In this very special episode, author Daniel Quinn’s wife Rennie Mackay Quinn joins us for her first ever interview: sharing untold stories, new insights, and reflections on her life and journey with her beloved late husband Daniel Quinn.
Rennie tells us about the 15 years it took Daniel to write Ishmael, the childhood dream that sparked it, how the word “hamburger” changed their lives, how they navigated the response and acclaim to Ishmael, and much more.
Credits
Theme Music is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon, iTunes, Spotify) by Ray Lynch, from the album: Deep Breakfast. Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions (C)(P) 1984/BMI. All rights reserved.
Image: Photo of Rennie MacKay Quinn and Daniel Quinn, via Ishmael.org; used with permission.
Join storyteller Alex Leff, creator of the podcast Human Nature Odyssey, on a search for better ways to understand and more clearly experience the incredible, terrifying, and ridiculous world we live in.
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Eight years ago, the Ecosystem Restoration Communities (ERC) movement began with a simple but powerful belief: that everyday people everywhere could restore the land beneath their feet and, in doing so, restore hope for our shared future.
True climate action doesn’t require vast data centers, billions of liters of water, or mineral-intensive hardware. It requires shorter distances, stronger communities, healthy soils, local food webs, and diverse, place-based economies that reduce demand at the source.
February 13, 2026
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