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Robert Macfarlane on the Lives of Rivers

Upper Provo River
Timothy Slover
/
KUER
Upper Provo River

Is a river alive? That’s the animating question in Robert Macfarlane’s new book. And if the answer is yes, and rivers are living things, what do we owe them?

In the book, Macfarlane searches for answers around the world, including near his own home in Cambridge, England, where the springs have nearly dried up. But then there’s Ecuador, a nation, Macfarlane says, with a “vast moral imagination.” There, water has been granted personhood. In India, though, he visits the River Adyar, which — or “who,” as Macfarlane might say — is on the brink of death. Meanwhile, he tracks the growing Rights of Nature movement, which seeks to extend human rights to the natural world. Robert Macfarlane joins us for a conversation about how to reimagine the lives of rivers.

GUEST –

Robert Macfarlane | Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge. His latest book is called “Is a River Alive?” [Amazon|Bookshop]

 

Airdate: Wed., June 4, 2025 at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

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