In this episode of Rooted: Women, Earth & Eco-Justice, we sit down with economist Dr. Archibong, whose research sits at the intersection of environmental economics, public health, and gender inequality.

Dr. Archibong traces her path from growing up in Nigeria to navigating a sudden shift in class and racial identity after moving to the U.S. as a child, an experience that sparked a lifelong drive to understand the origins of economic inequality and what policy can do about it. That question has taken her across disciplines, from environmental economics and epidemiology to political economy and economic history.

We dig into her work on climate linked epidemics in Africa's "meningitis belt," and her findings on how these epidemics widen the gender gap in education and drive up rates of early marriage for girls, research she has brought directly to the U.S. Congress. Along the way, we talk about what environmental economics actually is, why she calls climate change the world's biggest market failure, and why reading widely across fields like anthropology, environmental science, and political science has been essential to answering the big questions she's chasing.

This conversation unpacks the economics of climate change, the human cost of epidemics, and the throughline of inequality that connects it all.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch the full episode at www.brownmoonproject.org/rootedpodcast