Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of the environment about their new books.

Daniela Soto-Hernández, "Lithium Extraction in Chile: Ontological, Ecological and Economic Dimensions" (Routledge, 2025)

May 24, 2026

Lithium Extraction in Chile

Daniela Soto-Hernández

Lithium Extraction in Chile: Ontological, Ecological and Economic Dimensions (Routledge, 2025) is a new book from Dr Daniela Soto-Hernández, a Social …

Sumana Roy, "Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 19, 2026

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal

Sumana Roy
Hosted by Arnab Dutta Roy

Plant Thinkers of Twentieth-Century Bengal (Oxford UP, 2024) by Sumana Roy takes an unexpected cast of writers and artists and, in studying their work…

Kate Brown, "Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present and Future of the Self-Provisioning City" (W. W. Norton, 2026)

May 19, 2026

Tiny Gardens Everywhere

Kate Brown
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Kate Brown, Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at MIT joins Michael Stauch to discuss her new book Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, P…

Robert Rouphail, "Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World: Environment, Disaster, and Identity in Modern Mauritius" (Ohio UP, 2026)

May 18, 2026

Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World

Robert M. Rouphail
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In a world marked by increasingly destructive ecological and meteorological upheavals, Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World: Environment, Disaster,…

Silvia Danielak, "Peace Infrastructures: How UN Peace Operations Build Roads, Bridges, and Solar Farms in the Pursuit of Sustainability" (MIT Press, 2026)

May 15, 2026

Peace Infrastructures

Silvia Danielak
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Roads, bridges, a renewable power plant, and an electricity grid: UN peacekeepers might be unusual infrastructure builders, but they’re certainly not …

Peter S. Soppelsa, "Paris After Haussmann: Living with Infrastructure in the City of Light, 1870–1914" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2026)

May 10, 2026

Paris After Haussmann

Peter S. Soppelsa
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Modern Paris is often hailed as a capital of urban infrastructure. Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris in 1853–1870, branded “Haussma…

Lucy Stewart, "The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden" (Birlinn, 2026)

May 7, 2026

The Japanese Garden

Lucy Stewart
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As detailed in The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden (Birlinn, 2026) by Lucy Stewart, at the turn of the twentieth century, Scottish adventure…

170 What Waltham Does When the Water Rises: Rachel McKane and Danielle Jacques (JP)

May 7, 2026

What Waltham Does When the Water Rises

Permafrost melts, desert cities boil, inland lakes dry up; but Waltham too in its own way has become one of the dark places of the earth. Adverse manm…

Malcolm Sen, "Irish Anthropocene: Literature, Climate Change, Sovereignty" (Syracuse UP, 2026)

May 4, 2026

Irish Anthropocene

Malcolm Sen
Hosted by Helen Penet

In Irish Anthropocene, Malcolm Sen traces the ways in which contemporary Irish literature responds to climate breakdown. Drawing upon concepts of sove…

Cooking Sections, "Waves Lost at Sea" (Spector Books, 2026)

May 2, 2026

Waves Lost at Sea

Cooking Sections
Hosted by Kelvin Vu

Waves Lost at Sea (Spector Books, 2026) traces the evolving practice of Cooking Sections, whose work spans visual arts, architecture, and ecology. Sin…

Caroline Kuzemko, "Climate Politics: Can't Live with It, Can't Mitigate without It" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

May 1, 2026

Climate Politics

Caroline Kuzemko
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

By exploring the dynamic relationships between politics, policymaking, and policy over time, Climate Politics: Can't Live with It, Can't Mitigate with…

Kaitlin P. Reed, "Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California" (U Washington Press, 2023)

April 27, 2026

Settler Cannabis

Kaitlin P. Reed
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Despite it's centrality to a hippie counterculture which claimed an environmentalist ethos, California's "green rush" of cannabis growing from the mid…

Oil and Militancy in Nigeria: A Conversation with Noo Saro-Wiwa

April 26, 2026

The Burning Ground

Noo Saro-Wiwa
Hosted by Ayisha Osori

Noo Saro-Wiwa is an author and journalist. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, she attended King's College London and Columbia Univ…

Masako Ichihara, "Climate Change Litigation in Japan: Cases, Challenges, and Opportunities for Environmental Law" (Brill, 2026)

April 19, 2026

Climate Change Litigation in Japan

Masako Ichihara
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Climate Change Litigation in Japan: Cases, Challenges, and Opportunities for Environmental Law (Brill, 2026) provides the details of Japanese climate …

Andrew W. M. Smith, "Make Cheese Not War: Transnational Resistance and the Larzac in Modern France" (Manchester UP, 2026)

April 16, 2026

Make Cheese Not War

Andrew W. M. Smith
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1971, the French government announced a massive extension of its military base on the Larzac plateau in southern France. Land was to be expropriate…

Nabil Ali, "Gold from Newton's Apple Tree: Historical Recipes for Natural Inks, Paints, and Dyes" (Princeton UP, 2026)

April 14, 2026

Gold from Newton's Apple Tree

Nabil Ali
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Flowering currant, ivy, Portuguese laurel, and woad might all have grown in a medieval garden, but it would have taken special expertise to extract an…

Clifton Crais, "The Killing Age: How Violence Made the Modern World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

April 12, 2026

The Killing Age

Clifton Crais

A bracing account of how our current planetary crisis emerged from the worst cataclysmic destruction in human history, which Clifton Crais terms the M…

The Green Transition and the Politics of Lithium Extraction

April 10, 2026

The Green Transition and the Politics of Lithium Extraction

Thea Riofrancos
Hosted by Licia Cianetti

Lithium is necessary for the green transition but its mining comes with significant environmental and social harms. This is the conundrum at the core …

Katharine K. Wilkinson, "Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home" (Amber Lotus Publishing, 2026)

April 8, 2026

Climate Wayfinding

Katharine K. Wilkinson
Hosted by Patricia Houser

When maps come up short and the path ahead is uncertain, how do we find our way? Visionary climate leader Katharine K. Wilkinson offers a compassionat…

Priyanka Kumar, "Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit" (Island Press, 2025)

April 6, 2026

Light Between Apple Trees

Priyanka Kumar
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruit--especially apples. T…