Audiobooks by Rowan Jacobsen

American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields

"Bloomsbury presents American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Maxwell Caulfield The first guide to the 'flavor landscapes' of North America, American Terroir explains how local conditions such as soil and climate affect the flavor of foods such as apples, honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, wine, cheese, and chocolate. Complete with recipes and a resource section for finding the best place-specific foods, it's the perfect companion for any self-respecting locavore. P 2013 Audible, Inc. C 2010 Rowan Jacobsen"

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Maxwell Caulfield (Narrator)

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Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis

"Bloomsbury presents Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Rowell Gormon Many people will remember that Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, but she also warned of a fruitless fall, a time with no pollination and no fruit. The fruitless fall nearly became a reality when, in 2007, beekeepers watched thirty billion bees mysteriously die. And they continue to disappear. The remaining pollinators, essential to the cultivation of a third of American crops, are now trucked across the country and flown around the world, pushing them ever closer to collapse. Fruitless Fall does more than just highlight this growing agricultural catastrophe. It emphasizes the miracle of flowering plants and their pollination partners, and urges readers not to take the abundance of our Earth for granted. A new afterword by the author tracks the most recent developments in this ongoing crisis. C 2008 Rowan Jacobsen P 2012 Audible, Inc."

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Rowell Gormon (Narrator)

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Shadows on the Gulf: A Journey Through Our Last Great Wetland

"Bloomsbury presents Shadows on the Gulf by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Kevin Young While other books play the blame game of what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon and who is responsible, Shadows on the Gulf offers a surprising, harder truth: As bad as the oil spill was, it doesn't touch the damage done to the Gulf every year by what one expert in the book calls 'a 100-year catastrophe.' Readers who believe they know the story will find their thinking changed by Rowan Jacobsen's surprising perspective: At the height of BP's dispersant madness, the amount sprayed each day merely equaled the amount of dispersant that washes down the Mississippi from the Heartland's dishwashers and washing machines. The Gulf's shrimpers have damaged the region's ecology as much as BP has. The acres of marsh destroyed by oil slicks can't compare to the amount that disappears in every hurricane, thanks to the work of the Army Corp of Engineers. And even if we save every mile of beach and wetland from the oil spill, the entire Mississippi Delta will still be lost in the next forty years, and New Orleans will sink beneath the waves, an American Atlantis. Shadows on the Gulf reveals the key players in this catastrophe and explains why it will affect quality of life for us all. In doing so, it celebrates the little-recognized global wonder in our backyard. Not only are the Gulf's wetlands the best oyster reefs and fish nurseries in the world, they also provide critical habitat to most of America's migratory songbirds and waterfowl, as well as a home base for the energy and shipping industries. If the Gulf is allowed to fail, the effects will ripple across America. And fail it will, unless a national effort is made to save it. P 2012 Audible, Inc. C 2011 Rowan Jacobsen"

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Kevin Young (Narrator)

Audiobook

In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure

"Upending everything we thought we knew about sun exposure, this trenchant investigation into the "zero-sun policy" sounds the call on the many health benefits of the sun, and what we risk when we minimize our exposure. A quiet revolution is transforming our understanding of sunlight's effects on human health. For decades, a "zero-sun" policy has characterized our approach to sun protection, advising us to stay out of the sun whenever possible and apply sunscreen daily to any skin that might be exposed, rain or shine, summer or winter, indoors or out. But recent studies have proved that this policy is thoroughly mistaken and that this prolific misunderstanding is causing us to miss out on many of the health benefits of sun exposure. In this incisive work, acclaimed journalist Rowan Jacobsen presents the growing case for the importance of modest sun exposure for our health and well-being. Aided by the most up-to-date studies on the effects of sunlight on human health, Jacobsen presents a much-needed, lucid assessment of not only what the sun can do for us, but how a lack of sun could actively be harming us. In Defense of Sunlight sounds the call on what researchers have been sure of for years, and what health care providers and media outlets have been slow to take up: that sunlight is one of the simplest, and most equitable, treatments for a variety of health issues, from diabetes to dementia to multiple sclerosis. Laying out the new science of sunlight in a straightforward and responsible manner for mainstream readers, this book is an eye-opening story of scientific discovery, outlining not only best practices for sun exposure, but the story of how current recommendations became misguided, how a few inquisitive scientists glimpsed the truth and deciphered the mechanisms responsible, and how everyone can safely incorporate this new knowledge into their daily lives. It also exposes the implicit injustice underlying current approaches, which benefit the whitest people on earth (who are the most susceptible to skin cancer) at the expense of those with darker skin (who suffer extremely low rates of skin cancer and have the most to gain from sun exposure). A call for a return to common sense in our relationship with our local star, In Defense of Sunlight offers its own seven words of advice: Get sun. Not too much. Go outside."

