DeepSummary
Speaker Brock introduces his co-host Ty and their returning guest Mary Annaïse Heglar, who they admire for her writing on the climate crisis. They discuss Mary's new fictional novel 'Troubled Waters' which explores themes of climate grief, civil rights history, and intergenerational healing through the story of a young Black woman taking climate activism to an extreme level.
Mary shares how the book weaves in her own family's history with the desegregation of schools in Nashville during the civil rights movement. She draws parallels between the narratives around school desegregation and today's climate crisis debates. The characters grapple with the 'climate curse' of knowing the dire future while trying to find motivation to keep fighting.
They discuss the portrayal of white allies in the book, Mary's perspective on the mainstream climate movement's silence on issues like Palestinian rights, and her decision to write the book set in the South to capture the beauty, humor and innate environmentalism of that region. Mary also talks about her recent children's book and her upcoming works.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Mary Annaïse Heglar's new novel 'Troubled Waters' blends fiction with personal history to explore climate grief, activism, intergenerational trauma, and the deep cultural environmentalism of the American South.
- The book draws parallels between the past narratives around school desegregation and today's climate crisis debates, including downplaying urgency and reacting with hostility as solutions draw nearer.
- Heglar is deeply critical of the mainstream climate movement's silence and lack of solidarity on issues of justice like Palestinian rights.
- Through her characters, Heglar examines the 'climate curse' of carrying the weight of knowing the dire future while trying to find motivation to keep fighting rather than giving up.
- Heglar believes multi-generational cultural ties and love for place, like in New Orleans, can help sustain communities in the face of climate threats.
- The book explores the need for intergenerational healing from trauma, in contrast to just 'cycle-breaking' which can further fragment families.
- Heglar advocates finding community and taking whatever climate action is tailored to one's abilities, without hierarchies of what constitutes 'real work'.
- While acknowledging fiction allows her to infuse more humor and explore interiority, Heglar sees her novel as a continuation of using her creative voice for climate storytelling.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I think once upon a time I believed that, well, how can New Orleans stand up against all of these climate projections? But now that I've been here for a while and I've seen the deep, deep, deep love that people that New Orleans have for New Orleans, and I'm talking about like generations long New Orleans in particular, black New Orleans, not transplants from other places, not gentrifiers from other places. I don't think New Orleans is going anywhere because I don't think they're going anywhere.“ by Mary Annaïse Heglar
- “Yeah, and that's a very good point. And it's also very sad because Nashville desegregated its elementary schools in 1957. It was the first, as far as I and the archivist that I worked with can tell, is the first elementary school to desegregate under Brown versus Board of Education.“ by Mary Annaïse Heglar
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Episode Information
The Climate Pod
The Climate Pod
6/12/24
Mary Annaïse Heglar is back on the show to discuss her new book "Troubled Waters", a fictional account of a young Black woman in Mississippi that uses direct action against the fossil fuel industry as a healing mechanism for her own grief, while also learning about the grief and trauma that her own grandmother carries with her from her days at the center of the Civil Rights movement. Mary Annaïse Heglar is one of the great essayists and writers about the climate crisis, climate grief, and climate justice.
Buy "Troubled Waters"
Buy "The World is Ours to Cherish"
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