The Climate Pod

David Spratt, a climate and policy analyst and Research Director at Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, reveals chilling insights from his book, Collision Course. He discusses the catastrophic implications of reaching 3 degrees Celsius of warming, including the risk of tipping points and threats to food security and social stability. Spratt highlights the urgency for honest discourse on climate risks, the limitations of current responses, and the need for swift, collective action to combat escalating crises and global challenges.

The discussion dives into the vital role of critical metals in the renewable energy transition. Vince Beiser highlights the dangers of mining practices and the human rights issues entwined with metal extraction. China's dominance in the supply chain presents geopolitical challenges. The conversation also covers the urgent need for sustainable mining and recycling solutions, alongside the potential of deep sea mining. Additionally, the growing right to repair movement is identified as crucial for reducing waste and improving ethical practices.

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 moral responsibility to act. Now, he's out with a new book, Should We Go Extinct? A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times, that explores these issues from a philosopher's perspective. In this conversation, we explore the moral implications of human existence in the context of the climate crisis, how we should think about future generations, and why it's critical to pay attention to the interconnectedness of environmental issues. We also examine the importance of recognizing our role within the natural world and our moral responsibility in the face of ongoing deforestation, factory farming, and ecosystem damage. Todd's philosophical inquiries help show us how we can navigate the complexities of existence and focus our attention on critical actions, even when simple answers to big picture questionsa are unavailable. Todd May is a philosopher and the author of eighteen books of philosophy, was a philosophical advisor to the television sit-com The Good Place and currently teaches at Warren Wilson College. Read Should We Go Extinct? A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times. As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our Substack, The Climate Weekly.

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 more. She joins the show this week to share her journey into understanding climate change's emotional impact, the importance of listening, and why creating intentional spaces for dialogue is critical. We also explore the complexities of communicating trauma, navigating uncertainty, and the competing feelings of despair and hope we can all feel in the face of unfolding climate crises. This is a really great conversation, especially if you've felt particularly anxious about all the extreme weather and climate impacts we've seen unfold this year. Kate Schapira is a professor of nonfiction writing at Brown University and work on local efforts toward environmental justice, climate justice and peer mental health support in her home in Providence. She's the author of six books of poetry. As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Dharna Noor, a climate reporter at Guardian US and former Boston Globe climate producer, breaks down the outcomes of COP29. She shares her firsthand experiences from the conference, highlighting the central themes of climate finance and the complex negotiations between developed and developing nations. The intense discussions around a proposed $300 billion annual contribution are revealed, along with insights into the influence of the fossil fuel industry. Dharna emphasizes the critical role of quality journalism in shaping climate discourse and action.

"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 the changes we've already seen with oceans and superstorms and what's in store as warming accelerates. He joins this week to talk about the damage we're seeing from natural disasters, the disparity in disaster responses, and why he wanted to combine memoir and climate science for this book. Porter Fox is a writer and author of books like The Last Winter and Northland. He writes and edits the award-winning literary travel writing journal Nowhere, teaches at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a MacDowell Fellow. Read Category Five, Superstorms and the Warming Oceans that Feed Them As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 ideas surrounding free will. Clayton's work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Republic, Mother Jones, Vox, Newsweek, The Economist, Scientific American, and Grist, where he is a senior data reporter. Read The Weight of Nature: How A Changing Climate Changes Our Brains As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

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 friendship with Cesar Chavez, mulling over bizarre clean energy ideas with Marlon Brando, finding common ground with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and why 1970s Los Angeles was such a great time and place for activism in entertainment. We also discuss his more recent roles in shows like Better Call Saul and why more great climate storytelling is happening, like with his friend Paul Schrader's 2017 film First Reformed. Read To the Temple of Tranquility…And Step On It! As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, a leader in the climate movement and President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus, shares his rich experience in advocating for climate solutions. He discusses the urgent challenges of 2024, including extreme weather and regulatory rollbacks. Yearwood highlights a new campaign focused on community engagement and the need for cultural change in activism. He reflects on his transformative experience during Hurricane Katrina, emphasizing intersectionality and the power of storytelling to galvanize support and foster resilience in the climate justice movement.

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 insurance companies are leaving states like Florida, California, and Louisiana because the damages from hurricanes, floods, and wildfires have become too large, new insurance companies are replacing them. These companies are smaller, less diverse, and rely on a ratings agency known to provide good ratings to underserving companies. Unsurprisingly, when climate catastrophes hit, these insurers often go bankrupt, leaving home owners and their banks with a destroyed home and asset without the funds to rebuild or even repair. And the implications of this aren't isolated to the local level, because most of these mortgages are securitized and sold at the national level. This week, Prof. Pari Sastry joins the show to discuss her recent paper "When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets". This paper explains how the home home mortgage, insurance markets, and global economy are interconnected and how the climate crisis is impacting all three. As the world is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis, it's shocking to see the early stages of what appears to be some of the same causes play out today. And we know that the climate crisis is only going to increase the number of severe weather events, which will put an even greater strain on insurance and mortgage companies, further worsening an already fragile relationship. Prof. Pari Sastry is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Columbia Business School where she focuses her research on climate finance. Read "When Insurers Exit": https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4674279 As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.