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LENS.cast

LENS.cast

UCLA Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS)

Stories of environmental justice and imagination in California and beyond, from UCLA's Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies. LENS.cast tells stories about environmental art, activism, policy, and imagination, with a focus on questions of environmental and multispecies justice. How do built and natural environments embody histories of oppression and possibilities for change? How do different communities value and protect the nonhuman beings they live with? How do artists and activists push us to think differently about our more-than-human relations? How can communities ensure that marginalized people and places are at the center of plans for ecological futures? What should you think when you see a coyote? What does it think of you?
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Top 10 LENS.cast Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best LENS.cast episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to LENS.cast for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite LENS.cast episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

California’s Imperial Valley is home to one of the world’s largest deposits of lithium—a mineral that may be crucial to engineering a low-carbon economy. Companies and governments interested in extracting Imperial’s lithium promise that the process will bring jobs and investment to the Valley, one of the most socially and economically marginalized places in the state. In this episode, we ask experts, activists, and community members whether lithium mining in Imperial could be part of what experts call a “just transition”: a shift to green energy that undoes the logic of exploitation that’s led us into climate crisis, instead of repeating it.
Cover image: “SaltonSeaArielFromSouth.jpg”
By Samboy
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

"Micro Flute Composition 2"
Composed by Mitch Stahlmann
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
https://freesound.org/people/mithimightbe/sounds/426857/

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LENS.cast - Also, Satan

Also, Satan

LENS.cast

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03/16/22 • 53 min

In this episode, Christopher Kelty explores the rather surprising background to the No Kill Movement in LA. (It's Satan.)
This is the sixth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - Coyotes in the Cloud
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03/16/22 • 37 min

You just saw a coyote on the street. Or maybe you read about it on Nextdoor. What should you think? In this episode, Spencer Robins asks whether you really saw that coyote, or whether you’ve followed a ghost—a cloud coyote—into a surprising political storm in Los Angeles.

This is the fifth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - The Responsibility of Feral Cats
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03/16/22 • 27 min

The maze has brought you to a cat’s cradle story of responsibility and moral failure. Listen as Niaz Sassounian takes us on a whirlwind tour of the feral cat controversy in Los Angeles.
This is the fourth episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - How to See Coyotes
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03/16/22 • 25 min

Everybody in Los Angeles has a coyote story, but nobody can quite agree on what seeing a coyote in the city means. What do coyotes mean by the things they do? In this episode Chase Niesner explores how what we see in coyotes might depend on what they see in us.
This is the third episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - Unsustainable

Unsustainable

LENS.cast

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03/16/22 • 20 min

Are you doing your part to save the planet today? Surely you’ve thought about it. All around you there are signs urging you to recycle, to save water, to use less energy. In this episode, Emma Horton asks why we feel so bad for not doing our part, and whether it’s healthy to keep trying.
This is the second episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - The Lion and the Rat
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03/16/22 • 27 min

In this episode, Christopher Kelty asks, "what can you live with" in Los Angeles? It's a simple question without any good answers. It's a deeply cultural question, about why we love some animals and hate others, and how that never works out well.
This is the first episode produced as part of our collaboration with the Labyrinth Project.

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LENS.cast - "Please Take Off Your Shoes"
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03/02/22 • 34 min

In episode 2, we hear from activists in LA’s Little Tokyo working to ensure that their community has a voice in building a sustainable future. Investment in green infrastructure is an increasingly significant strategy for achieving sustainability goals, but if communities aren't involved, it can also lead to gentrification, displacement, and cultural erasure. In this episode, Scott Oshima, Grant Sunoo, and traci kato-kiriyama, along with Paul Ong of the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, discuss how “sustainability” can be redefined to include a focus on justice and to draw on the cultural histories of neighborhoods like Little Tokyo.

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In the first episode of LENS.cast, we explore the history and future of Los Angeles's remarkable trees.
California is more than palm trees: it is, according to University of Pennsylvania historian Jared Farmer, an incredible arboretum—a collection of species from all over the world—and an "heirloom of conquest." Trees record the history of colonial destruction in California, but they could also be an important part of a more just, resilient future as LA faces the realities of climate change.
We speak with Farmer, with Rachel Malarich, LA's first City Tree Officer, and with Maria Adame and Miguel Vargas of the nonprofit group TreePeople, about the many meanings of LA's trees.

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FAQ

How many episodes does LENS.cast have?

LENS.cast currently has 9 episodes available.

What topics does LENS.cast cover?

The podcast is about Los Angeles, Society & Culture, Ecology, Climate, Environment, Podcasts, Arts, Environmental Justice and California.

What is the most popular episode on LENS.cast?

The episode title 'White-Golden State: Extracting Futures in Lithium Valley' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on LENS.cast?

The average episode length on LENS.cast is 32 minutes.

How often are episodes of LENS.cast released?

Episodes of LENS.cast are typically released every 1 hour.

When was the first episode of LENS.cast?

The first episode of LENS.cast was released on Jun 3, 2021.

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