Season Four

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Watch all episodes of Spotlights from our archive page
Check back here (or on our homepage) every other Monday for a new episode. 


Spotlights, 4.1, Heather Eaton on Religion, Ecology, Gender, and Nonviolence
This is the inaugural episode of the fourth year of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology podcast. This episode features a prominent contributor to the field, Heather Eaton, PhD, professor of conflict studies in the faculty of human sciences at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada. We talk about her numerous interdisciplinary contributions to the field of religion and ecology, including her engagement with the intellectual legacy of Thomas Berry (a teacher of hers), the enduring relevance of ecofeminism, the philosophy of new materialism, the role of nonviolence in facilitating social change, and the political problem posed by religious nationalism, and more.


Spotlights, 4.2, Wilderness, Morality, and Value, with Joshua Duclos
This episode of Spotlights features Joshua Duclos, PhD, Instructor of Humanities and Philosophy at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire. We talk about his book, Wilderness, Morality, and Value (Lexington Books, 2022), where he rethinks the ethical implications of wilderness in light of the complex conditions of life in the Anthropocene. We discuss issues around anthropocentrism, intrinsic value in nature, the religious significance of wilderness, and some of the moral conflicts that arise when the value of wilderness is juxtaposed with concerns for animal suffering. There are no easy answers when it comes to understanding wilderness, conservation, and animal welfare, but there are many ways to deepen our understanding of the questions involved in those issues.


Spotlights, 4.3, Christiana Zenner on Theology, Ethics, and Freshwater Crises
This episode of Spotlights features Christiana Zenner, PhD, Associate Professor of Theology, Science and Ethics in the Department of Theology at Fordham University. She is a deeply interdisciplinary scholar and teacher, so we cover a lot of topics, including her research into emerging and established fresh water ethics, religious ecologies, the Anthropocene, the ecological turn in Catholic social teaching (including Laudato Si', the ecological encyclical from Pope Francis), the tensions between the degrowth movement and ecomodernist advocates of green growth, our shared hope in the youth and their energy for communication and community organizing, citational politics, bingo games, and a lot more. Her book Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and Global Fresh Water Crises is on its second edition with Orbis Books (2018).