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From YouTube: Q and A With Hampton Sides
Description
Hampton Sides is best known for his gripping nonfiction adventure stories, "Ghost Soldiers," "Blood and Thunder" and "In the Kingdom of Ice," which recounts the heroic polar voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette. The historical lessons of leadership can apply to everyday life, and Sides tells us how. Sides spoke at NCSL's 2016 Legislative summit in Chicago.
A
Hampton
sides
is
best
known
for
his
gripping
non
fiction,
adventure
story
set
in
war
or
detecting
epic
expeditions
of
discovery
and
exploration.
He's
the
author
of
the
best-selling
histories,
ghost
soldiers,
blood
and
thunder
hellhound
on
his
trail
and,
most
recently
in
the
kingdom
of
ice,
which
recounts
the
heroic
polar
voyage
of
the
USS
Jeannette
during
the
Gilded
Age.
He
is
editor-at-large
for
outside
magazine
and
a
frequent
contributor
to
National,
Geographic
and
other
magazines.
His
journalistic
work,
collected
in
numerous
published
anthologies,
has
been
twice
nominated
for
national
magazine
awards
for
feature
writing.
A
He
divides
his
time
between
santa
fe
and
Colorado
College,
where
he
teaches
narrative
nonfiction
and
is
the
journalist
in
residence.
He
was
the
keynote
speaker
for
the
salute
to
legislative
staff
luncheon
at
NCS
l's
legislative
summit.
Each
of
your
books
feature
people
who
are
in
extreme
circumstances
and
demonstrate
the
qualities
of
leadership
that
allow
some
people
to
survive
the
ordeals
and
others
not
to
survive.
Your
most
recent
book
in
the
kingdom
of
ice.
The
sad
and
terrible
polar
voyage
of
the
USS
Jeannette
describes
the
ordeal
of
a
sea
voyage
gone
terribly
wrong.
B
B
It
drove
people
crazy,
not
to
know
what
was
what
was
up
there
or
the
fact
that
we
couldn't
reach
it,
and
so
the
US
Navy,
in
cooperation
with
a
an
eccentric
and
very
wealthy
man
named
james
gordon
bennett,
jr
publisher
of
the
new
york
herald
decided
to
team
up
and
to
try
to
sail
to
the
North
Pole
going
past.
Our
recent
acquisition
from
Russia
Alaska
to
try
to
reach
the
North
Pole
by
way
of
warm
water
currents
that
were
believed
to
be
up
there.
B
There
was
a
theory
that,
at
the
top
of
the
world
somewhere
beyond
the
ice,
there
was
warm
water
and
there
was
something
called
the
open,
Polar
Sea.
Obviously,
a
wrong
idea
completely
wrong
dangerously
wrong,
as
these
men
will
soon
find
out,
but
they
left
in
the
summer
of
1879
from
San
Francisco.
Very
you
know
very
optimistic
full
of
a
full
of
enthusiasm
that
the
ship
was
crammed
with
all
the
latest
American
inventions
like
telephones
and
Telegraph's
and
I'm,
a
telegraph,
wire
and
lights
that
Edison
had
just
invented
and
thought
they
might
reach
the
North
Pole.
B
What
they
found
instead
was
ice
and
they
drifted
in
the
ice
pack
for
over
two
years
until
they
finally
sank.
The
ship
sank
to
the
bottom
of
the
Arctic.
Ocean
in
these
men
are
out
on
the
ice,
trying
to
figure
out
a
way
to
get
home,
and
that's
when
really
the
story
of
leadership
and
comradeship,
and
all
these
you
know
incredible
qualities,
start
to
emerge.
You.
A
B
Things
go
wrong
in
these
expeditions
and
you
can
only
plan
so
so
well
and
so
far,
but
you
know
as
much
as
we
might
think
that
this
was
a
crazy
and
half-cocked
mission.
Nothing
could
be
farther
from
the
truth.
Captain
DeLong
read
everything
he
had
all
the
scientists
on
board.
They
had
the
best
maps,
the
best
charts,
the
best
scientists
consulted
every
everybody
crammed
his
ship.
B
As
I
said
earlier,
with
all
the
latest
inventions
had
enough
food
for
three
years
researched
everything
and
his
planning
the
degree
in
scope
of
his
planning
really
shows
during
the
expedition
I
mean
no
one
dies
during
this
two
years.
There's
no
scurvy.
The
men
are
well
fed
and
the
expedition,
although
it's
very
boring,
they're
stuck
with
each
other,
essentially
for
these
two
years,
as
they
drift
slowly
north
in
the
ice
pack.
A
B
B
Three
groups:
each
group
had
its
own
songs,
its
own
flag,
its
own
motto
its
own
leader,
and
by
creating
this
kind
of
friendly
rivalry
amongst
the
three
groups,
he
was
able
to
goad
them
and
encourage
them
to
go
farther
across
the
ice
pack
during
that
summer
of
1881,
as
they
tried
to
make
their
way
toward
open
water.
How.
B
Know
during
the
two
years
that
they
were
drifting
in
the
ice.
If,
if
the
long
had
allowed
them
to
sit
around
thinking
about
how
bored
they
were,
how
crazy
they
were,
any
number
of
things
would
have
happened.
Mutiny
you
know,
drunkenness
fights,
you
name
it.
