Meera Subramanian
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Recorded, live!

December 9, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Working on a reported book has had three distinct phases. The on-the-ground reporting, a time of movement and questions, cameras slinging and notebooks filling. Then there was the isolation chamber of writing, dissecting the notebooks and photos, diving into research, writing, writing, re-writing, re-writing.

And now I’m in the third stage — of heading out into the world to talk about what I found. Can 1.3 billion people in India live sustainably? Can the planet? What’s working? What’s not? What can everyone learn, within India and around the world, from the successful models and the cautionary tales?

In case you weren’t able to make it to any of the events on my book tour, here are a few archived recordings of some of the presentations.

In New York City, I sat down with acclaimed author and good friend Suketu Mehta at my alma mater, New York University, for an evening hosted by the Literary Reportage concentration of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute:

At the World Affairs Council of Northern California, I had great conversation with Linda Calhoun, Executive Producer at Career Girls. Before the talk, I met with World Affairs student ambassadors and fielded some of the toughest questions I heard on tour. (Providing great hope for the future!)

Here’s another video from the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, where I’m in conversation WWC’s Meaghan Parker, American journalist Lisa Palmer, (who’s working on her book Feeding a Hot Hungry Planet: Agriculture, Climate Change, and Population) and Indian journalist Priyali Sur:

I was honored to join a long legacy of presenters at the University of Virginia’s Medical Center Hour, (though it was tough to figure out how to follow up a professional skateboarder!). The audio is a little tricky, but nice shots of photographs I’ve been showing along the way. The event was produced by the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities in partnership with Historical Collections of the Health Sciences Library.

And also in New York City, I spoke with Steven Weiss of The Jewish Channel’s Up Close:

Enjoy.

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, Elemental India, events, photography, pollution environment

KPFA Uprising with Sonali

December 4, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

2015.11.6SF-9

Talking about A River Runs Again on Berkeley’s KPFA. Listen here: Uprising with Sonali

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, Elemental India, events, india, radio, readings

Brown University & Miami Book Fair

November 11, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Two upcoming events in the next week or so as part of the A River Runs Again tour.

 

Thursday, November 12: “As Goes India: Surprising Solutions for the Natural World in Crisis” 

Hosted by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs & URI’s Metcalf Institute (of which I’m a proud alum)

Location: Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (Joukowsky Forum), 111 Thayer Street, Brown University, Providence, RI

Time: 3:00 – 4:00 pm with book signing and refreshments to follow.

 

Sunday, November 22: “Water and a World in Crisis” In conversation with author Seth M. Siegel. 

Miami Book Fair International

Location: Rm. 8525 (Bldg. 8, 5th Floor) 300 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 noon

Filed Under: A River Runs Again Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, events, readings

return to oregon! KLCC

October 28, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2015-10-28 at 11.11.07 AMI’ve landed on the West Coast just as my interview with Eric Alan of KLCC‘s gone live. Have a listen. Or better yet, if you’re nearby, come say hello as I do two events in that southern stretch of the Willamette Valley that I once called home.

I’ll be speaking at University of Oregon tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 (Straub Hall, Room 145. 1451 Onyx Street, Eugene, OR), in an event hosted by the Department of Geography, Barbara & Carlisle Moore Professor of English Fund, School of Journalism & Communications, Hearst Foundation Visiting Professionals Endowment Fund, Department of Sociology, Robert D. Clark Honors College, and the University of Oregon Bookstore. Details here.

And on Sunday, I’ll be down in my old stomping grounds of Cottage Grove, speaking at the Axe and Fiddle (657 E Main St, Cottage Grove, OR) at 7:00 pm. Details here.

More events coming up in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Miami. Then…India! Full schedule here.

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, books, Elemental India, Oregon, radio

wnyc: bringing India back from the brink

September 12, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

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It was with great delight that I entered into the studios of WNYC on Varick Street to sit down and talk with Arun Venugopal, who was guest hosting the Leonard Lopate Show. We talked about the costs of the Green Revolution, of Hindu priests who asked, “What is your duty?” to a farming family considering going organic, of holy waters. Our conversation ended too quickly, and I didn’t quite get to elaborate on my answer to his last question, about the direction PM Modi is taking the country. I said Modi has a choice. What I felt like I didn’t make clear enough is that he can develop India at the expense of the environment, the direction he seems to be heading now, or choose to tap into the exploding number of opportunities to develop in a more sustainable way, providing a model for the world. I’m rooting for the latter, and met the people in India who hope so too.

Listen to the full interview here.

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, journalism, News Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, Elemental India, india, New York City, organic farming, pesticides, radio, religion

falmouth public library

September 10, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

Falmouth

Falmouth Public Library is a stately building on sweet little Main Street in Falmouth, the corner of the Cape near Woods Hole, littered with PhDs and farmer’s markets and ferries bound for the islands. There was a nice turnout, and it was great to meet my doppleganger, a woman whose mother had come from India around the same time as mine and also married a fair-skinned American. Good conversations, during the Q&A, and after. A Punjabi man arrived late, straight from his English classes, and he told me about how he once worked for the water department there. “There is no good water in Punjab,” he said to me, shaking his head. “No good water.”

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, cape cod, Elemental India, events, readings

#ReadDifferent at Decatur Book Fest

September 7, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

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Typewriters, music, teen tent, children’s stage, guerilla haiku, sunny skies, throngs of people (80,000 I heard), authors from every genre, and the occasional raptor overhead. It was a fine weekend for the Decatur Book Festival, celebrating its tenth year. It was great to sit down with Anna Badkhen, author of Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah, in a conversation led by writer Anjali Enjeti in the plush red-carpeted Decatur First United Methodist Chapel. We discussed being an outsider, the uniquely American phenomenon of climate change denial, how much we trust digital equipment, whether to step into our stories (or, rather, admit to doing so), and, of course, vultures.

AnnaMeeraOutside

[Read more…]

Filed Under: A River Runs Again, elemental india, readings Tagged With: Atlanta, book tour, Decatur, events, Georgia, readings

kickin’ it off at Porter Square Books

September 3, 2015 By meerasub Leave a Comment

A River Runs Again book tour got off to a lovely start on a sultry night in Cambridge, where — in spite of summer ending and the school year starting — a great crowd of folks came out to the fiercely independent Porter Square Books. Thanks to my friend and wonderful talented musician, Mark Erelli, for snapping a few photos.

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Filed Under: A River Runs Again, readings Tagged With: A River Runs Again, book tour, Cambridge, events, readings

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