John Vaillant in conversation with Katie Fisher

The Dallas region, like many parts of Texas, faced an unprecedented threat as wildfires, fueled by rising temperatures and drought conditions, tore through the landscape. The devastation echoed the alarming trends seen globally, as wildfires become more frequent, intense, and destructive. Canadian writer and journalist John Vaillant will discuss these events, highlighting how they serve as a stark warning for a hotter, more flammable world.

In his book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World (winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023), Vaillant delves into the intertwined histories of the oil industry and climate science, the unparalleled destruction caused by modern wildfires, and the lives irrevocably altered by these disasters. In his recent writing for The New York Times, he draws particular attention to the fires in Texas, exploring how regions historically less affected by such disasters, are now on the front lines of this growing environmental crisis.

John Vaillant is a best-selling author and freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The Guardian, among others. In addition to the Baillie Gifford Prize, Fire Weather has won Canada's Shaughnessy Cohen Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. A #1 bestseller in Canada, Fire Weather was also named one of the ten best books of 2023 by The New York Times, among many other prominent publications in Europe and North America.

Join us for an evening of critical discussion on how we must prepare for the escalating dangers of a changing climate, with a focus on the fires that have brought this reality home to the broader Texas region.