In this episode, writer Soni Brown sets out to reconsider what’s left of the Mint 400, an elusive made popular by Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, LeVar Burton transports listeners into an engine oil-infused dust storm as he reads an excerpt from Fear and Loathing.

Inspired by Octavia Butler, writers Megan Stielstra and Erica Vital-Lazare unpack the question: What specifically did the desert teach me?

Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil and essayist Jordan Kisner discuss Aimee’s latest book, a collection of 28 essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.