Tough Times with Lou Young

Pick Your Apocalypse! Popular fiction is obsessed with the end of civilization. In this episode we wonder out-loud about how magnetic the idea is and what grain of truth at the center of these stories scares us the most. Host Lou Young, co-host George Potanovic, and producer Will Hennessey pick the fertile brains of media executive/movie producer Matt Sullivan and energy expert/sci fi fan Susan Fi...

“Two Edged Swords: The Problem with that Solution” Its 2 hours of facts and more than a little fun as Guests Jerry Knapp & Peter McCartt run us through some environmental innovations that come with difficulties of their own. Knapp is a long-time veteran firefighter/EMT with the West Haverstraw (NY) Fire Department and currently Rockland County Fire Chief of hazardous materials; and McCartt is...

Indian Point Nuke: Not quite gone, certainly not forgotten. Workers first broke ground for first nuclear reactor at Indian Point, NY in 1956. The last reactors stopped operating on April 30, 2021. Every bit of fuel ever used in those decades is still on site and part of the decommissioning process along with vast tanks full of radioactive water where spent rods are still stored. Guests on Tough Ti...

A chill wind blows. Is it a sobering dose of reality or the approach of doom? Our guest is Jessica Stomback, CEO of Joule, a company that helps local municipalities arrange aggregate agreements for clean energy and establish local power generation: solar arrays and windmill farms. Lou Young, co-host George Potanovic, and Will Hennessey explore the path of moving away from fossil fuels to clean ene...

Finding the Balance. Lou Young grills Senator Pete Harckham about his new role as Chairman of the NY Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. How do we find the middle ground between preserving the larger environment and protecting our infrastructure endangered by climate change? Young is joined by co-host George Potanovic, the President of the Stoney Point Action Committee for the Environment...

Tracy Brown, President Hudson Riverkeeper, weighs in the Army Corps of Engineer Plans to build massive storm surge barriers to keep the Atlantic Ocean at bay. “A square peg for a round hole” she calls it. Lou Young, George Potanovic, and Will Hennessey escort Ms. Brown through the host of coastal problems and proposed cures in this latest episode of “Tough Times with Lou Young.” We visit with clim...

CLIMATE CLEAN ELECTRIC POWER Lou Young, co-host George Potanovic, and Will Hennessey grill experts on both sides of the Hudson about making our electric supply less fossil-fuel dependent. Peggy Kurtz from Rockland Community Power, Andrew Goodwillie from Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Dan Welsh from Sustainable Westchester, Mike Donovan from Orange & Rockland Utilities explain the ins and ou...

Environmental outlook in the new year. Lou and the gang (George Potanovic, and Will Hennessey) welcome Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann (an environmentally minded Republican now running for a third term after dumping the town’s term limit law), NY State Senator Bill Weber and NYS Assemblyman Chris Eachus (both recently elected), and Andrew Larkin (A local oyster farmer) about the bi-partisan...

CHEMICAL CREEP/FUSION FUTURE//MEANDERING MCCARTHYISM Lou Young and the crew (George Potanovic & Will Hennessey) lead an examination of “forever” PFAS Chemicals finding their way into our air. water, and bloodstreams.  Policy advocate Liz Moran from “Earth Justice”, Bill Madden from Violia Water Systems, NY Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, and NY Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski join the discussi...

Tap the breaks on your Toxic Holiday Traditions: Christmas shouldn’t leave us stressed out and certainly shouldn’t make us broke; Why do we do it? This episode of Tough Times with Lou Young deals with stepping away from the most wasteful aspects of the holiday. You’ll hear a clip from the documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” and enjoy a lengthy conversation with the film’s subject “Reverend” Billy...

Our Sperm Count is Down! A new study has confirmed a previously reported trend that human sperm counts are on the decline.  "Tough Times with Lou Young" explores this canary-in-a-coal-mine development with Dr. Shanna Swan, professor of environmental epidemiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City and author of the disturbing and essential book "Count Down."  Have we pois...

Back from the Brink: What’s next? After voters turned aside the predicted “red wave” in the national midterms Lou Young, George Potanovic, and crew wonder aloud if climate change is the issues that can unite the nation. Here in NY State the $4.3 Billion Environmental Bond Act passed 70% to 30% and we speculate that passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act with it’s climate initiatives helped...

