In the last decade, courts around the globe have granted legal personhood or explicit rights to rivers, largely driven by environmental activism.

In his new book, “Is a River Alive?” renowned nature writer Dr Robert Macfarlane, tracks the progress of that movement, in addition to visiting some of the world’s most pristine (and not so pristine) environments.

• GUEST: Dr Robert Macfarlane, Professor of literature and the Environmental humanities at Cambridge University. 
• PRODUCER: Ali Benton