Jonathan Meiburg joined Okkervil River in 1999 and had a profound impact on the band in its earliest days, but in addition to being a great musician Jonathan is also an excellent writer with an abiding love of birds and of the natural world. That love has found an outward expression in his first book, A Most Remarkable Creature, which just came out last week. I've followed Jonathan through the process of writing this wonderful book and in this episode of the podcast we largely eschew musical topics to have a kaleidescopic conversation about Jonathan's travels to the remotest reaches of the world, about the fascinating bird and the equally fascinating 19th century naturalist at the center of Jonathan's book, and about widespread animal consciousness and re-calibrating our understanding of where humans sit in the order of things. 

I've decided to take the rare step of making this one episode public because I want make sure everybody gets a chance to hear what Jonathan has to say. So enjoy, and to those who don't follow this Patreon here's a small glimpse of the podcast element of it.