Lewis, Clark and America’s first great science mission
· 26 min
Episode Lewis, Clark and America’s first great science mission
In this episode of Science Quickly, Scientific American’s books and culture lead Bri Kane talks with historian Craig Fehrman about This Vast Enterprise, his fresh take on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rather than focusing solely on the famous explorers, Fehrman highlights the often overlooked people who made the journey possible, including Sacagawea, York and the expedition’s enlisted men. The conversation explores how science, survival, politics and personal stories shaped the expedition while challenging some of the myths many of us learned in school and revealing a much richer, more human history.
Recommended Reading:
This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark. Craig Fehrman. Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, 2026
Join our Summer Reading Challenge
E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!
Discover something new everyday: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter.
Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Links in the notes 4
- https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/This-Vast-Enterprise/Craig-Fehrman/9781982174248
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/getsciam/?utm_source=promotion&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may24-marketing2024_subscribetext&utm_term=LP_subscribe_v1_s1_podcast
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/account/email-preferences/?utm_source=promotion&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=may24-marketing2024_signuptext&utm_term=LP_signup_v1_s1_podcast
- https://megaphone.fm/adchoices
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.