Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities

What does poetry have to do with driving? And what insights can poetry from the driver’s seat provide about our environmental crisis?

In this episode, Jannis talks with a former colleague of his, Joel Duncan, author of the recently published Poetic Drive (University of Virginia Press, 2025), about the surprising connections between American poetry and the automobile. From the everyday experience of driving to race, transpoetics, and the environmental costs of fossil-fueled mobility, Joel explains how poetry about cars is especially suited to reveal the ways in which cars produce and reproduce social and environmental inequalities.

We ask why reading still matters, read and reflect on poems by Eileen Myles and Robert Creeley, and hear about Joel’s work as an educator and his own forays into writing poetry.

You can learn more about Joel’s book, Poetic Drive, at https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10153/.

You can even get a discount for Joel’s book using the following link: https://mailchi.mp/virginia/duncan-10148397?e=605f0a140b.

“Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities” is produced by Gilberto Mazzoli, Jannis Buschky, Jorge Lastra Cerda, and Nele Hoffmann.

Funding is provided by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the European Union (ERC, OffRoad, 101044725). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

Roads seem to be perfect and visceral examples of infrastructures that enable people: to move, to feel alive, to be free. What happens, however, when the realities of borders, colonial histories, and environmental exposure interrupt that promise?

In this episode, we’re joined by Nadia Butt, professor of Global Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Goethe University Frankfurt, to dive deeper into the stories, infrastructures, and environments that shape the imagination of travel and migration. Drawing on Nadia’s research into South Asian automobility as well as travel and migration narratives, we consider how cultural and geographic contexts determine what mobility means and how roads can at once become spaces of transgression and transformation, but also of constraint and risk.

Nadia explains the difference between travel and migration narratives, as we ask how literature and culture can make the visible the paradoxes of moving on the road as an ideal of freedom and a site of necessity.

“Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities” is produced by Gilberto Mazzoli, Jannis Buschky, Jorge Lastra Cerda, and Nele Hoffmann.

Funding is provided by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the European Union (ERC, OffRoad, 101044725). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

What happens when plants become monsters in our stories? Does thinking about the planet as something strange, unfamiliar, and weird offer us a better tool set to confront the challenges of climate crisis? In this episode, we explore such questions with Natalie Dederichs, academic Councilor at the Universität zu Köln and researcher specializing in climate fiction, ecocriticism, and teaching sustainability. From climate fiction to the unsettling world of plant horror, Natalie dives into how stories can help young readers engage with environmental challenges in new and unexpected ways.

We discuss her work with the ReaCH-CliFi Lab, her experiences teaching young adults, and her current habilitation project, tentatively called Planting Seeds of Emo-gination: Reading and Teaching Dark Vegetal Futures. With her usual wit and love for wordplays, Natalie unpacks concepts such as emo-ecocriticism, atmos-fear, and un-vironmental thought, and considers how literature can encourage critical reflection on our relationship with the natural world.

Whether you're interested in literature, education, sustainability, or simply enjoy discovering a good ecohorror story, you are in for an inspiring conversation with Natalie Dederichs.

Learn more about Natalie’s work by checking out her book Atmosfears: The Uncanny Climate of Contemporary Ecofiction (transcript, 2023), which you can get here: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6587-1/atmosfears-the-uncanny-climate-of-contemporary-ecofiction/

“Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities” is produced by Gilberto Mazzoli, Jannis Buschky, and Jorge Lastra Cerda.

Funding is provided by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the European Union (ERC, OffRoad, 101044725). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

In the very first episode of the “Off the Road” podcast, Gilberto and Jannis have a chance to sit down with Corey Ross, director of the institute and professor of European Global Studies at the Europainstitut of the University of Basel. We speak with Corey about the intellectual paths that led him to environmental history, the development of the field in the United States and Europe, and the relationship between empire, water, and the environment. At the center of the conversation is Corey’s latest, brilliant book, Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World (Princeton University Press, 2024), which examines how water management and large-scale infrastructure projects shaped European imperial ambitions and continue to influence contemporary environmental challenges. We also discuss utopian engineering visions such as Atlantropa and Transaqua and reflect on the opportunities and challenges of teaching environmental history to students deeply concerned about the climate crisis and environmental change.

You can get Corey’s book from Princeton UP here: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691211442/liquid-empire

“Off the Road: A Podcast about the Environmental Humanities” is produced by Gilberto Mazzoli, Jannis Buschky, and Jorge Lastra Cerda.

Funding is provided by the Centre for Cultural Inquiry (ZKF) and the European Union (ERC, OffRoad, 101044725). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.