Broken Ground

This is Boxtown, a neighborhood in southwest Memphis founded by formerly enslaved people who put down deep roots and residents who cherish their ties to this land. It’s also a neighborhood that’s seen decades of government neglect, while more and more polluting industries moved into the area. So, when the community first heard about plans for a crude oil pipeline that would cut through their neigh...

Brenda Mallory, former Director of Regulatory Policy at SELC, sat down with us in December 2020 before joining the Biden administration as Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and reflected on how the federal government can engage a broad coalition to embed environmental justice principles across the country.  Support the show

Chandra Taylor is the leader of SELC's Environmental Justice Initiative. Her ongoing work in North Carolina includes cleanups at contaminated industrial sites and an end to unchecked water pollution in Black communities.  "It's not going to be just conservationists who turn the tide on global climate change. It's going to take a lot of people. It's going to take the everyd...

Catherine Coleman Flowers was recently named to the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. A 2020 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, her environmental health research brought to light the failing wastewater infrastructure in rural parts of the South. She spoke with Broken Ground about how systemic racism and classism have played a large part in this crisis and how it led her to found t...

Heather McTeer Toney stumbled into environmental justice work as the Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi. After moving on as EPA administrator and now as a Senior Adviser at Mom’s Clean Air Force, Toney talks about how to wrap climate justice around social justice and how her faith is inextricably woven into her work fighting climate change. Support the show

The latest season of Broken Ground, featuring women in the South on the frontlines of fighting for environmental justice, launches this Earth Day, Thursday, April 22.  Support the show

Find out what we learned about sea level rise in the South. Who will be hit the hardest? What can we do? How can we navigate a path forward? Support the show

In Norfolk, Virginia scientists battling sea level rise enlist residents to help collect data that could help the city better understand its rising tides and flooding problems. Support the show

In Charleston, South Carolina and its suburbs questions of environmental justice and wetland protections arise as development encroaches. Support the show

In Norfolk, Virginia homeowners like Karen Speights are struggling with the hard decision of staying put in rising waters or finding a way to start over. Meanwhile, the city is hoping it can buy people time. Support the show

With waters rising in Charleston, South Carolina we explore what, if any, breaking point there is for people living and working in this city. And we talk to city officials about making the big decisions of what, and what not, to build when trying to keep a flooding city livable. Support the show

Norfolk, Virginia's waters are rising fast, and its land is sinking. The city's plans to meet this climate change challenge could be a blueprint for other coastal communities. Among other plans, Norfolk has set it sights on revamping its aging public housing complexes. We'll talk to folks living in one of these communities about what adaptation will mean for them.  Support the show

Earl Swift is author of Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island. He talks about the slow disappearance of this unique Virginia island to climate change. Support the show

Author and New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl talks about her book Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss. Renkl's essays reflect on the intersection of family life, grief and her natural surroundings. Support the show

Dr. Robert Bullard, widely considered the father of environmental justice, talks about the inequality of pollution and climate change. Support the show

Author and wildlife biologist Drew Lanham talks about his book, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. Lanham discusses his love of birds, his South Carolina homeplace, and reconciling the South’s legacy of hate with its beauty. Support the show

Support the show

Solar energy is growing by leaps and bounds in the Southeast and becoming a way for schools to save money.  In this episode, we visit two Virginia schools to better understand the key role policies play in whether schools can go solar.  Support the show

An elderly couple steps up to defend their farm and neighbors when pipeline developers won’t back down from a risky, environmentally damaging project that – after years of delay – is now obsolete. Support the show

When two North Carolina women received letters from state officials that their water wasn’t safe to drink due to coal ash pollution, they fought it all the way to the state house. Support the show

The 2008 Kingston, Tennessee coal ash spill was disastrous at the time, but what came a decade later would reveal the full devastation of the tragedy. Support the show

Broken Ground is a new podcast from the Southern Environmental Law Center digging up environmental stories in the South. Support the show

Support the show