His new life takes him … well, everywhere

For his first 45 years, Baratunde Thurston (shown here) has managed a sort of mobile semi-fame.
He’s alternated between coasts, alternated between comedy and politics. He’s written books, done podcasts, been the digital guy for both The Onion and “The Daily Show.”
But now, in a strike-strewn time, he gets a new focus. Think of him as one of the first broadcast-network stars of the new season.
The big-time dramas and comedies are on the shelf for now, but PBS has its full line-up. Mysteries start Sept. 3; soon (8 p.m. Sept. 6), “America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston” opens its second season.
The show takes him to some less-visited spots. “We have oyster farmers, we have ranchers, we have wild-land firefighters, we have fire-restoration experts,” he said.”All that’s very important.”
And very different from his early years in Washington, D.C. Thurston found himself:
— Swimming in 40-degree water. That’s common, said Dan Devereaux, a Maine oyster farmer. “When we’re a little bored in the wintertime, we’ll go down and jump off the dock, … just to wake us up.”
— Skeet-shooting in Arkansas and duck-hunting in New Mexico – big steps for someone whose father was killed by a gun. “I think it is very admirable of him to step out of a comfort zone,” said Kayle Browning, a silver-medal Olympic shooter from Arkansas.
— Riding the bike trail alongside Elaine, Ark. The trail, said Lisa Gilbert (the city’s mayor) is on the remains of “the railroad that brought in 500 soldiers who participated ion the Elaine Massacre,” killing Black sharecroppers.
Thurston samples a vivid variety of life. Then again, his life has always been that way.
His early years were as “very much a city kid” in Washington, D.C., he said, with a mom who was a computer programmer “and also the hippie-est, crunchiest person you’d ever meet. She was into tofu before anybody, yoga before anybody, community gardens.”
That meant he was in the gardens, too. “She called it an activity, but it was labor and I helped feed the family.” They also went hiking, camping and more.
“I know now, with hindsight, my mother was trying to keep me alive. Every moment I was in a park or in the woods, …. I wasn’t on the street.”
Those moments were also important to his mother, he feels. “There was a spiritual element to it for her. It was a peaceful place, a place to heal. My mom had a lot to heal from.”
His father had been out of their lives for a long time, before being killed by an unknown gunman. But Thurston and his mom pushed ahead. They moved when he was in junior high; he graduated from a Quaker school and then from Harvard.
And much later, after livingon both coasts, he was ready to travel through the country, pushing for new adventures. Some of it came easily; then again:
— “I’m not a snake person,” he said. “I’m just not.” But someone “kind of tricked me into holding this six-foot snake.”
— “Planes work well, so I’m not going to jump out of them on a daily basis. So doing paragliding – that also pushed my comfort.”
— Then there was that lake in wintertime Maine. “It was definitely cold to jump into, (but) once I got through the initial shock, the cold can actually be comfortable …. My heart rate dropped, my worries went away. I felt like I was floating int this different sort of space.”