In This Climate

Does this U.S. election season have your head spinning? In this episode, Grist reporter Zoya Teirstein and LA Times reporter Sammy Roth take us from the national to the local on what's important in terms of the environment. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can  tweet  at us or send an email to  itcpod@iu.edu .

In this week's Air Check, special guest James Bruggers talks with us about U.S. Senate races in Kentucky , South Carolina , Alabama , and Georgia . If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can  tweet  at us or send an email to  itcpod@iu.edu .

In this bonus episode, we talk with organizers and participants from the award-winning Educating for Environmental Change program. Kirstin Milks, Adam Scribner, Michael Hamburger, LaStelshia Speaks, and Catherine Boileau explain how they've adapted their practices for the challenges we face today. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can  tweet  at us or send an email to  itcp...

In this week's Air Check, we talk about propane's cold-weather demand spike , other COVID-environmental backslides, the Affordable Clean Energy Rule , and prolonged Midwestern dryness . If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can  tweet  at us or send an email to  itcpod@iu.edu .

With early voting opening around the U.S. and Election Day just about a month away, we want to dive into the races and issues to watch this season. In the first episode of our pre-election series, we go live with policy expert Julian Brave NoiseCat and energy/politics reporter Ben Geman to discuss what this year's elections could mean for climate, resilience, and environmental justice.  If you hav...

In this week's Air Check, we talk about the (former) acting director of the Bureau of Land Management who served unlawfully for 424 days, the scientist running for Senate in Wyoming, and International Coffee Day. Resources: Judge removes Trump's public lands boss, William Perry Pendley, after governor sued Meet the climate expert running to be the first female scientist in the Senate Rebuilding th...

We've talked a lot about the ways we incarcerate people and subject them to environmentally unsafe conditions. We've told stories and shared statistics and legal arguments. We'll do some of that in this episode, too. But the reason we reached out to Mei Azaad with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, and the reason she called on Malik Washington, is because improving conditions requires action. Me...

In our first Air Check (a short, weekly conversation on current events), we talk through the environmental implications of a changing supreme court, how long Bloomington has been without significant rain, and other weather events with climate change signatures.

This episode, we're taking a deeper look at environmental injustices in an around prisons. How are they sited, what do they emit, and what does all of this mean for people locked inside? We start with the history of the St. Louis and Central Michigan correctional facilities with Dr. Elizabeth Bradshaw, move through trends with Candice Bernd and legal arguments with Taylor Carpenter, and start the...

This summer, people in United States and beyond took to the streets to demand racial justice. One of the loudest calls was to defund and abolish the police , but not just the police. Abolitionists have long worked to dismantle the broader U.S. carceral state, which imprisons more people than any other nation. "Abolition has to be 'green.'" Ruth Wilson Gilmore told Chenjerai Kumanyika for the Inter...

In the third and final episode of our land defender series, we talk with Eduardo Brondizio, David Rodríguez Goyes, and Stella Emery Santana about the international systems that have long exploited indigenous land and resources, as well as indigenous and peasant resistance efforts and opportunities to support land defenders. If you have any thoughts or questions about the show, you can  tweet  at u...

In the second episode of our land defender series, we talk with land defender Marvin Wilcox and Front Line Defenders representative Adam Shapiro . They walk us through Marvin's story, in which agricultural producers in Panama take on the state and a transnational fruit company to protect their land and health, as well as the patterns commonly encountered by land defenders around the world. If you...

In this bonus episode, Janet McCabe talks with Scott Russell Sanders, who Kathleen Dean Moore described as "an honest man in a time of lies, a wise man in a time of foolishness, a healer in a time of wounds, and a beautiful writer in a time of ugly rants." He taught English at Indiana University and is the celebrated author of more than 20 books including a  collection of essays called The Way of...

According to UK-based Global Witness , 14 land and environment defenders were killed in Honduras over the course of 2019, three years after the murder of celebrated Indigenous land defender Berta Cáceres. In the first episode of our land defender series, we go live with journalist Nina Lakhani to discuss the life of Cáceres and the long campaign against her. We also check in with Indiana Public Br...

In the finale of our first season, we talk with environmental attorney Barbara Freese about her new book Industrial Strength Denial and learn about the mechanisms behind corporate climate change denial.

Positioned in the driest desert in the United States, Las Vegas is one of the nation's fastest-warming cities. In our third episode on its past and future, we focus on the time from 2000 to present, paying close attention to the ways its extractive industries have intersected with each other and examining the possibility of shrinking the city. In this episode: Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern , author...

Machine learning's potential to assist in climate change mitigation and adaptation is vast, but as with any developing technologies, so are the challenges. In this episode, we talk with journalist David Silverberg and Parity CEO Brad Pilgrim about the ways we can use and improve artificial intelligence to fight climate change from all directions.

A year after Intense Tropical Cyclone Idai made landfall in southern Africa, communities in Zimbabwe continue to feel the storm's effects. For many, the trauma is physical, emotional, and spiritual, necessitating mental health care that has become increasingly inaccessible since the country's economic crash. In this bonus episode, we talk with freelance journalist Ray Mwareya, who grew up in hard-...

Listeners, we have a question. How are you feeling about climate change, about the environment? You can let us know by emailing us at itcpod@indiana.edu . In this episode, we examine just that—the emotions that can make commitment to climate action difficult and the strategies useful in supporting each other as we reimagine and create a more sustainable future. In this episode: Renée Lertzman Shah...

Observing art can help us relate to environmental issues and move us emotionally, but what happens when we take the next step and begin creating art? In this episode, we look at the multi-level potential for art to help us engage in climate commitment. 4:00 - Patrick Chandler 24:30 - Jill Pelto

On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we went live on Facebook to reflect on historical Earth Days and discuss present issues in environmental health and climate communications. 6:45 - James Capshew and Ellen Ketterson 25:45 - Janet McCabe and Stephen Jay 39:30 - Jim Shanahan and Enrique Saenz

On the long list of lives changed by Arctic warming are sled dogs. This episode, we're featuring a story by Elisa Shoenberger that dives into how the sport of mushing is changing along with the climate. We also dip into our vault to take another look at the 2019 Arctic fire season, from Alaska to Siberia, from fire ecology to the politics of air quality. 2:00 - Sled dog feature by Elisa Shoenberge...

In this bonus episode, IU O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor David Konisky helps us understand the modern environmental justice movement in the context of its history.

As early as the 1930s, lakes in the Adirondacks began registering fish loss. By the 1980s, visible forest dieback turned the attention of the United States to the acid rain crisis. Today, scientists are observing the biological recovery of the region. This is the story of how it all happened. In this episode: Joe Goffman, Executive Director of the Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program Dan Jos...

When we learned about the storm-resilient Hunter's Point South Park, we immediately took interest in the resilience potential of urban public space. Then came the questions. How can we manage public space to work in line with local ecology and protect residents from the effects of climate change, all while respecting neighborhood identity and keeping that space truly public? In this two-part serie...