The writer and journalist Russell Wangersky discusses his new memoir Same Ground: Chasing Family Down the California Gold Rush (ECW Press, 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Same Ground: Chasing Family Down the California Gold Rush by Russell Wangersky (ECW Press, 2022). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Same Ground

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Russell Wangersky joins me now. He’s just published a memoir, Same Ground: Chasing Family Down the California Gold Rush Trail. It’s a chronicle of a car trip he and his wife, the writer Leslie Vryenhoek made following in the footsteps of the cross-continent journey Russell’s ancestor William Castle Dodge made in search of gold in 1849. Being Canadian, gives Russell a great perspective into America, as he travels in search of the bucolic wonders that still are there, but family as it were. I’ll ask Russell about his connection to Castle, as well just what he wanted to get out of this trip. We meet Castle in the book, who was just twenty-two years old, as Russell quotes extracts from a diary. It’s a diary that fascinated Russell’s father, even though this was an ancestor on Russell’s mother’s side. The journey 160 years or so later is as fascinating as the one during the gold rush, as we see middle America in all its forms, culturally, politically, socially, economically, as it were. Russell Wangersky is an award-winning writer of seven books of fiction and non-fiction, including Burning Down the House, Whirl Away, and The Hour of Bad Decisions. He is the editor-in-chief of the Regina Leader-Post, and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. The website for more is at www.russellwangersky.com. This book is published by ECW Press. He joined me from Saskatoon ten days ago. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Russell Wangersky; Mr. Wangersky, good morning.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (23.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS