Cultures of Energy

Ep. #39 - Stacy Alaimo


Listen Later

Cymene and Dominic say hello from Copenhagen and muse about the humanities’ expanding color spectrum. We then welcome (12:12) to the podcast the fabulous Stacy Alaimo, Professor of English at the University of Texas-Arlington and author of the celebrated Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self (Indiana U, 2010). We discuss her new book, Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times (U Minnesota 2016), in light of her thinking about trans-corporeality and ethics in the Anthropocene. Stacy shares her concerns that an abstract sense of species identity and pride is too often smuggled into the Anthropocene concept and explains why she thinks material feminism and feminist science studies have become such important resources for understanding our present condition. We discuss why the turn toward materiality and material agency demands that we engage science in new ways. We talk about the unruly agency of xenobiotic chemicals, deep sea creatures, epigenetics, and how to remake human sprawl to take other creaturely interests into account. Stacy explains that she is not in the hope business but that she does support ecodelics—the mind altering exercise of trying to imagine and feel the Anthropocene from nonhuman perspectives. Stacy’s German Shepherd, Felix, kindly helps us grasp this last point and he shares his thoughts on squirrel metonymy and his unease when the postman cometh. The lesson of the Anthropocene? There is no someplace else. So be present for all the species in your ecology, dear friends!

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Cultures of EnergyBy Dominic Boyer

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

54 ratings


More shows like Cultures of Energy

View all
On Being with Krista Tippett by On Being Studios

On Being with Krista Tippett

10,360 Listeners

The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,911 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

291 Listeners

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Tin House Books

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

444 Listeners

Novara Media by Novara Media

Novara Media

162 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,525 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,631 Listeners

Politics Theory Other by Politics Theory Other

Politics Theory Other

154 Listeners

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat by New York Times Opinion

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

6,752 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

15,954 Listeners

Acid Horizon by Acid Horizon

Acid Horizon

175 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,228 Listeners

Ones and Tooze by Foreign  Policy

Ones and Tooze

341 Listeners

Ordinary Unhappiness by Patrick & Abby

Ordinary Unhappiness

201 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

317 Listeners