Gary Snyder occupies a unique place in American letters. A Pulitzer prize-winning poet and a friend of the Beat writers, he has carved out a distinct literary voice in poems and essays about Buddhist spirituality and the natural world. Steve Paulson talks with Snyder about what it means to be a Buddhist animist, his Zen training in Japan, the meaning of gratitude, and the importance of exploring "the wild areas of the mind." Snyder also reads two poems.