Connect the Dots

In this season's final episode, Rob is joined by producer Maggie Dewane to look back at the season's climate wins. Together they consider common themes and througlines, lessons learned, and how similar successes might be achieved elsewhere. Connect the Dots is brought to you by the Center for Progressive Reform. Learn more at www.progressivereform.org Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen and c...

Navajo Power is generating clean energy projects on tribal lands and maximizing the economic benefits for those communities through localized solar power. Unlike many companies, it continues to support households with maintenance and troubleshooting long after solar installation. In this episode, host Rob Verhick speaks to Brett Isaac, co-founder of Navajo Power, and learns about what motivated hi...

Maine is the first state to require utility companies to include assessment of environmental, equity, and environmental justice impacts in grid planning. That was just one provision of a climate law that passed Maine’s state legislature with bipartisan support.  In this episode, Rob speaks to State Senator Stacy Brenner and Jack Shapiro of Natural Resources Council of Maine to learn about the law,...

In this season of Connect the Dots, Rob explores environmental justice and climate wins across the country and how we can replicate those successes elsewhere.  This episode digs into a community win in North Carolina: community-based solar solutions. But what does that mean exactly? And can it make energy more affordable to everyone? Rob is joined by Ajulo Othow , founder and CEO of EnerWealth Sol...

When middle schooler Adah Crandall of Portland, Oregon noticed the impact her school's proximity to a busy freeway was having on some of her classmates, she took action. She and her classmates started an Environmental Justice Club, began protesting outside of government buildings, and lobbied against the freeway's proposed expansion. Today as a high schooler, Adah shares with Rob what went into he...

In this season of Connect the Dots, Rob explores environmental justice and climate wins across the country and how we can replicate those successes elsewhere. This episode digs into a legislative win in Maryland: the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. What goes into successful policymaking? Spoiler alert: It's not just lawmakers. Rob is joined by Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Progressive...

In the final episode of Season 6, Connect the Dots host Rob Verchick and his guests talk about climate migration. Climate refugees can come from anywhere: from cities and suburbia to some of the remotest places on Earth. They may have jobs dictated by the weather. If it’s too hot or dry, they’re relocating to find new employment. Some may have lost their homes to extreme weather events and can’t a...

In this episode of CPR’s Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick and his guests explore how climate change is impacting our health. When we consider the climate crisis, our attention often gravitates toward extreme weather. We worry about wildfires burning our homes and hurricanes ripping down powerlines. There’s another side of the story, however — our health. From how we feel after a long run to th...

Hey listeners! You might have heard an earlier version of this episode, but due to technology issues, we noticed some audio errors in our post-production. We've since removed that version and uploaded this episode. Thanks for your understanding! Enjoy, and thank you for listening. In this episode of CPR’s Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick and his guests explore industry sectors and jobs that ar...

In this episode of CPR’s Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick and his guests explore how parents, families, and communities are adapting their lifestyles to the realities of climate change. Our lives revolve around the weather: what we wear, where our kids play after school, where we go on vacation, what hobbies we partake in, and where we choose to live and work. Even what foods are available are...

In Season 6 of CPR's Connect the Dots podcast, we’re discussing climate resiliency — that is, our ability to handle the stresses caused by climate disruption and adapt to changing conditions. The crisis may be stark, but there are solutions and pathways to a viable, sustainable future.  Kicking off the season, host Rob Verchick digs into resiliency, real estate, and how climate change is beginning...

CPR’s Connect the Dots has been distilling complex policy issues for listeners for five seasons. In Season 6, coming early 2022, we’ll explore climate resiliency—that is, our ability to handle the stresses caused by climate disruption and adapt to changing conditions. The crisis may be stark, but there are ways we can create viable systems that look towards the future.

President Biden put climate policy front and center on his campaigning platform and wasted no time in pushing his agenda when he took office. The president has proposed $14 billion in spending on initiatives to fight the crisis in the nation’s 2022 budget, and he has appointed cabinet officials with informed backgrounds to offer guidance. He’s also altered tax incentives to favor clean energy over...

A couple weeks ago, Elon Musk hosted Saturday Night Live , a gig typically reserved for A-list movie stars, Grammy Award winners, and stand-up legends. But Musk has risen to fame through his electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla.    Musk and Tesla have become a social, political, and cultural force in our country, driving an interest in environmental business, investing, and innovation....

Companies using fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal are facing heavy pressure to reduce their carbon footprint. If they don't, they could get hit with financial penalties or be completely shut down. In response, these corporations have come up with a treatment of sorts — it's called carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS for short.    The idea is that the industry can continue operating...

In 2020, the world banded together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, in 2021, the world continues to change, and we seem to be progressing forward. In turn, the spotlight shifts to another great calamity: climate change. The environmental crisis has made headlines with the Biden administration making climate mitigation and renewable energy top priorities.    With these advancements, researchers...

In this episode of Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick discusses one of the more perplexing challenges facing those working to mitigate climate disruption: industrial workers, the people laboring in factories, farms, coal mines, and other businesses directly affecting or affected by the climate crisis.  On the one hand, industrial workers need jobs. They depend on these jobs to feed their familie...

In this episode of Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick explores the ways the climate crisis drives raging wildfires like the ones that have scorched the western United States, killing dozens of people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. Joining him are firefighter Sam Perkins, Vicki Arroyo of the Georgetown Climate Center, and Cinthia Moore of Moms Clean Air Force. As of mid-October...

In this episode of Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick talks about how the climate crisis hurts children – and presents ideas for possible solutions. He's joined by CPR Member Scholar Maxine Burkett, Sierra Club Senior Director of Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities Leslie Fields, mother and NRDC advocate Gina Ramirez, mother and Moms Clean Air Force member Leah Barbor, and Aaron Bernst...

In this episode of Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick talks climate migration with CPR Member Scholar Maxine Burkett, NRDC advocate and third-generation Mexican-American Gina Ramirez, and Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard University.   Imagine a world where an afternoon thunderstorm floods your basement with sewage and indu...

This season on Connect the Dots, we’re looking at people living in the cross hairs of climate change, those disproportionately carrying the burden of the world and suffering on a daily basis.    African Americans and people of color make up one of these communities. Packed into neighborhoods surrounded by smokestacks and highways that are unusually susceptible to floods, blocked from greenspaces a...

In this episode, host Rob Verchick talks with CPR Member Scholars Michael Duff and Thomas McGarity about worker safety in the era of the coronavirus – the gaps in law, regulation, and enforcement that leave workers exposed to the virus while permitting employers to escape accountability for putting workers and the public in danger. The conversation touches on the difficulty of creating foolproof p...

In this episode, host Rob Verchick talks with Dr. Andrew Duxbury about being a geriatric physician and medical school professor during the COVID-19 era. Dr. Duxbury teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

In this episode of Connect the Dots , host Rob Verchick talks with Center for Progressive Reform Board Member Sid Shapiro and Oxford University professor Liz Fisher about the role and importance of expertise in government agencies, rulemaking, and public policy development. This topic is of particular interest as there has been a campaign in the Trump administration and by others to ignore or elim...

In this episode, host Rob Verchick talks with Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholars Melissa Powers (Lewis & Clark Law School) and Karen Sokol (Loyola University New Orleans College of Law) about the 9th Circuit's dismissal of the Juliana v. United States youth climate justice case, what it means -- and doesn't mean -- for other climate cases working their way through the courts, and mo...