The Climate Pod

The Fossil Fuel Funding Behind Influential University Research (w/ Maddie Stone and Katie Worth)

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! ------------- In 2004, Princeton professors Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow published a paper in Science Magazine called "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies".  This paper gained wide popularity for its proposed solutions that it claimed were a comprehensive strategy to reduce emission levels over the next 50 years.  Even though the goal of this paper was a pathway to reduced emissions, it didn't call for the complete phase out of fossil fuels, but rather proposed fossil fuels play a significant role in our energy system for decades.  If that seems strange to you, you're not alone. Drilled and ProPublica have teamed up to release a new series titled "Beyond Denial", which examines the influence of fossil fuel industry funding on climate research and its subsequent impact on policy, public debate and our approach to environmental solutions. Series reporters Maddie Stone and Katie Worth join The Climate Pod to discuss what they found in their reporting intob who was funding the 2004 "Wedges" paper, the unfulfilled promises of Carbon Capture and Sequestration, and the critical need for climate journalism in 2026. Read: Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study Read: Why Carbon Capture Can't Solve Climate Change 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 Big Questions Facing Plant-Based And Cultivated Meats (w/ Bruce Friedrich)

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 meat industry is causing huge problems. It's accelerating climate change, increasing risks of pandemics and antibiotic-resistant diseases, and taking up a lot of land. There's a good chance you've tried alternative proteins, but as author Bruce Friedrich argues, that industry is just getting started on the course of innovation. Friedrich is the founder and president of the Good Food Institute and the author of the new book, Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food—and Our Future. In this conversation, he makes the case for why he thinks alternative proteins can revolutionize food systems, reduce climate impact, and improve global health. He explains the biological reasons humans crave meat and why it's important to understand it. Friedrich details the scientific progress and challenges in cultivated meat and what future innovation is possible. He also explains what he sees as the role of government and industry in scaling alternative proteins. I found this conversation to be very honest and straightforward. Hopefully, the exciting future Freidrich sees is possible!    Read Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food—and Our Future   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.  

MS NOW's Jacob Soboroff on Covering Climate Change, Immigration, LA Fires, California Elections And More

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, MS NOW anchor Jacob Soboroff is on the show for a wide-ranging conservation. We discuss his long reporting career covering the climate crisis, immigration, elections, and much, much more. I've been a longtime fan of Jacob, which you can hear about in this interview. He will anchor Connect with Jacob Soboroff on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET on MS NOW. Jacob is the author Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster. 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 Big Money Myths (w/ Arjun Jayadev and JW Mason)

Money is both a concrete thing and an abstract measure. If you only look at money as an abstract measure, as traditional economists have done for centuries, you'll miss out on the real role that money plays in our society.  The decisions of governments, corporations, and everyday people are influenced by money, and understanding this is helpful in understanding what's driving the decision making that's ultimately leading to a worsening climate crisis.  While discussing the new book "Against Money" by Arjun Jayadev and JW Mason, we explore a variety of topics such as John Maynard Keynes' early objections to economists' treatment of money, the fuzzy math behind the measurement of inflation and GDP, and even the fallout between Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Arjun Jayadev is professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of the Indian Economy at Azim Premji University in India. JW Mason is associate professor of economics at John Jay College, City University of New York.  You can purchase "Against Money" here:  https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo265118979.html 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: Energy Revolution (w/ Kingsmill Bond)

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 three episodes were on extreme heat, adaptation, and the state of climate action.  This week, we look at the transformative change in clean energy and electrification technology over the last decade, Our guest today, Kingsmill Bond (along with the team at Ember Energy) are championing this change as the  "Electrotech Revolution." As they note, "humanity is graduating from burning fossil commodities to mastering manufactured technologies—from hunting scarce fossils to farming the inexhaustible sun, from consuming Earth's resources to merely borrowing them. This isn't a marginal climate substitution. It's an energy revolution.  Kingsmill Bond, CFA is an energy strategist for Ember. He has worked as a financial market analyst and strategist for over 30 years, including for Deutsche Bank and Citibank. Bond and I talk about the decade's technological advances, geopolitical implications of the changing energy system, and the future opportunities he sees. We also talk about the role of China and emerging markets in global energy transition and the economic implications of real energy independence around the globe. Check out Ember Energy's full report 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.