049 - Race to the Future with Kassia St. Clair

Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast

Kassia St. Clair, author of the 2017 best-seller The Secret Lives of Color and the Sunday Times Book of the Year follow-up The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History (2019) joins me to talk about her new book, Race to the Future: The Adventure that Accelerated the 20th Century. It's the story of the utterly bonkers 1907 auto race from Peking to Paris, which didn't let things like the fact that roads and gas stations didn't exist stop some adventurous competitors from trying it. All 8000 miles of it.

The widescreen artwork accompanying this episode is Kassia's map of Russia, laden with thread and post-it notes, which she references during our chat.

Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me on Bluesky at edburmila.bsky.social.

Thanks: Kassia St. Clair, the bands that contribute music (IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.