Listen: Audio 9.6

ICC: Well, there was another layer to my identity at the time, which is that I was fresh out of grad school at UC Davis, which is the place—the location of the story. [. . .] That student version of Ildi was really curious about all sides of the story and really blown away by the wonder of the invention and wanted people to recognize what a breakthrough that invention was. And at the same time sort of have a critical lens about who the public university is producing technology for. So at a personal level, I was interested in the complications and the nuances of that story, which is one reason why I think we were a good match at that moment.

[. . .] But the Cal Ag Roots project in general, is designed to put some historical roots on the food movement. So there are goals related to that project that are definitely unique to an organization outside of the university that would have movement-building, strategy-building goals. And this podcast was the first that we produced. So those goals about movement-building were just being articulated.

[. . .] So in an interesting way it’s sort of like this story that emerges from scholarly, student interest—and from the very particular place where I was and where I met you—and then begins to converge with these other goals of an activist org that’s trying to educate and mobilize people for effective change.

[. . .] I’ve never said that out loud before! [Laughter]