Story+World: Changing Stories for a Changing Planet

Ursula K. Heise, LENS co-founder, Distinguished Professor of English and in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, joins Jon Christensen, Director of LENS, to celebrate her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences — in no small measure because of her contribution to the environmental humanities — and to consider a question that people ask sometimes in good faith...

Jack Bobo (Executive Director of the UCLA Rothman Family Institute for Food Studies) joins Jon Christensen (Director of LENS) and Ursula K. Heise (LENS co-founder, UCLA English Professor) to talk about one of the most celebrated—and, Bobo argues, most revealing—works of environmental communication: Dr. Seuss's The Lorax . A former senior advisor for global food policy at the U.S. State Depart...

2026 UCLA Environmental Science grad Grace Miller joins LENS podcast producer Liv Slaby to discuss animal vocalizations, and why humans should listen. Drawing on her fieldwork across the Colombian Amazon, the Arctic Ocean, and the mangroves of Costa Rica, Miller walks listeners through the rich and often surprising world of bioacoustics—from fish that grunt and purr to complex beluga songs. Miller...

Anthropologist and author Jeremy Narby joins Jon Christensen, Director of LENS, for a book talk recorded live in the UCLA Mathias Botanical Garden. Delving into Narby's new work, The Book of Cannabis: The History and Future of the Plant and the Drug , the conversation traces cannabis from its role as one of the world’s first domesticated plants (used for fiber, food, oil, and medicine), to th...

Alejandro Camacho (Professor of Law at UCLA) joins Jon Christensen (Director of LENS) to talk about his new book Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law. Their conversation traces the history of US environmental law from the colonial period to the present and explores what practical lessons might be learned from this history that can help us understand and address tod...

Episode 1 features a live conversation with climate journalist Sammy Roth, who recently left the LA Times to launch Climate Colored Goggles ( climatecoloredgoggles.com ). Roth reflects on his trajectory from covering energy policy and politics to examining how narratives in culture and entertainment shape environmental futures. He argues that cultural changes are crucial for climate action. To exp...