Elizabeth Alexander; Climate Change and Food; Debating Cancel Culture; Piping Plover Protection

Summary: <p>On this almost-Summer Friday, enjoy some of our favorite recent conversations:</p> <ul> Building on her <em>New Yorker</em> essay, Elizabeth Alexander, president of The Mellon Foundation, poet, educator, memoirist and scholar, examines the challenges of young Black Americans in her new book, <em>The Trayvon Generation</em> (Grand Central Publishing, 2022). First, listeners discuss ways they've changed their diet to help combat climate change.  Then, Eric Goldstein, New York City environment director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), explains how the various ways of composting help in the fight against climate change. Suzanne Nossel, PEN America chief executive officer, and Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for <em>The Nation</em> and the author of <em>Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution</em> (The New Press, 2022), debate the state of free speech in America. Piping Plovers are tiny endangered shorebirds who spend part of the spring and summer right here in the Rockaways. Chris Allieri, founder of the NYC Plover Project, talks about how volunteers are working to protect the birds as they begin nesting on the beach. </ul> <p>These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity; the original web versions are available here:</p> <p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/young-and-black-america">Young and Black in America</a> (Apr 6, 2022)</p> <p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/climate-change-and-what-eat">Climate Change and What You Eat</a> (Feb 22, 2022)</p> <p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/climate-change-and-composting">Climate Change and Composting</a> (Mar 3, 2022)</p> <p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/debating-cancel-culture">Debating Cancel Culture</a> (Mar 30, 2022)</p> <p><a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/protecting-piping-plovers">Protecting Piping Plovers</a> (Apr 5, 2022)</p>