#85 - John Branch, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and His New Book, Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life From the Back Roads of Sports

TODAY I HAVE A GUEST OF UNIMAGINABLE INSIGHT AND TALENT WITH US, THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST REPORTER, JOHN BRANCH OF THE NEW YORK TIMES TO TALK ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK

Sidecountry: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports

In 2017 I received a request  from today’s guest, whom I’d never met before, but as you’ll find out in the interview, I was well familiar with his work, 

John Branch, a NY Times sports reporter  -  not your traditional sports, but rock climbing, skiing, mountaineering….or alligator hunting and wingsuit flying...that kind of sports.

As it turns out, sometimes his stories begin, for him, when someone is killed in pursuit of some lofty goal, whether climbing Everest, or skiing deep into the backcountry, or sidecountry, as it’s referred to….

When John first contacted me he was heading to India to spend time with the families of four Indian climbers who were part of an Everest expedition in 2016 -- three men died and a woman survived. Of the three who died, one body was recovered in 2016. The other two bodies were still on Everest, and John was doing a feature on the effort to try to find and recover those bodies, an effort that involved the Indian municipalities, a large sum of money had been raised. John had learned that I’d directly encountered these climbers on my summit day….and he wanted to ask about what I saw, or remembered, from those encounters…..

John’s story was called DELIVERANCE FROM 27,000 FEET...an incredible feature which you can find online.

JOHN’S NEW BOOK INCLUDES THIS INCREDIBLE AND POIGNANT, OFTEN PAINFUL BUT SYMPATHETIC STORY…

SIDECOUNTRY: Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports

Sidecountry gathers the best of Branch’s work, featuring 20 of his favorites from the more than 2,000 pieces he has published in the paper.

Sidecountry features such classic Branch pieces, including “Snow Fall,” about downhill skiers caught in an avalanche in Washington state, and “Dawn Wall,” about rock climbers trying to scale Yosemite’s famed El Capitan. In other articles, Branch introduces people whose dedication and decency transcend their sporting lives, including a revered football coach rebuilding his tornado-devastated town in Iowa and a girls’ basketball team in Tennessee that plays on despite never winning a game. The book culminates with his moving personal pieces, including “Children of the Cube,” about the surprising drama of Rubik’s Cube competitions as seen through the eyes of Branch’s own sports-hating son, and “The Girl in the No. 8 Jersey,” about a mother killed in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting whose daughter happens to play on Branch’s daughter’s soccer team.

John Branch has been hailed for writing “American portraiture at its best” (Susan Orlean) and for covering sports “the way Lyle Lovett writes country music―a fresh turn on a time-honored pleasure” (Nicholas Dawidoff). Sidecountry is the work of a master reporter at the top of his game.

Here is my JUNE 9TH, 2021 INTERVIEW WITH PULITZER PRIZE WINNING JOURNALIST, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER BUFFALO FOR LIFE, TALKING ABOUT HIS THIRD BOOK

To buy Sidecountry:

https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324006695

For John's work in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/by/john-branch

=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/

For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient

Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.

For more information a