How to Save a Planet
How to Save a Planet is a podcast that explores climate change and the solutions to it. Hosted by journalist Alex Blumberg and a team of climate experts, the show aims to inspire listeners with stories about the environmental challenges we face and the actions we can take to address them. Each episode covers topics like renewable energy, policy changes, and individual lifestyle shifts, providing practical calls to action. The podcast is produced by Gimlet, a podcast network known for its high-quality storytelling.
Episodes
Presenting: What If We Get It Right?
Hey there, Earthlings. Did you miss Ayana and Alex, your beloved How to Save a Planet co-hosts? Well, they reunited on Ayana’s new podcast, What If We Get It Right?, cracking up about how they met, reminiscing about the old show, and discussing Alex Blumberg’s new clean energy startup. (Alex, Ayana is so proud of you!) So, today we’re sharing an episode of What If We Get It Right? – a show about c
Should We Mine the Deep-Sea?
In the coming years, we'll need millions of batteries: batteries to store renewable electricity and power a massive fleet of electric vehicles. But those batteries will require certain metals, and those metals have to be mined. And the mining industry can be a mess, sometimes associated with deforestation, child labor, and deadly floods of toxic waste. Is there a better way? Today we journey to th
Am I The (Climate) A**hole?
Have you ever wondered if you were on the right side of an argument about climate change? Or just want to understand what everyday climate battles are worth fighting? A panel of expert climate judges take on the infamous Reddit thread ‘Am I The A**hole’ to issue judgments on climate-themed dilemmas. Along the way, we debate the ethics of roommate spats, office politics, baby showers and personal f
Presenting: The Carbon Copy – Why Heat Waves Become Deadly
Today we’re sharing an episode of The Carbon Copy, a climate change podcast produced by Canary Media. The topic is extremely timely: heat waves. This summer saw extreme heat blanketing almost every region of the northern hemisphere. And these heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable or inconvenient. They’re deadly. In most years, extreme heat kills more people in the U.S. than any other weather-relate
What are YOU Doing To Tackle Climate Change? Four Stories From Our Listeners
It’s How to Save a Planet’s second birthday! To celebrate, we’re sharing stories of climate action taken by our very own listeners. We'll hear from a listener who ran for an unexpected office, a grandmother who helped save her county’s recycling program, a mom who was inspired to launch a whole new business, and a group of students who took on one of the biggest oil companies in the world – and wo
Is My Lawn Bad for the Climate?
America loves its lawns. Altogether, grass lawns in the U.S. cover an area the size of Georgia. So, what does that mean for the climate? And can we do better? To find out, we’re joined by lawn expert and social ecologist Dr. Peter Groffman. He shares some surprising findings from his 20 years studying lawns and the people who tend them. Plus, we address one listener's pet peeve: artificial turf. A
Climate Change is Driving Migration. Could Smarter Ag Help?
In recent years more and more people from Central America have tried to emigrate north to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Many leave home not because they want to, but because they have to: Droughts, brought on by climate change, have forced many to choose between staying home – and risking starvation – or migrating. But a different way of farming could change that calculus. We look at how
Presenting: Catalyst - Solar Geoengineering: Is It Worth the Risk?
Today we’re sharing an episode of Catalyst, a podcast hosted by Shayle Kann and produced by Canary Media. The topic is a controversial one: solar geoengineering — the idea that we can quickly cool the planet by blocking a small amount of sunlight from reaching Earth. Doing so could have uncertain ripple effects throughout the world’s ecosystems, so very few climate scientists advocate solar geoeng
Make Biking Cool (Again)!
Work. School. The grocery store. We all need to get somewhere. But how we get there has huge implications for the climate. In the United States, transportation - mainly from cars - makes up roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. It's true, Electric vehicles help reduce emissions. But experts say that to truly give the climate (and humanity) a chance, we need fewer people reliant on cars of
Holy Sh*t, the U.S. Just Got Serious About Climate Change!
Well, wow. Congress is on the verge of passing the most ambitious climate legislation in U.S. history! Don’t be fooled by its name: the Inflation Reduction Act is a massive investment in clean energy and climate initiatives, aimed at boosting the transition to a low-carbon economy. It also includes some profound compromises. So we called up the smartest climate experts and activists we know to bre
Presenting: The Journal - Shein Took Over Fast Fashion. Then Came the Backlash.
