Academics Henry Jenkins and Colin Maclay use their combined knowledge to dig deeper and ask more ambitious questions than most pop culture podcasts out there – not doing recaps or just remaining on the level of entertainment coverage. For them, popular culture offers resources for asking questions about who we are and where we are going, questions that can be political, legal, technological, economic, or social, but often cut across all of the above.
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episode 41: On Ecopiety with Sarah McFarland Taylor: Is Abstaining from Using a Plastic Straw and Driving a Prius Saving Our Planet?
Welcome back to another season of How Do You Like It So Far? Henry and Colin are joined by Sarah McFarland Taylor, an Associate Professor of Religion at Northwestern University and part of their Environmental Policy and Culture Program. Her book, Ecopiety: Green Media and the Dilemma of Environmental Virtue, provides a reality check by researching the intersection of modern-day religious devotion, environmental sensibilities and pop culture as a catalyst for green movements. Taylor questions whether our individualistic behaviors are part of an “imagined moral economy” where repeating these acts gives us the feeling of offsetting our destructive behaviors. She weaves current religious populist movements who support President Trump with the opposition of the environmentalist agenda. Positing the importance of pop culture as an engine for the green movement and a reflection of a new religion in the 21st century, Taylor explores the portrays of environmental sin and virtue in mass media. This episode examines civic imagination and the role of mass media in promoting environmental consciousness and reform. Listen in as Taylor scrutinizes the need for broader, far-reaching environmental reform to work in tandem with our own individual practices to create the largest possible impact towards saving the planet.