ASLE EcoCast Podcast

Many apologies for the whale pun in the title, but Brandon can never resist. This month he and Lindsay chat with Jamie L. Jones, author of Rendered Obsolete: Energy Culture and the Afterlife of US Whaling. Jamie is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We discuss the fascinating history of whaling in the United States, ranging from t...

This month’s episode was recorded live throughout the ASLE/AESS Conference in July 2023 in Portland. Brandon had the opportunity to set up a table at the conference and the five wonderful people who you’re getting to listen to on this episode stopped by and shared their work with him (and now you!) Guest List: Rajendra Ponde, Man, Nature, and Wildlife Depicted in the Jungle Literature of Jim Corbe...

In this episode, Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Laura Wright and Jessica Cory to discuss their recent edited collection Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place. The episode kicks off with some gleeful sharing of a love for cryptids, but then gets into the heart of what it means to be from Appalachia, the common misconceptions of the area, and the important role those perceptions play...

EcoCast heads back to the ocean again as its theme, this month to discuss Ryan Poll’s recent book Aquaman and the War Against Oceans. He and Brandon examine the character’s evolution, the comics’ role in an oceanic imaginary, and how Aquaman comics can help bring attention to the issues facing the environment. ASLE is also looking for new showrunners! If you’re interested in taking over as a co-ho...

This month Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Christina Gerhardt, Associate Professor and Founder of the Environmental Humanities initiative at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and the Editor-in-Chief of ISLE. We discuss Christina’s recently released book (it comes out the same day as this episode!) Sea Change: Atlas of Islands in a Rising Ocean, which challenges us to re-consider the idea of map...

This month Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Joshua Trey Barnett, assistant professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, to discuss his recent book Mourning in the Anthropocene. We talk about extinction, what it means to grieve nature, and even get a little personal with the idea of naming and loss of pets. Joshua’s Info: Twitter: @joshuatbarnett Email: barnet...

This month’s episode is no slog. It’s no slug, either. This month is all about the wonderful world of snails! Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Thom Van Dooren, Deputy Director at the Sydney Environment Institute and an Associate Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Sydney, Australia. Thom joins EcoCast to discuss his most recent book, A World in a Shell: Snail Stories for a...

Eleana Kim, professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at UC Irvine, joins Lindsay and Brandon to discuss her work that examines the unique liminal space of the Korean DMZ, and the natural, militaristic, and hybrid ecosystems within it. Eleana argues that this particular space helps us better understand the impacts of war on the natural world, but that it also helps us better connect wit...

This month we dive deep (pun intended) into the work of Melody Jue, Associate Professor of English at UC Santa Barbara. Melody joins us to discuss her most recent book Wild Blue Media, and we get below the surface (pun intended) of how important oceans are, the human fascination with them, and how they serve as a space for orientation. The episode is a real splash (no pun intended)! For more on Me...

The laughs are aplenty in this episode, which highlights the recent book by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann: Film, Environment, Comedy: Eco-comedies on the Big Screen. Both Robin and Joseph are Professor Emeritus at Eastern Illinois University, in English and in Communications, respectively. In between the ha-has, we discuss what makes a comedy an eco-comedy, why laughter is important, and h...

It’s a full house this month! Lindsay and Brandon are joined by the six-member superhero team that makes up the Anti-Creep Climate Initiative to discuss their webzine, “Against the Ecofascist Creep” The Initiative is made up of the following:  April Anson, Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at San Diego State University, core faculty for the Institute for Ethics and Public Policy, and affili...

This month Lindsay and Brandon are joined by Rina Garcia Chua and Jeffrey Santa Ana to discuss their recent edited collection Empire and Environment: Ecological Ruin in the Transpacific. Rina is an incoming Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellow in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University and she completed her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Jeffrey is a...

Another episode and another year older! That’s right, this episode marks TWO years of ASLE EcoCast! Thank you so much to everyone who’s joined us on this ride and to our incredible guests for sharing their awesome work with us. This month is a special episode just to celebrate: we have excerpts from a wonderful short story by Cynthia Zhang, “what the water gave.” After Cynthia introduces us to the...

