What the heck is urban homesteading? This podcast will explore that question along with other big ideas such as: How can we live sustainably in an urban environment? What lessons about the environment can we learn from other cultures? How do we instill these values in our children, our communities?  

Listen to my conversations with Dan Bensonoff, Kesiah Bascom, and Kristin Brennan. Hope you enjoy!

Producer Bio - Kaira Mediratta
Hi! I'm Kaira, and I'm a freshman at Williams. I am originally from NYC so, for this podcast, I was drawn to the idea of sustainability in the city and what that looks like. I really do love the abundance of nature and farms in the Berkshires, though, which I think has been a big factor in trying to choose a major (I'm thinking environmental science or art history). Beyond these things, you can usually find me doing yoga or hanging out at WCMA (the Williams College Museum of Art).

Credits
https://freesound.org/people/Dvideoguy/sounds/246315/
https://freesound.org/people/folkart%20films/sounds/122767/
https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-podcasts-2

Digging up the Dirt on Urban Homesteading

"Podcasts from the Farm" is a series of audio stories created by Williams College students in a Winter Study course taught by Mike Evans, the assistant director at the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives. Students attended the Northeast Organic Farming Association's 2018 Winter Conference, interviewed farmers and other food and farming movers & shakers, and created their own podcast episodes. We hope you enjoy! Feel free to share any and all audio stories that you find compelling.

Welcome to "Podcasts from the Farm"

I wanted to make a podcast about sustainability, without science. This is useful beyond the fact that I am an English major who knows almost nothing useful about science. Consider: what is science without people? Without us? There’s something so external, so relational, so social, about our relationship to the earth, and to each other. 

I need to capture this as a sound and emotion, through storytelling. Radio is a visual medium, and I want to take you on a meditative, emotional journey into the habitual. What can utopia/liberation feel like? Sound like? How to we acclimate ourselves to it?

The stories on the show explore environmental justice, and what it means to us in our day-to-day lives. I talked to people about their most beautiful, complicated friendships. I collected memoirs from a friend about dealing with her own internalized self-hatred. It’s was a total honor and journey to edit this material, compose the music, and (finally!) put it all out there. I learned so much through the entire process and am so excited to share it with the world.

What is Small Space Radio?

A manifesto. How to show up in a new space, and make it your own. This episode is about dismantling the system from within the system. It’s about coming into an alien space, and making it your own. It’s about destiny meeting inertia. 

Part I is an orientation to environmental justice. Part II is a story about finding your way on an alien planet. It’s a story that will feel too familiar, or brand new.

Environmental Justice Mixtape

This first episode is about being queer, and being a body. It’s about our relationships and relationality. 

More than anything, it’s about getting over habits, and being a good friend.

Friends are family, and so much here. They help us understand how to give, and how to take. They’re our support, they amplify our toxic behavior. They shape who we are.

Part is a conversation with Joseph Messer, losely titled “Don’t Fall in love with Straight Men.” Part Two is some spicy original nonfiction written by me, a love letter, and a goodbye letter.

Queer Friendships

Congrats, you are the newest bachelorette on "Flirty or Fetishy." The game is simple. Pick the guy who respects you as a person and you get the deed to a quaint New England home with a white picket fence, two kids, and a dog.

What are you afraid of?

To all the white boys I couldn't love before:

Local produce in the wintertime? Greenhouse growing seems to be the option.  But what are the trade-offs that we need to consider?  Reporter David Pearcy '21 talks with Williams Executive Chef Mark Thompson and Laila Derstein, the latter of whom lives near what she describes as "an other worldly magenta glow."  David explores another thing to consider as we negotiate our 21st century food system.

The Glow:  Thinking through the Impacts of our Food Purchasing Decisions

How often do we drive somewhere that we could just as easily walk to?  Or take too much food in the dining hall and end up wasting it?    Reporter Maya Spalding-Fecher '21speaks with psychology Professor Ken Savitsky and Amy Johns Director of the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives to explore the psychology behind pro-environmental actions.

