In this episode, we welcome Javiera Barandiarán, a persistent advocate for environmental justice, as she shares insights from her research regarding the Puna de Atacama of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. We explore the delicate ecosystems of the Atacama Desert and the challenges posed by lithium mining. Javiera discusses her upcoming book, "Living Minerals: Nature, Trade, and Power in the Race for Lithium," and delves into the importance of restorative environmental work, the complexities of environmental justice, and the urgent need for sustainable practices in a rapidly changing world. Join us for an enlightening conversation that reveals the intricate connections between nature, community, and the vagaries of capitalism.

We include musical interludes from Illapu [https://illapu.cl/], a Chilean folk and Andean musical ensemble that was formed in 1971 in Antofagasta. They are known for their participation in the Nueva Canción Chilena movement and their exile under the Pinochet regime.

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Javiera Barandiarán PhD [https://www.global.ucsb.edu/people/javiera-barandiaran] is an Associate Professor in the Global Studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Barandiarán received her Ph.D. in 2013 from the University of California, Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy and Management. She holds a Masters in Public Policy also from Berkeley and received her B.A. in politics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. For her work on lithium she was selected for a Bellagio Residency by the Rockefeller Foundation and a Berlin Prize from the American Academy. Her research has been awarded support from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, Chile's National Agency for Science (ANID) and others. Her work explores the intersection of science, environment, and development in Latin America.

She is Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Restorative Environmental Work (CREW) [https://crew.global.ucsb.edu/]

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 268

Photo credit: American Academy in Berlin

In this episode, we welcome the internationally acclaimed educator and writer, Didi Pershouse [https://didipershouse.substack.com/], as she discusses the urgent need for rehydrating California. With her expertise from the Land and Leadership initiative and the Wisdom Underground podcast, Didi shares actionable insights on restoring the hydrological cycle and soil health. Join us as we explore the interconnectedness of water, climate, and biodiversity, and discover how local actions can lead to significant environmental change.

We have much to learn about how to respect, honor and reciprocate life to water in our daily lives and in our times. While water is abundant, we have in a short amount of time created scarcity. We can change that. It starts with us, our behaviors, our thoughts & intentions, our actions. Can We Rehydrate CA is a multi-stakeholder initiative tapping into the ingenuity of human and natural communities with the goal of creating conditions in which the soil sponge regenerates, a fully functional water cycle is restored, and more people are involved in asking (and answering) questions about water. Rehydration would reduce wildfires, raise the water table, improve water (and air) quality, lengthen the green growing season, moderate air temperatures and restore biodiversity.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Our early 2025 interview with Didi: https://soundcloud.com/socal350/beyond-the-financialization-of-nature-an-ecology-of-care

Our 2022 Interview with Didi: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/solving-the-climate-crisis-through-global-soil-health-with-didi-pershouse/

RESOURCES

"The Wisdom Underground" podcast, and Didi's articles on Substack- https://didipershouse.substack.com/

Courses, Community, and Resources: The Land & Leadership Initiative - http://www.landandleadership.org/

Free Downloadable Manual: Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function - https://www.didipershouse.com/understanding-soil-health-and-watershed-function.html

Book: The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities - https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Care-Agriculture-Microbial-Communities/dp/069261303X

Didi Pershouse is the founder of the Land and Leadership Initiative and the Author of two books. The first is The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities. Her second is Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. An internationally known writer and teacher, her focus is on the foundational role of soil structure and function--or the Soil Sponge – as the best way to provide abundant water and food for all life, while establishing resilience to flooding, drought, heatwaves, and wildfires. She also teaches how we can work with land management to regulate the climate through both the water cycle and carbon cycle, collaborating with the biological workforce of plants, animals, insects, fungi, and microbes.

You can find her writing and interviews on The Wisdom Underground on Substack [https://didipershouse.substack.com/].

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 267

US imperialism is directly connected to hundreds of millions of people's lives throughout the world, capital accumulation and global inequality, climate change, fascism. The U.S. enforces its violent empire by maintaining almost 800 military bases around the world. Each one contaminates the soil. Occupies land. Each base contributes to the U.S. military project’s status as #1 institutional polluter in the world, as it unleashes over a billion metric tons of CO2 in the atmosphere. As it destroys the built and natural environment wherever its boots touch the ground.

