Cool Tunes For a Hot Planet

Episode 15 of  Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet  kicks off May 1st. May Day has been celebrated for centuries as a celebration of rebirth, fertility, and the mystery of life - and then a further declaration of workers' rights since the late 19th century. But in addition to name-checking May Day, today's episode presents songs by singer-songwriters from  MusicToLife.org  - a nonprofit organizati...

This is Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet’s EARTH DAY episode, offering three very different strains of eco-music. Solartopia, by David Bernz, Harvey Wasserman, and Pete Seeger– the renowned elder statesman of folksong and righteous causes – envisions a day when our energy needs will all be met by the sun. I Wanna Be Cool, by Will Kimbrough and Brant Miller, is a rousing international collaboration abou...

Global Notes: Meet flautist & composer Linda J. Chase, whose oratorio "For Our Common Home — Resounding Ecojustice" will receive its world premiere in May!  Ms. Chase talks about her work with host Warren Senders, and shares excerpts from a preview performance of the music, which blends classical, jazz, gospel, and other world traditions in a heartfelt setting of Pope Francis' 2015 climate-cha...

This week's installment of  Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet  is an eclectic mix of thematically related songs.  Ukrainian Now , by Tom Paxton and John McCutcheon is an ensemble production lamenting the Russian invasion and exhorting us all to come together in support of the embattled Ukrainian people. Larry Lobert's  Isn't This a Time  is a call-to-arms folksong raising the alarm about the...

An interview with Lola Perrin. Lola Perrin's work integrates her original music with the process of bringing audiences into the climate discussion. It's a fascinating and necessary approach to a thorny problem at the boundaries of performance art.

This episode focuses on one of the immediate human costs of climate upheaval -- immigration. The refugee population is growing worldwide, accelerated by drought, famine, floods -- all environmental pressures that result from global warming, and will only get worse. The first step in combatting this ongoing disaster is developing empathy for all displaced persons. Music is one way to jumpstart that...

This special edition of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet celebrates Indigenous Peoples and their contributions to the environmental movement. muhu'wit, begins by chanting "Toki Toki," a song first recorded over 100 years ago by Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island. Next up is "No More Pipeline Blues (On This Land Where We Belong)," composed & produced by Larry Long. This song ce...

In this episode, Lisa Rogers and the Therapy Sisters sing Do Something, an energetic Western Swing song about all the things we can do to reach a sustainable future, politically and ecologically. In Precious Right, Patty Carpenter sings about the sacred right to vote, a right people have fought and died for not only a right, but a prayer for the disenfranchised, a precious obligation for each of u...

Seth Bernard's The Time Has Come asks us to come together now, there's no more time to wait in the fight against the men whose greed is accelerating the climate change that is destroying our planet. The heartfelt lyrics implore us to find meaningful pathways to action, in our shared humanity. Our House is on Fire, by Emma's Revolution, is a bluesier rock song with a similar message: ou...

In Last Winter, Mark Lagerwey expresses his longtime love of winter weather, and his sadness at its diminishment as global warming eats away at it all over the world. In floods, fires, and heatwaves, the warmth is overwhelming the cold - but we can solve the problem if we just muster up the will power, and the good will, to honestly address it. James Kahn's Workin' That ER is a poignant, t...

Episode 7, entitled New Moon, New Year, celebrates the December 30th “black moon,” and the impending new year, commencing with Michigander Carrie Newcomer’s video for the song “Sanctuary.” This beautiful song was inspired by a letter she received from her good friend, Quaker writer Parker Palmer, who was responding to her wanting to know what can we do now, when things seem so bleak. Parker’s resp...

The release of Episode 8 falls on January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Opposite polls of the spectrum, considering who won the presidential election. Our songs for this show cover that gamut, from anger about the man in the White House, to an alternate National Anthem; from a call to resist lies about oppressions in our country's past, to turning all our fears an...

Songs to inspire action for justice and a cooler planet. Featuring Roy Zimmerman's rallying song for social justice, Harriet Jerusha Korim and Purly Gates singing Harriet's ode to Mother Earth, a song from the new Broadway musical premiering September 25, Distant Thunder, sung by Sean Taylor-Corbett and an all Native American cast, and bringing it home with Seth Handelman's very person...

Songs to inspire action for justice and a cooler planet. Spotlighting Grammy-nominated songwriter Eliza Gilkyson, with award-winning Third Actors James Kahn and Kerrville Folk Festival finalist Purly Rae Gates. Broadway veteran Joanna Rush and youth activist Veronica Vevang host and offer inspiring stories about recent climate actions.

Episode 9 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is all about the water. Oceans, rivers, floods, droughts, and all the ways our waters are affected by climate change: the cost to habitats, to species, to communities – the price we all pay for the effects of global warming. Today’s explorations of this existential threat are presented by Kenyan jazz singer Gabrielle Agachiko, rhythm and blues artist Rick A...

The release of Episode 8 falls on January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Opposite polls of the spectrum, considering who won the presidential election. Our songs for this show cover that gamut, from anger about the man in the White House, to an alternate National Anthem; from a call to resist lies about oppressions in our country's past, to turning all our fears and an...