Rock Dog: Recent Episodes
Salient
Rock Dog is an eco-critical podcast that weaves science communication with socio-political commentary. Hosted by Tharushi Bowatte, Rock Dog hopes to challenge the status quo of environmentalism in Aotearoa which has thusfar been apolitical and a bit exclusive. Strap in, because things might just get personal, political, and even geological...
Anamnesis: recollection, especially of a supposed previous existence.
I talk about Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017. Is it a beacon of the emerging field of Earth Jurisprudence? Can the law really protect the environment? I discuss the need to reframe dominant philosophies that belittle and objectify the environment. Natural entities have agency, but how can we acknowledge this in our legal and philosophical institutions? With a focus on rivers as dynamic and essential forces in human civilisation, this episode sets a foundation for further conversation about non-human agency.
REFERENCES:
Murray, J. (2014). Earth Jurisprudence, Wild Law, Emergent Law: The Emerging Field of Ecology and Law—Part 1. Liverpool Law Review, 35(3), 215–231. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10991-014-9148-1
Smith, J. L. (2017). I, River?: New materialism, riparian non-human agency and the scale of democratic reform. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 58(1), 99–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12140
Wilkinson, Hikuroa, D. C. H., Macfarlane, A. H., & Hughes, M. W. (2020). Matauranga Maori in geomorphology: existing frameworks, case studies, and recommendations for incorporating Indigenous knowledge in Earth science. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8(3), 595–618. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-595-2020
Podcast art by Zoe Hannay. Thank you to Margo for sending me the paper by Smith (2017).
In this episode my best friend and fellow interdisciplinary traveller, Margo, joins me to discuss how different narrative forms can mediate or express ecological concepts. We discuss the relationality of time, the urgency of interdisciplinary thinking in the context of climate catastrophe, and how ecology as a discipline provides evidence of human-nonhuman interdependencies.
Podcast art by Zoe Hannay.
No! It's not... well maybe. In this episode I share my thoughts on the way it's a national requirement to love NZ birds and how bird of the year is representative of this tendency. At its most nefarious, bird of the year signals a corrupt conservation rhetoric that erases colonial history. At its best, it's a fun educational campaign to raise awareness about endangered birds.
Thanks to Zoe Hannay for podcast art. My pick for bird of the year 2023 is the kuaka - bar tailed godwit.
Hi!
In this episode I tell you a bit about geological history and briefly explain some of the ways scientists reconstruct an idea of what past climates looked like. I then talk about the anthropocene and discuss some of the issues with the term.
Here's the Donna Harraway essay I take inspiration from:
https://www.e-flux.com/journal/75/67125/tentacular-thinking-anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/
Podcast art by Zoe Hannay.
Thanks to Fran for support. Thank you Margarita for introducing me to the Donna Harraway essay.
Hi, this is episode zero of Rock Dog. Just an introduction to the podcast and what you can expect from this series.
Podcast art by Zoe Hannay
Thanks to the Salient Podcasts producer, Francesca Pietkiewicz, for support.