In 'Fresh Banana Leaves' an indigenous approach to fighting climate change

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 12 July 2022

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

According to Jessica Hernandez, "as long as we protect nature, nature will protect us." Hernandez, from the Maya Ch'ortí and Zapotec nations, is a University of Washington postdoctoral fellow. In her new book, Fresh Banana Leaves, she makes a plea for the climate conversation to include indigenous expertise, and highlights practices she believes should be more widespread. In an interview with Celeste Headlee on Here and Now, Hernandez said that, if we want to be successful in the fight against climate change, we need to listen to those who have spiritual connections to Mother Earth.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Who gets to be considered an expert?
0:08.5	Is a conversation that's been going on in journalism for as long as I've been in the game.
0:14.3	And I imagine it's something that gets discussed in a bunch of other fields, but particularly science.
0:20.7	The subject comes up today in this interview with Jessica Hernandez, a Maya of other fields, but particularly science. The subject comes up today in this interview
0:22.6	with Jessica Hernandez, a Maya Chorti and Zapotech Environmental Scientist, who wrote a book
0:28.3	called Fresh Banana Leaves, Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science. And she talks to hear
0:34.4	now Celeste Headley about how often indigenous people are looked over in conversations about climate change.
0:40.9	And Celeste asks her what she wishes she knew when she first began her career in environmental sciences as an indigenous person.
0:49.7	And she says she didn't think it'd be a constant battle, as if fighting climate change wasn't hard enough.
0:57.7	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:02.5	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.
1:09.1	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:16.3	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:21.7	As we look for solutions to climate change, the insights and lived experiences of indigenous people are often overlooked.
1:28.3	That's the argument in a new book called Fresh Banana Leaves, Healing Indigenous Landscapes
1:33.3	Through Indigenous Science. Its author is Jessica Hernandez, a University of Washington postdoctoral
1:39.5	fellow from the Mayorichorti in Zapatek Nations. And she joins us now. It's so great to
1:44.0	have you here,
1:44.4	Jessica. Babucci, thank you for having me here today. So you write, quote, while in Western
1:51.2	academia, we are always in competition with one another as indigenous scientists. We collaborate because
1:56.9	we know we are ultimately stronger together. Can you elaborate on this?
2:01.6	Yeah, so one of the things about like being an indigenous scientist
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.