In this week’s episode co-hosts Chris Askew-Merwin and Malavika Sahai talk food and power, with a focus on corporate control over the food industry. This conversation is based on an interview we air between Malavika and guest Phil Howard from Michigan State University, a professor and sociologist studying food markets and food systems. He has a new book out, entitled Concentration and Power in the Food System: Who Controls What We Eat?, and is perhaps most famous for his widely-circulated infographics about concentration of ownership in the food system. They talk taking back power through consumer purchasing power and sustainable movements in pre-existing markets.
The conversation between Malavika and Phil got us thinking about a previous show we had on sustainability in the craft beer industry, from November 2015. We review a clip from the episode, A Cultural Shift to Conservation, with Kris Spaulding of Brewery Vivant in which she discusses being a LEED certified brewery and profit sharing at Brewery Vivant.
Along with these fabulous content-rich interviews, we play some groovy tunes from Weird Al Yankovic and The Beatles. If you love the content we provide on It’s Hot in Here, please consider donating to WCBN during our fundraising week. There are some pretty neat premiums being offered in exchange for donations, and it’s your support that helps us continue to bring you this show!
One of Phil Howard’s infographics on corporate power in the food industry. This one is on the soft drink industry, and Malavika and Chris discuss it on air on this week’s show! For more information like this, check out his website https://msu.edu/~howardp/
Growing Authentic Leaders from Communities Most Impacted by Environmental Injustice and Climate Change
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On this week’s show, our hostsRebecca Hardin, Whitney Smith and Nicholas Bruscato discussed Growing Authentic Leaders from Communities Most Impacted by Environmental Injustice and Climate Changewith the distinguished Dr. Robert Bullard– “The Father of Environmental Justice” and current Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University.
What is Environmental Justice?
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (Environmental Protection Agency, 2015). The Principles of Environmental Justice can be viewed here
Climate Change in 2014, Tu B’shevat, and SNRE’s Food Olympics
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On this week’s show, we discussed current environmental news, climate change with Alexandra (Lexi) Brewer(MS ’15), Tu B’shevat (Birthday of Trees) with Nick Bruscatto (MS ’16), and the SNRE Food Olympics with Rebecca Baylor. We also discussed the upcoming and exciting events happening around SNRE and the University of Michigan!
Today’s show features Jimmy Chin, renowned North Face team Climber and Photographer, Will Weber, Founder of Journeys International and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and Benjamin Morse, SNRE MSc. student (2016) and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
It is 2015 and we are back! To kick off the new year on It’s Hot in Here, our hosts Rebecca Hardin and Sam Molnar discussed Agroecology with Dr. Marney Isaac, Assisant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems & Development at the University of Toronto.
Bio:Dr. Marney Isaac, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems & Development, conducts interdisciplinary research on plant strategies and the nutrient economy of agroecological systems while concurrently charting the human dimension of agroecosystem management. Her research provides mechanistic insights into the ecological principles, nutrient cycles, and plant-soil interactions that govern the structure and function of agricultural landscapes, with particular attention on identification of strategies for environmental services, system resilience and sustainable livelihoods. Her research approach makes use of a diverse set of technical tools and employs various temporal and spatial scales: from mechanistic manipulative trials at the rhizosphere scale to large agroecosystem dynamics. She also supervises an international research program investigating agrarian management networks and environmental governance, with an emphasis on understanding innovation in large social-agroecological systems. She has published widely in environmental science, agronomic and multi-disciplinary journals including Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Agronomy for Sustainable Development and Ecology and Society.
In addition to agroecology, we followed up with the SNRE MS students after their trip to Peru for the international climate negotiations at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP20) in Lima, Peru. The SNRE students that we had on the show included second-year graduate students from the School of Natural Resources and Environment COP20 student delegation. We discussed their exciting experiences at one of the most prominent climate talks in the world.
Our show this week maintained a theme of innovation and taking new approaches to protect the environment and manage land. This segment was a wonderful start to the new year and we are excited for all that 2015 has to offer.
Honey – it’s delicious, nutritious, and one of the most labor-intensive food products known to man. That is, if we give credit where it’s due – to bees and those who work to keep them flourishing!
This week: Rich Wieske, maker of meade and pollinator of the City of Detroit with Green Toe Gardens and Mike Bianco UM Bees Minister (one among many!) and bee activist join us in the studio to share their wealth of knowledge and buzzing passion for reversing one of the most disquieting developments of our time – the disappearance of the honey bees. Jim Johnson, Jennifer’s uncle and backyard beekeeper, joins in the conversation too, with his account of the sacrifices burgeoning beekeepers must sometimes make to keep their hives happy over the recently brutal winter months.
Listen in and learn what intrepid beekeepers like Rich, Mike, and Jim are doing to cultivate more and better hives of happy bees.
Interested in starting your own hive(s)? Check out a beekeepers association nearest you:
Join us in a lively conversation around function, form, fitness, and food with Ann Arbor’s own Ryan Sullivan. Ryan’s an impressively articulate, generous, and observant trainer and owner of the “boutique-y” gym Functional Fitness. He’s a self proclaimed “nerd,” but we prefer to think of him as a “fitness intellectual” trained in the vernacular arts of movement.
Cookie Woolner (historian and Riot Grrrl) and Mirs Kahn (UM grad and all around awesome gal) sit in as exxxtra special guest co-hosts.
And, we get pumped with tunes from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Roots Manuva, the Descendents, Beastie Boys, Weird Al, and James Brown!
Curious re: Kettlebells? Check out this Irish Maven of Steel:
February 14th marks the most celebrated (albeit, corporatized) day for lovebirds everywhere AND one of the final days of WCBN’s Annual FUNdraiser.
In celebration of this delicate confluence – where love and money intertwine and beget more love and money – we invited friends (and friendly lovers) of It’s Hot in Here to join our exxxtra special Lovefest 2K14 Fundraiser edition. We featured the loveliest of tunes and the hottest of our It’s Hot in Here Family for an exxtra-special hour of heart-warming, purse string-loosening news|views|grooves. Continue reading It’s Hot in Here’s Lovefest 2K14!→
Baby, it’s cold outside. In this episode of IHIH, we ask, “What exactly is a polar vortex?”, share some rather unusual stories about the grand fight against the winter blues, and check in with the SNRE Food Olympics.
If the show doesn’t quite warm you up enough, keep groovin’ to our music playlist (featuring such greats as Barrett Strong, ZZ Top, J Dilla, and Usher), preferably with a hot toddy in hand.
It’s Hot in Here Goes to Warsaw: A Conversation with the Parties
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In November of 2013, SNRE students Jenny Cooper, Rachel Jacobson, and Chris Wolff joined the throngs of international delegates at the COP19 UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland. In this episode of IHIH, they share some of their most memorable experiences. Listen in and let their stories transport you to the hectic, yet hopeful, scenes in Warsaw’s National Stadium, where over 10,000 participants from 89 countries came together to negotiate how to best safeguard present and future generations from climate change.
