Ep 5: Lauren Elder

Blair Braverman· Host0:00

There's a really weird dynamic when you're trying to keep someone awake who desperately doesn't wanna be awake. Like, even if it's for their own good, you feel like an asshole. [gentle music] Welcome back to What to Carry, What to Burn. I'm your host, Blair Braverman. I'm a writer, an adventurer, and a dog sledder. Our story starts in 1976 in Oakland, California, with a 28-year-old woman named Lauren Elder, who wants so badly to make it as an artist, specifically a painter. Every spare minute she is working on her paintings. She lives in a storefront under a highway overpass with her boyfriend, Jim, who's a veterinarian, and she is struggling to make ends meet. Like, she's working a bunch of odd jobs. She works at a halfway house. She does freelance graphic design. On this particular spring day, Jim's boss, whose name is Jay, has big plans. He's a recreational pilot, and he's gonna take a small plane and fly to Death Valley because he accidentally left his cat there during a camping trip, and he wants to go pick up the cat again. The cat's name is Ferocious, and a woman in the desert found Ferocious going through her trash. So Jay and his girlfriend are flying over the Sierra Mountains to pick up the cat, and they're bringing a cat crate, a cactus,