UCLA Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies

"Arctic Representation: Conversations with Inuit Artists" is a three-part mini-series newly out from the third season of our "LENScast" podcast. It was produced by Clara Wilch, Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt University and LENS scholar (PhD in Theater and Performance Studies, UCLA), and Spencer Robins, Professor at Saddleback College and LENS.cast lead producer (PhD in English, UCLA). Each episode features Clara in conversation with an artist in Iqaluit, Nunavut, whose work guides audiences to better understand the many-dimensional Far North and how we might confront social and environmental injustices. These conversations address the artists’ relationships to land, identity and settler colonialism, and Arctic imaginaries. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/lens-cast-season-3/

“The Stories We Tell About Cannabis and What They Can Tell Us About the Plant and Ourselves.”

The Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies is excited to invite you to a pair of events with anthropologist Jeremy Narby.

First, there will be a conversation between LENS director Jon Christensen and Jeremy Narby on his new book "The Book of Cannabis: The history and future of the plant and drug" at DIESEL Bookstore in Santa Monica.

Thursday, April 30 at 6:30pm
DIESEL Bookstore
225 26th St., Suite 33
Santa Monica, CA 90402

RSVP for April 30 Conversation at DIESEL Bookstore: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-04-30/jeremy-narby-book-cannabis-history-and-future-plant-and-drug?mc_cid=8194e1534b&mc_eid=4fa94fffad

Then the following day, please join us on the UCLA campus for a conversation and live podcast recording with Jeremy Narby titled “The Stories We Tell About Cannabis and What They Can Tell Us About the Plant and Ourselves.”

Friday, May 1 at 3:00pm
UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden
707 Tiverton Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90095

RSVP, map, and directions: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScba6W1t8Il14T6gQ_UR4YtoQCh6R_8HVFJL-ff5h_cO-2gCA/viewform

This event will take place in the outdoor amphitheater near the LaKretz Garden Pavilion at the north end of the botanical garden.

The Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies, in collaboration with Global Girl Media, invites you to a special international screening of four short films about the intersection between climate change and gender-based violence, featuring stories from South Africa, Greece, and Los Angeles.

Thursday, April 23 at 7:30pm
Solotech Studios
1017 N. Las Palmas Ave.
Hollywood, CA 90038

Seating is limited, so please email [email protected] at your earliest convenience to RSVP.

"Los Angeles Turns to Charter Reform to Save Its Beleaguered Park System," a story by Sophie Craypo, a graduate student researcher at LENS, at American Community Media:

Los Angeles Turns to Charter Reform to Save Its Beleaguered Park System In the last five years, Los Angeles has plummeted from 49th to 90th place in a national ranking of park systems in the largest 100 cities in the United States.

Dear friends of LENS,

We wanted to share with you two events in April sponsored by our friends in the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in UCLA’s School of Law. Both of them are very timely and important. And as much as they are about politics, policy, and the law, they are also very much about narrative change and the stories that we tell about the environment and ourselves.

The April 3rd symposium “Can Abundance Be Sustainable?” tackles the current debates about the “Abundance Agenda” from energy to housing and the stories we tell about the future of Los Angeles and our region.

“Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air” on April 10 is a book talk by UCLA law professor Ann Carlson examining how the history of tackling smog in L.A. provides an important story that could help us tackle climate change.

April 3 symposium “Can Abundance Be Sustainable” — 9am–4pm
Details and link to register: https://law.ucla.edu/academics/centers/emmett-institute-climate-change-environment/can-abundance-be-sustainable-merging-affordability-and-climate-policy?mc_cid=d2fff78c07&mc_eid=UNIQID

April 10 “Smog and Sunshine” book talk with Ann Carlson — 12:15–1:30pm
Details and link to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJQXQCo-9dohF5gTvD2oEfLtmRJDsd_OTJQbfmPkU7Aj6_-g/viewform?mc_cid=d2fff78c07&mc_eid=UNIQID

Yours truly,

The LENS team

The Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies, in collaboration with the UCLA Department of Anthropology’s Culture, Power, and Social Change speaker series, invites you to a book talk with Max Liboiron, Professor of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

"Pollution is Colonialism"
A talk by Professor Max Liboiron
Thursday, April 9 at 12:15pm
352 Haines Hall at UCLA, and Zoom

In this book talk, Professor Liboiron will present a framework for understanding scientific research methods as practices that can align with or against colonialism. Drawing on their work in the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR) in Newfoundland, Professor Liboiron illuminates pollution as a violent enactment of colonial land relations. By modeling an anti-colonial scientific practice aligned with Indigenous concepts of land, ethics, and relations, their research ultimately demonstrates that anti-colonial science is not only possible but is currently being practiced in ways that enact more ethical modes of being in the world.

