We&apos;re looking back at the stories we&apos;ve told on this season of Trace Material. How did we find ourselves living in the plastics age and where might we go from here?  Be sure to go back and listen to any episodes you may have missed this season! For more information, head to our website at healthymaterialslab.org/podcast, or give us a follow on Instagram @healthymaterialslab and Twitter @parsons_HML. If you&apos;ve been enjoying this season, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

Trace Material

The Social History of Plastics

More than any other generation, Gen Z’s lives have been marked by climate change and climate anxiety.  In this episode of Trace Material, we speak to young climate activists to understand how they’re imagining a future away from plastics and a materials designer working to make that future a reality. For more information, head to our website at healthymaterialslab.org/podcast, or give us a follow on Instagram @healthymaterialslab and Twitter @parsons_HML. If you&apos;ve been enjoying this season, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

Our Plastic Future

The nation’s first plastic bag ban in Suffolk County, NY set off panic in the plastics industry. How did industry create the myth of recycling and squash potential bag bans?We speak to Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who sponsored the bag ban in 1988, about the decades long fight to ban plastic bags in Suffolk County and the tactics used by the plastic industry to thwart these bans. Plus, Kara Napolitano from SIMS Municipal Recycling Facility in Brooklyn offers us a new way to think about plastics recycling. For more information, head to our website at healthymaterialslab.org/podcast, or give us a follow on Instagram @healthymaterialslab and Twitter @parsons_HML. If you&apos;ve been enjoying this season, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

The Guilt Eraser

The push to promote disposable plastics created mountains of new waste that will never biodegrade. The burden of that waste has been placed almost entirely on the shoulders of low-income communities of color. This week, activists share a story of community opposition to the construction of a garbage incinerator in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark during the 1980s, and their ongoing fight for environmental justice. For more information, head to our website at healthymaterialslab.org/podcast, or give us a follow on Instagram @healthymaterialslab and Twitter @parsons_HML. If you&apos;ve been enjoying this season, please take a moment to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.

Dance Against the Incinerator

The connections between vinyl chloride and diseases like cancer were first understood inside the factory setting. Workers were quite literally on the frontline. But today we&apos;re taking you outside the factory walls and into fenceline communities and suburban homes.For part one of this story, listen to The House of Documents.For more information regarding PVC and vinyl chloride, head to our episode page.

Out of the Factory

In the 1970s, workers in PVC factories across the country began getting sick with a rare form of liver cancer.  While the plastics industry claimed they were unaware of what was causing that cancer, internal documents told a different story. Today we’re telling a story about corporate concealment, cancer, and of course, plastic. 

The House of Documents

In post-war America everything that people touched––paint, fabric, dishes, jewelry––could be made of plastic. But how did this first generation living in a plastic world learn to accept it as part of their daily lives?

Mi Sueño Tupperware

Our story starts at the turn of the twentieth century, when the natural materials everyday objects were made from were becoming scarce. Enter the era of the inventor, it was time to forge new materials and build a new world. 

The Fourth Kingdom

Here&apos;s a first listen of Trace Material Season 2: Stories from the Plastics Age, coming your way June 16th! We were curious: what will future societies think of us when they dig up relics of our present day? 

Season 2 Trailer

This will be our last episode of Season 1. We’re taking a look back at all we’ve learned over the last 12 episodes. We’ve traced the story of hemp from its colonial roots in America, through the war on drugs, and legalization. The future of the plant is wide open. And we hope as we all build it together, the past can be reckoned with instead of being pushed aside in favor of profit.

Looking Back at Hemp

In this episode, we’re heading to New Castle to see how the folks at DON are building a hemp industry from the ground up to support their vision of healthy, affordable, accessible housing. 

A New Dawn in New Castle

Alex Sparrow is repairing centuries old buildings across the UK, and in doing so, laying the groundwork for a carbon neutral future. As you may have guessed, he’s doing it with HempLime. Alex literally and figuratively wrote the book on HempLime construction and we were lucky enough to Talk Shop with him.Take a listen as Alex shares his wealth of experience from across the pond in the UK to help us understand what might be possible to grow the superstar HempLime material building industry right here in the US.

Talking Shop with Alex Sparrow

On this week’s episode, we’re heading back to the Sun Valley to Talk Shop with Blake Eagle. Blake is a contractor who, after years of exposure to the unhealthy materials of standard practice building, decided to construct Idaho’s first HempLime home for his family. Blake shared with us the benefits of building with HempLime and the difference living with it has made to him and his family.

Talking Shop with Blake Eagle

This week we’re Talking Shop with Cameron McIntosh, the owner of hemp/lime construction company Americhanvre. Cameron is a leader in the emerging US HempLime landscape and in this episode, he chats with HML co-director Jonsara Ruth about how his past work with ceramics and working at a plant nursery led him to hemp. 

Talking Shop with Cameron McIntosh

For our first ever Talking Shop episode, HML Director Alison Mears spoke with Hempitecture co-founder and CEO Mattie Mead.Based in Ketchum, ID, Hempitecture built the United States’ first public use hemp building as well as many private residences. Along with his co-founder, Mattie was on the 2020 Forbes list of 30 under 30 in manufacturing and industry. Mattie and his partners at Hempitecture hosted the first US Hemp Building Summit in 2019. Listen now to hear his exciting and innovative take on building with hemp!

Talking Shop with Mattie Mead

Trace Material breaks down the building blocks of our constructed environment, one material at a time. What can plastic tell us about suburbanization? What does redlining have to do with lead paint? And how did a president’s bias shape what our walls are made of?

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Trace Material

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