In this episode of Spoken Earth, Adam Weymouth discusses the work of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard, who has spent a lifetime uncovering the hidden networks that bind the forest together. Suzanne Simard is a professor in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia. After battling for years to have her science recognised, it has begun gathering wide attention, not just in the scientific community, but featuring in Richard Powers' Pulitzer prize-winning The Overstory and James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster Avatar. She has recently published her own book, Finding the Mother Tree, both a biography and a scientific journey of discovery. It unearths a story of community within our forests, and of how ecosystems do not only compete, but also yearn to cooperate.

Find the full story here: 

Podcast by Lacuna Magazine www.lacuna.org.uk

Interviewer: Adam Weymouth www.adamweymouth.com
Producer and musician: Ulli Mattsson www.ullimattsson.com

Further reading: 
Suzanne Simard https://suzannesimard.com/
The Mother Tree Project https://mothertreeproject.org/
TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other?language=en
The Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences https://fcs.forestry.ubc.ca/
TerreWEB (Terrestrial Research on Ecosystem and Worldwide Education and Broadcast) https://soilweb.ca/terreweb/
Richard Powers' The Overstory https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/richard-powers-the-overstory/559106/
Avatar and the Real Life Wood Wide Web https://fantasticfungi.com/the-mush-room/avatar-and-the-real-life-wood-wide-web/

[Image of Suzanne Simard by Diana Markosian]

Spoken Earth

#07 Suzanne Simard: Finding the Mother Tree

In this episode of Spoken Earth, Adam Weymouth discusses overpopulation with Betsy Hartmann, who argues that blaming the planet's problems on overpopulation is not only a fallacy, but a racist one that plays into the hands of the far right.

Betsy Hartmann is professor emerita of development studies at Hampshire College in the US. She is the author of The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War and Our Call to Greatness and the feminist classic Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control, as well as two political thrillers about the far right. She has long worked at the intersections of population, migration, environment, and security, and has spent much of her career attempting to debunk arguments that use overpopulation to explain climate change, poverty, the loss of biodiversity, and much else besides. In this wide ranging conversation we explore reproductive rights, migration, racism, and America's vision of the coming Apocalypse.

Find the full story here: 

Podcast by Lacuna Magazine www.lacuna.org.uk

Interviewer: Adam Weymouth www.adamweymouth.com
Producer and musician: Ulli Mattsson www.ullimattsson.com

Further reading:
http://betsyhartmann.com/
https://sites.hampshire.edu/popdev/
Reproductive Rights & Wrongs https://betsyhartmann.com/reproductive-rights-and-wrongs/
Population Control: Birth of an ideology https://www.jstor.org/stable/45130847
Threats and burdens: Challenging scarcity-driven narratives of “overpopulation” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718518302458

#08 Overpopulation, Apocalypse, and Migration: A conversation with Betsy Hartmann

Producer Ashvin Kapilan explores the use of police power in the UK, focussing on the controversial technique of 'kettling'. Featuring the work of Prof Mark Neocleous, the podcast exposes how the concept of security is often used to increase and entrench police power power at worrying levels.

Special thank you to Professor Mark Neocleous for agreeing to be interviewed for the purposes of the production of this podcast

Music and Sounds
Astrisx by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
Dial 999 – Police car, pass from left to right with yelp siren by BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07045267)
Household – Kettle filled with water by BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07042254)
Household: Electric Kettle Boiling by BBC Sounds Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07027207)
Inamorata by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
Kitchens – Large domestic kitchen by BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07056101)
London – London, West End, Portland Place – 1972 (1T1, reprocessed) by BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07060038)
Public Demonstration In A London Square by BBC Sound Effects (https://sound effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07032271).
This Passage by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
True Blue Sky by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue).
Union Hall Melody by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

#43 Kettling

#44 The Dying Art Of Protesting

Producer Zuzu Walker explores the significance of costume in political protest. With help from Prof Andy Lavender, the podcast specifically examines the gilet jaunes (yellow Vests) used across the French protests from 2018-2021. Using the work of Ernesto Laclau and Jacques Ranciére, this podcast explores the duality of symbols, in seeing how the gilet jaune could be embued with masses of demands, opinions, and meaning, and how this results in it becoming ultimately meaningless.

Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge Professor Andy Lavender for his insightful interview, without whom this podcast would not be possible. As well as; André Kapsas, Anne-Claire Defossez, Didier Fassin, Ernesto Laclau, Jacques Ranciére, Stefan Kipfer and Sophie Wahnich, for their work in studying political protest. 

Music Used

BBC < https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07017038 > 
BBC < https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07017183 >
BBC < https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07031023 >
Podington Bear 2013. “Afterglow.”  https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Thoughtful/Afterglow_1910/
Podington Bear 2013. "Odd Wand." Curious. Cond. Podington Bear https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Curious/OddWand 
Podington Bear 2017. "Senseless." <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Piano_III_
Blue Dot Sessions. 2015. "Slow Line Stomp." Union Hall. Cond. Blue Dot Sessions
<https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Union_Hall/Slow_Line_Stomp > 
Boulé, Dana. 2015. "Swinging in the 7th." Songs for Paris. Cond. Dana Boulé. Comp. Dana Boulé. <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dana_Boule/Songs_For_Paris/07_Swinging_in_the_7th > 
Broke for Free. 2012. "Lonely Organ." Leaf. Cond. Broke for Free. Comp. Broke for Free. <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Leaf/Broke_For_Free_-_Leaf_-_01_Lonely_Organ >

Orders In Decay

#45 Gilet Jaunes

Producer Lucy Knollys explores the movement of the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. During the Argentinian ‘Dirty War’ 1976-83, around 30,000 people were disappeared by the state. Mothers took to the streets to demand justice for their missing children and grandchildren. With Professor Fernando J Bosco, the podcast explores how the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo repurposed traditional identities to give them political strength. Harnessing emotional intelligence, and politicising their role as mothers, they were able to create a far-reaching and enduring social movement which changed human rights in Argentina, and led to the discovery of over a hundred missing grandchildren. This podcast sheds light on an extraordinary, yet relatively unknown female-led social movement and the factors that led to its success.

Special thanks to Professor Fernando J Bosco, of San Diego State University, for participating in this podcast as an interviewee, and giving up his time to share his research into, and experiences meeting with, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.

Thanks also to Prof Illan Wall, School of Law, University of Warwick, for his support and advice throughout this project.

Music:

All music sourced from the Free Music Archive:
https://freemusicarchive.org

Blue Dot Sessions, ‘Drone Birch’, 2017

Kevin MacLeod, ‘Thatched Villagers’, 2014

Trans Atlantic Rage/Balogh, ‘Soul Harmonics’, produced by Jared C. Balogh, 2012

Xylo-Ziko, ‘Dark Water.mp3’, 2020, ‘First Light.mp3’, 2020, ‘Last Light.mp3’, 2021

Sound Effects:

All sound effects sourced from BBC Sound Effects:
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk

‘Bells: Cathedrals – Cathedral bell strikes 5’, BBC Sound Effects

‘Italy: Large Square, Distant Perspective’, BBC Sound Effects

‘Shingle Beach – Waves’, recorded by David Tombs, Natural History Unit, 1911

#46 The Power of Bereavement

Producer Precious Odunaiya explains that in popular culture, vigilantes are imagined as heroes who fight for a form of justice that the legal system fails to achieve. Drawing on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, this podcast investigates the thin line between vigilantism and villainy, as a way to grasp the contemporary state of exception.

