Retired Now
After 50+ years of writing, I am retired now.
Sort of
A writer verbalizes experiences — turn the present into words, and in doing so loses presence. That’s fun sometimes, but it often drives me crazy. So, as a balance, I’m mostly retired, but not quite. I am running a Substack Blog, which summarizes and expands on the ideas and adventures I have been writing about for the past half century: Environmental preservation, love of wild, indigenous wisdoms, the madness of our current civilization. Click the above link. Read. Enjoy. Subscribe. My latest thoughts will come streaming into your email box roughly every week.
Below you can see my most recent book. My best selling book has been The Raven’s Gift, about the aboriginal wisdom of Moolynaut, a Siberian shaman. Meanwhile, I’m joining a few podcasts and perhaps a speaking gig now and again — but mostly — I’m retired. Living in my home in Montana and in my van, riding my mountain bike.
Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu
A provocative look at the vital connection between human beings, the natural world and meaningful knowledge.
Top Ten Adventures of the Year
Best Expedition of the Year
First Place for Print Journalism
New York Times Front Page
Conrad Anker, North Face alpinist
" In an age when adventure is a sales tool, Jon Turk looks into the inherent value of wild places. How have sacred places transformed the individual and society? With first-hand experience ranging from the tropics to the arctic, Jon shares the importance of finding the wild in our daily lives."
Recent Media
This video summarizes my most recent book, Tracking Lions, Myth, and Wilderness in Samburu. More videos, chats, and etc are posted on my Media Plus page.
The powerful cerebral ability we call Consciousness provides us humans with all the tools to survive, innovate, procreate (and cause all sorts of trouble on this planet). So why are non-pragmatic activities -- art, music, dance, play, and myth – so ubiquitous in every society on this planet? In this podcast with Valeria Teles, I argue that our extremely efficient pragmatism also drives us crazy (and incidentally causes so much trouble for all the other creatures on this planet) that we need to escape from our own think-too-much-know-it-all-brains. Listen here, or just go out and ride your bike and don’t listen to me talk at all.
