Biology and the environmental movement have a eugenics problem. Eugenics has also been gaining ground in public policy and discourse in many parts of the world lately, with scientists, policymakers, physicians, wellness influencers, and techbros alike increasingly posing it as a solution to intensifying socio-ecological crises. But what do disabled people and others in the crosshairs of this ideology — those of us who are ”unwell to begin with,” according to this logic — have to say about nature and the not-so-natural disasters reverberating across our communities? What lessons do crip knowledge, creativity, joy, and practices of interdependence offer urgently right now? Taking love for crip and allied communities as our starting place, we talk to people with diverse expertise about how they understand socio-ecological problems and challenge eugenic “solutions” in their environmental thinking and politics.
This work is funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant of the Canadian government.
All content for Unwell to Begin With is the property of mholmberg and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Biology and the environmental movement have a eugenics problem. Eugenics has also been gaining ground in public policy and discourse in many parts of the world lately, with scientists, policymakers, physicians, wellness influencers, and techbros alike increasingly posing it as a solution to intensifying socio-ecological crises. But what do disabled people and others in the crosshairs of this ideology — those of us who are ”unwell to begin with,” according to this logic — have to say about nature and the not-so-natural disasters reverberating across our communities? What lessons do crip knowledge, creativity, joy, and practices of interdependence offer urgently right now? Taking love for crip and allied communities as our starting place, we talk to people with diverse expertise about how they understand socio-ecological problems and challenge eugenic “solutions” in their environmental thinking and politics.
This work is funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant of the Canadian government.
Episode 2: "Life is built on a rickety stool" with Dr. Haley Branch
Unwell to Begin With
1 hour 2 minutes 3 seconds
2 months ago
Episode 2: "Life is built on a rickety stool" with Dr. Haley Branch
“When people think about evolutionary biology, they think of ‘survival of the fittest.’ It is the first thing that comes to people's minds, and it is a gross misconception of evolution, and it's consistently been weaponized against people, and that's specifically Black people, people of color, Indigenous folks and disabled people specifically… It was coined by a eugenicist. I will not say their name. It was not Darwin's theory.”
For this second episode, host Mollie Holmberg (she/her) talks with Dr. Haley Branch (she/her) at the Yale School of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology about how her training in ballet informs her approach to studying plants; debunking “survival of the fittest” and other common misconceptions about evolution that are foundational to eugenics; publishing science that upsets the worst men on the internet; what caring for plants teaches us about disabled life; and her efforts to make field work in ecology and evolutionary biology more accessible for disabled scientists. To find out more about Dr. Branch’s work on desert plant ecophysiology, ableism in evolutionary biology, and building spaces for disabled scientists in higher ed, you can visit her website at https://haleyabranch.weebly.com/.
Links to other work and websites discussed in the show:
Branch, H.A. et al. (2022) “Discussions of the “Not So Fit”: How Ableism Limits Diverse Thought and Investigative Potential in Evolutionary Biology.” The American Naturalist, 200(1), 101-113. https://doi.org/10.1086/720003
Turner, S.E. et al. (2014) “Social consequences of disability in a nonhuman primate.” Journal of human evolution, 68, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.01.002
If you have any comments or questions about the show, you can reach us at nomorelawnmowers@proton.me
Transcript by Mollie Holmberg.
Theme music for the show is roswell by Fog Lake off the Free Music Archive and licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Unwell to Begin With
Biology and the environmental movement have a eugenics problem. Eugenics has also been gaining ground in public policy and discourse in many parts of the world lately, with scientists, policymakers, physicians, wellness influencers, and techbros alike increasingly posing it as a solution to intensifying socio-ecological crises. But what do disabled people and others in the crosshairs of this ideology — those of us who are ”unwell to begin with,” according to this logic — have to say about nature and the not-so-natural disasters reverberating across our communities? What lessons do crip knowledge, creativity, joy, and practices of interdependence offer urgently right now? Taking love for crip and allied communities as our starting place, we talk to people with diverse expertise about how they understand socio-ecological problems and challenge eugenic “solutions” in their environmental thinking and politics.
This work is funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant of the Canadian government.
