The Climate Pod

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This week, we're taking a deep dive into the UNEP fascinating, new Global Environment Outlook with legendary climate scientist Sir Professor Robert Watson. We discuss the state (and accelerating pace) of global warming and environmental destruction. Watson explains how emissions continue to climb, what's happened since the Paris Agreement, the state of biodiversity loss, land degradation, and air pollution, and much more. He also explains the transformative investments and ch...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In this new series from The Climate Pod, we're looking back on the global pact to determine: how have things changed since 2015 and what has the Paris Agreement accomplished? Our first episode was on extreme heat. 

This week, we're looking at the role of adaptation. In the decade that has past since the Paris Agreement was si...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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When talking about climate change, it's easy to get caught up in the scientific terms. Carbon emissions, parts per million, global average temperature, etc. But I always want to make sure I'm framing this conversation in the human impacts that result from the crisis. That's why I wanted to have Sharon Lerner back on the show this week. Sharon Lerner is a journalist and author at ProPublica, where she c...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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Another annual UN climate change conference is in the books. So, what did it accomplish? This week, The Guardian's Oliver Milman joins the show to breakdown the results of COP30. We discuss why many thought the conference was underwhelming, the final decisions on a fossil fuel phaseout, finance for adaptation, and improving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). We also talk about the lack of agreement on combating deforestation, the United S...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In this new series from The Climate Pod, we're looking back on the global pact to determine: how have things changed since 2015 and what has the Paris Agreement accomplished?

To kick off the series, Dr. Kristina Dahl, vice president for Science at Climate Central and the co-author of the new report Ten Years of the Paris Ag...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

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Are global leaders trying to solve the wrong climate problem? In this episode, Professor Jessica Green aruges that too often governments and institutions have misdiagnosed the core issues of the climate crisis and are going about solutions in all the wrong ways as a result. In her new book,  Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, she focuses on the power dynamics between fo...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

This week, Justin Worland, senior correspondent at TIME, is back on the show to delve into the  COP30 and what you will want to know about this critical convening of world leaders. As one of the top journalists covering climate change and international climate policy, Justin shares his  perspective on the evolving nature of these global conferences and what's actually at stake this year in Brazil. We explore the shift from traditional neg...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

This week, we dive into the transformative potential of a world less reliant on automobiles and ask the question: "why aren't we more honest about the harms caused by our car dependency?" We're joined by the amazing Sarah Goodyear and Doug Gordon, co-hosts of "The War on Cars" podcast and co-authors of the new book, "Life After Cars," to explores the deep-seated cultural and economic ties to car dependency and the urgent n...

There is no denying that capitalism has played a leading role in warming the planet.   As the Industrial Revolution ushered in previously unseen levels of prosperity for some people, human beings' negative impact on the natural world exploded at a ferocious rate.  While it's helpful for modern-day economists to look back at the faults and failures of capitalism as a way to explain the multitude of problems facing humanity in the 21st century, it's even more interesting to understand the critiques that economists of the 19th and 20th century had about capitalism and what they were experiencing in real tim...

The Climate Pod is going to be live in Chicago! Join us for our Chicago Climate Bash, the hottest comedy show on the planet! On Sunday, October 26th at 5 pm CT at The Lincoln Lodge, we're featuring an amazing lineup of great comedians and expert guests. There will be standup, panels, music, and more. This show is a live recording of The Climate Pod. Featuring Chad The Bird, Lucia Whalen, a very special guest, and more! Get your tickets now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-climate-bash-tickets-1758346845749?aff=oddtdtcreator

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This week, we explore the complexities, co...

The Climate Pod is going to be live in Chicago! Join us for our Chicago Climate Bash, the hottest comedy show on the planet! On Sunday, October 26th at 5 pm CT at The Lincoln Lodge, we're featuring an amazing lineup of great comedians and expert guests. There will be standup, panels, music, and more. This show is a live recording of The Climate Pod. Featuring Chad The Bird, Lucia Whalen, a very special guest, and more! Get your tickets now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-climate-bash-tickets-1758346845749?aff=oddtdtcreator

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What has caused societal collapse throughout h...

The Climate Pod is going to be live in Chicago! Join us for our Chicago Climate Bash, the hottest comedy show on the planet! On Sunday, October 26th at 5 pm CT at The Lincoln Lodge, we're featuring an amazing lineup of great comedians and expert guests. There will be standup, panels, music, and more. This show is a live recording of The Climate Pod. Featuring Chad The Bird, Lucia Whalen, a very special guest, and more! Get your tickets now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-climate-bash-tickets-1758346845749?aff=oddtdtcreator

Dr. Jane Goodall died on Wednesday at the age of 91. After National Geographic published her groundbreaking work in 1963, she spent more than 60 years in the public spotlight as a prolific writer, speaker, and advocate for change. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, which has grown into one of the largest advocacy and conservation organizations in the world and started the Roots & Shoots youth program, which has helped more young people get into conservation and environmentalism. She helped build a movement. 

And she used her voice and platform to fight for climate action. In 2021, we had the ch...

