Obi Kaufmann, Laura Cunningham, and Dillon Osleger at LitQuake 2026

As part of this year’s LitQuake Festival in San Francisco, Heyday and KALW co-present a panel on “22nd Century Conservation Ethos for California,” with Heyday authors Dillon Osleger, Laura Cunningham, and Obi Kaufmann.

California’s landscapes have long been shaped by deep relationships between people and place. But that relationship has changed dramatically over time, especially with the rise of European American settlement and the erasure of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Panelists Obi Kaufmann, creator of the California Field Atlas series; Laura Cunningham, award-winning author of A State of Change; and earth scientist and professional mountain biker Dillon Osleger examine how modern society has grown increasingly estranged from the natural world. Together, they imagine a new conservation ethos—one rooted in restoration, resilience, and reciprocity—and ask what it would take for Californians to leave the state healthier, more biodiverse, and more ecologically whole at the end of the 21st century than at its beginning. Moderated by Leslie Carol Roberts. Doors at 6:30pm.