It was with great surprise and joy that I opened my podcast feed this past Tuesday as I set out on my morning walk to find a new episode of “The Stubborn Light of Things” queued-up atop the list. After nearly three years of silence, I once again was greeted with Ms. Harrison’s long-missed, gentle, and reassuring “Hi, How ya doing?”
The advent of artificial illumination in the world not only radically altered the conduct of daily life in all societies upon acquisition of it, it also came with a tremendous cost to millions of people as well as to the environment; costs that are rarely accounted and the effects of which continue to our present day. Prof. Jeremy Zallen’s “American Lucifers” aspires to correct this oversight.
Many years ago, when I was just a boy, the night sky seemed much blacker than it does today, but the stars seemed much brighter as well. Camping one long past night at Ft. Stevens State Park, I vividly recall lying on my back with my head outside the tent, looking up at a sky […]