
Sea of Grass
The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
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Narrated by:
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Sandra Murphy
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George Newbern
About this listen
A vivid portrait of the American prairie, which rivals the rainforest in its biological diversity and, with little notice, is disappearing even faster
“This book describes—in loving, living prose—one of the world’s greatest and most important landscapes. And it does so while there’s still time to save some serious part of it.”—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
The North American prairie is an ecological marvel, a lush carpet of grass that stretches to the horizon, and home to some of the nation’s most iconic creatures—bison, elk, wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bald eagles. Plants, microbes, and animals together made the grasslands one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and a massive carbon sink, but the constant expansion of agriculture threatens what remains.
When European settlers encountered the prairie nearly two hundred years ago, rather than a natural wonder they saw an alien and forbidding place. But with the steel plow, artificial drainage, and fertilizers, they converted the prairie into some of the world’s most productive farmland—a transformation unprecedented in human history. American farmers fed the industrial revolution and made North America a global breadbasket, but at a terrible cost: the forced dislocation of Indigenous peoples, pollution of great rivers, and catastrophic loss of wildlife. Today, industrial agriculture continues its assault on the prairie, plowing up one million acres of grassland a year. Farmers can protect this extraordinary landscape, but trying new ideas can mean ruin in a business with razor-thin margins, and will require help from Washington, D.C., and from consumers.
Veteran journalists and midwesterners Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty reveal humanity’s relationship with this incredible land, offering a deep, compassionate analysis of the difficult decisions as well as opportunities facing agricultural and Indigenous communities. Sea of Grass is a vivid portrait of a miraculous ecosystem that makes clear why the future of this region is of essential concern far beyond the heartland.
©2025 Dave Hage, Josephine Marcotty (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty chronicle an environmental crisis most Americans are unaware of: the ongoing destruction of the country's great prairies. Sea of Grass is eloquent both on the complexity of this amazing ecosystem and its fragility.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Under a White Sky
“As radiant as its subject, Sea of Grass reclaims the North American prairie—too long dismissed as a wasteland—as a true wonderland of ecological brilliance and beauty, reminding us that like all of nonhuman nature, the prairie is wiser and more resourceful than the species determined to conquer it.”—Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Gulf
“As epic in its scope as the prairie itself, Sea of Grass deftly chronicles the tragic destruction of North America’s grandest ecosystem and the inspiring movement to restore it. Hage and Marcotty balance heartbreak and hope in this wise, impassioned ode to the prairie and its inhabitants, human and wild alike. Like an expanse of tallgrass, this book bursts with surprising life—you’ll meet maverick farmers, rogue environmentalists, and ornery bison, all engaged in the vital project of saving our most vital biome from the vast forces that imperil it.”—Ben Goldfarb, author of Crossings and Eager
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For marine biologist Rachel Jordan, both science and Scripture are means of knowing creation and Creator. In If the Ocean Has a Soul, Rachel considers the natural world through a spiritual lens, meshing marine biology with biblical truths in a keen and current take on faith and science. In these chapters, Rachel recounts fascinating aquatic phenomena alongside the sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic stories of animals she has known.
By: Rachel G. Jordan
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Erased
- What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us
- By: Anna Malaika Tubbs
- Narrated by: Anna Malaika Tubbs
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Across the world, patriarchy has oppressed women and denied their contributions, but every nation has its own unique gendered hierarchy. Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs applies her signature approachable yet rigorous analysis to define American patriarchy in this definitive and groundbreaking history. Humanity in the United States is determined by gender in a limited and flawed binary logic that is also always tied to whiteness. Tubbs shows how a fabricated hierarchy became so deeply ingrained in the country over time that it now goes unnoticed, along with everything it intentionally conceals.
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Nothing but Courage
- The 82nd Airborne's Daring D-Day Mission—and Their Heroic Charge Across the La Fière Bridge
- By: James Donovan
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In June 1944, German and American forces converged on an insignificant bridge a few miles inland from the invasion beaches. If taken by the Nazis, the bridge might have gone down in history as the reason the Allies failed on D-Day. The narrow road over it was each side’s conduit to victory. Continued Nazi control over the bridge near an old manoir known as La Fière—one of only two bridges in the region capable of supporting tanks and other heavy armor—would allow the Germans to reinforce their defenses at Utah Beach, one of the five landing areas chosen for Operation Overlord.
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Excellent
- By John M. on 06-30-25
By: James Donovan
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Submersed
- Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines
- By: Matthew Gavin Frank
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Submersed begins with an investigation into the beguiling subculture of DIY submersible obsessives: men and women—but mostly men—who are so compelled to sink into the deep sea that they become amateur backyard submarine-builders. Matthew Gavin Frank explores the origins of the human compulsion to sink to depth, from the diving bells of Aristotle and Alexander the Great to the Confederate H. L. Hunley, which became the first submersible to sink an enemy warship before itself being sunk during the Civil War.
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Murderland
- Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
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Strange hypothesis that serial killers emerge from industrially polluted environments.
- By C. J. on 06-17-25
By: Caroline Fraser
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Proto
- How One Ancient Language Went Global
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys. All four languages—along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish—trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west.
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Brilliant research and narration
- By Dr. Krishnendu Ray on 05-16-25
By: Laura Spinney
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Is a River Alive?
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robert Macfarlane
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Macfarlane takes listeners on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada.
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One of the few books I will return
- By Amazon Customer on 06-28-25
Enlightening and informative to all people living on the earth
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The performance of the narrator is excellent.
Broad but detailed view on American grassland conservation.
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