Join us to meet local author Justin Nobel on Saturday, November 16 at 2:00 pm! Justin will join us virtually to talk about his work, Petroleum-238: Big Oil's Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It.

Petroleum-238 is an acclaimed science journalist’s extraordinary seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis. As Justin traveled the United States reporting on the oil and gas industry he learned a disturbing and little-considered fact: a lot more comes to the surface at a well than just the oil and gas. Each year the industry produces billions of tons of waste, much of it toxic and radioactive. The fracking boom has only worsened the problem. So where does it all go? Petroleum-238 provides the shocking answer. Shielded by a system of lax regulations and legal loopholes, this waste has been spilled, spread, injected, dumped, and freely emitted across America. Nobel relies on oilfield workers, community activists, a century of academic research, and a trove of never-before released industry and government documents to lay out a series of game-changing reveals into the world’s most powerful industry.

Justin writes on science and environment for US magazines, investigative sites, and literary journals. His work has been published in Best American Science and Nature Writing and Best American Travel Writing. A book he co-wrote with a death row exoneree, The Story of Dan Bright, was published in 2016 by University of New Orleans Press. His 2020 Rolling Stone magazine story, “America’s Radioactive Secret,” won an award for longform writing with the National Association of Science Writers and inspired this book. Justin’s writing has helped lead to lawsuits, public dialogue and been taught at Harvard’s School of Public Health.