In this episode, we engage with Jodie Evans from CODEPINK to explore the crucial relationship between war and environmental degradation. We unpack the concept of the War Economy, its devastating impacts on our planet, and discuss the urgent need for a shift towards a Peace Economy. Join us as we challenge the narratives surrounding militarism and advocate for a world where peace and sustainability coexist.

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

The environmental movement and the peace movement share a target: militarism. War is driven by resource extraction; without it, the push for control of fossil fuels, rare earth minerals, shipping ports and channels would not be necessary nor possible. Therefore a Peace Economy would help keep the fossil fuels in the ground and direct investment in clean and renewable energy, as well as regenerative growth in agriculture and green infrastructure that both create jobs and improve our biosphere as a place for living and thriving.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Resources/Articles: CODEPINK WING resource page https://www.codepink.org/wing and Elephant In The Room campaign: https://www.codepink.org/elephant_in_the_room

Jodie Evans is a co-founder and board member of CODEPINK [https://www.codepink.org/] with over 40 years of activism in peace, environmental, women’s rights, and social justice. She has traveled to war zones to promote peaceful conflict resolution and works locally to advocate for divestment from war and build peace economies. Jodie served in Jerry Brown’s administration, ran his presidential campaign, and authored two books: Stop the Next War Now and Twilight of Empire. As a documentary producer and board member of the Rainforest Action Network and Women’s Media Center, she is a powerful voice for activism and policy change.

Jodie has appeared on numerous podcasts and TV segments over the years and is a sought-after guest panelist on the topic of local peace economies, feminist foreign policy, and using activism to cultivate change.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 266

Photo credit: CODEPINK

In this episode, we engage with artist Salomé Restrepo as she shares her insights on migration, cultural identity, and the role of art in addressing social issues. Through her powerful experiences in Colombia and Chile, Salomé explores how art can serve as a vehicle for dialogue and change, shedding light on the complexities of displacement and human resilience. Join us for an inspiring discussion that challenges perceptions and highlights the importance of empathy in understanding the migrant experience.

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Salomé showed her work at the SACO Contemporary Art Bienal [https://bienalsaco.com/ecosistemas-oscuros-dark-ecosystems/] with her piece Migrant Ecosystems, thematically connected to the Dark Ecosystems title of the show. Taking place in the world's driest desert, the exhibition emphasized the connection between art and science, seeking to showcase contemporary artworks in spaces all over the city of Antofagasta. The show, presented in a region whose economy is dedicated almost exclusively to mining of rare earth minerals like copper and lithium, celebrates what they call the "dark biosphere," which may include subsurface microorganisms that defy any theory about what life can endure. Yet this Dark Biosphere can be interpreted as the multitude of ways that people and communities can survive and thrive in this most inhospitable desert.

The Bienal SACO featured artists from all over Latin America, Europe, North America, and Asia.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Salomé Restrepo [https://salomerestrepo10.wixsite.com/portafolio/en] from Bogotá, Colombia has a Master of Fine Arts and Master of Peace Education from the District University of Bogotá. Her work addresses gender, migration, and memory, with projects such as The Body as a Territory for Peace. She has taught at the Surcolombian University and INCCA University, in addition to co-directing the cultural platform Culture in Route. She was the education coordinator at the Sala de Arte Bancolombia and has developed educational projects for trainers in museums and cultural spaces. Her work has been exhibited in Colombia, Chile, and soon in the United States. She is featured in the 2025 SACO Contemporary Art Bienal with her piece Migratory Ecosystems.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 265

In this episode, we explore the precarious existence of grizzly bears in the United States, focusing on their survival challenges and the intricate interplay between human development and wildlife conservation. From the historical land grabbing and habitat destruction to the current threats posed by climate change, we delve into the struggles of maintaining genetic diversity and the critical need for interconnected habitats. With insights from experts and advocates like Doug Peacock and Terry Tempest Williams, we discuss the pressing issues of delisting, trophy hunting, and the impact of climate change on grizzly bear populations. Join us as we examine the role of grizzlies in our ecosystem and the urgent need for coexistence to ensure their survival and ours.

We include clips from four documentaries on the grizzly bear.

Grizzly Country: https://youtu.be/2_XPRozm4CI?si=M7XpfUKCTuFUCB98

Directed by Ben Moon, presented by Peak Design

The Beast of Our Time: Climate Change and Grizzly Bears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cfuSIlEIyY

Produced by Save the Yellowstone Grizzly and Never Give Up Films

Peacock’s War: https://youtu.be/2KJ-ia0O71U?si=8aPXc2MG05sKCgMc

Peacock's War, PBS Nature profiles Vietnam veteran Doug Peacock, who's battling to protect grizzly bears while dealing with war memories. Filmed in Montana's Glacier National Park.

Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons - PBS Nature Documentary: https://youtu.be/9gXa-bs_9i0?si=_BrGyekmC0h0rPIC

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Doug Peacock, [https://dougpeacock.net/] born in 1942, is a U.S. author, filmmaker, naturalist, and Vietnam War veteran. He is best known for his work dedicated to grizzly bear recovery in the lower-48, his book Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness and serving as the model for the well-known character George Washington Hayduke in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.

His other books include ¡Baja!, Walking It Off: A Veteran’s Chronicle of War and Wilderness, and The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears (co-authored with Andrea Peacock). His latest book, Was It Worth It: A Wilderness Warrior’s Long Trail Home, won the 2023 National Outdoor Book Award, and a 2022 award for literature from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.

Doug is the co-founder of several conservation organizations including Round River Conservation Studies and Save The Yellowstone Grizzly.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 241

In this episode, we delve into the environmental toll of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Comparing the impacts with our multiple climate disasters, we have witnessed how environmental destruction has dramatically altered our understanding of home, place, and belonging.

To trace ways in which ecological grief is echoed and reckoned with across these different contexts, EcoJustice Radio shares the Thomas Mann House presentation of a conversation between Darya Tsymbalyuk (University of Chicago) and Ursula K. Heise (UCLA).

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Tsymbalyuk’s recent book, ‘Ecocide in Ukraine’, highlights the devastating impact of the conflict on Ukraine's ecosystems and landscapes. From pollution and destruction of habitats to the emotional connections of locals to their environment, this episode sheds light on the often-overlooked ecological consequences of war.

Drawing connections between Ukrainian experiences, the scarred lands of the Pacific Palisades, and beyond, Tsymbalyuk and Heise discuss the loss of cherished places and species to examine the role of storytelling and the cultural imaginations in ways of inhabiting the damaged Earth.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Ecocide in Ukraine Book: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=ecocide-in-ukraine-the-environmental-cost-of-russias-war--9781509562497

Darya Tsymbalyuk [https://daryatsymbalyuk.com/] is an interdisciplinary scholar, and her practice includes writing and image-making. Most of Darya’s work lies at the intersection of environmental humanities and artistic research. She is a recipient of the Mary Zirin Prize from the Association of Women in Slavic Studies (2023), and the author of multiple articles in environmental humanities. Her book “Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War” from Polity Press was published in 2025. Darya serves as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU), University of Chicago.

Ursula K. Heise [https://english.ucla.edu/people-faculty/heise-ursula-k/] holds the Marcia H. Howard Term Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. She is co-founder and current Director of the Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS). Her books include, among others, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 264

In his book “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States,” Kyle T. Mays, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History at UCLA, argues that the foundations of the United States are rooted in Anti-Black racism and settler colonialism, and that these parallel oppressions continue today.

Speaking with EcoJustice Radio in 2021, he explored how Black and Indigenous peoples (sometimes together, sometimes apart) have always sought to disrupt, dismantle, and reimagine US democracy. He uses examples of the Black Power and Red Power movements of the 60s and 70s, as well as collaborations for the Standing Rock Sioux and Black Lives Matter. Dr. Mays’ work seeks to illuminate how we can imagine and put into practice a more just world.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Kyle T. Mays [https://www.kyle-mays.com/] is an Afro-Indigenous (Saginaw Chippewa) writer and scholar of US history, urban studies, race relations, and contemporary popular culture at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Mays is an author of 3 books. “An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States” is available from Beacon Press.

Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 123

Photo credit: Kyle T. Mays

On this show, we hear excerpts from a keynote talk from the Bioneers 2024 Conference in Berkeley, California by Taylor Brobry, Activist and Author of Boys and Oil, Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land. We then will hear what is called a climate thinker, Gabrielle Walker from her TED Talk on Carbon Capture. Following that, host Jack Eidt's 2024 interview with energy expert and climate and environmental activist Morey Wolfson.