Professor Liboiron will be presenting virtually via Zoom. Guests can either join the presentation via Zoom room or in person. Space is limited in 352 Haines Hall, so please RSVP at your earliest convenience. Lunch will be provided for all in-person attendees.

Please click here -- https://ucla.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=32eed042dbfc7300e620ad239&id=a5e0ecd242&e=0e00c8f4a1 -- or scan the QR code in the image below to RSVP for the in-person discussion or to receive a link to join via Zoom.

Cloud coyotes: coyotes that live on social media rather than RL – PhD candidate Chase Niesner's research on the social and cultural dimensions of urban coyotes' lives in Los Angeles is featured in the LA Times today:

Inside the war against Southern California's urban coyotes. 'Horrific' or misunderstood? An war on urban coyotes is exposing deep divisions between those who want to eradicate the animal and those who are calling for peaceful co-existence.

LENS is excited to announce the launch of our new podcast! You can find our first episode here at https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/project/lens-cast/, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app.

LENS.cast tells stories about environmental art, activism, policy, and imagination, with a focus on questions of justice and coexistence. How do built and natural environments embody histories of oppression and possibilities for change? How do different communities value and protect the nonhuman beings they live with? How do artists and activists push us to think differently about our more-than-human relations? Who benefits from ‘green’ investment? How can communities push to ensure that marginalized people and places are at the center of plans for ecological futures? In our first season, we explore these questions through stories about the trees of Los Angeles, a struggle for a new kind of sustainability in Little Tokyo, and encounters with LA’s lions, lawns, cats, rats, and coyotes.

In our first episode, we explore the history and future of Los Angeles's remarkable trees. California is more than palm trees: it is, according to University of Pennsylvania historian Jared Farmer, an incredible arboretum—a collection of species from all over the world—and an "heirloom of conquest." Trees record the history of colonial destruction in California, but they could also be an important part for a more just, resilient future as LA faces the realities of climate change. We speak with Farmer, with Rachel Malarich, LA's first City Tree Officer, and with Maria Adame and Miguel Vargas of the nonprofit group TreePeople, about the many meanings of LA's trees.

Experience UCLA as a wonderland of birds! Join LENS, the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, and the Bird Genoscape Project tomorrow (Saturday, May 4) for a unique program connected to the annual Bird LA Day. See details below!

🐦🌼 Join us Saturday May 4th for Bird LA Day! Visit the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden for a unique tour of bird sounds from all over the world! As you wander through sections of the Garden representing Hawaii, Australia, South Africa, SoCal, and more, you can listen to the songs and calls of each area's characteristic birds using our phone-based audio tour. The Garden will also host a presentation about some of UCLA's groundbreaking bird research, including the Bird Genoscape Project and the Center for Tropical Research. This program is additionally co-presented by the UCLA Institute of Environment and Sustainability , the Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies , and the UCLA School of Thester, Film, and Television 🌿 When you arrive at the Garden, you can start your tour at the La Kretz Garden Pavilion, at the Garden's northwest corner near Charles E. Young Drive. Note: You can access the audio tour on your phone. Headphones recommended! This event is free, but space is limited, so please RSVP. [Photo by Nurit Katz ]

Held every May, Bird LA Day celebrates the birds of Southern California and LA’s amazing biodiversity. Bird and nature-themed events are held throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Bird LA Day shines the spotlight on nature, and reminds the world that Los Angeles is a lot more than just film, fashion and celebrities. Thanks to organizational support from and the ! Learn more at: birdladay.org

Congratulations to LENS-affiliated graduate student Claire Stanford, who's been awarded the first place prize in "The Nature of Cities 2099" flash fiction contest!

Claire's story "Neither Above Nor Below" was awarded first place out of 1,200 submissions from 116 countries. It will appear, along with 57 other submissions, in a forthcoming anthology due out January 2019. LENS co-founder Ursula K. Heise will write the introduction to the anthology.

Stories of The Nature of Cities 2099 – Prize for urban flash fiction Stories of the Nature of Cities 2099Winners and Book Announced The top story is Claire Stanford’s “Neither Above Nor Below”. Six more prize winners—from the USA, Canada, and India—and a forthcoming book of 57 stories, from 21 countries.We aspire to future green cities around the globe—ci...

Our partnership with KCET continues with this package of stories exploring Hollister Ranch, one of the longest stretches of Southern California coast without public access. The essays here explore the ecological and human history of Hollister Ranch and the questions it raises about the pubic's right to the coast.

Hollister Ranch: The Last Beach in Southern California The series offers a portrait of “one of the last undeveloped coastal areas in California”, which is now a battleground in a fight for the future of...