Hosts: Tori Hoover and Emma Vendetta

Salt: Homer called it “a divine substance.” Plato considered it as the element most dear to the gods, a distinction awarded for its central role in human life. Indeed, our bodies cannot function properly without it. But as the climate changes and warms and shifts in response to industrialization, the role of salt is shifting, too. Salts from human activity, like those in fertilizers and de-icers, are contaminating waterways and changing freshwater ecosystems, and rising seas encroach on freshwater territories as well. 

Today’s episode attempts to wrestle with the element’s broad and varied resonances through the work of sculptor Blane De St. Croix, with a particular emphasis on 2023’s “Salt Lake Excerpt.” We also talk with Professor Bill Hintz, an environmental scientist whose work at the University of Toledo revolves around the impact of road de-icing salts on freshwater ecosystems.   

 

For more information visit: https://artofinterference.com/