Podcasting as Inquiry: Climate, Literature, and Student Voice
In Grade 12 Honors Comparative Literature, students explore how literature helps us grapple with one of the defining questions of our time: what does it mean to live responsibly in an era of climate uncertainty?
Grounded in close readings of Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver and Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, the course examines how storytelling illuminates ecological crisis, social fragmentation, and moral responsibility. Students consider how fiction can sharpen our understanding of the natural world—and our place within it—while engaging questions of resilience, justice, and community.
As a culminating project, each student produced an original podcast that connects literary themes to real-world climate conversations. These projects blend research, narrative craft, and reflection, extending classroom inquiry beyond the page.
Two student podcasts offer a glimpse into the range and depth of this work:
In his podcast, The Overshoot, Anton N. hosts a thoughtful conversation with naturalist Paul Donahue, unpacking the idea of greenwashing and challenging the myth of “sustainable growth.” The episode confronts the harder truth that climate change may be a symptom of a deeper condition: ecological overshoot.
Sky H.’s podcast, Now or Never, centers youth voices and urgency. Through conversations with young people engaged in climate advocacy, she explores what action, responsibility, and hope look like for the next generation.
Together, these projects reflect the heart of Honors Comparative Literature at WSP: rigorous thinking, ethical inquiry, and the belief that stories, whether written or spoken, shape how we understand the world and imagine what comes next.
