Consumption is on pause for a lot of people during the novel coronavirus pandemic. Whether that's given you cause to clean out your stuff or become closer with your stuff, we're here to talk about meaning we assign to the objects around us. Christine Harold is a professor of communication at the University of Washington. Her new book THINGS WORTH KEEPING: The Value of Attachment in a Disposable World, investigates the attachments we form to the objects we buy, keep, and discard, and explores how these attachments might be marshaled to create less wasteful practices and balance our consumerist and ecological impulses. Nicole Seymour is a professor of English based in Southern California whose book BAD ENVIRONMENTALISM: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age seeks out a new way to talk about environmentalism that is less performance and self-righteousness and embraces irony and humor. This conversation was recorded in October 2020. 

For more information about their books, visit z.umn.edu/thingsworthkeeping and z.umn.edu/badenvironmentalism. 

References/further reading and watching: 
Hyerim Shin 
Wildboyz 
Rich Doyle’s Darwin’s Pharmacy 
Jeff Nealon’s Plant Theory 
Fantastic Fungi, a 2019 documentary