This week on It’s Hot In Here radio, those lucky enough to enter the WCBN studios were greeted by the warm and rich tones of the cello and baroque flute warming up to play. On flute was Taya König-Tarasevich, who has studied music in Siberia, Freiburg Germany and Ann Arbor Michigan and now plays from New York City where she lives with her husband. On the cello was Ann Arbor native and Community High alumna Anna Steinhoff. Described by critics as “soulful,” and “the rhythmic heart of the ensemble”, she has studied music at Oberlin and Northwestern University. She is still currently based in the Chicago area. Also joining us on the mic is pianist Shin Hwang. Shin is a prize-winner of the 1st International Westfield Fortepiano Competition, and a versatile keyboardist who has won recognition in both modern and historical performance.
After completing his master’s degree at the University of Michigan with Penelope Crawford and Arthur Greene, he received the prestigious Fulbright Grant to study in the Netherlands at
the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. This is not Taya’s first time on It’s Hot In Here, and her past performance can be found here.
Taya on FluteTaya disassembling her instrument
Unfortunately Shin could not bring the hefty fortepiano into the studio, but we still got to hear from Taya and Anna both together and solo.
Anna on Cello
Between these tidbits of musical delicacy, hosts Rebecca Hardin and Ben Sonnega discussed with the guests the significance of historically accurate instrumentation, some of their favorite pieces to play, and their personal relationships with the music of various composers. While Haydn brought a whimsical and upbeat feeling, Bach brought a feeling of truth according to the musicians. The three will be performing this Saturday at 7pm at the First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor (608 E. William St). In the holiday spirit of giving thanks, this show is FREE. Taya mentioned that it only made sense to give a gift of thanks to the community of Ann Arbor to which they all have been a part of at some point. Don’t miss out on this!
Are you concerned about climate change? Would you like to learn about how you can address and respond to this challenge – whether as an individual, by collaborating with others, or through political actions? Click play on this episode of It’s Hot In Here to hear from the SEAS graduate students that helped design the Act on Climate MOOC now available on Coursera. The course uses food, energy, transportation and cities as frames for things impacting climate change, and uses true and inspiring case studies as the subject material for discussion. We heard from the students as well as local farmer, green realtor, and board member of local sustainability initiative The Agrarian Adventure, Jeff Tanza.
In this show listeners get a quick and dirty version of the course as we discuss all of the possible behaviors that an individual could take across these topic areas, and discuss some local events and happenings to follow-up with. This is where our friend Jeff played a particularly useful role as a member of the Ann Arbor community. We discussed his work with The Agrarian Adventure and getting kids to eat spinach happily (who would have thought), and the Veridian at County Farm eco-village. All this plus music about climate change selected by the guests!
The Agrarian Adventure is hosting a brunch fundraiser to support organic farmers sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge for growing food with local classrooms. Hear about kids liking Michigan cold-season spinach and becoming garden chefs, making sauerkraut with U-M students, the herb-smell challenge, and farmer trading cards – while enjoying heirloom vegetable hash and fair-trade coffee-infused waffles with Mindo chocolate sauce. Sunday 11/19, 10am-noon, 500 Little Lake Dr Ann Arbor.
This October the University of Michigan directly addressed one of the most pressing issues of today at the Michigan and the Climate Crisis conference. This week-long celebration of the University’s bicentennial was aimed at confronting the present and future of the climate crisis. The HotInHere team was able to track down some of the speakers throughout the week for interviews. Some of these speakers include Sandra Steingraber, Stephen Mulkey, Michael Mann, and Wege Lecture guest, internationally renowned environmentalist, and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben.
Biologist, author, and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. writes about climate change, ecology, and the links between human health and the environment. Steingraber’s highly acclaimed book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment was the first to bring together data on toxic releases with data from U.S. cancer registries and was adapted for the screen in 2010. As both book and documentary film, Living Downstream has won praise from international media.
Called “a poet with a knife” by Sojourner magazine, Steingraber has received many honors for her work as a science writer, including, in 2011, a Heinz Award. By donating the cash prize to the anti-fracking movement, she became, in 2012, the co-founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking, a statewide coalition of more than 280 grassroots organizations. Steingraber has been named a Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine, a Person of the Year by Treehugger, and one of 25 “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” by the Utne Reader.
Dr. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Mann is the author of several books including his most recent work, The Madhouse Effect, which features cartoons by Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Tom Toles. Through satire, “The Madhouse Effect” portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that man-made activity has changed our climate.
From July 2011 through December 2015, Stephen Mulkey served as president of Unity College in Maine, a four-year liberal arts institution dedicated to sustainability science. He led Unity College to be the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to divest its endowment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies and directed the creation of the College’s premier graduate program in sustainability science.
As a scholar of the interdisciplinary literature in environmental science, Dr. Mulkey is an active public interpreter of climate change and sustainability. His recent research focuses on the role of landscape carbon stocks in climate mitigation and on the academic structure of interdisciplinary programs in the environmental and sustainability sciences.
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors . In 2014, biologists honored him by naming a new species of woodland gnat— Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.
Throughout the interviews, a single message seemed to emerge as host Harry Rice pressed each speaker for answers. As you listen, you will hear that there was a feeling that more collaboration between disciplines must happen if we are to “get science off the shelf” as Sandra Steingraber put it. This is a direct call to action for members of not only the scientific community, but to politicians and activists alike.
These thoughtful and powerful interviews are speckled with tunes to keep you moving from artists such as John Prine, The Tragically Hip, and more on this episode of It’s Hot In Here.
The Hot In Here team spends a lot of time considering the far reaching impacts of climate change. From warmer temperatures, to rising seas, to pollution issues of climate justice, there is MORE than enough to address. Aiming to tackle this challenge one step at a time, we had the pleasure of having U of M Sociocultural Anthropology PhD Candidate Allison Caine join regular host Ben Sonnega and new host on the mic Ari Weil for an in depth look at her time spent in the Andes Mountains.
Andes Wetlands
Allison’s research investigates how pastoralists in highland Peru identify, evaluate, and respond to the regional impacts of global climate change. Living in delicate wetland ecosystems at the edges of rapidly retreating glaciers, these herders pick up subtle cues in animal behavior and grassland distribution that indicate rapid shifts occurring in their landscapes. As temperatures increase, herders find themselves facing transformative changes in seasonal variation, extreme weather events, and the vertical displacement of ecological zones.
Andes Mountains
Allison lived alongside the herders for a year and participated in their daily lives, studying how they made sense of their world and the ways in which it was changing. She also followed seasonal migrations between pastures to track how herding practices are shifting to accommodate changes in the ecosystem. We talk about how Allison became an anthropologist and what it was like to undertake ethnographic fieldwork in a remote Quechua-speaking community. We also discuss what anthropology has to contribute to the study of climate change, particularly in terms of its impact on people’s daily lives.
Studio Selfie! (Allison, Ben, and Ari)
This plus music from a woman in the community Allison stayed in can all be found in this week’s episode of It’s Hot In Here!
