Catherine Coleman Flowers’ powerful essays explore science, faith, progress, and hope. 

On this episode of Fully Booked, environmental and climate justice activist Catherine Coleman Flowersjoins us to discuss Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope (Spiegel & Grau, Jan. 28), an essay collection Kirkus calls “a passionate and thoughtful exploration of social injustice” (starred review).

Flowers is the founding director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (formerly the Alabama Center for Rural Enterprise). Her debut memoir, Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret, was published in 2020. The same year, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her work identifying and ameliorating inadequate wastewater treatment systems in rural communities. Her articles have appeared in Anglican Theological Review, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, among others. She grew up in Lowndes County, Alabama, and lives in Montgomery.

Here's a bit from our starred review of Holy Ground: “Flowers…writes with passion and gracefulness about her life and experiences as an advocate for the rural poor. While she is best known for her work to secure safe water and sanitation for people living near toxic conditions, Flowers recounts a varied and fascinating career of advocacy for marginalized communities, full of encounters with politicians and other notable figures. Flowers includes pointed analyses of reproductive liberty, the neglect of the rural poor, the cowardice of politicians, and the avarice of the wealthy, along with absorbing personal reflections on the power of religious faith, community, food, and the pain of personal loss. She is unapologetically progressive in her political commitments, heaping withering scorn on the Tennessee legislators who censured Black legislators for speaking out against gun violence after the Covenant School shootings and on the Republicans who rushed to restrict reproductive freedom after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade. Yet she includes surprising sympathetic assessments of staunch conservatives such as Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, suggesting that sensitivity to the plight of the rural poor—a group often forgotten by urban progressives—can cross ideological divides.”

I begin by asking Flowers what she considers to be her life’s work. We talk about the terrific surprise of receiving a MacArthur Fellowship, and the work of two of her fellow Fellows (Jason Reynolds and J. Drew Lanham). We discuss the intertwined nature of science and spirituality, and we hold forth on a variety of topics including the lack of adequate wastewater treatment infrastructure in rural communities, the story of Judas Iscariot, political polarization, gun control, Operation Paperclip, cancel culture, the necessity of bipartisan collaboration, and the transformative power of hope.

And in a sponsored interview, I speak with Cheryl Willis Hudson and London Ladd, author and illustrator, respectively, of When I Hear Spirituals (Holiday House, Jan. 7). Kirkus calls this gorgeous picture-book celebration of African American spirituals “a deeply resonant work that speaks to these songs’ historical—and present—meaning” (starred review).

Then editors Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

Old as Stone, Hard as Rock: Of Humans and War by Alessandro Sanna, trans. by Ammiel Alcalay (Unruly)

Oasis by Guojing (Godwin Books)

Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Pantheon)

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (Pantheon)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Bellosio by John F. Shekleton

SOS Podcasts by Rosamaria Mancini

Warning by Gene J. Miller

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches From Outer Space! by I.S. Noah

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.