WSJ’s Fashion Director Rory Satran explains how Shein-- now valued at $100 billion-- rose to dominate the fast-fashion industry via social media, and why it's now facing intense criticism from sustainable shoppers.
To learn more about the climate impacts of fast fashion and ways to mitigate them, be sure to check out our episode Fast Fashion’s Dirty Little Secret (Hint: It’s Oil).
Check out our Ca
What's the Most Climate-Friendly Way to Use My Land? A HTSAP House Call
A listener called in with a dilemma: What's the most climate-friendly thing she can do with her family farm? Her family owns 126 acres of land in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, which she’s going to inherit one day. And she wondered…should I put up solar panels? Try climate-smart ag? Plant trees? So we flew out to investigate, and found people doing some amazing work – from a regenerative bee ran
Presenting: Science Vs - A Mystery in the Air
This week we’re sharing an episode from another Gimlet podcast called Science Vs. When a little girl, Ella Kissi-Debrah, suddenly got sick and landed in the hospital, doctors were stumped. In this episode, her mom, Rosamund, takes on the fight to find out what exactly happened to Ella. And the answer has BIG implications — for us all. We’ll hear from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah and Professor Stephe
Are My Retirement Savings Invested in Fossil Fuels?? Help!
Look inside your retirement savings and you may find some surprises: oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, utilities with coal-fired power plants. It can feel like no matter what you’re doing to combat climate change in your daily life, your money is working against you. So how do you invest without wrecking the planet? Is there such a thing as green investing? And why isn’t this easier to fi
Air Conditioned Stadiums. Cruise Ships. New Hotels. Can the World Cup in Qatar Really Be Carbon Neutral?
More than a million soccer fans will travel to Qatar this fall for one of the biggest sporting events on Earth: The FIFA World Cup. The event sounds like it will be a climate nightmare, thanks to all the flights, air conditioned outdoor fields, docked cruise ships and brand new stadiums. But despite all this – the organizers claim this month-long event will be carbon neutral. How can they say that
Spark Tank! How Do We Solve the Energy Storage Problem?
Storage!
...Exciting, right? Ok, we’ll prove it to you. Each day, more and more of our electricity comes from intermittent renewables like wind and solar. To balance out our electric grid in the future, we’ll need new ways of storing extra energy, so we can still turn on our lights when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. This week, with help from Dr. Leah Stokes and Shayle Kann, we
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Helps You Find Your Climate Superpower
It’s a question we get all the time: “What can I do to address the climate crisis?” This week, our one and only original co-host, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, pays us a visit and offers her advice on how to find your place in the climate movement. We’re sharing her TED Talk, “How to find joy in climate action,” given this spring at TED2022 in Vancouver. Plus, Alex and Ayana catch up, and we hear a
Presenting: Hot Farm – Grain of the Future
This week we’re sharing an episode from a new podcast called Hot Farm. It’s from our friends at the Food & Environment Reporting Network. The podcast is about what farmers are doing – or could be doing – to take on climate change. In this episode, we’ll hear about the crops farmers actually grow. And we’ll explore the question, Can that change? Because as the world gets hotter and the weather more
Meet The Influencer Who Wants You To Buy LESS Stuff
In our episode Fast Fashion’s Dirty Little Secret (Hint: It’s Oil), we made the call to action: buy less clothing, and keep your clothing for longer. Some of you may have heard that and thought – “yeah, sure.” It sounds great, but it’s really hard to do, given the ecosystem of desire creation that is social media. How can you buy less when your feed is encouraging you to buy more, more, more? To f
When ‘Electrify Everything’ Means Quitting Your Desk Job and Getting Your Hands Dirty
Nate Johnson didn’t plan to switch careers. But since he did he’s gone from just writing about the energy transition, to actually making it happen. In this episode, find out what it’s like to become an electrician — and the challenges that could be holding back the decarbonization of our grid. And hear from one company, Solar Holler, that came up with a surprising solution to the issues they were
Why Is It So Hard To Fix Our Electronics, And What Can We Do About It?
