A People's Climate

“Those who own the land get to be decision makers over what happens to the land. They get to decide whether they're gonna frack and how much they’re going to pollute.” Corporations have made fortunes by extracting from the land, while Black and Indigenous communities who have long understood land as something to steward have been systematically pushed off of it. But what if reparations could...

“No one has a right to tell you how to organize, to free yourself, and to liberate yourself.” The fight over Cop City was never just about a police training center. In Atlanta, a multiracial, multigenerational movement brought together environmental justice, land conservation, police abolition, and grassroots organizing to challenge the destruction of a forest and expansion of police power. In thi...

“This is about life. And this extractive industry is not a giver of life, it is a taker of life.” On March 23, 2026, a massive explosion tore through the Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, shaking homes and sending a plume of smoke over a community that has lived with oil and petrochemical pollution for generations. In this episode of A People’s Climate , host Shilpi Chhotray talks with John B...

“If you don’t control the Supreme Court, you don’t control anything.” That’s why The Nation’s justice correspondent Elie Mystal thinks the Supreme Court should matter to everyone who cares about climate and environmental justice.  The Court can block laws, limit the government’s ability to regulate polluters, and prevent communities from holding powerful companies accountable. In this episode of A...

“National security has always explicitly been about fossil fuels.” The U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels—and one of the largest sources of environmental destruction. Yet its role in the climate crisis is rarely part of mainstream climate or environmental justice conversations.  In this episode of A People’s Climate , host Shilpi Chhotray talks with indepen...

A People’s Climate is back for Season 2. Host Shilpi Chhotray takes you inside the fight for climate and environmental justice with organizers, legal experts, filmmakers, and movement leaders challenging the corporate and political forces blocking real change — from Big Oil and militarism to over-policing and the Supreme Court.  This is essential listening for anyone serious about building a mass...

🗳️VOTE FOR A PEOPLE’S CLIMATE HERE 🗳️ https://wbby.co/57463N Be sure to confirm your vote via email for it to count. A People’s Climate is a top 5 Webby Award nominee (out of 13K+ entries) in the Sustainability & Environment category. And it’s an extremely tight race for the People’s Voice Award — which is decided entirely by public vote.  We’re currently in 2nd place by just 1% point, so ever...

Bringing frontline stories into focus. For this special season finale, recorded live during NYC Climate Week, host Shilpi Chhotray convenes a powerful storytelling event with three frontline media makers: Chantel Comardelle , Alexandra Norris , and B. Preston Lyles . This is more than a conversation about films or campaigns — it’s an intimate window into the lived realities of climate and environm...

The path to climate justice is local. In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Elizabeth Yeampierre, veteran organizer and executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, to explore how frontline communities are taking climate action into their own hands. In a capitalist world that prioritizes bigger, faster, and more, Elizabet...

“If you want to support Palestine, get free.” In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library , for a powerful conversation about resistance in the face of Israeli militarism, occupation, and ecological devastation. For two years, the world watched Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing campaign acros...

“No matter how many billions you have, you don't have enough to buy our lives.” Host Shilpi Chhotray is joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson , a fierce advocate taking on corporate power — from Big Oil to Big Tech. You may know him as one of the two Black representatives who was expelled for demanding gun reform on the House floor after The Covenant school shooting in Na...

What the soil can teach us in the fight for climate justice. Solving the climate crisis isn’t about reinventing the wheel or the latest tech scheme — it can be as simple as growing food and building community.  Host Shilpi Chhotray chats with Leah Penniman, farmer, educator, and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, about the intersection of land, food justice, and racial equity. Leah shares how Afro-Indi...

The largest dam removal in U.S. history. For the first time in over a century, the Klamath River flows free again—thanks to the vision, courage, and determination of the Yurok Tribe.  In this episode of A People’s Climate, Shilpi Chhotray interviews Amy Bowers Cordalis, a member of the Yurok Tribe and leader in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.  From devastating fish kills and lost...

A call for big, bad, bold courage. What does true climate action look like when it’s rooted in sovereignty, resistance, and liberation?  In this powerful episode of A People’s Climate , Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Nick Tilsen —Oglala Lakota land defender and CEO of NDN Collective—to unpack the meaning of LandBack, the historic fight for the Black Hills, the release of political prisoner Leonard...

In this episode of A People’s Climate , host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Patrisse Cullors , author, educator, artist, and abolitionist who you may also know as the co-founder of Black Lives Matter. They explore the deep connections between racial justice, environmental justice, and the fight for a more just and caring world.  From her childhood experiences in Los Angeles to organizing around po...

One woman’s fight against one of the most powerful chemical companies in the world. In this episode of A People’s Climate , Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Diane Wilson , a fourth-generation shrimper and relentless environmental activist, to explore her decades-long fight against Formosa Plastics—a $250 billion petrochemical giant polluting the Texas Gulf Coast.  From hunger strikes to scaling the...

This isn’t climate talk as usual. This is environmental justice. A new climate podcast by Counterstream Media and The Nation . Hosted by Shilpi Chhotray and powered by Wildseeds Fund.  The climate crisis is here—and the solutions being pushed? They’re failing. Tech gimmicks, shallow policy fixes, and corporate greenwashing won’t save us. What will? People power.  The communities on the frontlines...