In the Weeds

Two friends - Margaret Ables, co-host of the podcast What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood, and Sonia Fujimori, educator and former coordinator of the edible garden at our children’s elementary school - join me in conversation with educator and anthropologist of education Lorie Hammond to discuss her new book, Growing Whole Children in the Garden.

For more information see https://in-the-weeds.net/podcast/growing-whole-children-in-the-garden/

Geologist Marcia Bjornerud gives us primer in “reading rocks.” We start by discussing where the “stuff” of our solar system comes from - you’ll be amazed by the origins of water on Earth, for example - and then delve into the different rock types, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Bjornerud explains the “grammar” of these different rock types and gives us tips for what to look for as well as reading recommendations. Though it clearly takes practice and experience, learning to read the rocks in our local landscapes can help us see the places where we live in a whole new way: unlocking the past lives of our dyanmic planet.

For photos, links and the complete, unedited interview with Marcia Bjornerud see https://in-the-weeds.net/podcast/reading-rocks-with-marcia-bjornerud/

There are two things about Christmas that you can count on, says historian and author Judith Flanders: most of the origin stories you’ve heard are false and people have always thought ‘Christmas was better in the old days.’ Though it may not be true that Santa’s red suit came from Coca Cola, nor that Prince Albert brought the Christmas tree to Britain, the history of Christmas that Flanders relates in her 2017 book, Christmas: A Biography, is just as compelling. 

In this episode, I talk to her about the history of the Christmas tree, a subject I first looked into a couple of years ago when dwelling on a simple question: what does it mean to bring a tree into our homes in the dead of winter? 

Flanders, who has written numerous books on the Victorian period - including The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Reveled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime and The Victorian City: Everyday Life in Dickens’ London - as well as her own crime fiction, is more reluctant to speculate on the larger meanings of certain historical connections - for instance, that the tree of knowledge was probably the earliest inspiration for the Christmas tree - than I might be, but she helps us set the record straight, telling us, for instance, about the impact of Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which was all the rage at the end of the eighteenth century and introduced many to the German tradition of the Christmas tree. 

Revisiting this history of Christmas and of the Christmas tree in particular puts current customs and our own personal histories - for those of us who celebrate Christmas - into a broader perspective and reminds us that this celebration was originally - and still is - a chance to take a break and have a good time in what (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere) is the darkest time of the year. 

Thanks to Dave Larzelere for his rendition of O Tannenbaum, to Sonia Fujimori for her recording of her family expedition to cut down their Christmas tree and to my Mom and Dad for all the great memories of Christmas trees past.

Since the 1990s, we’ve been seeing the same kind of commercials: sweeping vistas of the American wilderness, forests and clear streams, rocky ledges, perhaps a dusting of snow. And, cutting through the landscape, a jeep or an SUV. No other cars in sight. 

Such a vision would seem to be fraught with contractions. For starters, this is not how most of us experience driving. Where we experience roads and traffic, SUV ads give us off-roading in beautiful country, using nature to sell technology. And, yet, these ads are clearly effective.

I discuss these fantasies of wilderness used to sell us cars with Christopher Schaberg, Dorothy Harrell Brown Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans, who has written several books on airports and air travel and who wrote a Master’s thesis relating SUV ads to American nature writing.

We look at the history of car advertising in the U.S. and the evolving role of nature (or, rather, Nature) in relation to the car.  What do these commercials tell us about the enduring role of wilderness as a symbol of American history and patriotism? What do they tell us about how we feel about cars these days and how the car manufacturers want us to feel about cars?

A few notes.  The Baobab Car is actually by Arnauld Laval and Jaqueline Held, not to be confused with Timothy's Dream Book by Pierre Le-Tan.

Here's the Joe Biden commercial we talk about; the "tiger under the hood" commercial from 1965; the Toyota Rav 4 commercial, "Chase the Unknown"; Ford Bronco's "Built Wild"; Lincoln Aviator's "Warm Escape" commercial with Matthew McConaughey;  and the Jeep Wrangler 4xe commercial, "Pale Blue Dot." 

When my daughter was eight years old, she came home one day and announced that she "knew what the B word was." But she was confused: why was a word for a female dog - the most awesome of creatures, in her mind - also an insult for girls and women? 