He
kept
them
busy
busy
busy
every
single
day,
taking
a
lot
of
scientific
measurements.
B
B
Well
sense
of
play
I
think
in
any
of
these
stories,
where
things
are
really
grim
and
gothic
and
difficult
and
there's
all
this
striving
and
all
this
stress
I
found
that
and
I
think
it
you
know
it's
common
sense.
All
of
us
know.
People
like
this,
who,
even
in
the
worst
of
circumstances,
can
have
a
sense
of
humor
and
a
sense
of
play.
A
sense
of
in
this
case
too
long
understood
that
was
important.
There
were
there
were
musicals
and
Alcott.
B
B
Was
this
one
guy?
Yes,
his
name
is
Collins
and
he
was
the
meteorologist
who's
a
scientist,
but
he
was
also
an
Irishman
with
a
great
sense
of
wordplay
and
unfortunately
had
this
terrible
penchant
for
delivering
really
bad
puns.
Well,
I
mean
there
were
puns,
there
were
sort
of
groaners
right
and
they
were
they
were
funny.
As
those
things
go,
you
know
we
all
know.
People
like
this
like
an
hour
or
two.
B
You
know
as
you're
as
you're
moving
into
a
part
of
the
world
that
no
man
has
ever
seen
before
might
as
well
be
that
the
dark
side
of
the
moon-
it
isn't.
It
is
literally
dark,
24
hours
a
day
for
much
of
that.
You
know
period
if
you
don't
have
faith
that
you're
going
to
get
through
this
faith
in
something
larger
than
yourself
you're
not
going
to
make
it
and
all
these
men,
you
see
it
in
their
Diaries.
B
B
B
B
Yeah
yeah,
you
know
it's
like
it
was
so
difficult
and
so
much
of
the
time
and
it
was
dark
and
it
was
cold
and
it
was
dreary
and
it
was
miserable,
I
mean
Arctic.
Stories
are
famous
for
for
their
misery
for
their
misery
right.
But
at
the
same
time
they
were
always
these
moments
of
wonder
of
weird
mirages
and
the
weird
ways
in
which
downed
would
travel
over
the
ice.
There's
a
atmospheric
effect
in
the
Arctic
known
as
the
FATA
Morgana,
which
causes
like
stack
stacks
and
stacks
of
an
image.
B
So
it
looks
like
a
great
fortress
or
a
castle.
Of
course,
there's
the
aurora
borealis,
there's
all
of
these
kinds
of
atmospheric
phenomena
and
amazing
wildlife
and
a
lot
of
beauty
out
there
and
captained
along
in
his
journals
and
all
the
other
participants
talked
about
how
amazing
it
is
and
how
lucky
they
are
to
be
in
this
part
of
the
world
that
no
man
has
ever
seen
before,
and
it's
like
they're
like
little
kids
pinching
themselves,
because
they're
so
excited
to
be
somewhere
where
no
one,
no
one
else
has
ever
been.
B
B
Yeah
I
mean
you
know
a
lot
of
navy
captains,
and
this
was
particularly
true
of
the
British
Admiralty.
A
lot
of
their
expeditions
in
the
Arctic
were
characterized
by
a
lot
of
arrogance
and
hubris
of
like
we
can
just
transport
Victorian,
English
society
into
the
ice
and
we'll
have
tea
every
day
and
we'll
we'll
live
a
dress
like
Brits
and
with
you
know,
DeLong
understood
that
he
needed
to
take
into
account
the
knowledge
of
the
knowledge
base
of
the
Inuit
of
the
people
who
have
been
living
there
for
millennia.
They
know
how
to
survive.
B
They
know
how
to
live
in
in
the
wilderness
of
the
Arctic,
and
so
you'll
see,
time
and
time
again
how
he
relies
on
the
in
the
two
Inuit
hunters
that
are
on
onboard
ship
and
in
terms
of
their
knowledge
of
hunting,
their
knowledge
of
the
weather,
their
knowledge
of
how
to
dress
and
to
deal
with
the
dogs.
Also,
the
another
tribe
called
the
Yakusa
figure
prominently
in
this
story
in
Siberia
when
they
make
landfall
they're
saved
by
the
you
coots,
an
amazing
tribe
that
rely
on
reindeer
and
know
how
to
survive
the
Siberian
winter.
B
So
to
his
credit,
DeLong
took
into
account
all
of
this
knowledge
and
all
this
expertise
really
that
the
the
natives
had
and
it's
pretty
it
seems
like
that
should
be
obvious
right,
but
back
then
that
was
not
obvious.
There's
a
lot
of
racism.
There
was
a
lot
of
sense
of
superiority
among
Anglo
society,
European
society.
They
don't
know
what
they're
talking
about.
What
we'll
do
it
our
way
and
they
usually
led
to
their
death.
A
B
He
had
this
motto:
mule
desperandum,
which
is
latin
for
never
despair
and
became
a
kind
of
a
cheer
and
a
kind
of
his
motto.
His
his
it
was
kind
of
an
infectious
optimism
that
that
all
the
men
came
to
share
even
on
days
when,
obviously,
they
probably
shouldn't
have
been
optimistic,
he
seemed
to
have
it.
It
was
sort
of
hardwired
into
his
personality
and
it
comes
across
in
those
journals
and
I
believe
you
went
every
other
quality
that
we've
just
been
talking
about
failed.