Electronics — smartphones, computers, televisions — exact a hefty toll on the planet. One way to lighten their load? Use them for longer. And yet, for decades now, manufacturers have made replacing our gadgets easier than repairing them. But Kyle Wiens, co-founder of the repair website iFixit, has been working to reverse that. He talks to us about why repair matters, why our devices are so hard to
Presenting: Not Past It - The "Crying Indian" Ad
We’re bringing you an episode of another Gimlet podcast, Not Past It, which looks at a moment from that week in history and explores how it shapes our world today. On Earth Day, April 22nd, 1971, a commercial debuted starring a crying American Indian. The image stuck in the country’s consciousness. But there were surprising forces behind the ad. Not Past It digs into the powerful players who helpe
Feeling Doomed? How to Tackle Climate Anxiety
“We’re all doomed.” If you’ve ever thought this to yourself while looking down at the remnants of your paper straw floating in your plastic coffee cup (just me?), you may be experiencing climate anxiety. Climate feelings, like anxiety and grief, are on the rise all over the world. And researcher Britt Wray started feeling them herself when she was newly married and started thinking about having ch
Should I Give Up Beef?
A quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use – and a big portion of those emissions come from producing meat. Adopting a plant-based diet is one of the biggest steps an individual can take to reduce their own carbon footprint. So, should we all stop eating meat? Or is it more complicated than that? This week, we take a tour through the bodily functions of cows, m
Sacrifice Zones: ProPublica Takes Us Inside America’s Toxic Hotspots
All across the United States, industrial polluters are emitting toxic air... and people who live near those polluters are breathing it in. Kendra spoke to journalists from investigative newsroom ProPublica about the communities most affected by carcinogenic air pollution, often referred to as “sacrifice zones”: where they are, why they matter, and how you can find out if you and your loved ones ar
Canvassing for Climate Action: Here's How to Make it Work
What can you do if someone you know – or an entire town – isn’t on board with renewable energy? This was the dilemma facing The West Kootenay Eco Society in Trail, a small city in British Columbia. The Eco Society wanted to gain support for an energy pledge, but couldn’t gain traction within the community. Until the Eco Society’s Executive Director got the idea (from a podcast) to send volunteers
Presenting: Extreme Home Makeover - Threshold Edition
We're bringing you an episode from a podcast called Threshold.
If you've been listening to How to Save a Planet for a while, you know that our focus is exploring what communities, businesses and governments can do to address the climate crisis. But, we do get a lot of listener questions about actions they can personally take and a lot of those questions have been about decarbonizing homes.
So, we'
Bringing Climate Change to the Frontlines: The Fight to Get Militaries to Go Green
Militaries around the world emit a lot of carbon, but they aren’t required to report these emissions directly…plus they aren’t exactly known for prioritizing climate change in their projections. Still, if we want to lower emissions and limit global warming, we’re going to need their help. So how exactly do you get an institution whose focus is national protection, to care about climate protection?
Kelp Farming, for the Climate
Seaweed and giant kelp are sometimes called “the sequoias of the sea.” Yet at a time when so many people are talking about climate solutions and reforestation — there aren’t nearly enough people talking about how the ocean can be part of that. In part one of our two-part series, we go out on the water to see how seaweed can play a role in addressing climate change, and how a fisherman named Bren S
Mind Your Mines: The Push to Make Mining Safer and Cleaner
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to stop digging up fossil fuels. But the switch to renewables doesn’t mean we stop digging altogether. Wind turbines contain literal tons of copper and iron. Batteries for electric vehicles contain lithium, cobalt and nickel. All those materials come out of the ground—and we need to dig up more of them to power the switch to renewables. In othe
Waste, Worms and Windrows: Domingo Morales' Quest to Make Compost Cool
Food waste accounts for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it turns out composting — the mystical art of turning your food scraps into nutritious organic material that can be used to grow even more food — can help to reduce those emissions. We talk to Domingo Morales of Compost Power about how he found composting, how he’s trying to make it cool, and why he’s building compost sites at publ
Are The Coral Reefs Really Doomed?
