WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?

This conversation had an odd effect on me. I found it... relaxing? To hear a politician speaking competently, calmly, clearly, practically and with nuance about climate policy was so soothing, reassuring. More of this please! How can we make things happen when your federal leaders are climate deniers in the pocket of fossil fuel industry? One answer is that state government leaders need to majorly...

Today’s conversation is a special one. I’m joined by someone who’s been a collaborator and a dear friend in this work: Katharine K. Wilkinson . And tomorrow, May 5th, is publication day for Katharine's new book that’s the culmination of the last 5 years of her work — or perhaps of her lifetime. It’s called Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home . It’s such an important b...

In the spirit of the What If We Get It Right? paperback launch, sharing an excerpt of the audiobook. The heart of this audiobook is 20 interviews with people who have shaped my understanding of the answer to the titular question. It’s kind of like a whole season of a podcast packaged up with essays by me and poetry by others. Also, ahem, the audiobook was a finalist for the Audie Award. (If you’re...

Back in September 2024, on the day my book What If We Get It Right? was published, I did one of the most absurd and delightful things I’ve ever done. I co-hosted an over-the-top goofy Climate Variety Show with actor Jason Sudeikis at the Brooklyn Museum. Sold out crowd. Strong high school talent show energy. And we took the “variety” in variety show seriously – magic, music, hula hoops, comedy, co...

Hello Earthlings, we are back with a new episode of the What If We Get It Right? podcast. This is the first episode of Season 4, which will be a short season — maybe 6 episodes? Not sure! We’ll see how it goes. Today’s conversation, with Dr. Heidi Roop, was recorded at The Great Northern festival’s Climate Solutions Series in Minneapolis on January 31st. Dr. Roop is an expert in climate science an...

Hello Earthlings! Welcome back to What If We Get It Right? While you and I know that we already have most of the climate solutions we need — it’s more a matter of how quickly and justly we are going to implement them — most people do not know this. And you kinda can’t blame them because most of the news, plus movies and TV and social media, focus on climate problems . This is a massive storytellin...

What if businesses got creative to unleash funding, political influence, and cultural clout to address our environmental challenges? What if corporations were driven not by maximizing quarterly earnings and shareholder profits, but by being good citizens of planet Earth? There are some companies truly trying to get it right. I happen to be on the board of one of them – the outdoor company Patagoni...

About a third of our climate problem is caused by agriculture and land use. So, what are we gonna do about it? One key solution is shifting to regenerative agriculture, aka growing food in ways that are actually good for soil and ecosystems and water and air. Our guest this episode is Dave Herring , executive director of Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment . It’s is a farm-base...

Today’s episode is all about HEAT, that climate change bummer from which so many other impacts ripple out. The Earth is hotter now than at any other point in all of human history. From our homes and our jobs, to our policies and culture, how do we adapt? My guests for grappling with all this are Jainey Bavishi and Jeff Goodell. Jainey served as deputy head of NOAA under President Biden, and as hea...

Last week, I received the TIME Earth Award at the TIME100 Next gala. I worked really hard on my acceptance speech because it was an opportunity to recruit those 100 culture-shaping rising stars to get more involved in climate solutions. We need them! I’m sharing this speech with you in the hopes that hearing the way I speak about climate issues in rooms of power will encourage you to also speak up...

For those of us trying to advance climate solutions (go team!), there’s always the question of how to be more impactful, how to bring more people along with us into this work. And often the answer is not fancier technology or more brilliant policy, it’s more compelling communication for recruiting and persuasion. Today’s podcast guest, John Marshall , is an expert in marketing. He spent the first...

Almost exactly three years ago (Oct 14, 2022) a couple of climate activists hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers.” It got a whole bunch of press. Do you remember this? Did you ever look into who did it and why? Well, this week on the What If We Get It Right? podcast, we’re gonna get to the bottom of it. I’m sharing the first episode of the climate podcast Sabotage : “The S...

This week I’m chatting with environmental lawyer Abigail Dillen , president of Earthjustice , a nonprofit law firm whose tagline is “because the Earth needs a good lawyer.” Indeed, it does. The stakes, in her words: “We could come out of this time with neither presidential authority nor congressional authority to create, and enforce strong environmental laws.” Oof. But we are not quitters, right t...

