Shows / New Books in Environmental Studies

New Books in Environmental Studies
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/…
Episodes
New Books in Environmental StudiesJessica F. Green, "Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them" (Princeton UP, 2025)
It’s no secret that the Paris Agreement and voluntary efforts to address climate change are failing. Governments have spent three decades crafting…
New Books in Environmental StudiesIs a River Alive?: A Conversation with Robert Macfarlane
Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJoshua Duclos, "Wilderness, Morality, and Value" (Lexington Books, 2022)
What if wilderness is bad for wildlife? This question motivates the philosophical investigation in Wilderness, Morality, and Value (Lexington Books, 2022)…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJean-Thomas Tremblay, "Breathing Aesthetics" (Duke UP, 2022)
In Breathing Aesthetics (Duke University Press (2022), Jean-Thomas Tremblay argues that difficult breathing indexes the uneven distribution of risk in a…
New Books in Environmental StudiesThomas Princen, "Fire and Flood: Extreme Events and Social Change Past, Present, Future" (MIT Press, 2025)
Thomas Princen explores issues of social and ecological sustainability at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. He…
New Books in Environmental StudiesConversations with Birds
Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMicah S. Muscolino, "Remaking the Earth, Exhausting the People: The Burden of Conservation in Modern China" (U Washington Press, 2025)
From the 1940s to the 1960s, soil and water conservation measures transformed both the arid, erosion-prone environment of China’s Loess Plateau and the lives…
New Books in Environmental StudiesStephen D. Hopper, "Eucalyptus" (Reaktion, 2025)
Eucalypts, iconic to Australia, have shaped art, science and landscapes worldwide. With around nine hundred species, from towering giants to compact mallees…
New Books in Environmental StudiesHeather Davis, "Plastic Matter" (Duke UP, 2022)
Plastic is ubiquitous. It is in the Arctic, in the depths of the Mariana Trench, and in the high mountaintops of the Pyrenees. It is in the air we breathe and…
New Books in Environmental StudiesIlan Kelman, "Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries" (UCL Press, 2022)
Antarcticness: Inspirations and Imaginaries (UCL Press, 2022) edited by Ilan Kelman Antarcticness joins disciplines, communication approaches, and ideas to…
New Books in Environmental StudiesArpitha Kodiveri, "Governing Forests: State, Law and Citizenship in India’s Forests" (Melbourne UP, 2024)
In Governing Forests: State, Law and Citizenship in India’s Forests (Melbourne UP, 2024), Arpitha Kodiveri unpacks the fraught and shifting relationship…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJemma Deer, "Radical Animism: Reading for the End of the World" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
Jemma Deer’s Radical Animism: Reading for the End of the World (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2020) invites the reader to take a moment and to ponder on the way…
New Books in Environmental StudiesAnand P. Vaidya, "Future of the Forest: Struggles over Land and Law in India" (Cornell UP, 2025)
In Future of the Forest: Struggles over Land and Law in India (Cornell UP, 2025), Anand P. Vaidya tells the story of the making and unmaking of India’s Forest…
New Books in Environmental StudiesLisa Vanhala, "Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
A searing account of how the international community is trying—and failing—to address the worst effects of climate change and the differential burdens borne by…
New Books in Environmental StudiesChristopher Ali, "Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity" (MIT, 2021)
As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rural America has…
New Books in Environmental StudiesKarine Gagné, "Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas" (U Washington Press, 2019)
In her new book, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas (University of Washington Press, 2019), Karine Gagné explores how relations…
New Books in Environmental StudiesIhnji Jon, "Cities in the Anthropocene: New Ecology and Urban Politics" (Pluto Press, 2021)
Climate change is real, and extreme weather events are its physical manifestations. These extreme events affect how we live and work in cities, and…
New Books in Environmental StudiesCharles Watkins, "Trees Ancient and Modern: Woodland Cultures and Conservation" (Reaktion, 2025)
Charles Watkins joins Jana Byars to talk about his new book, Trees Ancient and Modern (Reaktion, 2025). This delightful new book explores the relationship…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMichael Maniates, "The Living-Green Myth" (Polity Press, 2025)
Dr. Michael F. Maniates is a leading scholar in environmental politics and sustainability studies whose work has fundamentally reshaped how researchers and…
New Books in Environmental StudiesA Song for the Horses: Musical Heritage for More-than-Human Futures in Mongolia
As permafrost in Siberia continues to melt and the steppe in the Gobi turns to desert, people in Mongolia are faced with overlapping climate crises. Some…
New Books in Environmental StudiesGarrett Hardin’s Tragic Environmentalism
An ecologist in California claimed that the iron laws of nature locked humanity into destroying our environment. This meant that we must take drastic measures…
New Books in Environmental StudiesR. Jisung Park, "Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World" (Princeton UP, 2025)
