Climate Change: Material Memory

087 – Memory isn't something that lives only in our minds. Memory lives in objects--in museums, and scrap books, and archives. How can archives help us make sense of climate change? What do we choose to preserve and why?

Climate Change: Pop Culture Takes on the Planet

086 – The hosts explore what pop cultural references to climate change can and can't accomplish. Does pop culture improve our environmental awareness, or simply point back at itself recursively?

Climate Change: Who Will Suffer and Who Will Profit

085 – The effects of climate change will not be evenly distributed. Some landscapes, cultures, and peoples will suffer more than others. And some people will profit from that suffering. Who has a responsibility to deal with that suffering?

Toni Morrison: Her Life in Words

084 – The hosts take a break from their long form discussion about climate change to discuss Toni Morrison, who died on August 5th. “We die," Morrison said in her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance. "That may be the meaning of life. But we do language," she added. "That may be the measure of our lives.”

Climate Change: Population Displacement and Poverty

083 – How can we think about climate change in new ways, so that we might better understand what's at stake? If we look at the history of demographic displacement then the future of climate change comes into stark relief. And that future is darker for some than for others.

Climate Change: It's the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel...

082 – The hosts discuss climate change. It’s in the news all the time, but how we talk about climate change is as important as identifying its parameters and potential consequences. How are we talking about our precarious place in the world?

(r)omance: Alternative Lifestyles

081 – How do alternative lifestyles effect historically heteronormative notions of "romance?" The hosts discuss the ways in which romance has changed in response to the mainstreaming of LGTBQ interests, and how LGTBQ interests have been shaped by mainstream romance.

(r)omance: episodic or epic

080 – We often talk about our lives as if it is one long running story, from cradle to grave. We do the same in our romantic lives, from young and fantastic to mature and sober. But is that true? How much do we actually learn from romance?

(r)omance: Are you difficult?

079 – What makes someone "difficult" in romantic relationships? Putting themselves under the microscope, the hosts explore their own shortcomings and wonder how difficult they are to love.

(r)omance: What Is It?

078 – Romance--with a lowercase "r"--has been a preoccupation in the West since the 17th century. But it's rarely discussed with any seriousness outside of literature or without pop cultural clichés. The hosts aim to change that.