WE'RE DOING A LIVE SHOW IN CHICAGO! SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26! 5 PM! GET TICKETS NOW: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chicago-climate-bash-tickets-1758346845749?aff=oddtdtcreator

Congress just rolled back major climate provisions despite a majority of Americans looking for more government action on climate at all levels of government. Why is the approach to the climate crisis in the United States so often out of step with what the public wants? Maybe the biggest issue is the underlining flaws in our democracy. As writer Osita Nwanevu argues, we've seen myriad ways in which democracy has eroded in recent decades, but many o...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

First, the conversation was centered on The Green New Deal. Then, Build Back Better, which turned into the Inflation Reduction Act. It was passed. A few years later, major climate provisions in the bill were repealed. It was fairly popular, but mostly unknown to the average American. So what have we learned? Is it possible to advance major climate policy in America?

Our guests today say yes. And they have a...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

This is an episode that fundamentally challenges the way I've thought about tackling climate change. I've always understood the history of energy as a history of transition. We went from burning a lot of wood to then burning a lot of coal, then moving from coal to mostly oil, then oil plus gas. But our guest today, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, says that thinking is totally wrong. Instead of undergoing a series of energy t...

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it!

This week, Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of the Environmental Voter Project, is back on the show to explore one of the most frustrating obstacles to climate action: the lack of political engagement from many climate-concerned voters. Despite the growing awareness and concern about climate change, many voters that say they care about the issue still don't perceive it as a political problem. Nathaniel delves into the reasons behind this disconnect...

You can't talk about climate action without discussing inequality. Afterall, the effects of climate change are distributed incredibly unequaly. Furthermore, it's the people who are responsible for the least amount of carbon emissions that most often face the deadliest and most damaging consequences of the crisis. 

On today's episode, we sit down with Tony Juniper, renowned environmentalist and author of Just Earth to explore the profound intersection of inequality and the climate crisis. As the climate emergency intensifies, the disparities between those who contribute the least to climate change and those who suffer the most from its i...

Five years ago, on the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we looked back with Vann Newkirk II on the complexities of the disaster. Newkirk did a thorough recounting of Katrina for his narrative podcast series, Floodlines. Since that conversation, I've often wondered about the role of the federal government in the wake of these disasters. Have we learned much in the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina? Why is FEMA so critical when a disaster strikes a certain area? Are we better prepared now or in worse shape? How is the climate crisis impacting all of this?

To answer a...

This has been a rough year for the US climate movement. And few people have spent as many years or invested as much time in thinking about the climate movement than Bill McKibben, author of the first book on climate change, The End of Nature. In this perilous moment we find ourselves in, McKibben is finding some inspiration in the transformative potential of renewable energy and how it can help both power the planet and revitalize the climate movement. In his new book, Here Comes The Sun, he offers both the grim reality we face as warming worsens and the...

On July 23, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion that many are regarding as a groundbreaking legal moment for the fight against climate change. But what was included in the actual opinion? What does this mean for the future of climate litigation? And most importantly, what will this mean for the future of climate action?

To answer all these questions and more, we talk to Dr. Maria Antonia Tigre, the Director of Global Climate Change Litigation at the Sabin Center. She explains how this decision sets a new precedent in international law by recognizing the...

This week, Dr. Kate Marvel, author of Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet, is on the show to discuss the complex ways she processes varying emotions while studying climate change and thinking about this planetary crisis. Marvel talks about her journey from a high school student disinterested in science to studying cosmology to eventually becoming a leading climate scientist. She explains why she's inspired by this work and the people that do it. We talk about the creative and fun aspects of working with climate models, some of the certainities and uncertainites that come with...

The climate crisis seems to be missing from the overwhelming majority of the popular culture that we consume. But is that really the case?

In this compelling conversation Mark Bould, a distinguished professor of film and literature at the University of the West of England, explains how we might be able to uncover the crisis in TV, books, and film where it isn't obvious at first glance. Bould is the author of The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, which challenges our conventional understanding of climate change narratives and encourages us to uncover the implicit climate themes woven i...

This week, David Wallace-Wells is back on the show for a wide-ranging conversation on the climate crisis unfolding in 2025. I was struck by David's recent essay, "We Can Adapt and Prepare for Floods. But Will We?" in the wake of the horrific flooding in Texas. As David explains, the climate disasters we face today are increasingly unpredictable and widespread, challenging our traditional understanding of what our climate risks are where they can happen.

Despite the rising frequency and cost of these disasters, David notes that increasingly it appears that our most commons response is largely to normalize...

Why were there so many serial killers in the US in the 1970s and 80s? Why were so many in the Pacific Northwest?

This week, we explore the Lead Crime Hypothesis with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser. In her new book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, she explores the potential link between mid-20th century pollution from leaded gasoline and industrial smelters and the spike in violent crime. We also examine how the reduction of lead in the environment could explain the subsequent drop in crime rates since the 1990s, but how...

We're living through a time of extraordinary change to the US energy landscape. As Robbie Orvis, Senior Director of Modeling and Analysis at Energy Innovation argues, the combination of surging demand for electricity with new policies designed to slow the build out of cheaper, cleaner, faster energy sources like wind, solar, and batteries will result in higher utility bills, fewer jobs, and slower economic growth. And that will impact everyone, likely in more ways than you'd expect.

Orvis joins The Climate Pod this week for an in-depth examination of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. How much l...

This week, David Roberts is back on the show to discuss what has happened to the Inflation Reduction Act and what it means to clean energy and the climate movement to have such a major setback. We step back to think through the landscape of climate policy now and also reflect on pivotal moments in the recent history of legislative efforts that have shaped the current state of clean energy in the U.S. From his early days at Grist to his influential work at Vox, David offers a unique perspective on the challenges and triumphs of advocating for...