R. Jisung Park is assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds appointments in the School of Social Policy and Practice and the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJesse Rodenbiker, "Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China" (Cornell UP, 2023)
Based on two years of extensive fieldwork, Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China (Cornell UP, 2023) examines ecological…
New Books in Environmental StudiesEva Meijer, "Multispecies Assemblies" (Vine Press, 2025)
Animals speak. Plants do too. Seas and mountains are not a mute background to human actions, but have interests and agency. Many more-than-human beings are…
New Books in Environmental StudiesDeborah Gordon, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World" (Oxford UP, 2021)
In No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World (Oxford University Press, 2021), Deborah Gordon shows that no two oils or gases are…
New Books in Environmental StudiesRon Broglio, "Animal Revolution" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)
Animals are staging a revolution—they’re just not telling us. From radioactive boar invading towns to jellyfish disarming battleships, Animal Revolution (U…
New Books in Environmental StudiesIn Search of Green China: Ma Tianjie on Pan Yue and the CCP’s “Ecological Civilization"
A former journalist and environmental campaigner named Pan Yue rose through the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party, championing the concept of “ecological…
New Books in Environmental StudiesChristopher F. Jones, "The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Forgot About the Natural World" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)
Most economists believe that growth is the surest path to better lives. This has proven to be one of humanity’s most powerful and dangerous ideas. It shapes…
New Books in Environmental StudiesLily Hsueh, "Corporations at Climate Crossroads: Multilevel Governance, Public Policy, and Global Climate Action" (MIT Press, 2025)
Dr. Lily Hseuh is trained as an economist and public policy scholar, and is an associate professor in Economics and Public Policy in the School of Public…
New Books in Environmental StudiesThe Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit
As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruit—especially apples. These…
New Books in Environmental StudiesFuture of the Forest: Struggles over Land and Law in India
How did India’s landmark Forest Rights Act come into being? And what difference has it made to the lives of historically marginalized forest-dwelling…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMia Bennett and Klaus Dodds, "Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic" (Yale UP, 2025)
A vital account of the state of the Arctic today--emphasising the twin dangers of climate change and geopolitical competition Nowhere is the dual threat of…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMukul Sharma, "Dalit Ecologies: Caste and Environment Justice" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Prof Mukul Sharma is a professor of Environmental Studies at Ashoka University. His formal training is in Political Science and has worked as a special…
New Books in Environmental StudiesBronwyn Bailey-Charteris, "The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water" (Routledge, 2024)
The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water champions the Hydrocene and presents it as disruptive, conceptual epoch and curatorial theory, emphasising…
New Books in Environmental StudiesElizabeth Sawin, "Multisolving: Creating Systems Change in a Fractured World" (Island Press, 2024)
Now, Dr. Elizabeth Sawin has dedicated her career to the theory and practice of creating change in complex systems. In 2021, she founded and is currently the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesSusannah Fisher, "Sink Or Swim: How the World Needs to Adapt to a Changing Climate" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
The world needs to adapt to climate change – but how? What are the key problems and hard choices that lie ahead for the global community? Sink or Swim: How the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJohn Mathias, "Uncommon Cause: Living for Environmental Justice in Kerala" (U California Press, 2024)
How can activists strike a balance between fighting for a cause and sustaining relationships with family, friends, and neighbors? In this episode John Mathias…
New Books in Environmental StudiesGerta Keller, "The Last Extinction: The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs" (Diversion Books, 2025)
The story behind Dr. Gerta Keller’s world-shattering scientific discovery that dinosaur extinction was NOT caused by asteroid impact, but rather by volcanic…
New Books in Environmental StudiesKathryn Dyt, "The Nature of Kingship: The Weather-World in Nineteenth-Century Vietnam" (U Hawaii Press, 2025)
When we think about the way that Southeast Asian rulers governed their kingdoms, we usually think of the relationship between the rulers and the people. But as…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJen Rose Smith, "Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race and Indigeneity in the Arctic" (Duke UP, 2025)
Ice animates the look and feel of climate change. It is melting faster than ever before, causing social upheaval among northern coastal communities and…
New Books in Environmental StudiesÁrni Heimir Ingólfsson , "Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland" (Indiana UP, 2019)
In Jón Leifs and the Musical Invention of Iceland (Indiana University Press, 2019), Árni Heimir Ingólfsson provides a striking account of the dramatic career…
