What does it take to confront an industry that has so thoroughly embedded itself in modern life it can seem almost invisible? In this conversation, Judith Enck—founder of Beyond Plastics, former EPA Regional Administrator, and author of The Problem with Plastic—joins the award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein to discuss power, accountability, and the long fight to protect public health from corporate convenience masquerading as progress.
Drawing on Enck’s years in government and advocacy, and Bernstein’s unmatched eye for the intersection of money, influence, and public harm, the conversation will explore plastic not simply as waste, but as policy, politics, and culture: a crisis manufactured in plain sight. A timely exchange about environmental responsibility, institutional courage, and what it means to take on systems built to outlast outrage.
This conversation is produced in collaboration with Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.
Attendance is free with advance registration, although donations are appreciated by the festival organizers.
Judith Enck founded Beyond Plastics in 2019 to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change. A dynamic community leader who has spent her expansive career working to protect public health and the environment, Judith began as an environmental advocate and has held top influential positions in state and federal government. Appointed by President Obama, Judith served as the Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overseeing environmental protection in NY, NJ, 8 Indian Nations, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Judith is a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution and was a Visiting Scholar at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.
Andrea Bernstein is a Peabody and duPont Columbia award-winning investigative journalist, author, and professor. She covered five trials of Donald Trump and his business for NPR, and has co-hosted the podcasts Trump, Inc., Will Be Wild, We Don’t Talk about Leonard, and The Law According to Trump. She is the author of the best-selling book American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power and is a Visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. A winner of the Berlin Prize, she will be a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in Fall 2026.