Knox Pods

It's not just a cliché: statistics demonstrate clearly that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Is there a better way to spread the wealth? Author and political economist Gar Alperovitz shares his plan for wealth equality in his landmark book What then must we do? : straight talk about the next American revolution . City Council member and practicing attorney Marshall Stai...

Chad Hellwinckel, Research Assistant Professor in the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Analysis Center, discusses The one-straw revolution: an introduction to natural farming by Masanobu Fukuoka. Trained as a scientist, Fukuoka rejected both modern agribusiness and centuries of agricultural practice, deciding instead that the best forms of cultivation mirror nature’s own laws. Over the next...

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, a growing and heartfelt opposition to what is considered too much standardized testing has echoed across the country. What should we do instead? Indya Kincannon, Knox County Schools board member and former chair, handles this question in her review of How children succeed: grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character by Paul Tough. (Recorded August 21,...

"Crazy" is a word we often throw around lightly, just to joke and tease. But when someone in your family suffers a serious mental illness, your perspective can do an about-face. When writer Pete Earley’s own son broke into a neighbor's house during a psychotic episode, Earley began to learn what happens to mentally ill people who break a law. Dr. Clif Tennison,  Chief Clinical Officer  with Helen...

Harvey Abouelata, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Efficient Energy of Tennessee, discusses Power trip: from oil wells to solar cells—our ride to the renewable future by Amanda Little. After covering the environment and energy beat for more than a decade, journalist Little decided that the only way to really understand America's energy crisis was to travel into the heart of it. She descri...

Dr. John Nolt, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee, discusses the classic Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal by Eric Schlosser, a book that remains relevant today. Schlosser examines the impact of fast food from every angle, including farming practices, land use, labor, transportation, culture, and globalization. Now over a decade since it was published, Fa...

Don Barger, Senior Regional Director of the National Parks Conservation Association, discusses Rewilding the world: dispatches from the conservation revolution by Caroline Fraser, the first definitive account of a visionary campaign to confront the looming extinction of thousands of species. (Recorded August 25, 2010) Rewilding aims to save species by restoring habitats, reviving migration corrido...

Madeline Rogero, Director of the Community Development Department for the City of Knoxville, spoke to a record-setting crowd about the book Green metropolis : why living smaller, living closer, and driving less are the keys to sustainability by David Owen. Owen argues that the greenest community in the United States is not Portland, Oregon, or Snowmass, Colorado, but New York, New York. R esidents...

Tiffany Foster, Renee Hoyos, and Joanne Logan discussed Maude Barlow's book  Blue covenant : the global water crisis and the coming battle for the right to water . Ms. Hoyos said "This book brings the challenges to managing water for the future into sharp relief. While we sometimes think that we have plenty of water, resources are declining due to bad development and industrial practices. This boo...

This Brown Bag, Green Book is a little different. Instead of a book, the discussion is based on a New Yorker article “ Superbugs ” by Jerome Groopman. Dr. Martha Buchanan, Director of Knox County Health Department, led the discussion. (Recorded October 20, 2010) For a long-form treatment of antibiotic resistant superbugs, check out Superbug by Maryn McKenna. The focus of this book is the pathogen...

Todd Witcher discusses Every living thing : man's obsessive quest to catalog life, from nanobacteria to new monkeys , by Rob Dunn. The author reminds readers how tough and exhilarating it is to study the natural world, and why it matters. In a series of vivid portraits of scientists as interesting as the mysteries they chase, Dunn introduces the reader to breakthroughs that have changed the world...

Charles Maynard, author and founding Executive Director of Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, discusses  Eaarth: making a life on a tough new planet  by Bill McKibben. Twenty years ago, with his previous book  The end of nature , Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he insists, we need to acknowledge that we...

Matt Hinkin, meteorologist at television station WATE, shares some of his favorite selections from the book The weather of the future : heat waves, extreme storms, and other scenes from a climate-changed planet by renown climatologist Heidi Cullen. The author projects a future in which the world's weather has drastically changed. Regions of the planet are affected in various ways, with some winner...

Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, discusses The Climate war: true believers, power brokers, and the fight to save the Earth by Eric Pooley. The author reveals the powerful interests engaged in the fight over capping pollution contributing to climate change and the international effects of America's political battle. (Recorded March 23, 2011)

Harold Denton, a nuclear physicist and former Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, provides his perspective on three accidents in nuclear power generation: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. There was no book selected for this meeting, but Nuclear energy  what everyone needs to know is a good overview of the subject. (Recorded April 29, 2011)

Edye Ellis, former co-anchor of television station WBIR-TV Channel 10, talks about surviving cancer and the importance of understanding the risks of exposure to toxins. The book Living downstream: an ecologist's personal investigation of cancer and the environment  by Sandra Steingraber suggests that reducing our dependence on coal and petroleum not only makes sense from a green-energy perspective...

The bridge at the edge of the world: capitalism, the environment, and crossing from crisis to sustainability by James Gustave Speth suggests that our current emphasis on economic growth does not allow for critical environmental protections. Columnist Frank Cagle responds to some of the ideas in the book. (Recorded June 15, 2011)

Forbidden creatures: inside the world of animal smuggling and exotic pets , looks into the motivations of owners of exotic pets and the consequences of the lucrative and illegal trade in dangerous animals or endangered species. The discussion of the book is led by Dr. Marcy Souza of the University of Tennessee's College of Veterinary Medicine. (Recorded August 24, 2011)

Climate cover-up: the crusade to deny global warming by James Hoggan presents a detailed analysis of how business organizations and conservative think tanks orchestrate campaigns to question global warming. Jesse Fox Mayshark, Communications Manager for the City of Knoxville, discusses the book. (Recorded September 21, 2011)

The current debate about the causes of climate change is polarizing enough. When we extend the discussion to what our moral response to it should be, the discussion becomes even more challenging. Nina Gregg, Independent Organization Consultant, contemplates the book Moral ground: ethical action for a planet in peril , edited by Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson. (Recorded October 19, 2011)

In The ripple effect : the fate of freshwater in the twenty-first century , Alex Prud'homme explores how people in the U.S. and around the world use and abuse water, and how our actions impact the earth's limited water supply. Steve Scarborough, one of the founders of Dagger Canoe Company, discusses the book and his views on the problem of water quality. Scarborough has been active in river and wa...

Elandria Williams of the Highlander Research and Education Center discusses My work is that of conservation : an environmental biography of George Washington Carver by Mark D. Hersey in this Brown Bag, Green Book podcast. Carver's efforts to improve the lot of Alabama’s poorest farmers let him to promote agricultural practices that were considerably “greener” than is often assumed today. (Recorded...

City of Knoxville Neighborhood Coordinator David Massey talks about the impact of blight on a community as he reviews  Bringing buildings back: from abandoned properties to community assets: a guidebook for policymakers and practitioners  by Alan Mallach.  “Mallach is a principal in the Center for Community Progress, a nationally acclaimed team of experts who have assisted the City of Knoxville an...

You may be sick of hearing about climate change, but it might also be making you sick. Dr. Agricola Odoi, University of Tennessee Associate Professor of Veterinary Medicine thinks about the impact of climate change on health as analyzed in Changing planet, changing health: how the climate crisis threatens our health and what we can do about it  by Paul R. Epstein in this Brown Bag, Green Book prog...

Mike Edwards, CEO and President of the Knoxville Chamber, leads a community discussion of the book Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman. In his groundbreaking book, Thomas Friedman discusses what he sees as America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since the September 11 terrorist attacks, as well as the global environ...