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Rowan Jacobsen (Narrator)

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Wild Chocolate: Across the Americas in Search of Cacao's Soul

"Bloomsbury presents Wild Chocolate by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Sam Rushton 'Inspiring.” —MARK BITTMAN 'One of the best stories under the sun.” —JOSÉ ANDRÉS From James Beard Award-winner Rowan Jacobsen, the thrilling story of the farmers, activists, and chocolate makers fighting all odds to revive ancient cacao and produce the world’s finest bar. When Rowan Jacobsen first heard of a chocolate bar made entirely from wild Bolivian cacao, he was skeptical. The waxy mass-market chocolate of his childhood had left him indifferent to it, and most experts believed wild cacao had disappeared from the rainforest centuries ago. But one dazzling bite of Cru Sauvage was all it took. Chasing chocolate down the supply chain and back through history, Jacobsen travels the rainforests of the Amazon and Central America to find the chocolate makers, activists, and indigenous leaders who are bucking the system that long ago abandoned wild and heirloom cacao in favor of high-yield, low-flavor varietals preferred by Big Chocolate. What he found was a cacao renaissance. As his guides pulled the last vestiges of ancient cacao back from the edge of extinction, they’d forged an alternative system in the process—one that is bringing prosperity back to local economies, returning fertility to the land, and protecting it from the rampages of cattle farming. All the while, a new generation of bean-to-bar chocolate makers are racing to get their hands on these rare varietals and produce extraordinary chocolate displaying a diversity of flavors no one had thought possible. Full of vivid characters, vibrant landscapes, and surprising history, Wild Chocolate promises to be as rich, complex, and addictive as good chocolate itself. C 2024 Rowan Jacobsen P 2024 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC"

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Sam Rushton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Truffle Hound: On the Trail of the World’s Most Seductive Scent, with Dreamers, Schemers, and Some Extraordinary Dogs

"Bloomsbury presents Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen, read by Sam Rushton. A captivating exploration into the secretive and sensuous world of truffles, the elusive food that has captured hearts, imaginations, and palates worldwide. The scent of one freshly unearthed white truffle in Barolo was all it took to lead Rowan Jacobsen down a rabbit hole into a world of secretive hunts, misty woods, black-market deals, obsessive chefs, quixotic scientists, muddy dogs, maddening smells, and some of the most memorable meals ever created. Truffles attract dreamers, schemers, and sensualists. People spend years training dogs to find them underground. They plant forests of oaks and wait a decade for truffles to appear. They pay £2,170 a pound to possess them. They turn into quivering puddles in their presence. Why? Truffle Hound is the fascinating account of Rowan's quest to find out, a journey that would lead him from Italy to Istria, Hungary, Spain, England, and North America. Both an entertaining odyssey and a manifesto, Truffle Hound demystifies truffles—and then remystifies them, freeing them from their gilded cage and returning them to their roots as a sacred offering from the forest. It helps people understand why they respond so strongly to that crazy smell, shows them there’s more to truffles than they ever imagined, and gives them all the tools they need to take their own truffle love to the next level. Deeply informed, unabashedly passionate, rakishly readable, Truffle Hound will spark Britain’s next great culinary passion. P 2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC C 2021 Rowan Jacobsen"

Rowan Jacobsen (Author), Sam Rushton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by Rowan Jacobsen

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