DeepSummary
The episode is an interview with Phaedra Petzulo, author of the book 'Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care.' Petzulo discusses her background and how she came to write the book, inspired by the 'straw wars' online debates over single-use plastic straws in 2016 and a virtual toxic tour in 2020 highlighting the impact of plastic pollution.
Petzulo explains how the book examines public controversies and activism around plastic pollution, engaging with advocates in different countries and looking at issues like carbon-heavy masculinity, carceral policies, eco-ableism, and colonialism. She argues that plastics have become an entry point into broader environmental politics.
The author also talks about the concept of care and its importance in environmental discourse, the influence of Max Liboiron's work on her book, and her own podcast 'Communicating Care' which allowed her to have conversations with activists around the world during the pandemic. She mentions her plans for future work on topics like incarceration infrastructure and a special journal issue on care.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Plastic pollution and activism around single-use plastics provide an entry point into examining broader environmental justice issues and social change movements.
- The book critiques online 'hashtag activism' while also recognizing its ability to amplify marginalized voices and achieve policy victories.
- The concept of 'care' is presented as an important counterpoint to crisis-focused environmental discourse, allowing space to envision alternative futures.
- Issues like eco-ableism, carbon-heavy masculinity, and colonialism shape discourse and policies around plastic pollution in unequal ways.
- The book engages the work of scholars like Max Liboiron to examine plastic's complexity and colonial dimensions.
- Petzulo draws connections between environmental policies and carceral/punitive logics that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.
- The author's podcast 'Communicating Care' enabled global conversations with activists during the pandemic that informed the book.
- Petzulo plans future work analyzing intersections of climate change, incarceration infrastructure, and environmental justice.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “Eco ableism is a term that's used by activists. It's talking about ableism, which is a society that is designed for people with a certain normative body and assumes that that is the ideal body and that bodies that aren't functioning, working, living in the same way, are expendable or marginalized.“ by Phaedra Petzulo
- “And part of why I wrote about Kenya is they were making international headlines as, quote, the strictest plastic ban in the world. And what they meant by that is that they had more jail time and higher fines than anywhere in the world.“ by Phaedra Petzulo
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Episode Information
New Books in Environmental Studies
Marshall Poe
9/22/23