Interesting, I thought. What did this insult say about our relationship to animals, to dogs specifically, and about the gendering of that relationship? What did it say about how our culture connects animals and women?

These questions sparked a series of conversations - with linguist  Eric Russell,  feminist Josephine Donovan, comedian Adam Oliensis, my high school BFF, Jennifer Lynch,  and, finally, with dog trainer Jamie Ianello. 

Following the path of these conversations, this episode explores how language works and what it says about our relationship to other animals, as we examine the shifting uses and meanings of the B word.

Thank you also to Stephanie Kovacs Cohen and Stacey Bone-Gleason from Arc Stages  who read the Shakespeare parts and to Adam Bernier who recorded my interview with Adam Oliensis. 

in-the-weeds.net for more information on the podcast 

How fragile is our economy? Can it rebound from the impact of the shutdown and - similarly - from stresses climate change might inflict in the future? These are some of the questions I’ve found myself asking during the Covid pandemic.  Looming over all of these was a broader and more troubling question: were the success of our economy and the future health of our planet somehow at odds? Following the logic of capitalism, would we only thrive if we produced and consumed at a rate that would eventually put our own species, as well as many others, at peril? To help me make sense of this, I turned to Environmental Economist Marc Conte,  an Associate Professor at Fordham University. He challenged my assumptions and introduced me to the Environmental Economist’s tool kit, from cap and trade to taxes on emissions.

After a long hiatus, In the Weeds picks up where we left off with a third installment of our series on the apocalyptic!

From parasitic wasps to zombie ants and the hive mind, Joe Wallace’s novel Invasive Species takes strange natural phenomena and spins them into an apocalyptic yarn, in which a new, emergent predator threatens the human species. This is an unusual take on the apocalyptic genre I explored previously in interviews with theologian Bernard McGinn (episode #18) and novelist Brian Francis Slattery (episode #21). In this case, the end-of-days is not the end for everyone, just potentially for humans. Wallace, who had a long career as a science writer, which included a book on dinosaurs for the American Museum of Natural History, finds the idea of a future in which humans are “taken down a peg” refreshing and likes the idea that life will continue, even if we don’t.

In the fourth and last of my "socially distanced with" episodes, I touch base with Amy Hall, VP of Social Consciousness for the clothing brand Eileen Fisher with whom I discussed "the hidden cost of clothes" in episode 14.

The clothing industry is among those being hit hard by the pandemic. Amy and I speculate about the long-term effects this may have and the ways in which it may alter our buying habits. We also chat about what she's up to, including her new blog (http://www.amyjhall.com) and a consultancy business she's started to help other businesses that want to address their environmental and social impact (http://www.impactorum.com).

In the third of my “socially distanced” episodes - shorter episodes in which I touch base with former guests to see what they are up to during the quarantine - I talk to violin maker Brian Skarstad.

He tells me about some of the advantages of socially distancing for him, such as taking on projects he normally doesn’t have the time for, as well as the challenges. Together, we reflect on the way this unusual time is changing our relationship to music.

A few links you might find useful. In our chat, Brian mentions The Jacob Burns Film Center. I reference a YouTube video featuring actress Ali Ewoldt filmed in our town of Pleasantville, New York.

I also share a song my husband Dave Larzelere recently recorded at home, "Snap Back Mama." I've been needing to thank him for letting me use a piece of "Sweet Long Odds," from his album, Sweet Science, in my intro and outro. Thank you, darling.

In the second episode of my series on the apocalyptic, I talk to Brian Francis Slattery about his novel Lost Everything, which won the 2012 Philip K. Dick award. 

The novel follows two friends on a mission up the Susquehanna River, in an apocalyptic not-too-distant future, in which climate change and civil war have transformed the Northeast of the United States into a tropical wasteland, replete with monkeys climbing over post-industrial ruins.

Slattery and I discuss the canoe trip he took along the Susquehanna with two biologist friends to research the book; his discussions with a religious friend that helped shape the novel, which he says he wrote so that it could yield both secular and religious readings; and his work as a journalist, which provided insight into the human and material costs of war. 

We also compare notes on the apocalyptic in popular culture - why some people like it; what Slattery thinks is good (and isn’t) and the kind of mental and emotional work it faciliates.