Read: Atlas of a Lost World

Some people dream of meeting famous actors or musicians. I dream of meeting Craig Childs. “Hey Milnor, Salma Hayek just joined as expedition leader and we want you to come too.” Well, that’s the dream anyway. My advice is to get anything he’s written and then get extra copies to give to your friends. Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America, like the rest of the Childs catalog, does not disappoint. Half science book and half adventure story, this book makes you want to go, to get involved. It turns out that much of what we learned in school, at least for people my age, was off by a wide margin.

Childs, at times with his family, travels from the Alaska slope to the wilds of the American Southwest, tracing and following and finding. He also partners us with those who can supplement his knowledge and experience. Scientists, athletes, educators, and more. The mission? Make sense of what it was like for Ice Age people to navigate the world as it was at that time. Most of North America is under a massive ice sheet. Then the melt-off and subsequent sea level rise. Species trapped on islands dying off prior to those on the mainland. Our species exhaled and jetted out across seas and land bridges, only to return on the inhale. Stone points, spears, and weapons were crafted to hunt the last of the great beasts. We know a lot but the mystery still remains. Get it, read it.