I love legends. I love lost mysteries. And tonight we are deviling into a true one, a recent one that National Geographic Channel has just made a feature documentary about. coffee The book is called "The Lost City Of The Monkey God, A True Story" its author and our guest tonight, who barely escaped with his life, Douglas Preston. Our journey begins tonight with a legend and a lost mystery. Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumors have circulated about an ancient "White City", a city of immense wealth hidden in the Honduran interior. Indigenous tribes spoke of ancestors who had fled there to escape the Spanish. They warned of a curse, a curse so ominous that anyone who dared disturb this sacred city would suffer unspeakable suffering and disease that would ultimately kill them. In 1940, journalist Theodore Morde returned from the jungle with hundreds of artifacts and tantalizing stories of having seen the crumbling walls of the Lost City of the Monkey God for himself. Disturbingly, soon after, he committed suicide without revealing its mysterious location. It is into this tale that our guest tonight Douglas Preston entered as part of a national Geographic Channel expedition and added the next chapter in the saga.
A quick bio about Douglas Preston is a is #1 New York Times bestselling author, he has written and edited for the American Museum of Natural History and taught writing at Princeton University. He has written for The New Yorker, Natural History, National Geographic, Harper's, Smithsonian, and The Atlantic. He is author of several acclaimed nonfiction books—including the bestseller The Monster of Florence—Preston is also the co-author with Lincoln Child of the bestselling series of novels featuring FBI agent Pendergast.
"People need history in order to know themselves to build a sense of identity and pride, continuity, community and hope for the future."
"Archeology contains many cautionary tales for us to ponder in the 21st century. Not just about disease, but also about human success and failure. It teaches us lesson in environmental degradation, income inequality, war, violence, class division, exploitation, social upheaval, religious fanaticism, but, archeology also teaches us how cultures have thrived and endured overcoming the challenges."
