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Politics, Ecology and Everything Else In Between

Politics, Ecology and Everything Else In Between

Written by: Rajeev Nedumaran and friends
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We live in a connected world, where every issue facing humankind is connected in an intricate web. When one string pulls many other parts of the web are affected. We explore this in the backdrop of politics and the environment. DJ (Dhananjay Katju) is a Political Ecologist from Houston, Texas and Rajeev is a curious layman from Auckland, New Zealand. Together, we bring to you issues that impact our world and all the living things who call it home.

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Episodes
  • Ep. 5 - The Flight of The Draco - With R. Chaitanya

    Ep. 5 - The Flight of The Draco - With R. Chaitanya
    Nov 8 2024

    In episode five of 'Politics, Ecology, and Everything in Between,' Rajeev interviews Chaitanya, a former IBM researcher who transitioned to herpetology and evolutionary biology. Chaitanya discusses his fascination with Draco lizards, their unique gliding ability, and the hypothesis that this trait evolved due to the presence of tall dipterocarp trees in Southeast Asia. The conversation explores Chaitanya's research journey, including his fieldwork across India, his PhD at Tel Aviv University, and the broader implications of his findings on the association between tall trees and gliding vertebrates globally. They also touch upon the challenges of conservation amid deforestation and the potential future directions for Chaitanya's research.
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    31 mins
  • Ep. 4 - Locavore Action - With Megan Hobza

    Ep. 4 - Locavore Action - With Megan Hobza
    Apr 24 2023
    Megan Hobza - EP4 [00:00:00] Megan Hobza: The basic idea of what a locavore is, as someone who wants to keep. Money local and resources local because local self-reliance means that, you are better prepared as a community for, change. You're better, prepared for disaster and and you're also reducing your reliance on an extractive global economy. [00:00:26] Rajeev: Welcome to episode four of politics and environment and everything in between. Hey, this is your host Rajeev. And this podcast is all about issues that affect all of us human beings. Because I believe today, everything is connected. In the past episodes, we had covered issues relating to water conservation, tribal identity and colonialism. [00:00:50] Rajeev: In this episode, we talk to. Megan Hobza, a grant writer and community activist from Whittier, California. She specializes in locavore action, [00:01:00] which aims to keep the money local and support small businesses in her community. Thanks for making the time for the podcast, Megan. appreciate it a lot. [00:01:10] Megan Hobza: I'm honored to be here. Thanks for having me, Rajeev. [00:01:13] Rajeev: Awesome. That's great. So it's been what, more than a couple of decades, since I last saw you in Chennai. [00:01:20] Megan Hobza: That's right. it was a really, it was a really cool part of that trip too, to get to see what your family, does. You all have such cool projects. [00:01:32] Rajeev: Right. Yeah. I think my, my father-in-law was the one who,introduced you to, and he was working with NGOs. I think at some point. [00:01:40] Megan Hobza: Yeah, this was an, I think this was, Grameen Bank's, pilot project to bring microfunding to rural women. So we got to visit this village. Where all the women in the village had each taken out a little loan and they combined their loans to buy a cow, and then they sold the milk from the cow every week. [00:01:59] Megan Hobza: [00:02:00] And. Saved up money to buy another cow. And the bank had installed, ATMs in the countryside that, that took and gave smaller, coinage. so that, people with lower incomes could interact with them conveniently. The bank had installed, clean water resources in the village and also created, a central computer room. [00:02:24] Megan Hobza: So there was internet access for the whole village. And it was just really inspiring. I mean, that seeing what small things could transform the life of a little community in some ways inspired the rest of my life and what I ended up doing locally in my own community. [00:02:39] Rajeev: Right, right. I think it's, it's actually gone way beyond that today because, what's happened is there was this big push towards digitization and, I think the Indian government came out with something called the U P I or the Universal Payment Infrastructure. [00:02:57] Megan Hobza: and it's like u p i is basically this, it's, [00:03:00] imagine it's like this structure of tracks or railroads all crisscrossing the length and breadth of the country and money travels on that And a lot of the local vendors now have QR codes. And because you have 4G LTE connections everywhere and everybody has a smartphone, you no longer accept cash. You just scan and pay the vendor. So, street vendors have smartphones and they have,they have bank accounts and. Digital wallets, [00:03:30] Megan Hobza: Do they have to pay a fee to be allowed to have a digital wallet? [00:03:34] Rajeev: no, it's actually, it's everybody. I think, you have the AAR card, which is like your digital ID and everything is connected to that digital id. And if you have to have the digital id, then you have to have a bank account. So everybody gets to open a free bank account. in post offices you can open a bank account now. [00:03:53] Rajeev: yeah, so that's kind of transforming. [00:03:55] Megan Hobza: that's amazing.Yeah. to, cut, stockholders out [00:04:00] of those transactions is what I think is so inspiring because that's been a big part of keeping money local is that it's always siphoned off to these. Kind of corporate Ponzi schemes. [00:04:13] Rajeev: this has, really transformed large sections of the community. Of course, there's still a lot of work to be done, but they've done really well at, And especially UPI is, transformed, local, traders, the street traders, every shop you go will have a QR code now, so it's GPay. Become part the local language pretty much. Okay. I'll Gpay you, like Google it. So it's become part and parcel of, day-to-day activity in pretty much, more major parts of the country, I guess. [00:04:45] Rajeev: [00:04:45] Megan Hobza: Yeah, it just, it sounds like something that would strengthen local economies, [00:04:48] Rajeev: yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. how does that tie in with what you do? explain to me what the term Locovore mean. [00:04:56] Megan Hobza: So, the term locavore, which is, I think [00:05:00] that the basic idea of what a locavore is, as someone who wants to keep. Money local and resources local because ...
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    34 mins
  • Ep. 3 - Tribal Identity - With DJ and Rajeev

    Ep. 3 - Tribal Identity - With DJ and Rajeev
    Apr 24 2023

    Welcome to another episode of politics, ecology, and everything in between. Hey, this is Rajeev. We are back after a long hiatus, DJ, and I. For this discussion, we picked a very interesting topic. Who is a tribal. A tribal is a very interesting term. Was Tarzan a tribal. The very image of a noble Savage. Or is it an invented term? And how is it relevant today? To answer all these questions, we have my good friend DJ.

    Thanks for supporting this podcast. Do send feedback to rajeev.nedumaran@gmail.com about this episode.

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    31 mins
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