Readers write: ‘Perception Gaps’ podcast, and Sahara exploration

‘Perception Gaps’ podcast

Thanks again for making this podcast. I think you have a great formula of giving balanced information and reporting on important, hot-button issues.

Hopefully, these will be the start of many conversations with my friends and family.

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Matt Skinner

Los Angeles

Your “Perception Gaps” podcast series is one of the most interesting things I’ve come across in a long time…. I especially enjoyed the gun suicide segment because I learned that I was one of those folks who was completely wrong in my statistical assumptions.

Bob Benchley

Miami

I learned so much from the episode about our addiction crisis. It completely changed my perspective and put the issue into context in a way no one else seems to be doing.

I found that there was a lot to mull over in such a short piece.

Rebecca Clower

Boston

Sahara exploration

It was wonderful to read the story of your intrepid reporters Scott Peterson and Peter Ford as detailed in the Jan. 28 Heart of the News article “In the Sahara, a vast emptiness etched with a thousand paths.”

I’ve been to Agadez, Niger, and from there to Bilma. I bent a knee at the house in Agadez where Heinrich Barth, the great German explorer of Sudan, stayed and watched camel caravans bring salt south from the salt-mining areas.

Does the salt trade still exist? I doubt it. It seemed doomed when we were there in 2002. It’s hard to compete with commercial salt suppliers.

I found our trek fascinating, exalting, and arduous. Glad to be reminded of that journey!

Frederic Hunter

Santa Barbara, Calif.