“People live by their stories—how can we use them to accelerate action on climate change?”

That’s the question Anna Farro Henderson sets out to answer in Core Samples: A Climate Scientist’s Experiments in Politics and Motherhood (University of Minnesota Press, 208 pages). As a U of M scientist and policy expert who’s worked in Washington, D.C., but also been on field visits to nuclear test sites in New Mexico and the Juneau Icefield in Alaska, Henderson authored a book that’s full of funny, poetic essays on politics, science, and motherhood, and the surprising places where those things intersect.

There will be a Core Samples launch event this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Open Book Performance Hall (1011 Washington Ave S., Minneapolis), which’ll feature Henderson in conversation with Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Books will be available for purchase from Magers & Quinn Booksellers, with live music preceding the talk and a book signing, interactive public art, and more music following it. (Free, but registration is required.)