
LENS.cast
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?
Episodes
9 episodes
White-Golden State: Extracting Futures in Lithium Valley
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 pro...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 1
•
38:01

Also, Satan
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
•
Season 2
•
Episode 6
•
53:11

Coyotes in the Cloud
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 pol...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 5
•
37:54

The Responsibility of Feral Cats
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
•
Season 2
•
Episode 4
•
27:55

How to See Coyotes
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 wha...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 3
•
25:04

Unsustainable
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 pa...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 2
•
20:31

The Lion and the Rat
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 wel...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 1
•
27:50

"Please Take Off Your Shoes"
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 sustainabili...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 2
•
34:59

Heirlooms of Conquest: Trees + Justice in Los Angeles
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 arbore...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 1
•
24:11
