The Climate Pod

NEWS: What Did The EPA Actually Just Do? An In-Depth Review

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! -------------------- On Thursday, the Trump Administration's announcement that the EPA was going to repeal the endangerment finding made huge news. Major news outlets across the globe covered it. An avalanche of headlines and push notifications suddenly turned even more attention to attacks on environmental regulation than we've seen during the first year of the second Trump Administration. But what's behind the headlines of this decision? What does this announcement actually do? I asked Andres Restrepo, senior attorney for the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program, to come on the show to react to what happened this week and explain exactly what this means and where we go from here. I was pretty surprised by his answers. This conversation introduces a lot of nuance and great information and goes behind the headlines you might have seen this week. I cannot recommend this discussion enough.  Check out Andres and the Sierra Club's ongoing work here. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible.  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, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Why Reconsidering Reparations Is Core To Climate Justice (w/ Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò)

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! -------------------- "The goal I set out in the book, this planet-sized system reconstruction of the world in the direction of justice, that's a big goal." This week, we're joined by In this conversation, Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a fellow at the Climate and Community Institute. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books Elite Capture and was a contributor to Greta Thunberg's The Climate Book. A new version of his book Reconsidering Reparations: Why Climate Justice and Constructive Politics Are Needed in the Wake of Slavery and Colonialism is out now and he joins to discuss the interconnectedness of climate justice and reparations. We talk about the importance of an ancestor's perspective in understanding our responsibilities towards future generations and how he integrates that into his work. We examine some of the recent progress in integrating justice into the climate movement and what setbacks have occured in the process. Táíwò explains what a constructive view of reparations means and advocates for systemic changes that address the root causes of inequality and injustice. We talk about how all of this is shaped by the climate crisis and why reparations must be part of the solution for any kind of justice movement. Finally, we explore the role of knowledge sharing, community control, and the political landscape surrounding reparations in 2026.  Reconsidering Reparations: Why Climate Justice and Constructive Politics Are Needed in the Wake of Slavery and Colonialism Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible.  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, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.  

The Paris Reckoning: How Far Off Track Are We?

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! ------------- It's 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 two episodes were on extreme heat and adaptation.  This week, we're looking at the massive gap that exists between the goals of the Paris Agreement and the current state of progress. In the decade that has past since the Paris Agreement was signed, what has changed with the biggest causes of emissions? How far off track are global efforts today? Where are the biggest gaps? To answer these questions, we're joined by Clea Schumer and Sophie Boehm, two of the lead authors on the Systems Change Lab's latest report, State of Climate Action 2025. As they note in the report, "although more than three-quarters of indicators are heading in the right direction, progress is alarmingly inadequate, exposing communities, economies and ecosystems to unacceptable risks." We look at all these indicators to determine what needs to happen now and how we understand the complexity of the current moment. We talk about the state of energy, land use and agriculture, transporation, carbon dioxide removal, and much more.  You can read State of Climate Action 2025 here Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible.  Mentioned in the show: Oliver Milman's article on "Coalie" 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, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

How Do We Focus On Climate Action Now? (w/ Ryan Hagen)

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 episode is another discussion between two Americans talking about climate action. To say it's a weird time to focus on climate action seems like a wild understatement. But the reality is even in the face of rising fascism, the climate crisis doesn't stop. There's much happening now that will only speed it up. So what do we do about it? On today's show, we discuss how to act in this perilous moment with Ryan Hagan, author of Your Guide to Climate Action. Hagen has spent countless hours researching and writing about the way you can make the greatest impact in your own life. In this episode, I ask him about his journey in climate action and how setting intentions has guiding his work. We also talk about the importance of engaging in local activism and finding our own unique, personal paths to contribute to a more climate-safe future. We also explore many practical steps we can all take to align our actions with our values, including financial decisions, job opportunities, changing our companies, local governments, and schools.  Read Your Guide to Climate Action: How to move beyond your footprint and make a BIG impact Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible.  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, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

How Climate Change Is Being Covered Now (w/ Evlondo Cooper)

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! -------------------- Before the end of the year, I had my annual conversation with the always wonderful Evlondo Cooper, senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters. In this conversation, we explore the new challenges of climate reporting that we saw unfold in the politically charged environment of 2025. We looke at the specific changes under the Trump administration and how a continued lack of diverse voices in climate coverage is helping to contribute to the disconnect between climate issues and political discourse. Additionally, Cooper tracks the ongoing missing context in major climate events of recent years, especially around climate solutions and harms. We look at the role of media in holding politicians accountable, the gaps in current coverage, and how climate media problems visible in recent years may actually be getting worse. You can follow all of Evlondo's coverage here. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible.  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, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.