Food is a major driver of our environmental problems. It uses ~38% of Earth’s land, drives ~70% of our water use, and emits ~ 22-34% of our greenhouse gas pollution globally. I know it’s not popular to say it, but a lot of that impact is driven by beef and dairy. On the one hand, agriculture is driving deforestation and warming the planet. And on the other hand, our changed climate is determining...

"Every single day you live you make a difference in the world, and you get to choose the difference that you make." — Jane Goodall Last week, when I heard that Jane Goodall had died, it knocked the wind out of me. It hit me as more than a loss; it felt like the end of an era. A naturalist, a deep thinker, an expert, and so elegant, Jane's animals, of nature, set the bar for how much we each could...

Today’s guest is Jigar Shah , a clean energy entrepreneur who served as director of the Loan Program Office in the US Department of Energy during the Biden administration. Previously, he was co-founder of Generate Capital, founder of Sun Edison, and founding CEO of the Carbon War Room. Now, he’s advising clean energy companies. He’s also a devout optimist. (I know, go figure.) I interviewed Jigar...

Earthlings, hello! 👋🏽 This week’s guest is Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America , a nonprofit focused on accelerating the clean energy transition. With the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits expiring on December 31st , I wanted to sit down with Ari to talk about our energy bills, how we can still install heat pumps and more before those incentives run out, how your home could be...

This August marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation that storm had across the Gulf South is still reverberating throughout the country. Today I’m talking with Dr. Samantha Montano , a professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and co-founder of Disaster Researchers for Justice . She wrote a great book called Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontline...

Welcome to Season 3 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast! 🥳 If you’re new here: This show is about what we need to do to address the climate crisis, and how to make those things happen. Here, we take climate change seriously but absolutely do not take ourselves seriously. We take a brutally honest look at the science, policy, economics, and culture of climate issues, and dive in on solutions a...

Hey there Earthlings. 🌎 Season 3 is launching next week! Thus, here’s a trailer with tidbits from previous seasons to get you stoked. We’ve got a dozen ace guests booked, and 4 episodes already recorded. We’re diving all the way in — on clean energy, FEMA, farming, messaging, and so much more. I’ll be re-interviewing a few of the experts I interviewed for my book because, turns out, some things h...

I'm aiming to live a more analog life in August (🛶🥾🏕️), so, until September, leaving you with this summer listening: an excerpt from my audiobook, the chapter titled “Away From the Brink.” To remind you, that book (which inspired this podcast) is What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures . This chapter is essentially my answer to the BIG question: What if we get it right? What would t...

Hey there Earthlings. I’m living a more analog life this summer (highly recommend). 🛶🏕️📚 So for this week’s episode, I want to introduce you to another podcast I think you just might love. It’s called Science Vs. , hosted by Wendy Zuckerman. In each episode they tackle a different topic to sort out what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s still TBD. As a scientist and lover of facts, I super appr...

Hey there Earthlings. 🩵 If you’ve been paying any attention to U.S. politics, these past 2 weeks have been a doozy. So, let’s get into the Big Brutal Billionaire Bailout Bill of it all. Welcome to this very special collab episode of What If We Get It Right? x Twigg & Jenkins . Carri Twigg (hey bestie) and Brad Jenkins (who was her officemate in the Obama White House) host my favorite politics pod...

If you have a Republican senator: call, email, comment on all their social posts. Tell them to vote NO on the abominable budget bill. Get your friends to do it too. ☎️ Seriously, call Congress: (202) 224-3121. (Especially if you live in Maine or Alaska.) Details in this week's newsletter and all over the news. Okay, Season 2 is a wrap — 12 delightful conversations with people showing us the ways f...

Today’s guest is Ben Wolkon. Ben is founding partner at MUUS Climate Partners , a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in climate solutions, and operates on the belief that “climate is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.” To be honest, when I think of venture capital, I often think of like that "greed is good" mentality and just corny finance bros. And maybe that's a bit...