Threshold

Listening to Threshold is free, but creating it is not. We have always been committed to making the best show we can—and making it available for free. But that's not possible without financial support. We’re a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and our work is funded entirely by gifts and grants. When you make a donation to Threshold, you’re directly supporting our independent nonprofit journalism. &nb...

For centuries, we have been willing to sacrifice places, ecosystems, and entire species for industries like steel. While steel is one of the most useful materials humans have ever created, it’s also one of the most damaging to the climate and to the people who work in and live near these mills. These conditions help explain why the workers in the steel mills of Gary in the first half of the 20th c...

Steel is the signature material of the Industrial Revolution. It’s also an essential component of the wind turbines, electric cars, and climate-friendly buildings we’ll need in a decarbonized world. But making steel requires mountains of coal. So we both really need steel and really need to stop making it the way we’re doing now. This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explo...

One of the most challenging aspects of the climate crisis is that we have to do everything at once - transition the entire global economy away from fossil fuels AND deal with the warming that’s already happening. In climate-speak, these two things are called mitigation and adaptation, and one of the places where you can see this playing out is Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria and one of the most...

A lot of the changes needed to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees have to occur at a huge, international level. But nearly a fifth of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from our homes. Are there things we can do at home to help the climate crisis? And just how effective are individual actions? This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we zoom in to look at what individuals can...

We keep hearing (and saying) that solving climate change is really hard. But we actually know what we need to do - and have the technology to do it - right now. It’s more a question of what happens if we don’t act fast enough. This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we look at some models for how we can realistically meet the 1.5C goal and get to net zero by 2050. There is hope...

The number of things at stake in the climate crisis do not fit inside one episode. It's hard to even fit them inside your mind. Part of what makes the potential losses so hard to grasp is that they're happening at lots of different scales, all at the same time. And as we move back and forth between what's happening out our own backdoors with what we know is happening all around the globe, one thin...

Britain was the first place in the world to go through what we now call the Industrial Revolution, a transformation of an agricultural, rural society into a manufacturing powerhouse that kicked off the mass migration of ancient carbon from the ground to the atmosphere. This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we explore the mass acceleration of nearly every process on earth that...

There are quite a few things working against us when it comes to understanding how urgently we need to act on climate change. But there's also the simple fact that we can't literally see how we're changing the atmosphere. It’s time to give the atmosphere its due. This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we go straight up, into our atmosphere. This work depends on people who beli...

After decades of scientific study and political wrangling the world has agreed—at least on paper—that 1.5C of heating must be the upper limit of our impact on the climate system. How could something that sounds so small matter so much? This is Threshold Season 4: “Time to 1.5.” In this episode, we take you inside the scientific and political origin story of 1.5C, from the holocene to the halls of...

Humanity has a mission right now: to keep global heating to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. Science tells us that we have less than a decade to do it, and that if we don't, the consequences will be dire. That's humanity's mission, and that's what season 4 of Threshold is about. It’s called “Time to 1.5.”  In this season, we’re going to grapple with what it means t...

For the last few months now, we’ve been telling you that we’re working on season four of Threshold. But we haven't told you what it's about. We're going to fix that now...sort of. We're going to tell you a story of something Amy did several years ago—something that very nearly had disastrous consequences—which is kind of a metaphor for what season four is all about. Consider this a strong hint abo...

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking back on the last two weeks in the *supposed* final hours of the conference.   This is part of our reporting for season four of Thresh...

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking at loss and damage, a crucial part of the conversation at COP26.  This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will b...

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. Today, we're looking at protests both inside and outside the conference.  This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out...

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite ye...

The Threshold team is in Glasgow to cover what's happening at COP26 - the 26th time leaders from around the world have gathered to try to solve humanity's biggest and most complicated problem: the damage we're doing to Earth's climate. This is part of our reporting for season four of Threshold, which will be coming out in a few months. We don't want to give away everything about that quite yet, bu...

It’s time for our annual listener survey! We’re inviting your feedback to help us improve the show, get to know you, and reach new listeners.  Please go to thresholdpodcast.org/survey to fill out the survey. You’ll have our gratitude and a chance to win a $100 to Shop at MATTER, an independent bookstore.

In this special episode, we feature one of the many podcasts we love. New Hampshire Public Radio’s Outside/In is a show about the natural world and how we use it. In the coming decades, the scale of migration linked to climate change could be dizzying. This episode, “Climate Migration,” tackles a pair of listener-submitted questions: ​​if you’re worried about climate, where should you live? And ho...

A lot has happened that could affect the future of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since our Peabody Award-winning third season came out in 2019 — so we're updating you on where things stand today and encouraging you to go back to re-listen to the season. ... Learn more about Threshold on our  website . Become part of our passionate network of supporters  here...

Our Audio Mosaic Project is under way! We're thrilled by the response so far to our first two prompts. If you haven't responded yet, we'd love to hear from you soon.  As a reminder, our prompts are: 1). Breathing in, breathing out 2). Being born And... we have a new prompt for you, too! 3). The sound of love About the project: Since we haven't been able to travel and collect sound for over a year...

We’re inviting you to join us in a new experiment we’re calling the Audio Mosaic Project. The sound of place has always been an important part of our show — think the chirps of crickets, the flow of water, the crunch of boots on snow. Using the noises we take for granted in the backgrounds of our lives, we bring listeners right there with us, to the places we report.   For over a year now, we have...

 “There needs to be a lot more equity given at tables for indigenous knowledge, and for indigenous knowledge to inform decision making,” says Carolina Behe.   Carolina Behe, John Noksana and Mumilaaq Qaqqaq are all pushing for self-determination across the Inuit homelands, which extend from eastern Russia all the way to Greenland. In this episode, producers Amy Martin and Nick Mott talk...

After four decades of fighting, the lease sale for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was held on January 6, 2021. Amy sat down with David Aaronovitch of The Times of London to talk about what happened at the lease sale for their podcast, “Stories of our Times.”  Amy and David talk about what the outcome means for the future of the refuge, and also revisit some of the cent...

Last week, the National Bison Range in northwest Montana was returned to the people of Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. As part of the COVID relief bill signed into law at the end of December, the lands of the bison range were returned to the Flathead Reservation. There will be a two-year transition period as the management duties are passed off from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and a...