Hampton Sides, " "Blood and Thunder," "Hellhound on His Trail," "In the Kingdom of Ice."

Air Dates: August 29-31, 2015

This Week: HAMPTON SIDESAward-Winning Author / Historian & Santa Fe Resident

Author: “Weed: The New Science of Marijuana”National Geographic Cover Article – June 2015

Best Sellers include:· “Blood and Thunder, An Epic of the American West”· “In the Kingdom of Ice, the Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette”· "Ghost Soldiers" and "Hellhound on His Trail"

August 30, 2015 -- This week's guest on REPORT FROM SANTA FE is Hampton Sides, award-winning author of the acclaimed best-selling histories "Blood and Thunder," "Ghost Soldiers," "Hellhound on His Trail," and "In the Kingdom of Ice." Sides is also an editor at Outside magazine, and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic magazine.

Sides wrote the cover article on “Weed: The New Science of Marijuana” for the June 2015 edition of National Geographic. He describes the transformative work being done in medical research on the healing powers of the drug. The article evaluates the latest research in using marijuana and its derivatives to treat glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and AIDS and describes new directions for scientific study of the drug.

QUOTE: About the Nat'l Geographic “Weed” article, Sides comments, “It is about where we are at now in terms of our knowledge of the plant itself, and the compounds that are in it. The medical uses. There is a geneticist in there literally doing the genome for cannabis. (That is) kind of what is happening in the frontlines of cannabis research now that people are starting to recognize, and there is…a critical mass of people who understand, that this plant has a lot to offer, besides just being intoxicating. It is powerful mélange of all these compounds that have all these potential uses.”

Celebrating the paperback release of his national bestseller “In the Kingdom of Ice, the Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette,” Sides discusses how his work as a narrative historian has captured audiences with his portrayal of great, real life characters, and use of novelistic techniques. “Ice” was named a Best Book of the Year by Time Magazine, USA Today, the Washington Post, and many more.

Sides' book “Blood and Thunder, An Epic of the American West” is arguably the best book ever written about Kit Carson. “Hellhound on His Trail, the Stalking of Martin Luther King and the International Hunt for His Assassin” tells the international detective story of King's assassin James Earl Ray as he strives to elude the FBI and Scotland Yard. Sides early book “Ghost Soldiers, the Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission” became the movie “The Great Raid.”