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Best Of Blue Dot: How The Mountains Formed: A Conversation With John Dvorak

Host Dave Schlom talks to geologist and author John Dvorak about his book: How The Mountains Formed: A New Geological History of North America.

The geologic epic intertwines the story of life on Earth and how it has been changed by and also shaped the crustal dynamics, atmosphere and oceans of the planet. Dvorak draws on some of the latest ideas in the geosciences about how the Earth's interior -- far more complex than the simple core, mantle and crust model we learn about in school -- continues to drive the formation of mountains.

North America's Rocky Mountain region gets fascinating treatment in the book because it has never quite been explained adequately by the relatively modern theory of plate tectonics. It's a story 4.5 billion years in the making!

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.