You’ve probably heard of coral bleaching; if you live near a coral reef, maybe you’ve even seen the impacts of climate change on that reef up close. But what — if anything — can we do to keep coral alive? This week, we talk to Julia Baum, a marine ecologist who’s made the unlikely journey from climate despair to climate optimism… and ask her what finally changed her mind about the future of coral
Fast Fashion's Dirty Little Secret (Hint: It's Oil)
Whether you consider yourself a fashion maven or not one thing is true: you wear clothes. It's a basic rule of most societies. But in recent years, it's become clear that the clothes that keep us warm in winter and protect us from the sun in summer are also harming the planet. According to the EPA in the United States we threw out close to 13 million tons of clothing in 2018 alone. One factor? Clo
Cold Hard Cash for Your Greenhouse Gas
When we think about what’s heating up the planet, we may picture CO2 from smokestacks and tailpipes. But there are other greenhouse gases that are even more dangerous. And some of these are hiding in garages and sheds all over the country. We’re talking about refrigerants. They’re the secret sauce behind how refrigerators and air conditioners keep things cool. But they’re heating up the planet. Th
What's it Like to Work at Exxon – and Then Quit?
Back in 2003, Dar-Lon Chang took a job as an engineer at ExxonMobil — a job he thought would be focused on transitioning beyond fossil fuels. But over a 16-year career, he found it harder and harder to reconcile the threat of climate change with Exxon’s role as an oil and gas producer. We talk to Dar-Lon about what it was like to work inside the oil giant, what finally compelled him to leave, and
Presenting: Science Vs. Joe Rogan: The Malone Interview
Today, we’re sharing an episode from another Gimlet Media podcast, Science Vs. This episode fact-checks some claims made in a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, featuring Dr. Robert Malone. As you may know, this episode has caused an uproar: Many scientists have called out the show for spreading false information about the Covid-19 vaccines and some 270 scientists and medical professional
How Adam McKay Got Climate Change on the Big Screen
How do you get people to care about climate change? Simple: Make a blockbuster movie about it, packed full of the biggest stars in Hollywood. At least, that was Adam McKay’s approach. The writer and director of ‘Don’t Look Up’ joins the show this week to discuss the film, which parodies society’s tepid response to impending disaster. ‘Don’t Look Up’ shattered Netflix viewership records, earning mo
A Storm is Brewing. Is it Climate Change?
For years, we were told it wasn’t possible to link specific weather events to global warming — and that made communicating about climate change difficult: When extreme weather events were in the news, climate change was often left out of the story. This week, we tell the story of how that changed. We talk to the scientists who figured out how to model the role of climate change in events like Hurr
Presenting: TED Radio Hour - An SOS From the Ocean
Today we’re sharing an episode from TED Radio Hour on NPR, which explores the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world's greatest thinkers. The host Manoush Zomorodi speaks with four ocean experts, including our former co-host Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, about how to grocery shop for seafood sustainably, how much the ocean has changed over the last century, and how beautiful whale
How Oil Companies Greenwash (and the Campaign To Make Them Stop)
For decades, fossil fuel companies have fought action on climate change. They've done so directly – by challenging legislation that would help reign in emissions. But they've also done it indirectly, by funding organizations who lobby congress, launching fake grassroots campaigns, and perhaps most importantly, through advertising. These ads, according to Martin Watters at the nonprofit firm Client
Electrify This!
We asked for your weirdest alternative energy ideas, and you delivered. This week, Alex — plus climate journalists and experts Brian Kahn and Amelia Urry — vet some wacky new ways we could power our planet in the future. Join us as we assess the good, the bad, and the viable… in our very first HTSAP game show.
Oregon State University's wave energy testing site
The Detroit Zoo’s biodigester update
The Fight to Stop Oil Pipelines: "For Water. For Treaties. For Climate."
This week, we’re talking about oil pipelines. From the fight against Keystone XL to Standing Rock, pipeline protests have been central to the climate movement in the U.S. But they’ve always been about more than just the climate -- they’ve also been a battle for Indigenous rights, demanding that Native American people and Tribes should have a say over what happens in their historic territories. Thi
How Amazon Workers Got Serious About Climate (and How You Can, too)
A common piece of career advice is to bring your whole self to work. But what if your whole self includes a deep concern for the climate? Can you bring that part of yourself to work, even if it makes your workplace uncomfortable? This week we talked to a couple of people, Emily Cunningham and Eliza Pan, who had that same question. They were deeply concerned about the climate crisis and they felt t
What's Your 2022 Climate Resolution?
