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Season 3, Episode 12: On Literature and Activism with Matthew Schneider-Mayerson

Thomas and Panu had a wide ranging and stimulating dialog with Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, an associate professor of English at Colby College whose work touches on the cultural and political dynamics of climate change with a focus on literature and climate justice. Matthew shared his environmental identity “origin story” including his early anti-sweatshop activism and discovering Elizabeth Kolbert’s classic climate change narrative Field Notes from a Catastrophe while waiting in his therapist's office. We discussed insights from his projects like the Ecotopian Lexicon and thoughts about helping his students create rituals together to show value for nature and the more-than human world.  

Links

• Matthew Schneider-Mayerson

• An Ecotopian Lexicon: 

• “Fire souls” Swedish: eldsjäl  – Finnish: tulisielu

• “The Environmental Politics of Reproductive Choices in the Age of Climate Change.” Environmental Politics 31.1 (2022): 152-172

Transcript

[The Climate Change and Happiness Transcript is on holiday.]