In material cut from “Episode 02: Air Pollution,” guest Priya Subberwal reads, in full, their untitled poem about wildfire. ‘Grounding’ producer Lauren Korn sat down with Priya after they read the poem to talk about notions of the apocalypse, storytelling as an apparatus for furthering climate advocacy, and institutional influence on land stewardship and environmental ethics.
Notes:
(00:00) I have a confession to make. I love the smell of wildfire. It makes me homesick
(01:13) The seeds of a lodgepole pine are fire activated, meaning that their cones are closed tightly with this resin that melts wood exposed to the flame, meaning that they must burn in order to become, meaning encoded in their bodies is the anticipation of destruction
(01:53) The thing is, we can’t talk about fire in the American West without talking about fear
(03:24) There is an inevitability to fire
(05:10) I’m not like used to reading it out loud. It feels a bit like a prayer
(05:56) Along with trauma and grief, there is resilience and there is joy
(07:30) I have this beef with ideas of the apocalypse. And the idea that like we're kind of hurtling towards the end... I think it’s deeply uncreative
(13:10) I think the categorization of disciplines that comes with the institution, among other things, can be dangerous—to silo knowledge like that
(13:50) Love is a verb to me, and not like a noun or an adjective
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Priya Subberwal Priya is an interdisciplinary ecologist and artist with an extensive background in multimedia storytelling and a passion for connecting with the natural world through art.
Lauren R. Korn holds an M.A. in poetry from the University of New Brunswick. A former bookseller and the former Director of the Montana Book Festival, she is now an Arts & Culture Producer at Montana Public Radio and the host of its literature-based radio program and podcast, The Write Question.
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In this series, we work to better understand the feelings so many of us have, but may not be able to name—the internal emotional experiences we have as we react to the changing climate around us.
Grounding is produced by Jake Birch, Lauren Korn, and Sarah Aronson. Theme song by Brian Ramirez. Artwork by April Werle. Engineering by Chris Moyles. Mixed by Jake Birch. Special thanks to Michael Marsolek, Noah Epps, Emma Bucher, Clare Menahan, and Alice Sauter. Grounding is a production of Montana Public Radio.
