Welcome to another episode of the Willoughby Hills podcast!
On today’s episode, I speak with author Audrea Lim about her new book Free the Land: How We Can Fight Poverty and Climate Chaos.
The issues of climate change, gentrification, racial inequity, and corporate greed are often treated as unrelated issues, but Audrea argues that they all share a common root: the commodification of land. She not only looks at how the American system of private property ownership has been destructive, but also explores alternatives. Some of these include looking back to original Indigenous practices around land management and stewardship, while others look at models like community land trusts, public housing, and public parks.
Audrea’s work looks at rural solutions in places like the Canadian tar sands as well as urban solutions in cities like New York and Minneapolis. We had a great talk about her reporting process as well as beginning to understand how reexamining our relationship to land can solve issues around climate, racial justice, and more.
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113. Journalist Rebecca Clarren on the Parallel Histories of Jews and Lakota
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132. Author Audrea Lim Examines our Relationships to Land