Join us for an evening with Gates Cambridge Scholar Ben Weissenbach, author of North to the Future: An Offline Adventure through the Changing Wilds of Alaska, as he discusses his recently published book exploring the rapidly transforming landscapes of the Arctic.
A journalist and writer from Los Angeles, Ben has reported from across the polar regions. As an undergraduate at Princeton, he spent his breaks shadowing scientists in Alaska, visiting the largest glaciers in the American Arctic, living off-grid in winter to study permafrost, and traversing the Brooks Range by foot and packraft to document the northward migration of the boreal forest. His book weaves together scientific observation, philosophical reflection, and immersive storytelling to capture how one of the planet’s fastest-warming regions is reshaping both nature and our relationship to it. His work has appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, the Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post, among others.
Ben will be joined in conversation by Mia Bennett, a fellow Gates Cambridge alumna and Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Washington, and currently a British Academy Visiting Fellow at UCL’s Centre for Outer Space Studies. Mia is the author of the recently published Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic, which examines how climate change, commerce, and geopolitics are transforming the world’s northernmost region.
