HOUSTON — New York Times Best-Selling Author and Outdoor Enthusiast Baratunde Thurston is ready to take you off the beaten path to explore the diverse array of regions across the U.S. and how those landscapes shape the way Americans work, play and interact with the outdoors.
From wilderness pilots flying "below the rim" in Idaho, to coal miners turned beekeepers in Appalachia, to Black surfers catching waves in Los Angeles, Baratunde introduces viewers to a vivid cast of characters whose outdoor lives are shaped by where they live. As a warming climate changes where outdoor enthusiasts can go and Americans debate how wild spaces can be made more accessible to all, AMERICA OUTDOORS WITH BARATUNDE THURSTON reveals a deeper understanding of our passionate and complicated relationship with the natural world.
Baratunde Thurston is a force of nature and an essential voice for our times. He is an Emmy-nominated host who has worked for The Onion, produced for "The Daily Show," advised the Obama White House and wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black. He's the executive producer, creator and host of How To Citizen with Baratunde, which Apple named one of its favorite podcasts of 2020. Baratunde recently received the Social Impact Award at the 2021 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards on behalf of How to Citizen with Baratunde. In 2019, he delivered what MSNBC's Brian Williams called "one of the greatest TED talks of all time." The TED Talk has since been viewed over five million times. Baratunde is unique in his ability to integrate and synthesize themes of race, culture, politics and technology to explain where our nation is and where we can take it. Baratunde serves on the boards of BUILD and the Brooklyn Public Library and lives in Los Angeles, California. As a child, he was a Boy Scout and still remembers how to build a fire without matches.