Episodes

  • "The Water Recycling Revolution" by Bill and Rosemarie Alley
    Mar 7 2026

    The dynamic writing team Bill and Rosemarie Alley discuss their latest book, The Water Recycling Revolution: Tapping into the Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). What's revolutionary about recycled water? How did we get over the "yuck factor"? What are recycled water developers currently getting right and wrong? Find out here!

    Dr. William M. Alley is Director of Science and Technology for the National Ground Water Association. Rosemarie Alley writes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction and is a literacy specialist.

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    37 mins
  • "Legal Geographies of Water" by Cristy Clark
    Feb 6 2026

    Cristy Clark explores the "pluriverse of water realities" in her new book, Legal Geographies of Water: The Spaces, Places and Narratives of Human-Water Relations (Earthscan Routledge, 2025). Enjoy our lively conversation about how legal geography can both explain and improve human-water relations, what the human right to water actually means, and how Marvel Multiverse films may actually help us understand the "ontologies of living waters."

    Dr. Cristy Clark is an Associate Professor at the Canberra Law School.

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    46 mins
  • “Body in a Barrel" by Aaron Mead
    Jan 11 2026

    Season 3 of the Water Shelf Podcast begins with a bang! Aaron Mead, author of Body in a Barrel: A Las Vegas Mafia Crime Novella, talks with me about his fictional treatment of Lake Mead’s slow, climate-change-induced unveiling of long-immersed depths. Building on his written Water Shelf interview, Mr. Mead discusses his water industry and theological studies roots, two layers that contributed complexity as well as publication challenges for his path-breaking work.

    Mr. Mead is a Senior Engineer with Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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    35 mins
  • "Living with Water Scarcity" by David Zetland
    Sep 1 2025

    David Zetland gives a powerhouse interview on his many decades of writing on water, the commons, and climate change. He discusses his recently reissued book Living with Water Scarcity (2014/2023) which does a wonderful job explaining water economics to the general reader. We also get into why water managers fail and, in his opinion, why academic publishing has lost its luster.

    Professor Zetland is a senior university lecturer in political-economy at Leiden University College in the Netherlands. In addition to Living, he has published The End of Abundance (2011), The Best of Aguanomics (2018), and The Little Book of The Commons (2022) - all freely available for download at kysq.org.

    Note to listeners: The interview recording contains minor sound quality issues, probably due to the long-distance conversation.

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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • "Replumbing the City" by Sayd Randle
    Jul 12 2025

    In this episode, Sayd Randle joins us from Kathmandu, Nepal, to talk about her fascinating new book, Replumbing the City: Water Management as Climate Adaptation in Los Angeles (University of California Press, 2025). We discuss her ethnographic approach to water and the challenges and opportunities of localizing urban water supplies. She also gives us a peek at what she's now working on halfway around the world.

    Dr. Randle is Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Singapore Management University.

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    44 mins
  • "Too Good to Be True" by Paul Brown
    Apr 19 2025

    Paul Brown joins the Water Shelf Podcast to discuss his unique, entertaining, and self-published book, Too Good to Be True: Scottsdale and Privatization in the 1980s (2020). His detailed account of a water treatment plant public-private partnership evokes both a specific time and place and larger themes of professional development and learning from your mistakes.

    Mr. Brown is President of Paul Redvers Brown Inc., having previously served for 37 years at CDM Smith, including as Executive Vice President and Board Member. He is a Fellow of the International Water Association, a member of the Urban Water Institute's Board of Directors, and previously served on the Boards of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, and the Council for Watershed Health.

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    56 mins
  • "Water: A Biography" by Giulio Boccaletti
    Feb 18 2025

    Giulio Boccaletti provides a master class on water, politics, and social organization in this fascinating discussion of his book Water: A Biography (Pantheon Books, 2021). His "story of people and water" traces the historical dialectic between the practical realities of water management and the development of political ideologies, and he argues for republicanism over authoritarianism in addressing climate change.

    Dr. Boccaletti is the Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change Foundation, Honorary Research Associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and Executive Producer of the upcoming PBS/BBC Studios series “The Future of Nature.”

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    54 mins
  • "Water Management" by Shimon Anisfeld
    Jan 21 2025

    Shimi Anisfeld kicks off Season 2 of the Water Shelf Podcast by introducing his fascinating book Water Management: Prioritizing Justice and Sustainability (Island Press, 2024) - an impressively comprehensive and immensely readable university textbook on this important topic supplemented by a free companion website.

    Dr. Shimon Anisfeld is Senior Lecturer II and Research Scientist in Water Resources and Environmental Chemistry at Yale University.

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    37 mins