome back from the silence to the WILD.

This is Sandi Ault, reporting from the WILD. And this is the audio podcast companion to my blog on Substack. This is episode 3: A WILD ROBBERY—I WISH I HAD A RIVER

I'm going to tell you a story that really happened. It's about the time when I went to the post office, the bank was robbed, a baby was born, and—at least initially—a criminal got away with stealing in plain sight. And even though this is one of those you-can't-make-this-stuff-up stories, I promise you there's something real-life-true about the lesson we can all take from it.

In Episode 3, I'm going to tell you a story that really happened. It's about the time when I went to the post office, the bank was robbed, a baby was born, and—at least initially—a criminal got away with stealing in plain sight. And even though this is one of those you-can't-make-this-stuff-up stories, I promise you there's something real-life-true about the lesson we can all take from it.

Episode 2 of the companion podcast to Sandi Ault’s Substack blog SANDI AULT—Reporting from the WILD… wherein I tell the story of a time when my husband and I barely survived a flood from monsoons in a remote desert canyon, because we got distracted and missed the warning signs. With so much at stake in our lives now, we need to pay attention to those alerts and warnings on our own inner dashboards.

I'm worried about all those flashing lights on my dashboard.  And I'm not talking about my car. These past few weeks, the alarms have been never-ending.
The thing about this dashboard lights is they are heralds of eminent trouble or potential harm. We ignore them at our peril.
In this episode, I tell you about a time when my husband and I barely survived a 500-year flood from desert monsoons that suddenly dropped a deluge in a remote canyon we were exploring. we were were lucky to survive... to get out... and to have a car parked on the rim we could use to get away.
In my adventures in the wild, that taught me an important lesson. Always pay attention to the lights on your inner dashboard, and the outer warnings, too.
We're going to need to stay frosty and take care of one another. Now, more than ever.

SANDI AULT, award-winning author of the WILD Mystery Series, tries to make sense of a country that is torn apart following the 2024 election cycle. As the 2nd largest (and one of the most beautiful) cities in the country burns in a catastrophic result of decades of client denial, we can all see apocalyptic signs around us. An ex-president who was an exceedingly decent man dies just as an exceedingly indecent one prepares to rule, along with an plethora of billionaires who openly plot imperialism and discuss how they will divide the earth up among the oligarchs. The same vultures spew lies about the disaster on the left coast while hawking up blame at those trying to manage the crisis.

Nearly half the country is just groovy with insurrection, open corruption, misogyny and racism, according to their votes. What to make of all this when you believe in dignity and decency and the equality of all?

It's enough to make anyone ride the roller coaster of emotional distress, but in a search for emotional equilibrium, Sandi's voice shares what she discovered about herself and what to do next.