The legendary San Francisco Chronicle outdoors columnist, known for decades of work covering California's wild places, has a new memoir out called Heaven Delayed, and it's exactly what it sounds like: a firsthand account of what happens when the lights start going out — again and again and again.

Stienstra, who battled cancer and endured multiple near-death experiences over the course of his life, isn't just writing about surviving. He's writing about what he saw on the other side. Visions of the afterlife, described by a journalist trained to observe and report. Whether you're a person of faith, a committed skeptic, or somewhere in the agnostic middle, that's a compelling pitch.

Now, we're not in the business of reviewing books here at The Dissent. But we are in the business of recognizing when a San Francisco institution does something genuinely remarkable. Stienstra spent his career telling readers where to fish, hike, and camp across California — the kind of journalism that reminds you the state is more than zoning fights and budget deficits. That he's now turning his pen inward, toward the most intimate and universal human experience there is, feels like a fitting evolution.

There's also something quietly countercultural about the project. In a media landscape obsessed with political outrage and algorithm-friendly takes, a veteran journalist sitting down to honestly reckon with mortality and meaning is almost radical. No hot takes. No dunking. Just a man who almost died sixteen times trying to make sense of it all.

Say what you will about legacy media — and we say plenty — but San Francisco journalism has produced some genuinely extraordinary characters. Stienstra is one of them. Heaven Delayed is worth your attention, whether you believe in heaven or not.

At minimum, it'll put your parking ticket in perspective.