"I say this all the time, and I'll say it again: the truth is a block of wood, and I know the sculpture I carve out of that block of wood looks different than the sculpture my mother carves out of that block of wood, right? But the truth — the block of wood — is what what happens, but the art we make out of that is up to us," says Isaac Fitzgerald, author of American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed.

We’ve got Isaac Fitzgerald returning to the podcast. He’s going to be at Powells on May 29, 7 p.m., in convo with Lidia Yuknavitch, and I’ll likely be heading up the 5 to photo bomb them because Isaac has a new book out called American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed. It is published by Knopf. Great talk. We were buzzin’, man. In any case, you know Isaac maybe from his bookish appearances on The Today Show, and he’s also the author of the brilliant memoir Dirtbag, Massachusetts, a coming of age story.

I liken American Rambler to a coming of middle-age story and as Isaac walks and drives in the footsteps of one John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. It’s a book that deals with that squishy time as we crest into our forties and reckon with mortality as well as the greater disconnection we’re collectively experiencing, which is why Isaac set out, largely on foot, to put his phone down and live in the world. His essay on walking for The Guardian, linked up in the show notes, very much informed and even catalyzed American Rambler.

So Isaac is a pretty special dude. I love the posture he takes in the world. When I had lunch with Lidia before her live appearance on the show, we talked about how Isaac had jumped into the comments on a couple of our Instagram posts and Lidia asked me, “Is Isaac coming to this?”

I said, “I don’t think so. I mean he’s in New York.”

“It would totally be like him to just show up.”

And I kinda love that idea. I want to make more of that effort myself.

So in this episode we talk about:

Putting the phone down
Living in the world
Walking 20,000 steps a day
The tension between building community and withdrawing into solitude
The scaffolding of the story
How he was late to the arc of his own story
Stories become what they’re supposed to be
How the truth is like a block of wood
The black dog as literary device
First lines
And how On The Road informed American Rambler

Isaac can be found on Instagram at isaac.fitzgerald and you can join his Substack list Walk It Off and learn more about him at his website isaacfitzgerald.net. He’s also collaborated with the brilliant cartoonist Wendy McNaughton on two books about tattoos, Pen and Ink and Knives and Ink. Great stuff.

If you like this episode, I would definitely check out Isaac’s first appearance on Ep. 353. I’d also check out:

Ep. 100 with Mary Karr
Episode 200 with Nick Flynn
Ep. 358: Erica J. Berry
Ep. 472 with Melissa Febos
Ep. 503 with Jason Brown

Episode 527: Isaac Fitzgerald says the Truth is a Block of Wood

The Creative Nonfiction Podcast with Brendan O'Meara

Episode 527: Isaac Fitzgerald says the Truth is a Block of Wood