In this episode, Divya speaks with Scott Hardy. Scott is an Extension Educator with the Ohio Sea Grant College Program, where he leads research and runs education and outreach programs on watershed restoration, coastal zone management, and stormwater runoff. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, where he works on several research projects.

Scott’s work is all about collaboration — bringing people together to solve problems that no one can tackle alone. He knows that collaboration isn’t automatic. It takes time, trust, and spaces where people feel heard and included. He also believes that every place is different, and you need to really understand the local context to make teamwork work. Different projects need different kinds of partnerships, and Scott is skilled at figuring out what each situation needs.

In this episode, they talk about Scott’s ongoing work on Cuyahoga River restoration, where he has been closely collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders ranging from state agencies to industry to local communities. They also talk about his recent experience as a Fulbright Specialist at the Universidad de Atacama in Copiapó, Chile, where he was invited to share his expertise on sustainable water management.

References:

Hardy, S. D. (2022). Power to the people: Collaborative watershed management in the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern (AOC). Environmental Science & Policy, 129, 79-86.

Hardy, S. D. (2022). Transaction costs for collaboration in the watershed management of the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern. Regional Sustainability, 3(2), 146-156.

https://u.osu.edu/hardy.116/

Koontz, T. M. (2002). Federalism in the forest: National versus state natural resource policy. Georgetown University Press.

In this episode, Michael speaks with Nate Dominy, the Charles Hansen Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. Nate is a biological anthropologist and an evolutionary biologist, studying the behavior, ecology, and functional morphology of humans and nonhuman primates. Nate speaks with Michael about his new research program on the role of fire in promoting social cohesion among humans. Fire is argued to have played an important role in human evolutionary history, and there are multiple mechanisms that have been hypothesized for how it could promote cohesion, including its rhythmic nature (its flicker rate), and its ability to enable storytelling, which itself is known to facilitate an increased sense of belonging and togetherness. This topic is an important complement to more traditional commons and institutional studies discussed on this podcast, which largely focus on how rules and norms can promote collective action and other outcomes.

References:

Nate’s website: https://anthropology.dartmouth.edu/people/nathaniel-j-dominy

Dunbar R.I.M., Gowlett J.A.J. 2014 Fireside chat: the impact of fire on hominin socioecology. In Lucy to Language: The Benchmark Papers (eds. Dunbar R.I.M., Gamble C., Gowlett J.A.J.), pp. 277–296. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Lynn C.D. 2014 Hearth and campfire influences on arterial blood pressure: defraying the costs of the social brain through fireside relaxation. Evolutionary Psychology 12(5), 983-1003. (doi:10.1177/147470491401200509).

Wiessner P.W. 2014 Embers of society: firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi bushmen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 111(39), 14027-14035. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1404212111).

In this episode, Michael speaks with Maron Greenleaf, assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. They discuss Maron’s recently published book, Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon, in which she examines a set of carbon offset programs in the Brazilian state of Acre. Unlike traditional forest commodities that require extraction, carbon offsets monetize forest protection by paying communities to keep carbon stored in standing trees. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Maron describes how forest carbon markets and offsets can be unexpectedly inclusive, providing economic opportunities for marginalized communities, while simultaneously reinforcing some of the inequalities they claim to address. Maron uses this study to illuminate broader questions about whether market-based solutions can effectively address environmental crises. Her work suggests that while green capitalism offers compelling possibilities for reconciling economic growth with environmental protection, it also reproduces some of the structural problems inherent in capitalist systems.

References:

Maron’s website: https://www.marongreenleaf.com/forest-lost

Greenleaf, M. (2024). Forest Lost: Producing Green Capitalism in the Brazilian Amazon. Duke University

Press. https://dukeupress.edu/forest-lost

Ferguson, J. (1994). The anti-politics machine:’development’, depoliticization and bureaucratic power in

Lesotho. University of Minnesota Press.