Should Humans Go Extinct? Asking the Big Question with Todd May

In this second episode of our ongoing extinction series, we sit down with Jean-Thomas Tremblay and Steven Swarbrick to discuss their thought-provoking co-written manuscript, Negative Life: The Cinema of Extinction. Our conversation with them touches not only on the concrete topics of extinction and cinema, but also explores the theoretical potential of negations and contradictions as frameworks for understanding the relationship (or not) between humans and the more-than-human world.    For more from Jean-Thomas and Steven:   https://jeanthomastremblay.carrd.co/ https://www.stevenswarbrick.com/   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette Alex Tischer: @ak_tischer If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded September 26, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

In this first episode of our extinction series, we met with Todd May to discuss his new book Should We Go Extinct? A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Times. This massive question is accessibly analyzed yet Todd also brings in issues underdiscussed in extinction discourse: Who is the inexact "we" behind the question, how do different humans contribute to ecological crisis and therefore human and nonhuman extinction, and what is the role of art in deciding whether humanity's existence should continue? Instead of concluding on one side or the other, Todd finds asking the question of humanity's extinction itself is a productive thought experiment for ourselves and our community.   For more on Todd May: Website: https://www.toddmayphilosopher.com/ Email: [email protected]   Todd's Reading Recommendation: The Emotions: A Philosophical Exploration by Peter Goldie (2002).   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded September 18, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

In this episode, we met with Nadia Colburn to discuss her new poetry collection I Say the Sky! Deeply engaged with the ecological collapse happening around us while also reinvesting in our own existence, her poems range from the simplicity in appreciating the beauty of an onion to reassessing childhood trauma. We also talk through her multi-hyphenate pursuits and the continual search for the "symphony inside you".   For more on Nadia: Website: nadiacolburn.com Email: [email protected]   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded July 22, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

In our final episode of our polar environmental humanities series, we have Penn State English professor Hester Blum on to discuss her environmental humanities research on polar ecomedia! Dr. Blum discusses the ephemeral texts and productions aboard Arctic and Antarctic voyages including newspapers. Newspapers on polar voyages? Yes, you heard that right. These texts have contemporary and global lessons to teach in that their production took place while in extreme environments.   For more on Hester:   Twitter: @hesterblum Email: [email protected] Website: hesterblum.com   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded May 22, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

In our second episode of our polar environmental humanities series, we jump from the landscape paintings of the circumpolar north to the southern continent of Antarctica and speak with Dr. Elizabeth Leane at the University of Tasmania! As a Professor of Antarctic Studies, we discuss her work on perceptions of Antarctica historically and also sensorially. From pandemic misconceptions of cleanliness and silence on the continent to science fiction and Antarctic tourism, Leane walks us through the complex histories of the South Pole. We have one more episode in the series coming out next month!   For more on Elizabeth:   Twitter: @elizabeth_leane Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-leane-ab10706b   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded March 26, 2024.

This is the first episode in our polar environmental humanities series with Dr. Isabelle Gapp from the University of Aberdeen! We met to discuss her new book, "A Circumpolar Landscape", and the fascinating comparisons between Scandinavian and Canadian landscape painting beyond national borders. We discuss the way the paintings can often exhibit masculine performativity in their erasures and how the painters are nostalgically reminiscing about a landscape changing in front of their eyes from colonial environmental degradation, making the landscapes they painted an "environmental history [that] had become a memory". Stay tuned for two more episodes in this series!   For more on Isabelle: Twitter: @issy_gapp Instagram: @isabellegapp Website: https://isabellegapp.com/ Email: [email protected]   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded March 6, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Our conversation with Professor Angus discusses her brand-new book Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography. As the title suggests, Angus connects photography with the materials that make it possible: bitumen, silver, platinum, iron, uranium, and rare earth elements. Each has been used at various points in photography's history to physically produce an image, and Siobhan tells us how photography doesn't exist without the mine and extraction. If, in Rob Nixon's words, capitalism "extract[s] in order to abstract", then Camera Geologica is undermining this abstraction by enmeshing photography with its material origin.     For more on Siobhan Angus:   Twitter: https://twitter.com/siobhanangus Website: https://www.siobhanangus.com/   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette   If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)!   Episode recorded March 22, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Our conversation with Professor Goode explores her recent book Agrotopias: An American Literary History of Sustainability. Two recent phrases form the impetus of her book: "We Can't Solve the Climate Crisis Unless Black Lives Matter" and "Climate Change Is also a Racial Justice Problem". Goode traces these back to the enigmatic Thomas Jefferson to illuminate and enmesh the supposedly protoecological American past with its racist and eugenic histories by analyzing agrotopias. She defines agrotopias as "seemingly ideal worlds of agrarian stability and productive labor" (3).   Below are the three texts Goode offers as examples of alternatives to Agrotopian thinking:   Earth Democracy - Vandana Shiva Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World - Wangari Maathai (As part of the Green Belt Movement)   For more on Abby Goode:   https://abbygoode.wordpress.com/     ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette   If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)!   Episode recorded February 5, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This episode is a goodbye and a hello. Brandon Galm, the creator of EcoCast in 2020 and co-host since its inception, is now stepping away from the podcast to make more time for his new roles at Cloud County Community College in North Central Kansas. We say hello to Alex Tischer, a recent graduate from Wright State in English who is now applying to English Ph.D. programs. Brandon and Alex are on either side of the Ph.D. process, and this episode discusses the co-host transition, Brandon's next endeavors, and even recounts the origin story of the podcast four years ago. Don't fret, Brandon will still be involved with the podcast here and there. Goodbyes are never easy, but Lindsay and Alex have new episodes coming soon! Stay tuned for new environmental conversations in novel and exciting fields.   For more on Brandon:   Email: [email protected]   ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded January 14, 2024. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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 the environmentally destructive to the culturally traditional. Moby Dick may or may not be discussed; you’ll have to listen to find out! For more on Jamie: Rendered Obsolete: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469674827/rendered-obsolete/  Email: [email protected] Twitter and Bluesky: @jamieljones8  ASLE EcoCast: If you have an idea for an episode, please submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/Y1S1eP9yXxcNkgWHA   Twitter: @ASLE_EcoCast Lindsay Jolivette: @lin_jolivette If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing, sharing, and writing reviews on your favorite podcast platform(s)! Episode recorded November 14, 2023. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0