Click here for the original audio and to read a book excerpt. We revisit producer Chris Bentley's May 2025 visit to Illinois' Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie with Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty to talk about their book, “Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie." The North American prairie rivals the Amazon rainforest in its biological diversity, and it’s disappearing even faster. The book documents the destruction of this natural wonder, and introduces us to some of the people trying to save it.