Thanks to Dr Erica McCrystal, Montclair State University/Berkeley College; Dr Thomas Giddens, University of Dundee and Dr Timothy Peters, University of the Sunshine Coast

 BBC Sounds, Heavy explosion-expl_07037322. [Sound Effects] United Kingdom: BBC. Available at: <
 https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
 BBC Sounds, Police—ca_07058147. [Sound Effects] United Kingdom: BBC. Available at: <
 https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
 BBC Sounds, Thunder---_07005233. [Sound Effects] United Kingdom: BBC. Available at: <
 https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
 BBC Sounds, Weather---_07038339. [Sound Effects] United Kingdom: BBC. Available at: <
 https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/> [Accessed 1 April 2022].
Holmes, S., Against All Odds. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
<https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 12 April 2022].
Holmes, S., Ascending Light. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
<https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 12 April 2022].
U1902177
 Holmes, S., Entering the Tower. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
 <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 19 April 2022].
 Holmes, S., Rescued. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
 <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 19 April 2022].
 Holmes, S., Search for Them. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
 <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 19 April 2022].Scott Holmes –
 Search for Them
 Holmes, S., Summer. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
 <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 19 April 2022].
 Holmes, S., The Boy is Missing. [Music] Scotland: Free Music Archive. Available at:
 <https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 19 April 2022].
 Quadrado, S., Arabic Sadness. [Music] Russia: Free Music Archive. Available at: <
 https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-
 quadrado/https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes> [Accessed 11 April 2022].
Quadrado, S., Eastern Morning. [Music] Russia: Free Music Archive. Available at: <
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/> [Accessed 11 April 2022].
Quadraso, S., Suspense Piano. [Music] Russia: Free Music Archive. Available at: <
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/> [Accessed 11 April 2022].

Precious Odunaiya's Album

#47: Vigilantism, Villainy and the Dark Knight

Produced by Ollie Sanderson-Nichols: Following the incendiary revelations in 2011 that members of the Metropolitan Police Service, posing as activists, had been tasked with implanting themselves within protest groups and social movements between the years of 1968 and 2010, producer Ollie Sanderson-Nichols explores the history and technique of police infiltration in the UK, and its impacts on the people and communities subject to it. Approaching police infiltration as a technology of power involved in the production and maintenance of sovereign order, this podcasts examines infiltration at the level of life and death: From the disruption to the lives of the activists who were deceived into forming (often intimate) relationships with these officers; to the forms of collective life against which the state pitted itself in developing its infiltration strategies; the peculiar necromantic rituals invoked in the formation of the undercover officers’ false personas; and the necrotic effects of infiltration upon the social and affective life of movements themselves. Featuring comments from Professor Michael Loadenthal, and engaging also with the work of Professors Ben Anderson and Michel Foucault, this is the story of the ‘unliving’.

Special thanks to Professor Michael Loadenthal (University of Cincinnati, Ohio), who kindly agreed to be interviewed for this piece of work, and whose insights, both in his published research and during our discussion, proved most valuable and thought-provoking. 
Many thanks also to Professor Illan rua Wall (University of Warwick Law School) for his support, feedback and guidance throughout the project, without whom this podcast would not have been possible.

•	BBC Sound Effect. “Cell Doors - Period cell doors. Cell door closed with keys, bolts, etc.” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07011124 
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Animals - Horse whinnying.” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07037453 
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Battle Crowd - Battle Ccrowd, with men shouting. (No gunfire.)” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07019149
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Cine Projector - 16mm RCA cine projector. Threading film and short test run.” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07004203 
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Crowd Of 6000 At Protest Meeting - Chatter at close of protest meeting. (6000 people, recorded outdoors in England.)” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07017038
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Deciduous Woodland - Summer: Early Evening - With blowflies and distant song thrush.” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05061094 
•	BBC Sound Effects. “Weather: Eerie Wind - Weather: Eerie wind.” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07027033 
•	BBS Sound Effects. “Scratches: Records - Stylus jerked off vinyl record, record scratch” Available from: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07058170