Why is it So Hard to Do the Right Thing?!

Who understands carbon offsets anyways?  Reporter Emma Neil '22 asks her peers and when they're no help, digs into it with Zilkha Center director Amy Johns and Professor Nick Howe.

Pod Save Williams

Carbon Off-Whats?!  Pursuing Carbon Neutrality at a Small College

The construction process is seemingly never-ending at Williams, but according to reporter Maya Spalding-Fecher '21, students don't seem to understand what is taking into consideration to get a project up and going.   How are decisions made about which buildings to build and how to integrate sustainability into the process?  Reporter Maya Spalding-Fecher '21 talks with Rita Coppola Wallace the Executive Director for the Planning, Design, and Construction Office, Tiku Majumder the Director of the Science Center and former Interim President of Williams, and Amy Johns Director of the Zilkha Center about the decision-making and design processes and how sustainability fits into it.

Why All the Construction?

Energy is confusing.  Reporter Pete Cahill '21 talks to Eco-Advisor Caroline Weinberg '19 to get some clarity.

Photo by Fré Sonneveld on Unsplash

Where Does Our Energy Come From?

David Dethier Professor of Geosciences Emeritus and Dave Fitzgerald Grounds Manager at Williams help reporter Oliver Yang '20 to understand the empty moats and ponds - rain gardens - that he has noticed all around campus.

Rain Gardens & Stormwater

Reporter Emma Neil '22 was frustrated that her hallway lights were always on - even in the middle of the night.  How can it be, she asked, that a college like Williams that prides itself on sustainability would leave lights on all the time?  Emma talks with a number of folks to try to figure out why.   (Thanks to Doug Schlaefer, Sustainability Project Manager in the Planning Design & Construction Office, Lisa Olson and Dave Chapman members of the Sage and Paresky custodial team, and Tim Sears Williamstown building inspector, and Emma's friends)

Why Do These Lights Never Turn Off?

Reporter Oliver Yang '20 relives the intensity of "Qual Lab" - Qualitative Analysis Lab and ponders the excess waste of chemistry labs. His story takes him to Williams Chemistry Professor Anthony Carrasquillo, Dr. Anne Skinner the former and first chemical hygiene officer at Williams, and Allison Paradise founder and CEO of My Green Lab as he considers the chemical lifecycle of the labs he works in and how chemistry labs could become more sustainable.

Chemicals Waste in Our Labs

As 2020 draws nearer, so does the carbon neutrality deadline for Williams College.  Part of achieving carbon neutrality includes purchasing carbon offsets.  Yet they are complicated and fraught.  To understand why reporter David Pearcy '21 interviews Environmental Studies professor Nick Howe and Nancy Nylen former Associate Director at and current consultant for the Center for EcoTechnology.

Carbon Offsets: The Battlefield Bandage?

This is an audio tour for the Class of 1966 Environmental Center at Williams College. The tour is composed of 9 parts, in which you will be taken around the building while hearing about its function and design.

Outside, The Window Wall (9/9)

Outside, The Greenhouse (8/9)

Kitchen (7/9)

Matt Cole Reading Room (6/9)

Restroom (5/9)

Zilkha Offices Area (4/9)

Upstairs Foyer (3/9)

Classroom Area Foyer By Stump Tables (2/9)

Entrance (1/9)

"Pod Save Williams" is a podcast about creating a more sustainable campus and a more sustainable world.  

Started in 2018 as a Winter Study course at Williams, PSW includes student voices from Williams exploring a broad definition of sustainability.  Students from the course Podcasts from the farm interviewed farmers at the NOFA/Mass Winter conference about issues ranging from with climate change and food justice to beekeeping and herbalism.  In the course Pod Save Williams, students gathered and told stories to help articulate sustainability successes and challenges on campus. In Small Space Radio, Ariella Markowitz is a series of stories about relationships and the environment.

We hope you enjoy!  Feel free to share any and all audio stories that you find compelling.  And if you're interested in contributing, let us know.

Pod Save Williams: college sustainability-making

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