A 'death march' stop in Des Moines

Brent Olson

Brent and Robin Olson stopped by my office this morning to say hi, and I think I about talked their heads off.

I guess I got carried away because it’s a pretty exciting thing to chat with someone you admire as much as I do Brent, and now Robin, too—having had a chance to meet her finally.

I did stop talking long enough to interview him about what’s been keeping his mind occupied these days. The video below captures some of that, I hope.

For more than a decade, Brent has been posting his Independently Speaking columns on Agriculture.com. I look forward to them every week, as do a whole bunch of farmers, and have been proud that we feature his stories of the lives and times of rural folks from his vantage point of a southern Minnesota farm.

Brent’s been staying busy—having just published a new book, Papa: Figuring out What Matters, and now working on a new one, The Hands of God in which he follows the route of local aid to Haiti and Liberia, tracing the effects donations have made on the misfortunate in those countries.

Brent’s stop in Des Moines today is part of what he calls a “death march of shameless self-promotion.” He’ll be reading from Papa and signing books at the Beaverdale Books this evening (7 p.m.), and I’m going. This time to listen.