Sunil Amrith and John Vaillant on The Burning Earth

Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History and professor in the School of the Environment at Yale University. He is the author of four books, and a recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship and the 2024 Fukuoka Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of Asian studies. He grew up in Singapore and lives in Connecticut. His new book, The Burning Earth, is a paradigm-shifting survey of how human history has reshaped the planet over the last 500 years.

John Vaillant is the international bestselling author of The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival and The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed. He has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic and the Guardian. His latest book, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, is a page-turning account of a brutal urban wildfire, and a sweeping exploration of our rapidly changing relationship with fire on Earth. It won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.