In this week’s episode, Anurag discusses the history of colors, such as indigo and carmine, and how they can help us understand what the world was like in the past. Christina talks about a few incidents of white people in the West starting businesses related to Asian cuisine and the Twitter feuds that followed. We also discuss the Chinese reality TV show Street Dance of China and why it’s so much fun to watch.

Links:

The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair, a book which provides brief histories of many colors.

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Indian yellow

An article about the history of indigo

Gandhi’s Champaran Satyagraha

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Pippa Middlehurst’s cookbook Dumplings and Noodles

'Queen of Congee'

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A dance battle from Street Dance of China Season 4 (full episodes are available on the Youku channel on YouTube - subtitles available in multiple languages!)

Jam's Germs on Instagram

In this episode, Anurag and Christina talk to Dr. Samantha Chisholm Hatfield about Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). How do indigenous people develop and use TEK to thrive along with nature, rather than exploiting it? We also discuss things like how time is perceived differently in indigenous communities and how the global fight against climate change can greatly benefit by utilizing and learning from TEK.

Dr. Samantha Chisholm Hatfield is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians and is also Cherokee. She has a Doctorate from Oregon State University in Environmental Sciences focusing on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and is a research scientist, author, and international speaker.

Indigenous authors and scholars mentioned in the episode: Kyle Powys Whyte, Daniel Wildcat, Gregory Cecchetti, Vine Deloria Jr., Julie Maldonado, Kathy Lynn, Frank Lake, Winona LaDuke


Link to study about the Haenyeo community.

Christina and Anurag talk to Dr. Teevrat Garg about how people are being affected by rising temperatures, and how they might adapt as temperatures around the world rise in the coming decades. Dr. Garg talks to us about various research studies from around the world that document how more days of extreme heat result in effects ranging from lower productivity to increasing levels of violence. We also discuss how social policy plays an important role in helping populations cope with climate change  while technological innovations help reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Dr. Teevrat Garg is an Assistant Professor of economics at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at University of California, San Diego.

His research is at the intersection of environmental and development economics with an emphasis on the role of public policy and institutions in helping the poor cope with environmental changes from climate change to water and air pollution.

This week, Christina and Anurag discuss how influencer and data-driven shopping apps have supercharged e-commerce around the world. Christina takes the example of fast fashion to illustrate how new technologies and parasocial relationships with influencers have been accelerating trends and consumption. They also discuss other ways influencers create desire in consumers, which Chinese apps like Shein, TikTok, Taobao Live and Xiaohongshu have mastered.

Anurag talks about real life superheroes, people who don a costume and solve problems in society. He focuses on Mexican and other Latin American superheroes and the kinds of problems they solve and how they’re fundamentally different from those we read about in comic books and movies.

Links:

Shein ad

Viya livestream with a C-pop star guest (to see how she sells products) 

Chinese farmers streaming their produce

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Super Barrio’s Wikipedia article

Video clip of Super Barrio leading a protest

Real Life Superhero Wiki (tracks current superheroes)

Obligatory superhero dog tax

In this episode, we talk about the modern history of coffee, its relationship with the environment and the people who grow it, and how all this affects the coffee we drink. 

We speak to Dr. Stuart McCook, professor of world history at the University of Guelph in Canada.  He is also the author of "Coffee Is Not Forever: A Global History of the Coffee Leaf Rust,” which is about the global coffee industry and how it was affected by a serious disease called coffee leaf rust.

What is the impact of globalization and climate change on coffee growers and the plant itself, and how is it all connected in today's world?

In this episode, we speak to Kyle Moody, an associate professor of communications media at Fitchburg State University, about the role that local news played during the pandemic. We also discuss the decline of local news and closures of news outlets in the US over the course of the pandemic, as well as the past decade(s), and the lasting effects that has on local communities, the spread of misinformation, and political participation. What are potential solutions for reviving local news going forward?

Christina and Anurag discuss how boba, or bubble tea, made its way from Taiwan to the US, and how chai has done the same from India. How has boba tea remained a drink mostly sold by and for Asians, while chai, like yoga and golden milk (turmeric milk), has become a symbol of gentrification and an elite lifestyle?

This week we're joined by anthropologist Dr. Sarah Besky of Cornell University to discuss the colonial history of tea and the people who produce it. Her research uses ethnographic and historical methods to study the intersection of inequality, nature, and capitalism.

Her work on tea plantation and labour is focused on the Darjeeling and surrounding areas in NE India, and in the Himalayan region more broadly.

This is part one of a two-part series on tea. In our next episode, we will focus on the role that tea plays in our cultures, communities and identities. 

The book referred to in the episode: The Darjeeling Distinction

Her most recent book: How Nature Works: Rethinking Labor on a Troubled Planet