"A system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect." Episode 7 of Shack & Mu comes from the Mobilize Frederick session at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali and Dr. Sacoby Wilson gather a panel of young climate leaders who are no longer waiting to act. Environmental biology graduate student India Dennis, campus food-garden organizer Lindsay Mullins, and public health major and advocate Ahmed Bockarie, make the case that nature-based solutions, natural infrastructure, and everyday environmental justice belong at the center of how communities protect their health, their food, and their future.India Dennis traces her own path from the concrete of Wilmington, Delaware, where her grandmother took her fishing and to parks, into an environmental biology program where she was one of the only students raising environmental justice, and she names the tools young people use to see the bigger picture, from GIS mapping to social media. The conversation grounds big ideas in concrete work.Lindsay Mullins is building a food garden on her campus near Frederick, Maryland, and shows how raised beds, hydroponics, and rooftop plots put growing food within reach of students who have only known concrete. She introduces "plant blindness," the disconnect that has most of us buying fruit in winter and meat from across the world without knowing where it came from or who grew it.Ahmed Bockarie, a public health major from Sierra Leone, connects diet, chemicals, and disease, and recounts a factory that dumped waste until wells tested last month came back contaminated, long after residents had been drinking the water.Chapters:0:00 Welcome, and the next generation of leaders0:40 India: conversation, social media, and self-education2:14 Lindsay: bringing a food garden to campus3:47 Ahmed: public health, advocacy, and reaching the mind5:01 Nature-based solutions and natural infrastructure5:35 India: growing up between concrete and a grandmother's parks7:27 The power of food and "plant blindness"9:31 Public health, chemicals, and the climate connection12:19 PFAS, forever chemicals, and the long tail of harm13:29 Ahmed: realizing the power you already have16:11 Lindsay: permission to lead, right now18:28 Don't wait for the baton: Destinee Wofford's story19:04 India: power as self-awareness and lifelong learning20:50 The role of the arts 25:38 Closing: stay up, stay focused, keep making changeABOUT OUR GUESTSIndia Dennis is an environmental biology graduate student who grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, shaped by both a city childhood and a grandmother who kept her close to nature. She brings environmental justice into every topic she studies, from GIS mapping to climate denial, works as a DJ, and, now raising a child of her own, frames power as self-awareness and lifelong learning.Lindsay Mullins is a student leading the effort to build a food garden on her campus near Frederick, Maryland. Her work centers on food access, "plant blindness," and using a shared garden to bring students of different backgrounds together, alongside campus sustainability projects like composting and solar power.Ahmed Bockarie is a public health major originally from Sierra Leone. He began in medical school but left during the war in Ukraine and continued his education in the United States, guided by his late father's belief that there is more than one way to make change. He focuses on advocacy and environmental justice, using social media to reach people who do not yet see how these issues touch their lives.Don't wait for the baton. Learn who represents you, show up to campus and community meetings, and use the power you already have to push for change where you are.FOLLOW US!Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shack.mu/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shack.mu.podcastThreads: https://www.threads.com/@shack.muFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591512191245
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