Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort

Ep. 2: Eugenics & Conservation: Too Close for Comfort

In this episode, Kollibri is joined by co-host Nikki Hill for a conversation with Calyx Liddick, founder of the Northern Appalachia School. Calyx has taken a deep dive into the common origins of the eugenics and conservation movements in the US in the early 20th Century, and what she has found is alarming. The boosters of race science, white supremacy, forced sterilization of "lesser" people and other now discredited concepts were the same who founded conservationism, and their odious residue remains. Conservationism must now be re-thought so that what is good can be kept and what is bad dismissed.

In our far-ranging discussion, we talked about all this history plus "invasive species" (a central pillar of eugenics as expressed through anti-immigration sentiment and law); the futility of "fortress conservation"; how the wilderness ideal erases Indigenous people and their relationship to ecology; the importance of reciprocity, integration and coexistence in our interactions with nature; our disagreement with the characterization of "invasive plants" as agents of settler-colonialism; climate change, and more.

Calyx Liddick is a bioregional herbalist, ethnobotanist, holistic nutritionist, wildcrafter, writer, wildlife tracker and a mother of two. She is strongly interested in exploring the relationships between plants and people. Find out more about her and the school she runs at: https://www.northernappalachiaschool.com/

Subscribers to Kollibri's Substack or Patreon enjoy early access to all episodes in their full length. (Public episodes are edited for length and clarity.)

Substack: https://kollibri.substack.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kollibri

Interview with Calyx on Kelly Moody's Groundshots podcast: https://www.ofsedgeandsalt.com/podcastblog/calyx

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