Hey, it's been quite a while since we last posted an episode. What is going on? We explain what's been happening and what to expect now. 

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Prior to the New Deal, millions of rural Americans were quite literally living in the dark. Though electricity had been available for decades, it was out of reach for most living in America's  countryside post-World War I. That all changed within a decade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approach to the power sector during the Great Depression transformed electrification and public utilities on rural life and dramatically modernized the American home throught the nation. In his new book, Democracy In Power, A History of Electrification in the United States, Sandeep Vaheesan explores the rapid economic and social changes brought about b...

We're back for one last episode of 2024 with our most frequent guest on The Climate Pod! Evlondo Cooper is back on the show to review how climate change was covered in mainstream media over the course of the year. In this conversation, Evlondo Cooper discusses the evolving landscape of climate media, why it remains critical to connect extreme weather events to climate change, and how that still continues to be absent from major news coverage. He highlights the power of mainstream media in shaping public perception and the role of independent media is increasingly playing in providing in-depth coverage...

What would the world look like at 3-degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels? In his latest work, Collision Course: 3-degrees of warming & humanity's future, David Spratt explores the catastrophic implications of the planet we're heading towards as warming continues to accelerate. He argues we need to face up to realities of the crisis and have an honest discourse on risks and impacts already occuring. On the show this week, he joins us to discuss the significance of tipping points, and the systemic risks posed by climate change, and the non-linear, catastrophic impacts expected at 3-degrees. We also explore...

We're undergoing a necessary renewable energy transition. And this transition will require an enormous amount of critical metals in order to power an economy without fossil fuels. Today, the processes we use to extract these materials - from copper, nickel, lithium, and more - are causing harm to both humans and our physical environment. So what do we do about it? 

In his new book, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future, Vince Beiser argues that there are huge opportunities to make mining safer, recycle more metals, and use less energy to h...

 What do human beings owe planet Earth? How are we responsible to future generations? Those are some pretty weighty questions. But in reality, if you're confronting the climate crisis, it should bring about some pretty weighty philosophical issues, shouldn't it? So to help, we called in popular philospher Todd May to guide us through tackling some of those biggest of big picture questions we could ponder. A renowned philosopher and advisor to NBC's The Good Place with 18(!) books published on philosophy, Todd has a wide area of expertise that includes thinking critically about humanity's role in the climate crisis and our...

If you're a regular listener of this show or often engage with the facts of the climate crisis, it's likely you experience a fair deal of climate anxiety. I know I do. So I wanted to dive into those feelings and how to think about processing it all. For over a decade, Kate Schapira has been having these conversations as a part of her Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth. Now, she has a new book out, Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth - How to Live with Care and Purpose in an Endangered World, to document that work and...

COP29 is over. A new agreement has been struck. So what the hell happened?

Climate reporter Dharna Noor is here to explain. She was on the ground during the conference to cover it all and she's on the show this week to deep dive into the results and what it means for global climate action. Dharna discusses the complexities and stakes surrounding COP29, how the central theme of climate finance shaped the conference, and the key takeaways of the final agreement. We also discuss the tension between the Global North and South during negotations, the wild events...

"Among the growing effects of the climate crisis, the evolution of hurricanes is one of the more immediate and destructive." Our oceans are warming. Superstorms are intensifying. In Porter Fox's new book, the accelerating danger resulting from these two realities of the climate crisis is on full display. And Fox is no stranger to the ocean - as a longtime sailor and decades-long climate writer, he literally confronts deadly storms in his reporting. Now, with latest book, Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them, he's unpacking what he's heard from scientists and explorers alike to mark...

As our environment changes, so do our brains. Climate changes impact our physical environments is many noticeable ways, but it's also changing us on the inside as well. Clayton Page Aldern is a neuroscientist turned environmental journalist who has unpacked this phenomenon in his new book, The Weight of Nature: How A Changing Climate Changes Our Brains. He joins the show this week to discuss how our brains adapt to climate change and limits we face, how shifting baseline syndrome impacts climate action, what's happening to our brains under rising temperatures, and what climate changes tell us about broader...

For 57 years, Ed Begley Jr. has been in literally hundreds of your favorite movies and television shows. And during those years, he's also established himself as one of the most prominent voices in Hollywood on environmental sustainability and climate action. Now, he's with a new memoir, To the Temple of Tranquility…And Step On It!, which recounts his life in both entertainment and environmental and climate advocate. Ed joins us on the show this week to discuss his life and career. We talk about his early days as a stand up comic, how he initially got into activism, his fr...

The climate movement faces mounting pressure in 2024. Record-setting temperatures and extreme weather disasters continue to devastate over a turbulent summer. Prominent plans to roll back environmental regulations and stiffle climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives have movement leaders pushing back on attacks. Is the climate movement able to handle the pressure at this critical moment? 

Few people are as equipped to answer that question as Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. Over his decades of climate and progressive leadership, Rev. Yearwood has advanced climate solutions with policymaking, culture change, direct action, and more. And he's part of a new initiative t...

In 2008, the world economic system was rocked by a financial crisis that stemmed from risky mortgages being securitized and sold as safe investments to unknowing investors.  Misaligned incentives, unpriced risk, deceptive selling practices, and a lack of regulatory scrutiny throughout the financial industry led to the Great Recession, the consequences of which we're still feeling in a variety of ways today.

