Women and Warehouses in the Inland Empire

Raylene Borrego

In this episode of IE Anthropology, I will be discussing the impacts of warehouses on women in the Inland Empire. The Inland Empire is a region in Southern California, consisting of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. This region has been rapidly developing warehouses for over two decades, and it has become a threat to locals. Today, the warehouses are a greater issue than anyone could have imagined; responsible for the sudden high rates of asthma in the area, exploitation of workers, much land degradation, heavy traffic, horrible air quality, the list goes on and on. Though everyone residing in the region is affected by the warehouses, this episode will specifically address the impacts on local women – focusing on the environment, health, and labor.

Advances in Anthropology

Ayla Arellano

What a unique period to be in, and to be able to explore our past while simultaneously utilizing breakthrough technologies in discovering new information. Welcome to an episode of Advances in Anthropology, where we discuss some of the technical equipment used for anthropological research. In this podcast, we’ll be discussing the brief history, modern use, and future possibilities of some of the technologies used in the field.

Heavy Hitters: Emissions, Landfills and Food Waste

Isaac West

This podcast is broken into two parts; the first containing a few personal stories as well as statistics to get us thinking on the general topic of landfills as they fit into the larger context of climate change. Then we interview a cooperative I am personally involved in, Full Cycle Compost, as an example of identifying a multifaceted problem and implementing creative, fun and resourceful solutions. The idea behind the show is to pick a problem and identify an example of a local solution that could be scaled to address something that is a global problem. Ideally, that solution could be a heavy hitter in the climate fight and make a substantial difference if widely applied.

What’s On Your Plate?: School Garden Programs in the United States

Ali Batchelder

The access to healthy food within the United States is substantially lacking, especially within the education system. In a society where pizza is categorized as a vegetable for school lunch, it is no wonder that there is an ongoing obesity epidemic. The access to healthy, fresh food is not only important to the health and wellbeing of schoolchildren, but also the local community. Food deserts run rampant in urban, low income areas. The implementation of school garden programs can help improve all of the above. Within this podcast, we will be exploring the health and academic benefits that school garden programs bring to educational institutions. This topic will be looked at through the lens of access to healthy food, how school gardens increase the academic experience of students, and also the roadblocks to implementing school garden programs. 

Development and the Colonial Mindset

Joy Johnston

A colonial mindset is a deeply embedded attitude towards indigenous, ethnic, and colonized people as culturally inferior to the colonizer. This manifests in development as believing a community is dependent on the “white savior” figure, and can go even further to be the governmental structures of development creating economic dependency on western countries. Nanda Shrestha grew up in a town called Pokhara in Nepal. Soon, white British Christian missionaries came and suddenly it was a great thing to be like them. It meant you were smart and sophisticated. But, this gave way to a psychological effect where if you weren’t similar to the westerners, you were inferior. They had dominance. This resembles the work in the field of Women in Development where women seem helpless and submit to their patriarchal societies, but the developmental work they participate in is demeaning. Development has its issues. Scholars and researchers have studied possible alternatives and solutions, but colonialism is far too ingrained in the far reaches of the world to see a world without it.

What Not to Wear

Victoria Ramirez

I discuss Fast Fashion and its implications on Third World Women. I specifically look at economic disparities, environmental implications, and bodily harm, that Fast Fashion causes to Third-World Women. I break the podcast down into four sections. This is where I lay out my case on why it is important to be conscientious about what we wear, where we should shop. What retailers we should and shouldn’t support. Our roles as consumers and what that means for Third-World Women. Section 1 looks at factory and worker conditions caused by fast fashion, with topics such as the Rana Plaza collapse. Section 2 looks at the economic foundation and implications Fast Fashion has on Third-world countries. Next, I provide an example of how fast fashion is practiced. Section 3 focuses on Fast Fashion’s environmental causes on Third-world environments and areas. Lastly, Section 4 focuses on industries that practice fast fashion. The last part of the podcast isn’t a section, but I delved into what we can do not to practice fast fashion. 

Food Waste Sucks

Phara Cholot and Viridiana Preciado

Food waste is a prevalent problem in our country. Large amounts of food waste in Humboldt are attributed to restaurants, colleges, cafes. This produces a number of environmental, socio-cultural, and economic concerns. The food in our landfills contributes to the anthropogenic change in our climate as it produces methane emissions. In addition, we waste resources in growing and transporting wasted food. Food waste is also an economic cost, it costs governments and local businesses billions of dollars. As a society, we do not consider the impacts of food waste. I hope our podcast will make individuals more conscious.