Mark Pedelty is a hard person to describe succinctly. He has a broad range of interests and engages in a lot of different sorts of work. One could say that Mark is a scholar that is interested in how we communicate (and how we might communicate more effectively) about sustainability and social change. But that description leaves out that Mark is a musician and an organizer of musicians. It would also fail to acknowledge that he is a podcaster and a storyteller. Mark is also someone who thinks a lot about social movements and the translation of political theory to political action. He’s a social scientist but also a humanist and an artist. Mark’s spent much of his life advocating for the better stewardship of the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest but he’s also a long time advocate for better care of common lands. Much of his research is about the music and musicians of the United States but he’s also well published in the field of Central American ethnography.

I could continue to go-on for quite some time about all the different things that Mark does or is interested in. But, for the sake of brevity, I will just note that: given the breadth of Mark’s knowledge, interests, and passions, it’s always a delight to spend time chatting with him. Conversations with Mark are always wide-ranging and thought-provoking. So, I’m excited to share this discussion that I recorded with him in the spring of 2022. This discussion started with an examination of music as a form of communication and the field of eco-musicology and then moved on (in the next episode of Just Sustainability) to community building, community organization, and podcasting.

Links:

1. https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/pedeltmh
   
   
2. https://www.ecosong.band/
   
   
3. https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/publiclandspodcast
   
   
4. https://iupress.org/9780253023001/a-song-to-save-the-salish-sea/