At no other point in history have we had more tools for digging into our personal histories. Census data, Match.com and the revelation found in a vial of saliva. With these tools, writer Lori Erickson went about filling in the twigs and leaves of her own branching family tree.
On this episode of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe speaks with Erickson about her new book "The Soul of the Family Tree" and how she came from seafaring Viking ships to her picturesque hometown.
Later in the show, Nebbe talks to April Jennifer Choi about her work as an engineer and a performer and how those came to inform one another. She talks about a viral video of her and her wife lighting their wedding dresses ablaze, an exciting stunt for their wedding ceremony, as well as the comparatively more dangerous reality of being openly LGBTQ in America.
Guests:
- Lori Erickson, writer of "The Soul of the Family Tree: Ancestors, Stories and the Spirits We Inherit"
- April Jennifer Choi, a whip artist, fire eater and engineering department manager at Kennedy Space Center
