Listen to the Podcast

Institute of the Environment 2022-2023 Environmental Climate Justice Scholar Anuj Vaidya is excited to share a new podcast series recently launched at Imagining America where Vaidya works as Communications Director. The IA Hubbub, which features stories about art, ecology, and public scholarship from across the IA Network. 

We are especially pleased that the first two episodes of the series showcase outstanding community-engaged projects that are happening right here at UC Davis, in collaboration with Patwin/Wintun culture-bearer, artist, naturalist, and storyteller Diana Almendariz. 

The first episode, Cultural Fire, features the voices of Diana, Jacquelyn Ross (Pomo/Coast Miwok cultural practitioner, and Director of Undergraduate Admissions at UC Davis), and Prof. Beth Rose Middleton Manning (thank you Beth Rose!). It introduces listeners to the resurgence of cultural fire at the Tending and Gathering Garden - a now-defunct gravel mining site that has been transformed through the efforts of a determined collective of Native American practitioners, in collaboration with University of California faculty, graduate students, and staff from across the region.

The second episode, Abundance, continues the conversation with Diana, and introduces us to her collaboration with UC Davis entomologist Geoffrey Attardo. The episode takes us on a wide-ranging journey through Diana’s visual art practice, her collaboration with Geoffrey around wetland restoration, and how her image-making practice is informed by her work as a naturalist.

We hope you will share the episodes (linked above and in the attached PDF) with your students and colleagues and encourage them to engage with the projects and the learning discussed in them. I am also including image/text with this email in case you can mention the podcast in your newsletters and/or social media.