Music used (all last accessed 22nd April 2022):
•	Aaron Ximm (2012) Spring Rain. Available from: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Aaron_Ximm/Handpans_and_the_Hang/Aaron_Ximm_-_07_-_Spring_Rain/
•	Diablo (2010) “Hollow Body.” Available from: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Diablo/Hollow_Body_Live_on_WFMUs_My_Castle_of_Quiet_4142010/Diablo_01_Hollow_Body/ 
•	Filmy Ghost (Sábila Orbe) (2018) “Himuro Mansion.” Available from: https://freemusicarchive.org/search/?quicksearch=Himuro+Mansion+
•	Kasey, C @ White Bat Audio ‘Escape from LV426’ https://youtu.be/2-wKcIkElIc 
•	Kosta T. (2016) Red in Black. Available from : https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kosta_T/Soul_Sand/Kosta_T_-_Soul_Sand_-_14_Red_in_Black/

Japanese Horror Tales

#48: The Unliving: Spycops

Max Ajl is an agrarian sociologist. He is an associated researcher with the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment, where he currently lives, and a postdoctoral fellow with the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. As well as a frequent contributor to journals, he is author of the 2021 book A People's Green New Deal. In it, he explores the wave of Green New Deals that are currently sweeping politics, and he looks at how far those deals fall from a true eco-socialism. Only eco-socialism, Ajl argues, can provide the sort of justice and equality that is needed to ensure a healthy future for the planet and all of its people.

Podcast by Lacuna Magazine www.lacuna.org.uk

Interviewer: Adam Weymouth www.adamweymouth.com
Producer and musician: Ulli Mattsson www.ullimattsson.com

Further reading: 
http://www.politicaleconomyproject.org/max-ajl.html
http://www.plutobooks.com/author/max-ajl/

#09 In search of A People's Green New Deal with Max Ajl

David Abram is an American cultural ecologist, a philosopher and an activist. He is author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (2010) and The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (1996). Grounding his work within the philosophical tradition of phenomenology, he seeks to reanimate our senses, teaching us how we have been shaped in tandem with the more-than-human world, and how by forgetting it we create a profound loss both for ourselves and for the world in which we live. Having taught and lectured all over the world, he is currently Senior Visiting Scholar in Ecology and Natural Philosophy at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University.

Podcast by Lacuna Magazine

Interviewer: Adam Weymouth
Producer and musician: Ulli Mattsson

Further Reading:
Alliance for Wild Ethics
On Being Human in a More-Than-Human World

#10 David Abram: The Spell of the Sensuous, on language and stories

In the latest episode of Spoken Earth, Adam Weymouth speaks with Jojo Mehta about Stop Ecocide's campaign to have ecocide recognised as a crime at the International Criminal Court. Mehta co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017, along with the barrister Polly Higgins. Higgins had dedicated her life to criminalising ecocide since 2005 when, in a moment that she describes as having changed her life, she realised that “the earth was in need of a good lawyer.” Since then her life's work became geared towards establishing ecocide at the International Criminal Court, as the fifth of the crimes of gravest concern to humanity, alongside war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. Mehta and Higgins co-founded Stop Ecocide to campaign towards that end. What once seemed a radical, impossible dream is now edging closer to reality.

Find the full story here.

Podcast by Lacuna Magazine www.lacuna.org.uk

Interviewer: Adam Weymouth www.adamweymouth.com
Producer and musician: Ulli Mattsson www.ullimattsson.com

Further reading:
Stop Ecocide https://www.stopecocide.earth/ 
Polly Higgins' TED talk https://www.tedxexeter.com/speakers/polly-higgins/
In 2011, a Mock Ecocide Trial was held in the Supreme Court of England and Wales https://ecocidelaw.com/the-law/mock-trial/
Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart https://www.cradletocradle.com/
Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Ecocide Law: https://ecocidelaw.com/
Polly Higgins obituary by Jojo Mehta: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/polly-higgins-obituary

#04 Jojo Mehta of Stop Ecocide: Why the earth needs a good lawyer

This podcast series from Lacuna Magazine is uncovering the deeper ideas and philosophies behind the environmental movement. Award-winning author and explorer Adam Weymouth conducts in-depth interviews with some of the world’s most interesting environmental thinkers, academics and activists, discussing everything from economics to anthropology, and human rights to history.

#04 Jojo Mehta of Stop Ecocide: Why the earth needs a good lawyer

Spoken Earth: The environment podcast

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