This month’s episode is something a little different and something a little bittersweet. Brandon says, “See you soon,” to Jemma, and welcomes Lindsay S.R. Jolivette to the podcast. Lindsay will be taking over for Jemma on EcoCast, and while we’re very sad to see Jemma go (she’ll still be around when she can!), we’re also very happy to have Lindsay on board. We spend some time talking about Lindsay...

This special episode features the audio recording from ASLE's Spotlight Series second 2022 episode, Entangled Geographies, recorded on April 22, 2022. Co-hosts: Matt Henry and Jennifer Ladino Panelists: Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, Lynne Heasley, Amanda M. Smith, and Katarzyna Beilin For more information on ASLE, including registering for the next ASLE Spotlight on May 20, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. US Easter...

After a brief hiatus, we’re happy to be back with a new episode! This month’s guest is Alda Bathrop-Lewis, research fellow at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, and author of 2021 book Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. We discuss what links aesthetics to asceticism, and challenge the popular image of Thoreau...

This special episode features the audio recording from ASLE's Spotlight Series first 2022 episode, Public Engagement and Performance, recorded on March 18, 2022. Co-hosts: Joshua Calhoun and Brandon Galm Panelists: Janisse Ray, Odile Cisneros, Petra Kuppers, and Spencer Robbins For more information on ASLE, including a look at upcoming virtual events, visit: https://www.asle.org/stay-informed/asle...

It’s been a while since we’ve had some poetry on EcoCast, so… enjoy some poetry on EcoCast! We’re joined by Heather Swan, poet and lecturer at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Heather shares some poems from her collection A Kinship with Ash, and we discuss her non-fiction books, Where Honeybees Thrive and the forthcoming Where the Grass Still Sings. We talk about the wonder and grief inspired by w...

This special episode features the audio recording from ASLE's Spotlight Series's fourth episode, Identity and Place, recorded on June 11, 2021. Co-hosts: Laura Barbas-Rhoden and Gisela Heffes Panelists: Scott Edward Anderson, Victoria Saramago, Charles Maurice Pigott, Lucien Darjeun Meadows. For more information on ASLE, including a look at upcoming virtual events, visit: https://www.asle.org/stay...

We are very thrilled to share this month’s episode with everyone. Our guest hopefully needs no introduction for many of you: we’re joined by Joni Adamson, Professor of English and Environmental Humanities, and Director of the Environmental Humanities Initiative, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University. Joni’s work in ecocriticism and the environmental humanit...

In what wraps up our short run of film-centered episodes, we’re joined by Robert Geal, lecturer at University of Wolverhampton, UK to discuss his recent book Ecological Film Theory and Psychoanalysis: Surviving the Environmental Apocalypse. We discuss the role that disaster cinema has on our psychological relationship to the environment, environmental disaster, and society’s (in)action towards cli...

What’s scarier than climate change? Not much, but this month’s guests--Bridgitte Barclay, Associate Professor at Aurora University, and Christy Tidwell, Associate Professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology--join us to talk about the sub-genre of horror films known as creature features, and how these films can change how we think about environmental concerns. For more on Christy a...

This month we’re joined by Lowell Wyse, author of the recent book Ecospatiality: A Place-Based Approach to American Literature. This episode is all about exploring spatiality in literature, specifically how authors map their work and how readers experience those spaces when navigating through the texts. William Cronon’s “The Trouble with Wilderness”: https://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Trouble_w...

In this month’s episode, we sit down with Jared Margulies and Gina Stamm to talk about their collaborative research into the wild and wonderful world of rare plant traders and collectors, and its intersection with psychoanalytic literary analysis and environmental humanities. Both Jared and Gina work at the University of Alabama: Jared is an Assistant Professor of Political Ecology, and Gina is an...

This month, we’re happy to share our conversation with Marc DiPaolo, Associate Professor of English at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, to discuss his most recent non-fiction book Fire and Snow: Climate Fiction from the Inklings to Game of Thrones. In this episode, we talk about the role that fantasy plays in environmental discourse--both within fantasy literature and in the surrounding fan...