In the Weeds
67 episodes - English - Latest episode: 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 26 ratingsIn the weeds explores how culture shapes our relationship to the natural world through interviews with a wide range of guests, from scientists to artists to cultural critics and theologians.
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Episodes
The Pope's Encyclical on the Environment
December 13, 2019 13:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBIn “Laudato si,” known as the Encyclical on the Environment, Pope Francis presents an “urgent challenge” to protect our “common home,” the Earth. I discuss this letter addressed not just to Catholics but to all people, with Christiana Zenner, Associate Professor of Theology, Science and Ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University. We talk about Pope Francis’ folding together of his concern for the environment and for the lives of the poor; his framing of the issues in a langua...
The Encyclical on the Environment
December 13, 2019 13:00 - 57 minutes - 39.4 MBIn “Laudato si,” known as the Encyclical on the Environment, Pope Francis presents an “urgent challenge” to protect our “common home,” the Earth. I discuss this letter addressed not just to Catholics but to all people, with Christiana Zenner, Associate Professor of Theology, Science and Ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University. We talk about Pope Francis’ folding together of his concern for the environment and for the lives of the poor; his framing of the issues in a langua...
Gotham Coyote Project with Chris Nagy
November 29, 2019 05:00 - 37 minutes - 25.9 MBUsing heat-sensitive cameras and radio collars, Gotham Coyote Project tracks coyotes, as they make a life for themselves in the Bronx, in parks and a golf course and, occasionally, show up in Central Park or trotting along the West Side Highway. This amazingly resilient animal challenges our understanding where “nature” resides and gives us a blueprint for how we might welcome wilderness into our suburbs and our cities.
Coyote America with Dan Flores
November 15, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBPredators are a two-faced god for humans, according to Dan Flores, historian and author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History. After all, we were once both predators and prey. With this episode, we continue to explore this complex relationship of humans and predators by looking to the song dogs of the prairie. Coyotes inspired several Aztec dieties, served as the model for the protagonist of the earliest American stories, and, in defiance of a concerted effort by federal...
Genesis
November 01, 2019 04:00 - 52 minutes - 36.1 MBIn 1967, medieval historian Lynn White published a now-infamous paper that traces the current environmental crisis back to a Judeo-Christian worldview… essentially, he blames the creation story in Genesis, especially the part in which God gives humans the task of “ruling” over animals. I wanted to take a closer look and knew the thing to do was to ask a rabbi. I got help from Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, rabbi-in-residence for Hazon, the Jewish lab for sustainability. We talk about Rabbi Roth...
Bonus Episode: The Twilight Saga
October 25, 2019 13:00 - 25 minutes - 17.4 MBI’m having trouble letting go of wolves…I’m fascinated with the way we use these predators as models for who we are, as humans, and who we are, as animals. So, before we move on to our next topic, I thought it would be fun to look at an example from popular culture. My friend Alisa Hartz and I discuss the Twilight movies, based on the YA novels by Stephenie Meyer, in which Bella, a teenage girl who has recently moved to a small town in the Pacific Northwest to live with her father, has t...
In the Company of Actual Wolves
October 19, 2019 20:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MBLast time, we looked at Little Red Riding Hood and the “big, bad wolf” of the fairy-tale tradition. This time, we turn to actual wolves and their situation in North America today. I interview Maggie Howell, the Director of The Wolf Conservation Center. We talk about why wolves are important to the ecosystem (and how the Northeast has suffered in their absence) and what is being done to protect endangered wolf species, including a rather unusual approach to reintroducing captive wolves into...
The Wolf in the Woods
October 05, 2019 20:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBHow did the wolf come to be “carnivore incarnate”? Why do we project our own beastliness onto wolves? With the help of Maria Tatar, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, and Aleksander Pluskowski, Associate Professor of Archeology at the University of Reading, I deconstruct the figure of the fairy-tale wolf.
Ojai Olive Oil
September 20, 2019 18:00 - 38 minutes - 26.6 MBHow do you shop for a good bottle of olive oil? What’s the difference between organic and conventional? 1 percent and .25% acidity? Learn this and much more from my conversation with Philip Asquith, Master Miller of Ojai Olive Oil - oh, and, my brother. We recorded this interview while exploring the olive grove and mill, on the edge of the Sespe Wilderness Area.
What is culture?
September 08, 2019 16:00 - 36 minutes - 25 MBEnvironmentalists tell us that to save our species - and many others that depend on us - we need a change in our culture, not just our technology, but what exactly is culture? With the help of Michael Ziser, Associate Professor of English at UC Davis, and Caleb Scoville, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley, I explore the history and meanings of the word culture. It turns out this history has a lot to tell us about our relationship to the natural world.
Shade-Grown Isn't Good Enough
August 23, 2019 02:00 - 5 minutes - 3.96 MBI'm traveling, so I don't have time to produce a full episode this week, but I hope you'll enjoy this segment of my interview with Doug Tallamy that didn't make it into my first episode. In this part of our conversation, Tallamy talks about his recent research on the impact of coffee production on bird habitat and the new "Bird Friendly" label he's developed with the Smithsonian.
The Violist
August 09, 2019 04:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBPart 2 of my inquiry into the connections between wood and music and, by extension, trees and people. I interview Judy Nelson, violist for the New York Philharmonic, who tells me stories of violas, old and new, teaches me what makes an instrument "speak" and gives me insight into the dynamic relationship between a musician and her fiddle. For pictures and more info see in-the-weeds.net.
The Violin Maker
July 26, 2019 01:00 - 30 minutes - 21.3 MBIn my quest to understand the relationship between trees and music, I seek out Brian Skarstad, an expert violin maker (he scoffs at the term "luthier") who makes violins by hand, employing many of the same techniques that violin makers have been using for hundreds of years. I talk to him about tonewood, how a violin is made and the myriad details that affect a violin’s sound and quality. It’s like opening a portal to a secret world.
The Earth's Story with Marcia Bjornerud
July 12, 2019 10:00 - 37 minutes - 26.1 MBI talk with Marcia Bjornerud about her recent book, Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. We discuss how to read rocks (“rocks are not nouns but verbs”), the “developmental novel” in which the Earth is the main character, and the geologist’s perspective on climate change.
Native-Plant Gardening with Carolyn Summers
June 27, 2019 22:00 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MBA companion to the first episode with Doug Tallamy, this episode features Carolyn Summers, landscape architect, adjunct professor at the Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College and author of Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. She helps us understand how to put Doug Tallamy's call to "Bring Nature Home" into practice. For pictures of the plants we discuss see in-the-weeds.net
Gardening for Wildlife (and Human Life) with Doug Tallamy
June 14, 2019 13:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MBDoug Tallamy, Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, proposes a shift in our suburban gardening culture. To ensure the future of many species, including our own, Tallamy argues we must garden with more native plants to feed insects. For more information see in-the-weeds.net
Introducing In the Weeds
June 07, 2019 18:00 - 1 minute - 590 KBIntro to the upcoming podcast In the Weeds with Nicole Asquith.