While somewhat different from what preceded the 2008 financial crisis, there are clear parallels with what's happening in the home insurance and mortgage markets in areas most at risk to damage from climate-worsened storms.  As large, traditional in...

Bad actors continue to push fake talking points to obscure the truth on climate change and slow down action. So how we combat these common myths and inspire people to do more? That's the focus of today's show and a new book by our guest, Dr. Genevieve Guenther. In her new book, The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It, Guenther argues that climate leaders should use sharper language that argues for transformative action and a windfall of benefits in the face of the massive, destructive threat of climate change. She joins the show to d...

For 70 years, building out and expanding American highways have been core parts to the entire US transportation project. But the initial effort to connect cities and states has created gigantic problems in the subsequent decades. Instead of fixing many of these critical issues, too often we see cities and states double down on the problem and make our transportation system worse. And carbon emissions from the transportation sector are a huge part of the climate fight. So what do we do about highways as these roads continue to expand and draw investment?

Our guest, Megan Kimble, has...

President Biden campaigned on the promises of producing 100% of America's electricity with clean energy resources by 2035 and getting America's economy to Net Zero emissions by 2050.  Since President Biden took office, the US Congress has passed the Bi-partisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPs and Science Act - all aimed at helping America transition to a clean energy economy.  In addition to creating incentives for private companies to invest in clean energy manufacturing in America, those three bills also provided billions of dollars to the United States Department of Energy to oversee the research, development, and deployment of...

Mary Annaïse Heglar is back on the show to discuss her new book "Troubled Waters", a fictional account of a young Black woman in Mississippi that uses direct action against the fossil fuel industry as a healing mechanism for her own grief, while also learning about the grief and trauma that her own grandmother carries with her from her days at the center of the Civil Rights movement.  Mary Annaïse Heglar is one of the great essayists and writers about the climate crisis, climate grief, and climate justice.

Buy "Troubled Waters"

Buy "The Wor...

The climate movement is used to fight denial. Few who do this work escape the need to push back against critics claiming that human-created carbon dioxide emissions don't cause dangerous warming. But as the crisis becomes more clear and everpresent, it's time to expand our definition of climate denial, argues author Tad DeLay. In his new book, Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change, DeLay confronts the idea that we are rarely facing up to the real facts of the crisis and allowing for a great deal of harm to take place as a result. He joins the...

Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been invested in clean energy projects in America since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022. With that level of spending, clean energy jobs are on the rise, meaning there's never been a better time to start a career focused on combating the climate crisis. The variety of roles in clean energy jobs means there are plenty of ways you can become a "Climate Person" in your professional life, even if you've been one in your personal life for a while. Being a "Climate Person" also isn't restricted to just careers in...

This week, two Pultizer Prize-winning reporters join the show to discuss their new investigative series, "The Drowning South," and how the threat of sea level rise is causing a number of complex problems in America's southern coastal cities. The Washington Post's Chris Mooney, a reporter covering climate change, energy and the environment, and Brady Dennis, a reporter focusing on environmental policy, public health issues and climate impacts, explain why the American south is facing an unusual amount of problems with sea level rise, what's happening in the region compared to other parts of the country, and how flooding is c...

In 2018, economist William Nordhaus won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his Dynamic Integrated Climate-Economy model, which was the first neoclassical growth model to incorporate the impacts of a warming planet on the global economy.  While celebrated for its economic innovations, the DICE model and its outputs have been criticized by climate scientists for not adequately considering the devastating impacts that a rapidly warming planet will have on the environment, human wellbeing, and the economy.  Conventional attempts of forecasting GDP impacts of a one degree increase in global temperatures using the DICE model typically produce estimates of li...

Over the past five years, there have been several studies showing how the climate crisis is impacting major life decisions.  Whether it's where to live, how to invest, or what to study, young people today are being forced to confront a climate-worsened future and decide what's best for their personal situation given the very public failures of leaders to limit global warming.  One particular decision that has received a lot of public attention is whether or not to have a child in the middle of a climate crisis.  These studies are appearing more frequently than ever before as the cli...

Popular films have massive influence over our culture. It's where we go to see the biggest stories on the biggest screen. It's where we go to see Nicole Kidman do that weird commerical before the film starts. Movies are really, really important.

So, why isn't the climate crisis, one of the defining issues of our time, on the silver screen more often. That's a question Anna Jane Joyner and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson are investigating. Together, they put together a new report, Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22, which outlines how often the climate crisis is sh...

The American Climate Corps, an initiative that will employ 20,000 Americans in its first year to combat the climate crisis, is launching this week as the Biden Administration delivers on another campaign promise. Learning from previous national service programs such as FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps and AmeriCorps, the American Climate Corps will give young people the opportunity to learn new skills, build a pathway to a career in the clean energy economy, and earn a competitive wage.

On this special Earth Day 2024 episode, White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi joins us to explain how the American Climate...

For years, we've watched as Bill Weir has brought climate storytelling to one of the biggest news networks on television. On CNN, Bill has traveled the world to cover everything from extreme weather disasters to cutting-edge climate solutions. And throughout an incredibly eventful career, he's learned life lessons he hopes his children and others will consider to preserve what we love most on this warming planet. Bill joins the show this week to explain why chose this career path, what he enjoyed most about his early days as a sports reporter and actor, and what he sets out to...

