Event and Book

Please join us, in partnership with the Traverse City International Affairs Forum, on March 10 for An Evening with Dan Egan. The New York Times best-selling author will talk about his new book, The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance.

He writes about how phosphorus is the source of great bounty―and now great peril―all over the world. It has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people.

In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called “the oil of our time.” He describes the race to mine it from the fabled guano islands to the far Pacific to the sand dunes of the Western Sahara. He reports on how our overreliance on phosphorus is today causing toxic “dead zones” in waterways from the Florida Everglades to the Mississippi River Basin to the Great Lakes and beyond.

And he explores the alarming reality that diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide―which risks rising conflict and even war.

In-person tickets for this event are $15.50 to $25.50 per person (plus taxes and fees) and can be purchased through the City Opera House. A limited number of student tickets are available for $5 with ID.

Livestream tickets for this event can be purchased through the NWS site for $14.

Remember: All National Writers Series events serve our Raising Writers efforts! Your ticket purchase helps to fund classes, scholarships, workshops, and author masterclasses for students throughout northern Michigan.

Guest Host Patrick Shea is an environmental reporter at Interlochen Public Radio. He earned a degree in natural resources from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. His interest in reporting grew as he studied environmental journalism at the University of Montana’s graduate school. Since returning to the Great Lakes, Patrick has been working IPR’s environmental beat.