At the end of every episode of this show, we give you all calls to action – things that you, our listeners, can do to address climate change. This week, we’re giving ourselves some calls to action, and setting climate action New Year's Resolutions. Oddly enough, they have to do with rats, poutine, Delia’s jeans, and more. Also, Mr. Beast is back with another environmental stunt, and we’ve got an u
The Evangelical Christians Taking On Climate Change
In public opinion polls, one group of Americans stand out, telling researchers they are particularly skeptical about climate change: white Evangelical Christians. That skepticism has had a major influence on American politics and policy. So how do we bring more people of faith into the climate movement? We talk to a Christian climate scientist about how she became a climate skeptic whisperer, by c
The Earth Gets Left Off the Balance Sheet. Let’s Fix That
For decades politicians and other leaders have said that acting on climate change comes at too high a cost — to jobs, to business, to the economy. And they've used economics, the dismal science, to support their argument. But some climate activists have long said that those politicians have it all wrong. That there are no jobs on a dead planet.
And increasingly, some economists agree.
They say t
Trying to Talk to Family about Climate Change? Here's How.
It’s important to talk about climate change. But how do you talk about it with friends and family who don't believe it's real, or don’t think we can do anything about it? We hear from a father and son who successfully navigated this conversation, and we bring you step-by-step tips from an expert on how to have a conversation where both sides actually hear each other. This episode originally aired
We Go Inside the COP26 Climate Talks
At the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, nearly 200 countries signed a deal aimed at increasing efforts to tackle climate change. The goal? "Keep 1.5 alive" — that is, set the world on a credible path to limit warming to 1.5°C and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. So, did countries succeed? We take you inside COP26: from the protests at the gates to the late night negotiations
Presenting: Life Raft - Could We Just Make Our Houses Float?
With flood risk increasing and flood insurance rates likely following suit, it seems like there’s got to be a better way to tackle the challenge. For example: could we make our homes float when the water comes? We’re sharing an episode of Life Raft from New Orleans Public Radio, who talked to an architect who has devoted her professional life to answering that question, and visited a Louisiana com
The Tribe that's Moving Earth (and Water) to Solve the Climate Crisis
The Yurok tribe is reversing centuries of ecological damage to their land and making it more resilient to climate change by marrying two systems that might seem contradictory: indigenous land management practices and modern Western economics.
In this episode we talk to Yurok Tribe Vice-Chairman Frankie Myers about how the Tribe recovered stolen land with the help of a carbon offset program, the cr
The Small Island Nations that Got Big Action on Climate
In 2015, the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted. For the first time, nearly every country on Earth pledged to cut carbon emissions to tackle climate change. But in the years since, emissions have continued to rise. Now, an estimated 25,000 people are descending on Glasgow, Scotland for COP26, to hammer out the next steps after the Paris Agreement, and it’s fair to ask...do these climate talks ev
Sheep + Solar, A Love Story
We all know that a key part of addressing climate change involves getting off fossil fuels. But renewable energies, such as solar energy, are not without costs. One key cost? It uses a lot of land. We take a look at one creative solution to this problem – mixing solar panels with agriculture. And we are not at all sheepish about the role of one very adorable four legged animal.
Guests: Judy St. Le
Reintroducing How to Save a Planet!
Climate change. We know. It can feel too overwhelming. But what if there was a show about climate change that left you feeling... energized? One so filled with possibility that you actually wanted to listen? Join us, journalist Alex Blumberg and a crew of climate nerds, as we bring you smart, inspiring stories about the mess we're in and how we can get ourselves out of it.
Check out our Calls to A
Environmentalist Drag Queen Pattie Gonia Says The Outdoors Is for Everyone
It's no secret How to Save a Planet is a pro-nature podcast, and that’s not just because we like the mountains, or because trees suck carbon out of the atmosphere: outdoors experiences can also be an important way to build the climate movement. But not everyone feels welcome or safe in the outdoors. Environmentalist drag queen Pattie Gonia is on a mission to change that. Her goal: bring more queer
How TV Weathercasters Went From Climate Skeptics to Champions
Nearly every night on local news stations across the country, Americans hear scientists talking about the weather…the local broadcast meteorologist, giving the weather report. But for years, those weather reports omitted one crucial element: the impact of climate change. In fact, many broadcast meteorologists were openly skeptical of climate change -- and spread that skepticism to their viewers. I
Presenting: Windfall
Offshore wind’s potential in the United States — both as a renewable resource and as a job creation tool — is enormous. But the sector’s current reality is tiny. There are just seven wind turbines operating off the coast of the US. The few attempts to build large scale wind farms on par with those in Europe have run into long delays. And yet, now, after decades of political gridlock, the U.S. is p
We Can’t Solve the Climate Crisis Without Gender Equality. We’ll Prove It To You.
