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'Feral' tells the story of Emily Pennington's journey through all 63 national parks

NPR

Published July 7, 2023 at 8:40 AM CDT

Click here for the original audio.

Emily Pennington set out in early 2020 to travel to all of the 63 national parks in one year. She quit her job, outfitted a mini-van and hit the road. Along the way, the pandemic broke out, she broke up with her boyfriend and anxiety became a near-constant companion on her journey.

In her new book “Feral: Losing Myself and Finding My Way in America’s National Parks,” she writes about how being in nature and the wilderness helped her in the struggle to become comfortable with uncertainty and solitude.

Host Peter O’Dowd spoke with Pennington in 2021.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.