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If you're a creature of the 21st century, odds are you've stumbled upon the nascent DIY movement. From baking our bread to stitching our own clothes to raising back yard chickens and growing our own vegetables\u2014even restoring our own furniture\u2014the past few decades have seen a resurgence in our appreciation for crafts, right down to craft beer. But have you ever thatched your own roof with grasses that you grew in your own back yard? Or spent hours researching the secret behind making the best kind of haystack? Alexander Langlands has, and in his new book, Craeft, he takes DIY to a whole new level. Part how-to, part memoir, the book gets at what it means to make things with your own hands, and how this experience connects us both to the past and to our present sense of place.

Episode page: https://theamericanscholar.org/reclaiming-craftiness/

Go beyond the episode:

• Alexander Langlands\u2019s Craeft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts
• Old meets new in this Pinterest board of traditional tools to complement the book
• Watch Alexander Langlands re-create early 20th-century life on the BBC\u2019s Edwardian Farm, preceded by Victorian Farm
• Or there\u2019s Wartime Farm, which returns an English estate to its condition during the Second World War
• Can\u2019t get enough of the BBC? There\u2019s also  Tudor Monastery Farm, featuring one of our past guests, Ronald Hutton
• Jump into the circular economy through old-fashioned mending: visit a Repair Caf\xe9 to learn how to make things last

Tune in every two weeks to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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Have suggestions for projects you\u2019d like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Our theme music was composed by Nathan Prillaman.

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