Eco-Logics of Freedom: Why Justice Isn’t Just Clean Water

What if clean air wasn’t just about pollution levels, and water access wasn’t just a distributional issue—but a question of freedom? In this sweeping episode of Bookshelves & Braincells, host Nishanth Araveti reframes environmental justice through the lens of the capability approach, showing how ecosystems shape not just our health, but our very ability to live lives we value.

From heat-stricken neighborhoods in Phoenix to indigenous self-governance in the Amazon, this episode explores how environmental conditions act as conversion factors—deeply entangled with race, class, geography, and history—to enable or constrain fundamental capabilities like autonomy, education, identity, and collective flourishing. Through vivid case studies, we examine how traditional environmental frameworks fall short, and how a capability-centered perspective challenges us to rethink valuation, governance, sustainability, and justice itself.

Whether you're an activist, policymaker, or simply someone who believes justice must extend to the very air we breathe and land we love, this episode offers a bold, human-centered framework for environmental futures.