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Baratunde Thurston at the Badwater Basin in California’s Death Valley National Park. (Courtesy Twin Cities PBS/Part2 Pictures)
Baratunde Thurston at the Badwater Basin in California’s Death Valley National Park. (Courtesy Twin Cities PBS/Part2 Pictures)

Baratunde Thurston Wants to Activate Your Inner Outdoor Adventurer

The writer and comedian investigates how the United States’s shared landscapes shape lives on the “America Outdoors” PBS travel series.
By Cynthia Rosenfeld
July 6, 2022
4 minute read
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“We think we invent things and create things and define ourselves by ourselves, but that’s not the whole story,” Baratunde Thurston says on the trailer for America Outdoors, a six-part travel series that premiered last week on PBS. Thurston—a writer, comedian, and podcaster who has advised the Obama White House, worked as a producer on The Daily Show, and authored the best-selling memoir How To Be Black—has a knack for navigating nuanced conversations around race, culture, politics, and technology, framing these discussions in approachable ways. His curiosity and wit make him an engaging host as he explores the nation’s open terrain. On each episode, Thurston travels to a different region, investigating how our shared landscapes shape our lives.

#Nature#Media#United States
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