When Tara Roberts learned about an extraordinary group of Black underwater archaeologists called Diving With a Purpose after seeing a photo of them in a museum, she did something that very few people would: she instinctively quit her job and trained to dive, so she could join them. And lucky for us she did, because that led to years of exploring and documenting the wrecks of ships that once carried captive Africans during the transatlantic slave trade. And THAT brought us her stunning debut book, WRITTEN IN THE WATERS: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging.

Tara — writer, editor, diver, National Geographic’s Explorer in Residence, teller of important, enduring stories about who we were and who we are as a society — THANK YOU for joining me to talk about your work and this stunning book. In helping to uncover so much brutal and neglected history (it’s estimated that as many as 1,000 slave ships sank during their voyages, of which only 20 have been discovered), Tara comes to explore her own family history and her identity as a Black woman in America. The result, WRITTEN IN THE WATERS, is like Tara herself: both fearless and vulnerable, both honest and thoughtful.

I couldn’t put it down, and I urge you to pick it up if you haven’t already — and then watch our conversation about courage, home, fragility, intuition, history, conformity, and, a personal favorite: pushing past fear to follow one’s curiosity. Thank you, Tara, for leading the way!