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.”

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.

Buzz Thompson joins the Water Shelf Podcast to talk about his innovative and extraordinary new book, Liquid Asset: How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis (Stanford University Press, 2004).

Barton H. “Buzz” Thompson, Jr. is the Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law at the Stanford Law School. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, where he directs the Water in the West program, and is a Professor of Environmental Behavioral Sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Buzz is a practicing attorney specializing in water resources, was a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and a Supreme Court-appointed Special Master, and has authored or co-authored numerous books on environmental law and policy.

Why does someone with so many accolades and accomplishments go by "Buzz"? Listen to the podcast and find out!