Shannon Osaka has been one of our favorite climate journalists for years. So we were incredibly excited to have her on this week for a wide-ranging conversation on a variety of climate issues - like microplastics, extreme weather costs in the US, and covering climate change as we exceed 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. Shannon also explains how she got into climate journalism after studying the science of climate change, how she approaches her work, and the challenges of covering climate in 2024. 

Shannon Osaka is a climate reporter covering policy, culture, and science for The Washington P...

For decades, the biggest pushback against renewable energy was that it was more expensive to generate than electricity that came from the burning of fossil fuels. But all that changed in 2016 when both solar and wind-generated electricity became cheaper than electricity generated by coal and natural gas, at least when using the industry-standard metric, Levelized Cost of Energy. Despite the fact that renewable energy has overcome its biggest obstacle and can now be generated cheaper than fossil fuels, investments in fossil fuels continue to increase and new renewable generation development is not keeping pace with increases in demand. What...

The climate crisis presents us with a number of moral challenges. We all produce emissions, but there are massive differences and inequities in how much pollution each individual is responsible for and who is harmed the most by the consequences. As the very real impacts of the crisis only become more obvious and deadly, we continue to ask ourselves: what is our responsibility? 

In this week's show, we dig into some of the tough ethical considerations for living in a climate crisis. To do so, we talk to Travis Rieder, an associate research professor at the Johns H...

In 2021, Greta Thunberg spoke to the youth climate movement at an event leading up to COP26. Her famous "Blah, Blah, Blah" speech contrasted all of the things world leaders had said about the climate crisis and what those same leaders had actually done to reduce emissions and create policies to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. Three years later, very little has changed. Of the 128 countries that set Net Zero goals, only five percent have taken the required first steps toward achieving those goals.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elizabeth Kolbert joins the podcast this week to discuss...

Over the last century, economic growth, as measured by increases in countries' Gross Domestic Product, has been the key indicator of success. And while GDP has skyrocketed in many countries, so has fossil fuel use, deforestation, and the destruction of natural ecosystems. On top of that, inequality has actually gotten worse in many countries and incomes, adjusted for inflation, have stagnated for many parts of these "growing" economies. It seems this relentless focus on growth has not created the kind of world that most people want to live in.

Professor Giorgos Kallis is an ecological economist, political...

It's incredible how dramatic climate science can be. That was my first thought after I watched the new documentary, Canary, which chronicles the life and career of Dr. Lonnie Thompson. This week, the subject behind the film, Dr. Thompson, and the co-directors of the documentary, Danny O'Malley and Dr. Alex Rivest, explain how the film came together and the thrilling story behind its development. We discuss how to tell compelling climate stories, what motivates their work, and what decades of glacier science can teach us about the climate crisis.  

Lonnie G. Thompson, a Distinguished University Professor at The...

Who can the climate movement turn to for real change? Politicians? Business leaders? International negotiators? The reality, as Professor Dana Fisher argues, is that despite major gains for climate action in recent years, none of our leaders are adequately advancing solutions at the speed and scale neccessary to meet the actual crisis we face. And because we need change to happen much faster, the climate movement needs to build its own power in order to help solve the biggest problems in ever sector of society. So how do we actually do that?

We explore that on today's...

The International Energy Agency, among other prominent modelers of our energy future, projects that nuclear energy's current global capacity must double by 2050 in order for the world to hit its decarbonization goals. The annual investments needed to reach this doubling far exceed anything that's being invested today in new nuclear facilities. Just one new nuclear reactor has been successfully built in the United States in the last 30 years, and the United States hasn't financed new reactors in other countries for decades.

If the United States is truly committed to reducing emissions, why aren't we seeing more investment...

"It is vital that those advocating for action to avert climate disaster take note of this substantial shift from denial of anthropogenic climate change to undermining trust in both solutions and science itself, and shift our focus, our resources and our counternarratives accordingly." 

In the introduction to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate US/UK, founder and CEO Imran Ahmed makes the case that it's a new kind of climate denialism that is spreading so quickly on social platforms. Why? Not only is it due to the lack of content moderation from Big Te...

In 2015, representatives from all countries attending COP21 agreed to limit global average temperature rise to well below 2.0 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial levels and to aim for a 1.5 degree rise. Flash forward less than a decade, and the United Kingdom Meteorological Office is forecasting the average annual temperature for 2024 to likely be more than 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-Industrial levels. As the world continues to break annual, monthly, and daily temperature records, what does it mean that we're now exceeding the 1.5 degree threshold so soon after the Paris Agreement?

To help us understand the importance of this forecast, Dr...

We witness the climate crisis every day. Unfolding on our news feeds, impacting our communities, and undeniably causing unfathomable, inequitable harm across the planet. We lament the lack of urgency in our political leaders and even find ourselves frustrated by complacency in the public's push for climate action. But we truly are in a transformative moment - though how we meet this moment remains uncertain. 

The changing politics of our time is the focus of Ajay Singh Chaudhary's new book, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics In A Burning World. He joins the show to discuss some of...

The negative impacts of climate change are almost always depicted on a global scale and decades-long timeframe. However, the positive impacts of reducing the use of fossil fuels are realized at the local level and almost immediately. The co-authors of the recently published paper, "Reductions in Premature Deaths from Heat and Particulate Matter Air Pollution in South Asia, China, and the United States Under Decarbonization", found that the near term health benefits of moving to a clean energy-fueled society far outweigh the costs of the clean energy transition, because death rates from air pollution and excessive heat are reduced...