Take a look at many of the spaces where climate-related decisions are being made — from government to business to media — and you'll notice a numbers problem. Despite being roughly half the people on the planet, women rarely have equal representation in critical climate decision-making spaces. This isn’t just bad for women — it’s bad for everyone. This week, How To Save A Planet co-host Dr. Ayana
How We Got our Grid and How We Get a Better One
Wind and solar are now some of the cheapest ways to make electricity. So, what’s standing in the way of using more of these renewable energies? One of the biggest barriers is something all around us that we rarely notice – our electricity grid. Not just the wires and technology that make up the grid, but also the people and institutions that run it. In this episode we talk with anthropologist Gret
Should We Go Nuclear?
When it comes to nuclear energy, many people have strong opinions. Some say that if you're not on board with nuclear energy, then you aren't serious about addressing the climate crisis. Nuclear, after all, produces a lot of electricity and doesn't emit greenhouse gases while making energy.
Others say that nuclear power tries to solve an illness with more of the disease. They say that nuclear energ
The Unexpected Idea to Get Coal off the Grid
One of the most effective ways to fight climate change is to quit using coal to generate electricity. And while coal-fired power plants are closing at record rates, many are scheduled to remain operational for years to come - even if remaining open doesn’t make economic sense. How To Save A Planet co-host Alex Blumberg teams up with A Matter Of Degrees co-host Leah Stokes for an episode about an u
The Shareholders Vs. Exxon
In our first episode on green investing, Are My Retirement Savings Invested in Fossil Fuels?? Help!, we talked about how to get your retirement money out of fossil fuels. Now, we’re looking at a different strategy – keeping your money IN fossil fuels, and using those investments as leverage to force companies into changing their behavior. Companies like Exxon Mobil, the poster child for a big, bad
Presenting: Ologies Dives into Coral
Will changing your sunscreen save coral reefs? What even IS a coral? Where do they grow and what do they eat and why are they so pretty? Is it reefs or reeves? The charming coral biologist and cnidariologist Dr. Shayle Matsuda of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology/UH Mānoa takes time out of his busy schedule to chat about how magical and beautiful coral can be and why reef health is important.
Are My Retirement Savings Invested in Fossil Fuels?? Help!
Look inside your retirement savings and you may find some surprises: oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, utilities with coal-fired power plants. It can feel like no matter what you’re doing to combat climate change in your daily life, your money is working against you. So how do you invest without wrecking the planet? Is there such a thing as green investing? And why isn’t this easier to fi
Climate Change is Driving Migration. Could Smarter Ag Help?
In recent years, more and more people from Central America have tried to emigrate north to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Many leave home not because they want to, but because they have to: Droughts, brought on by climate change, have forced many to choose between staying home – and risking starvation – or migrating. But a different way of farming could change that calculus. We look at how
Is Your Carbon Footprint BS?
We're tackling a sibling debate: Do your individual actions matter when it comes to climate change? Or is it all about big, systemic change? In this episode, we break down both sides of the argument. We lay out the actions that have the biggest impact on your carbon footprint – and then ask if there's a better way to think about our individual role in climate change. (This episode originally aired
Like The Monarch, Human Migrations During Climate Change
Human migration is nothing new, but the scale at which people will need to relocate due to climate change will be different than ever before. A World Bank report estimates that over the next thirty years, 143 million people will be displaced within three of the most vulnerable regions alone: sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. To handle such shifts in population, our governments and
Fighting Fire with Fire
From California’s crimson skies to smoke so thick along Colorado’s front range that sent people indoors for days, wildfires in the US have becomes more and more extreme. On today’s episode, we ask, how did the wildfires get so bad – and what can we do to address them? This episode originally aired in October of 2020.
Call(s) to action
Help build fire adapted communities. If you're interested in
Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution
On this week's episode, we meet two farmers who, at first glance, seem very different. One is a first-generation farmer in upstate New York raising fruits and vegetables for the local community. The other is a third generation farmer in Minnesota who sells commodity crops—corn and soybeans—to big industrial processors. But they share something in common. They’re both bucking modern conventions on
Drs. Jane Goodall & Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Talk About Hope
If you’re curious to know how Drs. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Drs. Jane Goodall first fell in love with the natural world, both on land and underwater, this week’s episode is for you. Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace is an ethologist and conservationist best known for her long-term study of chimpanzees in the forests of Tanzania. Today, Jane h
Recycling! Is it BS?
