California’s Imperial Valley is home to one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium—a mineral that may be crucial to engineering a low-carbon economy. Companies and governments interested in extracting Imperial’s lithium promise that the process will bring jobs and investment to the Valley, one of the most socially and economically marginalized places in the state. In this episode, we ask experts, activists, and community members whether lithium mining in Imperial could be part of what experts call a “just transition”: a shift to green energy that undoes the logic of exploitation that’s led us into climate crisis, instead of repeating it.

Cover image: “SaltonSeaArielFromSouth.jpg”
By Samboy
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"Micro Flute Composition 2"
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In this episode, Christopher Kelty explores the rather surprising background to the No Kill Movement in LA. (It's Satan.)

This is the sixth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

You just saw a coyote on the street. Or maybe you read about it on Nextdoor. What should you think? In this episode, Spencer Robins asks whether you really saw that coyote, or whether you’ve followed a ghost—a cloud coyote—into a surprising political storm in Los Angeles.

This is the fifth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

The maze has brought you to a cat’s cradle story of responsibility and moral failure. Listen as Niaz Sassounian takes us on a whirlwind tour of the feral cat controversy in Los Angeles.

This is the fourth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

Everybody in Los Angeles has a coyote story, but nobody can quite agree on what seeing a coyote in the city means. What do coyotes mean by the things they do? In this episode Chase Niesner explores how what we see in coyotes might depend on what they see in us.

This is the third episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

Are you doing your part to save the planet today? Surely you’ve thought about it. All around you there are signs urging you to recycle, to save water, to use less energy. In this episode, Emma Horton asks why we feel so bad for not doing our part, and whether it’s healthy to keep trying.

This is the second episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

In this episode, Christopher Kelty asks, "what can you live with" in Los Angeles? It's a simple question without any good answers. It's a deeply cultural question, about why we love some animals and hate others, and how that never works out well.

This is the first episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project. 

In episode 2, we hear from activists in LA’s Little Tokyo working to ensure that their community has a voice in building a sustainable future. Investment in green infrastructure is an increasingly significant strategy for achieving sustainability goals, but if communities aren't involved, it can also lead to gentrification, displacement, and cultural erasure. In this episode, Scott Oshima, Grant Sunoo, and traci kato-kiriyama, along with Paul Ong of the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, discuss how “sustainability” can be redefined to include a focus on justice and to draw on the cultural histories of neighborhoods like Little Tokyo. 

In the first episode of LENS.cast, we explore the history and future of Los Angeles's remarkable trees. 

California is more than palm trees: it is, according to University of Pennsylvania historian Jared Farmer, an incredible arboretum—a collection of species from all over the world—and an "heirloom of conquest." Trees record the history of colonial destruction in California, but they could also be an important part of a more just, resilient future as LA faces the realities of climate change. 

We speak with Farmer, with Rachel Malarich, LA's first City Tree Officer, and with Maria Adame and Miguel Vargas of the nonprofit group TreePeople, about the many meanings of LA's trees. 

In the first episode of LENS.cast, we explore the history and future of Los Angeles's remarkable trees. 

California is more than palm trees: it is, according to University of Pennsylvania historian Jared Farmer, an incredible arboretum—a collection of species from all over the world—and an "heirloom of conquest." Trees record the history of colonial destruction in California, but they could also be an important part for a more just, resilient future as LA faces the realities of climate change. 

We speak with Farmer, with Rachel Malarich, LA's first City Tree Officer, and with Maria Adame and Miguel Vargas of the nonprofit group TreePeople, about the many meanings of LA's trees.