A conversation with historian Elsa Devienne about their book, Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (Oxford University Press, 2024)

Elsa Devienne is Assistant Professor of History at Northumbria University.

Sand Rush was originally published in French by Éditions de la Sorbonne in 2020 as La ruée vers le sable: Une histoire environnementale des plages de Los Angeles au XXe siècle.

Along with numerous articles, Devienne is also co-editor or co-author of:

• Le chemin, la rive et l’usine : Faire de l’histoire environnementale avec Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud (Paris: Presses des Mines, 2023).
• D’Après nature: Frederick Law Olmsted et le park movement américain (Pari : Éditions Fahrenheit, 2014).

Below are links to an article and two podcast episodes that Devienne mentions towards the end of this episode:

• “Making Plastics Count: Citizen Science Beach Cleanups and the Ocean Plastic Pollution Crisis (1980s-2020s),” Environmental History, 30, no 4(October 2025): 646-673. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/737351
• "Early Heroines of Plastic Pollution, Part I: Meet the Women who Started the Beach Cleanups (Judie)," Plastisphere Podcast, 2025. https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/coastal-cleanup-judie?in=plastisphere-podcast/sets/changemakers
• "Early Heroines of Plastic Pollution, Part I: Meet the Women who Started the Beach Cleanups (Linda)," Plastisphere Podcast, 2025. https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/coastal-cleanup-linda?in=plastisphere-podcast/sets/changemakers

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with journalist Jonathan Bach their book, "High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West"

(Oregon State University Press, 2025).

Jonathan Bach is a journalist and staff reporter covering housing and commercial real estate for The Oregonian/OregonLive.com.

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com

A conversation with historian David-James Gonzales about their book, Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation: Mexican American Grassroots Politics and Civil Rights in Orange Country, California

(Oxford University Press, 2025).

David-James Gonzales is Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He holds a BA in History from the University of California - San Diego, and n M.A. and Ph.D in History from the University of Southern California.

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The Writing Westward Podcast is produced and hosted by Prof. Brenden W. Rensink for the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University. Subscribe to the Writing Westward Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, and other podcast distribution apps and platforms. Follow the BYU Redd Center and the Writing Westward Podcast on Facebook, Bluesky, or get more information @ https://www.writingwestward.org. Theme music by Micah Dahl Anderson @ www.micahdahlanderson.com