"From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. But we are not living in a world that is more just and democratic as a result." In Vincent Bevins' new book, If We Burn, with this argument comes a central question: Can mass protests and uprisings actually lead to progressive change?

The answer is complicated and certainly varies greatly from situation, cause, and nation-state depending on an array of existing realities. However, in the mass protest decade of Bevins's focus, 2010-2020, we saw the enormous impact climate protests could have on...

As global temperatures continue to rise, fossil fuel production continues to increase, forests continue to be cut down, and species are becoming extinct at rates faster than previous mass extinctions, it's hard to find any hope for a sustainable, or even habitable, future. But giving up is not an option. There are billions of people now and in the near future whose lives depend on solving the multitude of human-caused environmental and health crises plaguing the planet today.  The good news is, even though things are not good right now, they've been much worse. And they're better today because w...

I don't know if you've heard, but in 2024, there is a little ol' election happening in the US that may just decide the fate of American democracy. That's it! Nothing more! Actually...there is more. Down ballot from the presidential pick will be a number of critical candidates for a variety of elected offices around the country. And over the past decade, we've seen a number of progressive wins in these races. How have those victories impacted US climate policy? 

In his new book, The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution, Ryan Grim unpacks th...

It's been a long year and so much has happened in the fight for climate justice. How has it been covered in major US media outlets? What is needed as the global fight for climate action continues? Two expert guests join the show this week to weigh in on these critical topics as we close out the year. First, Evlondo Cooper, senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters, discusses what he saw in media coverage in 2023, what we can learn about how climate and environmental justice issues are covered, and how media can improve in 2024...

As the planet warms, ecosystems are on the move. Biologists and climate scientists have observed the migration of forests toward the poles and even toward higher elevations as human-caused climate change forces species into more hospitable areas. And economists have known for centuries that countries rely on their natural resources for the raw materials needed for producing the goods that help make up their gross domestic product. So what happens to an economy when those natural resources leave? That's exactly what Dr. Bernie Bastien-Olvera and his colleagues set out to understand with their recent paper "Unequal Climate Impacts on...

COP28 has come to a close. Since the final day of the conference, we've seen both a number of headlines noting a historic decision and news of climate injustices at this year's event. So what are the most critical takeaways from COP28? To answer, we brought on three guests that attended the conference to take a deep dive into the biggest issues, the decisions that were made, and what comes next.

Nina Lakhani is a Senior Reporter for Guardian US, who spent the last two weeks covering COP28. Nina discusses what the final text of the decision...

For the last four years, John Marshall and the team at Potential Energy Coalition have been testing more than 3 billion ads in 20 countries to determine what messages are the most effective at inspiring climate action. In this conversation, we discuss what it really takes to motivate someone to support climate policies, which policies are more popular than others, what principles of climate communication everyone can learn, and why clean energy jobs aren't always appealing. 

John Marshall is the founder and CEO of Potential Energy Coalition, a global, nonprofit marketing firm that's creating demand for climate solutions. The la...

Rural voters are often overlooked or completely ignored when it comes to progressive campaigns, including ones centered on climate action. And yet, it is the vast land available in rural areas that offer the greatest opportunity to build out clean energy projects in America. But years of misinformation, crumbling political infrastructure, and Republican, one-party control has lead to a major obstacle obstructing the path to a decarbonized economy. So how do we change that?

There may be no better expert to answer the question than Jane Kleeb. Kleeb is the Founder of Bold Alliance, author of Harvest t...

This week, we have two great guests on the show to explain what's at stake at COP28 and some of the biggest issues surrounding the conference. First, New York Times correspondent David Gelles joins to discuss what he'll be covering at COP28, why the recent US-China deal heading into the conference might provided a much needed jolt, and what to watch for when it comes to climate finance and the fund for loss and damage. Then, researcher and campaigner Pascoe Sabido joins the show to discuss a new analysis of the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists at UN climate...

Since 2000, the United States Global Change Research Program has periodically published a report on its assessment of the climate crisis, its current impacts, its potential threats, and the solutions available to mitigate the worst impacts and adapt as quickly as possible.  Last week, the interagency program published the Fifth National Climate Assessment. Despite accounting for just 4% of the world's population, as a result of burning fossil fuels for more than a century, the US is responsible for approximately 17% of the global warming the planet is facing today. And while US emissions are falling, they're not falling fast enough to m...

Each year, scientists from around the world develop a comprehensive report on the state of the climate crisis. The report provides updates on dozens of the most important indicators of the progress humans are making to limit greenhouse gas emissions and the consequences of not doing so faster.  This year's report, "The 2023 State of the Climate Report: Entering Uncharted Territory" presents a frightening picture, as many of Earth's vital signs are flashing red and the trajectory of climate progress is pointing in the wrong direction.

Dr. Jillian Gregg, the Executive Director of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates and a...

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just escape to space? Just go live on Mars and leave all our Earthly problem behind. Despite the enthusiasm for space settlement, a lot of very big questions need to be answered before we can consider leaving this planet behind. And a lot of these questions, according to authors Dr. Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith, aren't really turning up good answers. The Weinersmiths are the best-selling husband and wife writing team that have a new book out, A CITY ON MARS: Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we...

