412: J. Maarten Troost on Kiribati's atolls, climate change, and what travel writing is for RERELEASE

This podcast has been running for almost a decade. There are some real gems buried in the catalogue that I am happy to have a chance to rerelease. This is one of those episodes. It has a new intro.I recorded it with J. Maarten Troost in April 2020 and published it as S2E9, &quot;Travel writing a disappearing Oceania&quot;. It remains a personal favorite of mine.Maarten wrote four travel memoirs: The Sex Lives of Cannibals (2004), about the two years he spent in Kiribati after his partner got a job at an NGO who operated there; Getting Stoned with Savages (2006), about their move to Fiji and Vanuatu; Lost on Planet China (2008) where Maarten ends up wandering around quite a bit of China; and Headhunters on My Doorstep (2013), a Treasure Island retracing written in recovery.We talk about his time in a huge place that very few have visited to the depths he has, and how the world was changing (or maybe beginning to change) since his time in the region.Travel writing when it&#39;s good, acknowledges both difference and universality. It helps us understand Other, and mocks the way that we are in taking our Otherness for granted. Maarten does a wonderful job at both.And he hates the f*@!ing Macarena.This Episode&#39;s Sponsor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EcoEngineers: a full-service advisory and consulting firm focused on carbon dioxide removal, decarbonization, and carbon markets⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode I made with David LaGreca from EcoEngineers about how to choose, hire, and fire carbon market contractors.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠2026 EcoForums Training Series: Navigating Global Carbon and Fuel Regulations, Market Mechanisms, and Life-Cycle Analysis Fundamentals⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out my new show, Climate Workers Anonymous⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change (and get rid of the ads on Spotify)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠J. Maarten Troost at Penguin Random HouseJ. Maarten Troost at BJ Robbins Literary AgencyThe Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific (2004)Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu (2006)Lost on Planet China: One Man&#39;s Attempt to Understand the World&#39;s Most Mystifying Nation (2008)Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story (2013)What became of the Kiribati land purchase in Vanua LevuKiribati&#39;s Office of Te Beretitenti on the Fiji land purchasePaul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific (1992)Christina Thompson, Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia (Harper, 2019)<a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1996/01/shi