In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jennifer Eaglin, an associate professor of history and faculty member in the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University. Eaglin discusses the evolution of sugar-based ethanol as a fuel source for transportation and the lessons that governments can draw from that evolution for their own development of alternative energy sources. Eaglin and Raimi also talk about how the ethanol industry came to prominence in Brazil and how its use improved air quality while damaging water quality, ecosystems, and certain Brazilian communities.

References and recommendations:

“Sweet Fuel” by Jennifer Eaglin; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sweet-fuel-9780197510681 (offer code “AAFLYG6” provides a discount)

“The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River” by Richard White; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809015832/theorganicmachine

“Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water” by Mark Reisner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/323685/cadillac-desert-by-marc-reisner/

“Before the Flood: Destruction, Community, and Survival in the Drowned Towns of the Quabbin” by Elisabeth C. Rosenberg; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Before-the-Flood/Elisabeth-C-Rosenberg/9781643136448

“Dammed Indians” by Michael L. Lawson; https://www.sdhspress.com/books/dammed-indians-revisited-the-continuing-history-of-the-pick-sloan-plan-and-the-missouri-river-sioux