Life Stories #80: Ava Chin

As a New York Times columnist, Ava Chin spent several years writing about her experiences foraging for edible plant life within the city limits. But Eating Wildly isn't just a handbook on how to find mulberries, (safe) mushrooms or other potential foodstuffs in an urban environment. It's also a memoir about how growing up feeling as if her own identity was defined by the father who left before she was born, and about her relationships with her mother and grandparents... and about taking the steps, in adulthood, to create a healthier emotional self-identity for herself... a process in which the mushrooms (among other flora) actually do play a meaningful role, as you'll learn during our conversation.