You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist and she was set to have a very productive 2020.

There's the work with her think tank, Urban Ocean Lab, so thinking about the future of coastal cities

from a design perspective as well as from a policy perspective.

And then the books. One is an anthology of essays by women climate leaders

and the other is a book that I'm writing on climate solutions that are at the intersection of science and policy and culture and justice.

A fellowship she's creating, an award for women climate leaders, especially women of color.

Then there's also the small things Ayanna wanted to do this year.

And even just planting a vegetable garden with my mother at our farm upstate New York

is just, I got a lot going on this year.

Yeah, you sure do.

But with the killing of George Floyd by police last month and the massive protests that followed,

Ayanna says all of that work stopped, had to stop.

She wrote about what this moment is like for her in the Washington Post.

In your op-ed you included a quote from Tony Morrison.

The very serious function of racism is distraction.

It keeps you from doing your work, it keeps you explaining over and over again your reason for being.

Yeah.

It just cuts to the core, doesn't it?

I mean, I have led relatively speaking a pretty charmed life.

And so as far as my ability to focus on my work, I'm usually pretty good at it.

I'm usually pretty productive in a sort of, you know, robotic way.

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