Most of us understand we are in a global climate emergency. Data confirmed last month was the hottest May on record, putting the Earth on a 12-month streak of record-breaking temperatures. What we need is to immediately transition away from the burning of fossil fuels toward renewable power sources, but also a focus on more efficient energy use, and most importantly, a comprehensive plan for massive conservation and rethinking the way we do business. But global corporations want to continue with their present business model focused on coal, oil, fossil gas, ethanol, and industrial agro-fueled biodiesel. And the way they do it is advancing solutions like Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage.

Taylor Brorby [https://taylorbrorby.com/] grew in the dynamic shortgrass prairie of western North Dakota, a youth that coincided with the brutal physical and psychic scarring of his surroundings by the coal and oil industry, a fate not made any easier by being a young gay boy enthralled by classical music, art, fishing, and poetry. From here, Taylor became a poet, writer and dedicated activist, an eloquent critic of the fossil fuel industry, penning, among other works, the memoir: Boys and Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land, the essays in Civil Disobedience, and co-editing: Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America.

Morey Wolfson has spent his career in energy and environmental policy. He is a Former Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) regulator, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) employee, and governors’ energy policy advisor.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 224

Photo credit: Kanenori on Pixabay

In this episode, we feature Michael Parenti, a prominent political scientist and cultural critic, as he delivers a powerful lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1986. Parenti discusses the intricacies of US interventionism, the dynamics of capitalism, and the historical exploitation of the developing world. He challenges conventional narratives about poverty in the Global South, asserting that these nations are not poor but rather over-exploited. Join us as we unpack his insightful analysis of imperialism, capitalism, and the ongoing struggles for social justice that our oligarchs and their political class have not seemed to learn the lessons from 40 years ago, as the stature of the U.S. erodes daily on the world stage, supporting endless war in Ukraine and Palestine, disastrous trade policies, and ongoing hegemonic and regime change operations in multiple countries.

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Sources:

Michael Parenti speaks at the University of Colorado, Boulder: "US interventionism, the 3rd world, and the USSR" April 15, 1986

Yellow Lecture:

https://youtu.be/W10QEs-TkhU?si=ZP_D5JNOWpJ_xvuC

Michael Parenti Library:

https://www.youtube.com/@themichaelparentilibrary/videos

Michael Parenti [https://www.michael-parenti.org/] is a U.S. political scientist, academic historian and cultural critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He is the award-winning author of twenty-four books, including The Face of Imperialism (2011) and Democracy for the Few originally written in 1974 with a 9th edition published in 2010: He has taught at universities and has also run for political office. Parenti is well known for his Marxist writings and lectures, and is an intellectual of the U.S. Left.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 263

Photo credit: Michael Parenti

Can we trace where Western Civilization went wrong to the 1400s when Filippo Brunelleschi, known for his brazen duomo designs in Florence, Italy, invented the linear perspective that dominated Art, Architecture, and city planning ever since? This almost-photographic perspective of the world around us translated to cities and their people being separated from nature, and the ecosystems that nourish us all, at least that signifies an auspicious moment in history. Some European painters in the early 20th Century, like Picasso and Matisse, challenged this linear perspective and were called Fauves or wild beasts. But do we need more wild beasts, rather than just bad-boy painters from Europe, to overcome these linear perspective machines and heal our relationship with the Earth?

On this show recorded in 2014, Shana Nys Dambrot [http://sndx.net], art historian and culture writer from Los Angeles’ vibrant art scene, guides us on a romp through these European art movements to trace how we got here and where we are headed. We delve into the question of how environmental and climate activism intertwine with artistic expression. Shana engages in a thought-provoking conversation about the role of art in shaping a better world, exploring the dreams and tangible enactments of new realities. Join us as we confront the big questions: Whose dream? Whose world? What does 'better' truly mean? This episode is not just an exploration of art, but a challenge to the status quo and an invitation to envision a future that includes everyone.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Resources/Articles:

https://www.laweekly.com/author/sndambrot/

https://artillerymag.com/byline/shana-nys-dambrot/

Related Interview:

Designing Architecture and Landscapes with Nature’s Ecological Wisdom - Carl Welty https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/designing-architecture-and-landscapes-with-natures-ecological-wisdom/

Shana Nys Dambrot [http://sndx.net] is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA who has been Arts Editor for the L.A. Weekly, and a contributor to the Village Voice, Flaunt, Artillery, and other culture publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, and is the recipient of the 2022 and 2024 Mozaik Future Art Writers Prize, the 2022 Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism, and the LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Critic of the Year award for 2022. Her surrealist novel Zen Psychosis (Griffith Moon) was published in 2020.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 212