Reading List - April 11, 2025
- BeakPix Educational Consulting
- Apr 11, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: May 2, 2025
This interview features Dr. Ivette Guzmán, an assistant professor at New Mexico State University specializing in horticulture and plant sciences. Her research focuses on discovering medicinal foods suitable for arid environments and understanding how environmental factors influence their medicinal properties. Dr. Guzmán's passion for plants stems from her childhood experiences with her grandmother, a healer in Mexico, and her family's agricultural background. She emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary research in agriculture, food, and nutrition.
This article delves into curanderismo, a traditional healing practice rooted in folk medicine, herbalism, and mysticism, which continues to thrive in New Mexico. The piece highlights the experiences of healers like Marisa Santos, who perform rituals such as the "limpia" (egg cleanse) to remove negative energy and promote spiritual well-being. Curanderismo blends cultural heritage with holistic health practices, offering a unique perspective on healing in the modern world.
This article examines the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry, characterized by rapid production and consumption of clothing. It discusses how overproduction leads to significant resource depletion, carbon emissions, and water pollution. The piece also highlights the increased frequency of clothing disposal, contributing to textile waste. The author suggests that adopting a circular economy approach could mitigate these environmental challenges.
This tracker provides a timeline of bankruptcy filings within the fashion and retail industry, noting significant events such as the 2025 Chapter 11 filing by Forever 21. The article attributes these financial struggles to factors like competition from fast fashion brands, rising operational costs, and changing consumer preferences. It offers insights into the challenges faced by established fashion retailers in a rapidly evolving market.
This NPR podcast investigates the journey of returned clothing items, revealing that many are not restocked but instead end up in landfills or are incinerated. The discussion highlights the environmental implications of return policies and the challenges retailers face in managing returns efficiently. It underscores the need for more sustainable practices in the fashion industry to address the growing issue of textile waste.
Keywords & Definitions
blossom: a peak period or stage of development, the flower of a flowering plant
burning sensation: awareness of heat pain due to stimulation of a sense organ
capsaicin: a colorless irritant phenolic amide C18H27NO3 found in various capsicums that gives hot peppers their hotness and that is used in topical creams for its analgesic properties
extract: to separate from, to pull or take out
methodology: a body of methods, rules or postulates employed by a discipline
terminology: the technical or special terms used in a business, art, science, or special subject
mysticism: the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (such as intuition or insight)
blindfold: something that covers the eye from seeing
elucidate: to give a clarifying explanation
eschew: escape, avoid, elude, weasel out of
exorcism: sorcery, witchcraft, wizardry
overproduction: excess, surplus
overconsumption: excessive consumption or use of something
discard: to get rid of especially as useless or unwanted
decompose: rot, decay, disintegrate
salvage: rescue, recover, retrieve, save
upcycle: to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item
Reference:
Merriam-Webster American English Dictionary
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