The orchid thief

Chapter 1: Obsession Susan Orlean: John Laroche, to begin with, was this truly odd specimen. He was a serial monogamist. He became fixated on something, whatever it was, fossils, old mirrors, orchids, just devouring it, devoting himself to it, being completely focused on it. Had this desire to own every possible example of this thing. And then walking away from it. That was the part of it that I found baffling. I thought of myself as somebody who was completely the opposite, I thought I will never give up something that I loved as much as he loves these things. I would never just abandon an obsession. Host June Cohen: That’s journalist Susan Orlean, and she’s about to tell us the story of writing The Orchid Thief — which began as an article in the New Yorker, and evolved into a best-selling non-fiction book. Which was then adapted into a movie, called … Adaptation. The Orchid Thief was a true story of a man, John Laroche, and his quest to find rare orchids — especially the ghost orchid. But it’s a book that defies categorization. It’s about swamps and the Seminole (Indian) tribe; panthers and plant collectors. And most of all, it’s a book about obsession. I’m June Cohen, cofounder of WaitWhat, former Executive Producer of TED and your host for Spark & Fire. But this isn’t an interview show. It’s a story, told entirely in Susan’s own words. Chapter 2: The spark Where do you find a new idea? The place you didn’t expect. Susan Orlean: So I was rifling around in the seat pocket on a plane, something I don’t necessarily recommend that anybody ever do, because you never know what you’re going to find. And someone had left a copy of the Miami Herald. I thought, “All right, I’m going to read the Miami Herald.” My eye fell on a headline that said “Local nurserymen and group of Seminoles arrested with rare orchids.” I mean: Who isn’t going to read that story? It described an arrest in the Fakahatchee Strand, a place I’d never heard of, which was a state preserve, of this local man, John Laroche, who had a crew of three men with him, who happened to be members of the Seminole Tribe, and they were arrested with six pillowcases full of rare orchids. My brain was on fire. I didn’t know anything about orchids. I didn’t know orchids grew wild in Florida. I had no idea why anyone would steal orchids. My thought is, if you wanted an orchid, you went to Home Depot and bought them. Many stories have a singular question. This had so many questions. What was the Fakahatchee Strand? Why would you collect orchids? Why did he have, in particular, a crew of Seminole men with him? It’s the feeling that a door just opened onto a world that I didn’t even know existed and I thought, “I need to know more.”