This episode was recorded on January 23, 2026

Co-hosts: Lisa Fink, Sarah Wald

FEATURED GUESTS/WORKS:

David J. Vazquez, Decolonial Environmentalisms: Climate Justice and Speculative Futurity in Latinx Cultural Production

Decolonial Environmentalisms argues that the mainstream environmental movement is implicated in racial capitalism, not least through its ignorance of environmental justice as it pertains to Latinx people. Through close readings of eco-minded novels, films, visual art, and short stories by Chicanx, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban American, Peruvian, and Central American culture makers, the book surfaces diverse Latinx visions for an equitable and sustainable humanity.

In the creations of Helena María Viramontes, Ester Hernández, Salvador Plascencia, the printmaking collective Dominican York Proyecto GRAFICA, and others, Decolonial Environmentalisms locates a bracing critique of racist elisions and assumptions in hegemonic environmentalist thought. At the same time, the book shows that the roles of Latinx people in the exploitation of the US West and the ruin of Indigenous communities are ripe for self-examination, in hopes of sparking reform. Indeed, Decolonial Environmentalisms is a work of guarded optimism, finding glimmers of possibility even in dystopic science fiction. The overlooked experiences of Latinx people, Decolonial Environmentalisms suggests, can inspire environmental movements capable of transformative advocacy.

David J. Vazquez is Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University in Washington, DC.

Teresa Dzieglewicz, Something Small of How to See a River

This poetry book chronicles my time co-running a school at the Water Protector Camp at Standing Rock. It’s about land/water, police violence, whiteness, and the small labors it takes to build a community/movement. Tyehimba Jess (Pulitzer winner) described it as “honest, bracing news for the weary but unwavered.”

Use the coupon code ASLE20 for 20% off via the book’s page at: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/S/bo258379885.html

Teresa Dzieglewicz is a Pushcart-Prize winning poet, educator, and activist. Her first poetry book is forthcoming in October and her first children’s book in 2026.

Julianne Warren, “Alaska” Is Not a Blank Space: Unsettling Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey

“Alaska” Is Not a Blank Space: Unsettling Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey challenges canonized conservation narratives of Aldo Leopold, explaining how they entrench racist colonialism. Regarding “Alaska”, it shows ways to engender just, generative land-relations and support Indigenous Peoples’ sovereignty and environmental coalition-building.

Julianne Warren (she/her, settler) is a writer, educator, and activist with a PhD in wildlife ecology and an MFA in creative writing.

Allison Carruth, Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech

Novel Ecologies: Nature Remade and the Illusions of Tech (2025) investigates a distinctly California paradigm shaped by the tech industry—what Allison Carruth terms Nature Remade. Through three case studies—synthetic wildlife, the digital cloud and space colonization—the book challenges the conviction that climate change and other environmental crises must be met with planetary-scale technological intervention. Against the world-building gambits of Google, Open AI, SpaceX and a host of start-ups, Carruth marshals the work of writers and artists who imagine provisionally hopeful futures while refusing to forget histories of power and exploitation that have made the world what it is.

Allison Carruth is Professor of American studies and Environmental Studies at Princeton University, and founding director of Blue Lab.