We've just passed the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, which kicked off almost a full decade of energy crises in around the globe. How has energy security changed since then? With war unfolding now in the Middle East, could it happen again? How are geopolitics shifting with the transition to clean energy? Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, joins the show this week to answer all of this and more. We discuss the relationship with China and the United States, why a...

Modern infrastructure has the ability to make our lives better.  Instant access to power and clean water. The ability to communicate with friends and family around the world. The freedom to quickly get where we want when we want. But today's infrastructure is still very flawed. Not everyone has access to that infrastructure, which means not everyone has the agency and abilities that infrastructure can create. Our infrastructure is also directly contributing to the climate crisis. And our infrastructure was built with the assumption that the natural world upon which it relies will stay the same, but we know n...

In his latest book, Our Fragile Moment - How Lessons From Earth's Past Can Help Us Survive The Climate Crisis, Professor Michael Mann makes it clear: uncertainty, when it comes to climate change, is not our friend. The famed climate professor is back on the show this week to discuss how looking back through Earth's paleoclimate record shows how fragile our current moment really is, but why we also have agency to do something about it and an urgent need to act now. We discuss what history has taught him about a potential "methane bomb," whether the Gulf Stream...

Every year, billions of dollars are spent worldwide on carbon offsets, and the size of the market is expected to grow substantially over the next decade. But do carbon offset projects actually do what they're intended to do in the first place, which is lower carbon dioxide emissions and help communities around the world avoid worsening climate disasters from a warming planet?  Researchers at Corporate Accountability and journalists from The Guardian teamed up to answer this question and to dive deep into the claims of 50 of the largest carbon offset projects in the world. Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of C...

The perpetual extraction by those striving for limitless wealth has set our planet on a trajectory that could make living here impossible for billions of humans by the end of this century. Marjorie Kelly, founder of Business Ethics Magazine and currently a Senior Fellow at the Democracy Collaborative, argues that in order to overcome the capital bias that has been so destructive to our society, we must first identify the root cause, delegitimize the myths upon which extractive capitalism relies upon today, and start laying the groundwork for real transformative change.  She joins The Climate Pod this week to t...

Last weekend, we recorded some great conversations at Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana! Given that Farm Aid 2023 was focused on how the climate crisis is impacting family farmers and how farmers are also working on necessary solutions through regenerative agriculture, we wanted to talk to some of the folks at the center of the event.

On this episode, we speak to Indiana farmers DeAnthony and Denise Greer, as well as musicians Nathaniel Rateliff and The Particle Kid (aka Micah Nelson). We discuss a wide-range of topics on agriculture, activism, and what makes Farm Aid such a special...

With his new book, The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial, David Lipsky explores the long history of our understanding of climate science and the massive, industry-funded anti-science movement that worked to undermine action and cause an astonishing amount of destruction. In this episode, the New York Times best-selling author explains why he thinks climate deniers were so effective, why they were given such a big platform, and how Republican politicians came to embrace the anti-science cause. He also discusses why he thinks climate scientists are the hero of his story, what electricity can teach u...

As one of the architects of the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright has been a part of a fundamental shift in how climate policy is shaped and the discourse around it. But as she writes in her latest piece, "Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind," there are a number of ways that current climate policy is falling short on racial justice. She joins the show this week to share her critiques on the Inflation Reduction Act and discuss the power structures inhibiting more just policy. We also talk about the legacy of the Green New Deal more...

In her 2022 book, "Cannibal Capitalism", Professor Nancy Fraser argues that "capitalism harbors a deep-seated ecological contradiction that inclines it non-accidentally to environmental crisis."  Like the contradictions of capitalism that Karl Marx predicted would lead to crises and capitalism's ultimate downfall, Professor Fraser compelling lays out even more contradictions of capitalism that have all led to the multitude of crises humanity faces in 2023.  Racism, gender oppression, the lack of care, the threats to democracy, and the climate crisis are all inevitable consequences of capitalism, according to Professor Fraser, and none can truly be solved without turning our backs on capitalism al...

Every year, humans generate over 2 billion metric tons of solid waste worldwide. Where does it go after you're done with it? How does it impact communities and economies and ecosystems around the world? How can we solve such an enormous and growing problem?

Oliver Franklin-Wallis dives deep into these questions and more in his new book "Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future."  Oliver spent years traveling the globe to research and understand the complexities of the global waste crisis, its causes, and its potential solutions.  He joins the show th...

At the time of publishing, the devastating wildfires in Maui have left hundreds missing, already more than one hundred people confirmed dead, and extraordinary damage visible throughout the town of Lahaina. As recovery gets underway, the fight for justice is only starting. Maui leaders are working to ensure an adequate federal government response and fighting against private industry from buying up wildfire damaged areas and exploiting the crisis. 

One of the leaders in the fight for a just recovery is Kaniela Ing. He is the National Director of the Green New Deal Network and former state legislator. H...

When Ty talked to Kurt Andersen back in 2020 upon the release of his exceptional book Evil Geniuses, we never thought it would lead to a sci-fi comedic series. Nevertheless, Andersen and Steven Soderbergh have co-created and recently released a new series, Command Z, which is a hilarious adaptation that addresses not only the major themes of Evil Geniuses but also explores how we might all think about all types of political action in 2023. 