Superstorm Sandy settled the climate change argument for many exactly ten years ago on the day of this broadcast.  The storm sent a surge of water through New York Harbor and far up the Hudson River devastating riverfront communities further north than many believed possible.  Tough Times with Lou Young marks the moment back then with look at what we've done in the de...

On today's Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou and George speak with Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, currently representing the 18th Congressional District and running for the seat in the 17th Congressional District. They talk about the Inflation Reduction Act, the bond act, Infrastructure Bill and the state of our water. They also speak with Julie Tighe, author and President of The New York League...

On today's edition of Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou and George welcome Ellie Kassner, Candidate for Stony Point Town Council. They discuss why she is running for office and what her ideas are for the future of the Town of Stony Point.  Topics include an updated master plan for Letchworth property, Hudson River waterfront, 9W Business District, economic development plan for increased busines...

On today's Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou is back in the chair again and starts the show by speaking with Diane Osgood of Osgood Consulting and Contributing Author and Editor of the book The Carbon Almanac. Lou and Diane talk about the effect of excess carbon on our environment. Then, we invite Sir Alex Halliday into the discussion. Sir Halliday is the Dean of Columbia University's Climate School...

On today's show, George is sitting in for Lou, who is on a Covid journey. But, we do hear from Lou to start off the show. Then, we hear from Don Hammond, Mayor of Nyack, who talks about policies and projects that Nyack is working on to stabilize their shoreline and mitigate the effects of climate change in the village, including a ban on gas powered leaf blowers. We also discuss the environmental...

On today's episode of Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou reports from the road. He and his band are headlining the 2nd Annual Catskills Conductors Clambake in Livingston Manor. In the meantime, Kevin Thomas keeps the seat warm and brings you a showcase of the past three episodes of Rev. Billy Talen's podcast, Earth Riot Radio. The Reverend and the Church of Stop Shopping appear in Earth Riot Radio #2...

On today's Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou's guests include Peter McCartt (Westchester County Director of Energy & Sustainability and Vice Chair of NYS Climate Action Standing Committee of NYSAC (New York State Association of Counties)), Nina Orville (Executive Director of Sustainable Westchester) and George Potanovic (Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment). We'll talk about what co...

On today's edition of Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou and George Potanovic (SPACE - Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment) welcome Jerry Barberio, Village Manager for Mamaroneck, Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann and news reporter Debra Quintana, Lou's wife. Today, we talk about whether our local communities are ready for climate change, especially after the damage caused by Superst...

On today's episode of Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou and guest co-host, George Potanovic (President, Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment) speaks with Julie Tighe (President of the NY League of Conservation Voters), Rep. Steve Otis (NY State Assembly 91st District), State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick (38th State Senate District) and Catherine Parker (Westchester County Legislature...

Ever wonder where your garbage goes after you toss it in the trash? Special guest host George Potanovic (Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment) talks about trash and recyclables with Howard Phillips, Town of Haverstraw Supervisor and Chairman of the Joint Regional Sewer Board and the Rockland County Solid Waste Authority (Rockland Green). George also speaks with Rockland Green's Executi...

On today's edition of Tough Times with Lou Young, George Potanovic Jr. from the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment (SPACE) is sitting in for Lou. George has a wide ranging conversation about whys and hows of environmental activism with Michael Sussman, civil rights and constitutional law attorney and principal at Sussman & Associates. We take calls from Gordon Wren Jr. (Rockland...

On today's Tough Times with Lou Young, Lou has a wide-ranging conversation about climate change with two experts in the field. Professor Shahid Naeem is an ecologist and conservation biologist who is also the chair in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University. His wife, Sara Tjossem, is a historian of science, focused on the history of ecology with socia...

On today's show, Lou is joined in the studio by George Potanovic, Jr. from the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment (SPACE). We've got music from The Eagles, Donald Fagen, Hawkwind, The Beach Boys, Heathcote Hill, Cat Stevens, Marvin Gaye. The Doors and Miley Cyrus. Tough Times with Lou Young airs Saturdays at 1pm on WRCR AM 1700 and WRCR.com.