New Books Network
Environmental Studies
Science October 20, 2021

Planet Ocean

Why We All Need a Healthy Ocean

Patricia Newman and Annie Crawley

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
A little more than 70 percent of Planet Earth is ocean. So wouldn’t a better name for our global home be Planet Ocean? You may be surprised at just how …

Environmental Studies

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Interviews with scholars of the environment about their new books.

Eastern European Studies October 20, 2021

Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles

The Future of Europe's Last Primeval Forest

Eunice Blavascunas

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In Foresters, Borders, and Bark Beetles: The Future of Europe’s Last Primeval Forest (Indiana University Press, 2020), Eunice Blavascunas provides an intimate ethnographic account of Białowieża, Europe's last primeval forest …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel October 18, 2021

Troubled Water

What's Wrong with What We Drink

Seth M. Siegel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
There’s nothing more vital to survival than water. “Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”, said the Ancient Mariner, in the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Besides widespread …
Environmental Studies October 15, 2021

Deep Time Reckoning

How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now

Vincent Ialenti

Hosted by Matthew Brown
Based on twelve years of anthropological exploration, Vincent Ialenti's Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now (MIT Press, 2020) is an engaging guide on deep time learning …
Geography October 15, 2021

Extraction Ecologies and the Literature of the Long Exhaustion

Elizabeth Carolyn Miller

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
The 1830s to the 1930s saw the rise of large-scale industrial mining in the British imperial world. Elizabeth Carolyn Miller examines how literature of this era reckoned with a new …
Latin American Studies October 15, 2021

Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs

Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835-1946

Rocio Gomez

Hosted by Rachel Newman
In Mexico environmental struggles have been fought since the nineteenth century in such places as Zacatecas, where United States and European mining interests have come into open conflict with rural …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast October 11, 2021

Harnessing the Sun

Jenny Nelson

Hosted by Howard Burton
Harnessing the Sun is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jenny Nelson, Professor of Physics and Head of the Climate Change mitigation team at the Grantham …
Geography October 6, 2021

Breathing Fire

Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Line of California's Wildfires

Jaime Lowe

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
A dramatic, revelatory account of the female inmate firefighters who battle California wildfires for less than a dollar an hour On February 23, 2016, Shawna Lynn Jones stepped into the …
Environmental Studies October 6, 2021

Homewaters

A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound

David B Williams

Hosted by Matthew Brown
Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound (University of Washington Press, 2021) tells a story about exploitation and a story of hope. Focusing on the life histories …
Environmental Studies October 5, 2021

Watershed

Attending to Body and Earth in Distress

Ranae Lenor Hanson

Hosted by Matthew Brown
Ranea Lenor Hanson's Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress (U Minnesota Press, 2021) weaves a narrative that captures life on the water, diverse classrooms, and the unique experiences from learning …
Science October 4, 2021

We Are All Whalers

The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility

Michael Moore

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
The image most of us have of whalers includes harpoons and intentional trauma. Yet eating commercially caught seafood leads to whales' entanglement and slow death in rope and nets, and …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast September 30, 2021

Embracing the Anthropocene

Managing Human Impact

Mark Maslin

Hosted by Howard Burton
Embracing the Anthropocene: Managing Human Impact is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Mark Maslin, Professor of Geography at University College London. This wide-ranging conversation explores …
Food September 27, 2021

Grain by Grain

A Quest to Revive Ancient Wheat, Rural Jobs, and Healthy Food

Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle

Hosted by Susan Grelock-Yusem
How can farmers adapt to climate changes? How can regenerative farmers have livelihoods that nourish themselves and their communities? How can we break free of the commodity mindset and rethink …
Environmental Studies September 23, 2021

At the Precipice

New Mexico's Changing Climate

Laura Paskus

Hosted by Brady McCartney
At the Precipice: New Mexico's Changing Climate (U New Mexico Press, 2020) explores the question many of us have asked ourselves: What kind of world are we leaving to our …
Geography September 22, 2021

Unnatural Disasters

Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed

Gonzalo Lizarralde

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Unnatural Disasters: Why Most Responses to Risk and Climate Change Fail But Some Succeed (Columbia UP, 2021) offers a new perspective on our most pressing environmental and social challenges, revealing …
Geography September 22, 2021

Cities in the Anthropocene

New Ecology and Urban Politics

Ihnji Jon

Hosted by Stentor Danielson
Climate change is real, and extreme weather events are its physical manifestations. These extreme events affect how we live and work in cities, and subsequently the way we design, plan …
Systems and Cybernetics September 17, 2021

Gaian Systems

Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene

Bruce Clarke

Hosted by Tom Scholte
Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast September 17, 2021

Princeton UP's Pedia Series

Beautiful, Short Books About Big, Important Subjects

Robert Kirk

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked to Robert Kirk, the publisher of Princeton University Press's "Pedia" book series. Encyclopedic in nature and miniature in form, these books explore the wonders of the natural world, from …
Environmental Studies September 17, 2021

The Gospel of Climate Skepticism

Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change

Robin Globus Veldman

Hosted by Brady McCartney
Why are white evangelicals the most skeptical major religious group in America regarding climate change? Previous scholarship has pointed to cognitive factors such as conservative politics, anti-science attitudes, aversion to …
Environmental Studies September 15, 2021

Abalone

The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California's Iconic Shellfish

Ann Vileisis

Hosted by Kathryn (Kate) Carpenter
From rocky coves at Mendocino and Monterey to San Diego’s reefs, abalone have held a cherished place in California culture for millennia. Prized for iridescent shells and delectable meat, these …