Kurt's back on the show this week to discuss why making Command Z was a dream come true and what he wanted to explore with...

Jeff Goodell is the author of more than a few books on climate change, but none are more timely than his most recently release, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. Heat is not only the most deadly extreme weather event, but has also dominated news cycles for months as waves of scorching temperatures have hit across the globe. Jeff joins the show to discuss 2023's extreme heat, why heat is so deadly and what we can do about it, how heat is transforming our cities, and what keeps him up at night...

David Wallace-Wells is back on the podcast to talk about the extreme heat waves, off-the-charts ocean temperatures, massive wildfires, and other climate-worsened disasters that have plagued the first seven months of 2023. The New York Times columnist and author of the 2019 book "The Uninhabitable Earth" returns to The Climate Pod to discuss what has happened since he was on the show back in 2021 and what we should expect in the near future from a rapidly warming planet. We also discuss how climate alarmism has been treated in 2023 and how best to convey uncertainty in climate risks.

Check out...

Throughout all of human history, we've been changing and adapting our landscape to advance our species. Obviously, this has often come at a great cost to the natural world and in more recent centuries, come with an extraordinary waste. So what can we learn from the long history of environmental consequences of human advancement? 

In Professor Mark Stoll's new book, Profit: An Environmental History, he looks at how we've refashioned ecosystems, diminished resources, and created a complicated relationship between humans live and the world around them. In this conversation, we explore some of those biggest moments in h...

Legendary TV weatherman Al Roker joins the show this week! He discussed the escalation of extreme weather events, the disproportionate impacts of the climate crisis on frontline communities, and how we can all act to help mitigate the worst impacts of global warming. This is a wide-ranging, fun conversation with one of the most beloved figures in television news. How cool?!

This interview was recorded live at the TED Countdown Summit in Detroit, Michigan, which brought together a group of global innovators, business executives, scientists, policymakers, artists, activists and more.  

Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The...

Years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we've learned an extraordinary amount about how governments and economies can respond during prolonged global health crisis. We've also learned in this volatile world...there's a lot we don't know. In the rapidly changing reality, author Felix Salmon put forth a call for humility and optimism in his new book The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal. Salmon is back on the show this week to discuss the book and how he sees positive signs that we are quickly rebuilding from the ashes of the pandemic economy. 

F...

Centuries of systematically racist American policy has pushed Black communities into enduring the worst impacts of fossil fuel pollution and climate change. In her new book, Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America's Urgent Call for Climate Solutions, Heather McTeer Toney outlines how Black Americans experience these injustices - from extreme heat to petrochemical toxins and many more. But as we confront the long history of environmental racism, how do we empower the most impacted communities to lead on climate solutions? In this conversation, McTeer Toney puts forth a plan and an understanding of why we need to attack...

How do we dramatically accelerate the pace of climate action and reduce emissions? According to Simon Sharpe's new book, Five Times Faster, it will take a fundamental rethinking of how we practice science, economics, and diplomacy. In this in-depth conversation, we examine his three solutions, what needs to get done to get there, and how achieving certain tipping points in clean technologies will create wide-spanning changes. 

Simon Sharpe is Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute. He designed and led flagship international campaigns of the UK's Presidency o...

The record-shattering ocean surface temperatures across the Atlantic over the last two weeks have shocked anyone paying attention to the climate crisis. Ocean surface temperatures are more than a degree Fahrenheit above previous records, and climate scientists hadn't expected this level of warming for decades, even in the worst case scenario models. But is there more to the story than human-caused climate change? Are there other factors contributing to this spike in ocean temperatures? How likely is it that the ocean has surpassed a tipping point that could spell disaster for marine life and all of the lifeforms that...

Last week, wildfire smoke blanketed some of North America's biggest cities, sweeping across large swaths of the northeast and beyond. The smoke exposed millions to deadly levels of pollution and made many consider new climate adaptation strategies that may have previously overlooked.

So what exactly happened? The team at Heatmap News put together some of the best coverage on an entire week of deadly wildfire smoke, looking at countless angles of a story that dominated headlines for days. This week, we talk to three writers at the heart of Heatmap's wildfire coverage. Guests on the episode include:<...

Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading scientists and communicators on water and climate crisis issues, returns to The Climate Pod to talk about his new book "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and Hope for the Future." This conversation highlights human history's inextricable links with water - how water influenced the evolution of homo sapiens, water's central role in nearly every religion's origin story, the science and technology created in response to waterborne diseases, and so much more. Plus, Dr. Gleick outlines a path forward from our current relationship with water, one of mindless...

Dr. Peter Gleick, one of the world's leading scientists and communicators on water and climate crisis issues, returns to The Climate Pod to talk about his new book "The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and Hope for the Future." This conversation highlights human history's inextricable links with water - how water influenced the evolution of homo sapiens, water's central role in nearly every religion's origin story, the science and technology created in response to waterborne diseases, and so much more. Plus, Dr. Gleick outlines a path forward from our current relationship with water, one of mindless...

Not all climate activism has been popular. Some of the most viral, disruptive protests have been met with backlash, even by some in the climate movement itself. As Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon notes, these activists are operating in "emergency mode," serving as a reminder that the climate crisis is a crisis and nothing should be prioritized above it. 

In the latest edition of her book Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, Dr. Klein Salamon argues that too few of us are operating in emergency mode, even in the climate fight. So how d...