New Books in Environmental StudiesThea Riofrancos, "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism" (W.W. Norton, 2025)
Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) is an in-depth analysis into the growing industry of green technologies and the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJean-Baptiste Fressoz, "More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy" (Harper, 2025)
It has become habitual to think of our relationship with energy as one of transition: with wood superseded by coal, coal by oil, oil by nuclear and then at…
New Books in Environmental StudiesBob Wyss, "Black Gold: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of American Coal" (University of California Press, 2025)
For decades coal has been crucial to America's culture, society, and environment, an essential ingredient in driving out winter's cold, cooking meals, and…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJon Mills, "End of the World: Civilization and Its Fate" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024)
Dr. Jon Mills, has had an impressive career as practicing professional, researcher, educator and writer in the psychology and psychoanalytic field. His work…
New Books in Environmental StudiesOur Common Future: The Birth of Liberal Environmentalism
This is the second episode of Cited Podcast’s new season, Green Dreams. Green Dreams tells stories of radical environmental thinkers and their dreams for our…
New Books in Environmental StudiesStephen A. Harris, "50 Plants That Changed the World" (Bodleian Library, 2025)
Have you ever stopped to think about how your morning cappuccino came to be? From the coffee bush that yielded the beans, to the grass for the cattle – or…
New Books in Environmental StudiesSpike Bucklow, "The Year: An Ecology of the Zodiac" (Reaktion Books, 2025)
Spike Bucklow joins Jana Byars to talk about The Year: An Ecology of the Zodiac (Reaktion, 2025). This delightful book defies genre. It is a journey through…
New Books in Environmental StudiesThe High Frontier: Gerard O’Neill’s Space Utopia
This is the first episode of Cited Podcast’s new season, Green Dreams. Green Dreams tells stories of radical environmental thinkers and their dreams for our…
New Books in Environmental StudiesDevika Shankar, "An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India, 1860-1950" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Ecological and political instability have time and again emerged as catalysts for risky development projects along India's south-west coastline. In An…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJessica Urwin, "Contaminated Country: Nuclear Colonialism and Aboriginal Resistance in Australia" (U of Washington Press, 2025)
Though a nonnuclear state, Australia was embroiled in the military and civilian nuclear energy programs of numerous global powers across the twentieth century…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJoanne Yao, "The Ideal River: How Control of Nature Shaped the International Order" (Manchester UP, 2022)
Environmental politics has traditionally been a peripheral concern for international relations theory, but increasing alarm over global environmental…
New Books in Environmental StudiesBénédicte Meillon, "Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
Ecopoetics of Reenchantment: Liminal Realism and Poetic Echoes of the Earth (Bloomsbury, 2022) tackles the reenchantment process at work in a part of…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMichaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen, "The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds Across Landscapes and Imagination" (Reaktion, 2025)
In The Sound Atlas: A Guide to Strange Sounds across Landscapes and Imagination (Reaktion, 2025), nature writers Michaela Vieser and Isaac Yuen set out in…
New Books in Environmental StudiesAnne Lawrence-Mathers, "Medieval Meteorology: Forecasting the Weather from Aristotle to the Almanac" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
In this episode we speak to Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Professor of History at the University of Reading about her new book Medieval Meteorology: Forecasting the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesAnne Lawrence-Mathers, "Medieval Meteorology: Forecasting the Weather from Aristotle to the Almanac" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
In this episode we speak to Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Professor of History at the University of Reading about her new book Medieval Meteorology: Forecasting the…
New Books in Environmental StudiesJoshua Specht, "Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America" (Princeton UP, 2019)
Why do Americans eat so much beef? In Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America (Princeton University Press, 2019), the historian…
New Books in Environmental StudiesMaan Barua, "Plantation Worlds" (Duke UP, 2024)
In Plantation Worlds (Duke UP, 2024), Maan Barua interrogates debates on planetary transformations through the histories and ecologies of plantations. Drawing…
New Books in Environmental StudiesIan Scoones, "Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World" (Polity, 2024)
Uncertainties are everywhere. Whether it’s climate change, financial volatility, pandemic outbreaks or new technologies, we don’t know what the future will…
New Books in Environmental StudiesTimothy Barnard, "Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942" (NUS Press, 2019)
In Imperial Creature: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942 (National University of Singapore Press, 2019), Timothy Barnard explores the…