Ritual, Ancestry, and Cultural History in Modern China, with Alice Mah
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Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Sorrenti. In today's episode, sociologist and author Alice Ma joined us to discuss her new book, Red Pockets, a deeply personal yet globally resonant exploration of ancestry, ecological anxiety and cultural memory. Ma is a writer and professor of urban and environmental studies at the University of Glasgow.
Originally from a small town in northern British Columbia, she has a long-standing interest in ecology and place. Drawing on her experiences tracing her family's lineage from the rice-growing villages of South China through the Chinatowns of western Canada where she was raised, to the post-industrial landscapes of Scotland and England, where she now lives, Mao reflects on what it means to reckon with a legacy of silence, displacement, and environmental degradation. Joining Mao to discuss environmental sociology, intergenerational responsibility, and the often overlooked spiritual dimensions of ecological grief is journalist and book critic Maithili Rao. Let's join Maithili now with more.
Welcome to Intelligence Squared. I'm Mytha Lee Rao. Our guest today is Alice Ma. Welcome to Intelligence Squared, Alice. Thanks so much for having me here.
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