Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchBenjamin R. Cohen et al., "Acquired Tastes: Stories about the Origins of Modern Food" (MIT Press, 2021)
Episode 67
The modern way of eating—our taste for food that is processed, packaged, and advertised—has its roots as far back as the 1870s. Many food writers tra…
4 years, 9 months ago
Alexander Menrisky, "Wild Abandon: American Literature and the Identity Politics of Ecology" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Episode 69
Despite the proliferation of scientific ecology in the second half of the 20th C emphasizing the interconnection between environment and humanity, Wi…
4 years, 9 months ago
Margarita M. Balmaceda, "Russian Energy Chains: The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union" (Wilson Center, 2021)
Episode 121
Margarita Balmaceda’s Russian Energy Chains: The Remaking of Technopolitics from Siberia to Ukraine to the European Union (Columbia University Press,…
4 years, 9 months ago
Karen Sanctuaries: Memory, Biodiversity and Political Sovereignty
Episode 73
Seeds, plants and food can act as repositories of memory and identity, thus countering the alienation caused by displacement. How does this manifest …
4 years, 9 months ago
Beronda L. Montgomery, "Lessons from Plants" (Harvard UP, 2021)
Episode 294
In Lessons from Plants (Harvard University Press, 2021), Dr. Beronda Montgomery connects the science of plants to the behavior of people. She unpacks…
4 years, 9 months ago
Hillary Angelo, "How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
Episode 193
As projects like Manhattan's High Line, Chicago's 606, China's eco-cities, and Ethiopia's tree-planting efforts show, cities around the world are dev…
4 years, 10 months ago
Michael G. Hillard, "Shredding Paper: The Rise and Fall of Maine's Mighty Paper Industry" (Cornell UP, 2021)
Episode 9
From the early twentieth century until the 1960s, Maine led the nation in paper production. The state could have earned a reputation as the Detroit o…
4 years, 10 months ago
The Renewable Energy Revolution in East Asia and the Nordics
Episode 71
The world is in a midst of a renewable energy revolution, with the price of utility scale photo-voltaic solar power falling by nearly 90% between 200…
4 years, 10 months ago
Michael Moore, "We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
Episode 70
The image most of us have of whalers includes harpoons and intentional trauma. Yet eating commercially caught seafood leads to whales' entanglement a…
4 years, 10 months ago
From the Archives: Building a Sustainable Future through Urban Governance with Dr Sophie Webber
Episode 36
With two megacities and strong economic growth, Indonesia has seen dramatic rates of rural-urban migrations. According to the World Bank, nearly 70 p…
4 years, 10 months ago