PALOOLA: Botanical Paula de la Cruz

This is our favourite episode to date! On part one of this two-part episode we travel across continents and centuries to explore the history of apples—wild and grafted—of New York City. I am joined by Tony Sclafani, Chief Communications Officer for the Javits Center who discusses the center's new rooftop orchard and farm. New York-based artist Sam van Aken, talks about his upcoming "The Open Orchard" installation of grafted fruit trees in Governors Island. And Sylvie Bigar, food writer extraordinaire for the Washington Post and Le Figaro, talks about her favourite apple recipes...and they are not vegetarian...;) A special thanks to classical composer, Giovanni Spinelli who contributed his wonderful voice. Listen to the Apples of New York playlist. And please don't forget to subscribe. 

For comments please email podcast@paloola.us To see photos of things mentioned in this podcast visit Instagram: PaloolaBotanica

This episode was sponsored by #cityartistscorps @NYCulture

While listening to her husband's Great Society speech in 1964, Lady Bird Johnson found her mission. 

The following year, and during a turbulent time of race riots in America, speaking at the National Council of State Garden Clubs, and the American Forestry Association, Lady Bird said “Beauty cannot be set aside for vacations or special occasions. It cannot be for the occasional privilege of those who come long distances to visit nature. It cannot be reserved, “For nice neighborhoods ONLY.” I am quite sure that ugliness—the grey, dreary unchanging world of crowded, deprived neighborhoods—has contributed to riots, to mental ill health, to crime."

Urban life has improved in some aspects since the 60s, but other problems are getting worse. New York City was less segregated in the 1970s than it is today, mainly due to lack of affordable housing. A direct result of gentrification is more urban forests, which done right have the capacity of creating more equal cities, by reducing air and noise pollution. According to the World Resources Institute, wealthy neighbourhoods in San Francisco have 30% tree canopy cover, compared to 7.5% in lower income neighbourhoods.

Today, I am speaking with Julia Sweig, a scholar of US-Latin American relations and New York Times best selling author of Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight. She is also the producer of the podcast In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson. We will discuss Lady Bird’s advocacy for mental health, her political savvy in a world dominated by men, and the great solace that she found in nature after losing her mother when she was a child.

Lady Bird was married to the American president most associated with power in the 20th century, yet her voice was just as strong as her husband's. 

Please join us!

Unlike the kelp forests of Chile, and South Africa’s Cape Peninsula, which are mostly stable, all of the kelp forests of the northern hemisphere are rapidly declining. Off the coast of California, kelp forests have declined more than 95%, with just a few small isolated patches remaining, mainly because of rising water temperatures

Kelp, called the sequoias of the sea for their capacity to store large amounts of carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels, are home to nearly 1000 species. These giant towers of seaweed also act as wave breakers, reducing coastal erosion.

Ahead of the November Cop26 leaders summit in Glasgow the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the global scientific authority on climate change, issued a report on 10 August stating that some of the changes now are irreversible. Within the next two decades temperatures will rise more than 1.5ºC from pre-industrial levels. This year we have seen unprecedented fires in Greece, Turkey, Siberia, Italy, and California.

Kelp holds the key for cooling our planet.

Guests:

Samantha Deane, director of partnerships and investor relationships at Kelp Blue, in the Netherlands.

Ronan Skillen, a master percussionist who plays unusual instruments from all over the world, and Jonny Blundell, music producer for Rootspring House, in Cape Town, and members of the soundtrack team of My Octopus Teacher, and producers of My Amphibious Soul.

Amos Nachoum, a master underwater photographer from Israel, based in Monterrey, and one of only five people ever to swim and photograph polar bears underwater. 

Please join us!

Each year about 31% of the US population over the age of 16, swim in oceans, lakes and rivers.

Yet, despite such low percentage, a quintessential image of an American summer is children swimming and playing in a lake. In fact, the top swim city in the US measured by the number of active swimmers, accessible pools and top-level swimmers, is Ann Arbor, built along the banks of the Huron River in Michigan.

As more people concentrate in large cities, where can we swim? Is it getting easier to find pools and swimming lessons? Can the refreshing feeling of a morning swim have a positive impact on our work day, and our social life?

Today, I talk to Sophia Elniff, designer of natural pools for Total Habitat—the man-made equivalent to a lake—about building aquatic ecosystems. I also talk to avid swimmers in New York City: Caroline Friedman, clinical psychologist, journalist Tom Downey. They share the challenges of finding places to swim in the city, and the great joys of finding them. And lastly, my parents from Argentina, both avid swimmers, talk about why swimming strengthens bonds across family generations.

Botany in Music.

We talk to Texas-based music producer Spencer Stephenson about his band Botany. Stephenson was inspired to name his band after his wanderings through Fort Worth’s botanical garden in 2009.

Botany is part abstract hip hop and part psybient—electronic music that combines chill-out and psychedelic elements—and like many psychedelic ambient bands, is named after botanical themes. Do we inhabit nature the way we inhabit the space music creates? Is ambient music a great substitute for sounds of nature when we are urban-bound? How do we translate patterns we see in plant growth to music’s beat? Today, we explore with our guest Spencer Stephenson, his compositions which he hopes are an organic journey of comforts and challenging riffs to explore all the corners of our minds.

For more “Botany is in all things” conversations please subscribe to Paloola wherever you get your podcast. You can send us comments or suggestions to podcast@paloola.us Happy summer!

Botany in Art

Why are flowers a cliché of femininity in art, when so many of them have both female and male reproductive organs? Today, we talk with Sixtine Dubly, a Paris-based journalist, author and curator, who focuses on the evolving use of flowers in art. Please join us to discuss the role of nature in art, and the value of art in botanical research. Take a look at photos of the art mentioned in this episode at my instagram PaloolaBotanica You can send us comments or suggestions to podcast@paloola.us Happy spring!