The recycling bin — many of us have learned to view this humble container as an environmental superhero. It is, after all, the critical first step in turning our trash into… well, not treasure, but at least more stuff. Or is it?
In this episode, we take a look at the science to help you understand whether recycling is an environmental boon or hindrance, and we open up the Pandora's box that is pl
An Origin Story of the Blue New Deal
This week, the inside scoop on how a climate policy gets made. In 2019, when the Green New Deal resolution was unveiled, How to Save a Planet co-host Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson noticed something big (and blue) was missing: the ocean. The ocean is not just a victim of climate change, it’s also a hero, offering many climate solutions. Ayana, along with a bunch of other ocean policy nerds, didn’t wa
Presenting: Gastropod
Over the past century, we've transformed the arid lands of the American west into year-round, well-irrigated agricultural powerhouses. Today, fruits, nuts, and nearly all of our leafy greens are grown in the desert, using water diverted, stored, and supplied at taxpayer expense. This intense irrigation is having an impact: Reservoir levels are dropping, rivers are drying up, and the state of Arizo
How Amazon Workers Got Serious About Climate (and How You Can, too)
A common piece of career advice is to bring your whole self to work. But what if your whole self includes a deep concern for the climate? Can you bring that part of yourself to work, even if it makes your workplace uncomfortable? This week we talked to a couple of people, Emily Cunningham and Eliza Pan, who had that same question. They were deeply concerned about the climate crisis and they felt t
Are Electric Cars Really Better for the Climate?
We love listener mail! You've sent us some amazing notes. Some made us laugh, some made us cry, and some made us say – hey, that’s a great question! We should answer it. So this week, we dig into one of your questions, and in the process, resolve an argument for a couple who can’t decide what kind of car is better for the climate. (This episode first aired on November 12, 2020.)
Guests: Ami Bogin,
Is Biden’s Jobs Plan a ‘Skinny Green New Deal’?
The Biden Administration's American Jobs Plan is billed as an "infrastructure" package. But it's also something else: the most ambitious climate plan a U.S. president has ever proposed. So what's in it? And how can we make sure this plan avoids the fate of the last big climate bill (hint: it didn’t go well)? We talk to an architect of the Green New Deal and one of our favorite energy policy expert
Presenting: No Place Like Home
This week, we’re sharing some wisdom from Sherri Mitchell. Sherri is an Indigenous rights attorney, author, activist, and contributor to the book Ayana co-edited, All We Can Save. In this conversation, which originally aired on the podcast No Place Like Home, Sherri speaks about indigenous knowledge, prophecy and Mother Earth. We’re excited to share it with you.
No Place Like Home is hosted by Ma
Listener Mail: Is Renewable Natural Gas a Scam?
It’s listener mail time! This week, we’re digging into a mysterious email one listener received from their utility about renewable natural gas. Can natural gas actually be renewable, or is this just a marketing scheme? We also take a look at Venn diagrams sent by listeners after our episode, "Is Your Carbon Footprint BS?" to see what kind of climate actions you’ve got planned!
Calls to Action
Ch
Where’s Our Climate Anthem?
Social movements are often bolstered by anthems, songs that help unite people and remind them of what they are fighting for. In this episode, we take a look at one of the most famous anthems in US history. We ask what lessons it holds for the climate movement. And we investigate: does the climate movement already have an anthem? Reporter Kendra Pierre-Louis scours the charts to find what’s out the
The Fight to Stop Oil Pipelines: "For Water. For Treaties. For Climate."
This week, we’re talking about oil pipelines. From the fight against Keystone XL to Standing Rock, pipeline protests have been central to the climate movement in the U.S. But they’ve always been about more than just the climate -- they’ve also been a battle for Indigenous rights, demanding that Native American people and Tribes should have a say over what happens in their historic territories. Thi
Presenting: Stolen
This week, we’re sharing a Spotify Exclusive from another Gimlet podcast, Stolen: The Search for Jermain. In 2018, a young Indigenous mother named Jermain Charlo left a bar in Missoula, Montana, and was never seen again. After two years and thousands of hours of investigative work, police believe they are close to solving the mystery of what happened to her. Stolen goes inside the investigation, t
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