Ralph talks to Atlantic magazine writer and former protégé, James Fallows, about the trip he took with his wife, Deborah, that resulted in their book, “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.” Plus, wunderkind, Felix Finkbeiner, joins us to report on his mission to plant a trillion trees around the world.
James Fallows is a national correspondent for “The Atlantic” and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States and once worked as President Carter’s chief speechwriter. He and his wife, Deborah Fallows, are the authors of the new book “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey Into the Heart of America,”which has been a New York Times best-seller and is the basis of a forthcoming HBO documentary.
“At a terrible time for the nation, city by city and region by region, Americans are inventing a new future. And if more people were aware of that, the chance of its success would go up.”
James Fallows, co-author of “Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America.”
When Felix Finkbeiner was a nine year old, fourth grader living near Munich, Germany, he did a school report about trees and climate change. In doing that report, he came to the conclusion that if kids could plant one million trees in every country in the world, that would go a long way toward combating greenhouse gasses. Four years later, this remarkable young man was addressing the United Nations General Assembly . What started with a lonely crab apple tree he planted on his school’s grounds has led to a worldwide movement and an organization called Plant for the Planet ). Felix is now twenty years old and a student at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
“Globally, we have the potential of planting up to another one trillion trees. And if we manage to plant these trees, they would capture about a quarter of all human-made greenhouse gasses.”
Felix Finkbeiner, Founder of Plant for the Planet
Good News From the Heartland