Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
“The air and sea of this ancient, fortified, dilapidated sand-bank of a town are really delicious” — a little-known appraisal of St. Augustine by Ralph Waldo Emerson — is among the treasures unearthed in Rachel Knox’s new book of essays, which simultaneously skewers and venerates the state of Florida. Both a naked examination of personal history and collective trauma, and a paean to the flora, fauna and cultural timbre of the state, Anywhere Else brings native Floridians (and true converts) on a harrowing road trip to the final chapter and the question it poses: “My god, Rachel, how can you live here?” We ask the author what it means to love a place enough to hate it and why she finds a perfect metaphor for state residents in the broken, regenerative claw of a stone crab.
Guest: Rachel Knox, author of Anywhere Else: Essays on Florida
“The air and sea of this ancient, fortified, dilapidated sand-bank of a town are really delicious” — a little-known appraisal of St. Augustine by Ralph Waldo Emerson — is among the treasures unearthed in Rachel Knox’s new book of essays, which simultaneously skewers and venerates the state of Florida. Both a naked examination of personal history and collective trauma, and a paean to the flora, fauna and cultural timbre of the state, Anywhere Else brings native Floridians (and true converts) on a harrowing road trip to the final chapter and the question it poses: “My god, Rachel, how can you live here?” We ask the author what it means to love a place enough to hate it and why she finds a perfect metaphor for state residents in the broken, regenerative claw of a stone crab.
Guest: Rachel Knox, author of Anywhere Else: Essays on Florida
