The Defender Podcast

Don’t look at the gas plant behind the curtain! If you feel like tech companies and energy utilities are gaslighting you with their assurances that AI data centers won’t hurt our environment, you’re probably right. In this episode, how AI is causing a fossil fuel boom in Wisconsin and the lawsuit just filed to try and stop it.

You may have heard, Wisconsin needs more power and we need it fast. In the next few years, AI data centers will cause an unprecedented surge in energy demand across our state. There are already large expensive new powerplants being built to help meet that demand with more to come. But the big question is, will Wisconsinites be left shouldering the cost? In this episode, the shocking energy needs o...

What if you could make a difference in the fight to protect our environment by doing nothing at all? In this episode, why fall is the perfect time to be lazy – for the planet. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Elizabeth Braat, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Resources for You: Wisconsin Bumble Bee Brigade Episode 43: The hidden pesticides that could be lurking in your pollinator garden...

The amazing story of one Wisconsin food that was banned, burned, disappeared from our plates – and the comeback that’s being helped along by solar farms.   Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Lily Hislop, Savanna Institute Resources for You: Black Currants: A once-forbidden fruit Farming for the Future: Charting a course for a new food system Black Currant: Ribes Nigrum

There is no question we are living through a stressful, often overhwelming time. So if you’re feeling hopeless, especially in the face of the climate crisis, no one could blame you. But there is no better place to find hope – than in other people. How you can joing people from all walks of life in Sunday, Sept 28 to take a stand for our climate right here in Wisconsin. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest:...

Yes, there are 150-million reasons to listen to the episode. Because Wisconsin has $150 million dollars in federal funding to help make our homes warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, healthier, more efficient. All the things. A look at two little-known programs that survived the big Federal cuts and are ready to be used by you. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guests: Dylan Crye, Home Energy Rebates P...

How much would you pay to swim in a clean lake? How much to take a breath of fresh, clean air? To fish in a pristine stream? You may not ever think about that, but there is somebody who does — a lot. On this episode, meet the professor who’s working to understand the economic value of a clean environment. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Dan Phaneuf, Professor, Agricultural and Applied Economics...

The Environmental Protection Agency is quickly getting out of the protection business. And no where is that more clear than its new plan to get rid of the Endangerment Finding, the landmark legal and science determination that climate change hurts people and that the EPA has the responsibility to do something about it. On this episode a look at why the EPA is now insisting climate pollution won’t...

Livestock farmers in Wisconsin are getting excited about solar! MG&E’s Tyto solar project is home to about 13,000 solar panels, 30 acres of thriving plants, and a flock of happy sheep. Amy takes a behind-the-scenes look at the solar energy project where 145 hungry sheep are hard at work this summer.  Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guests: John Armstrong, manager of renewable engineering, Madison Gas an...

In the long, never-ending struggle to protect our environment, it can be easy to feel helpless, powerless. Maybe nothing underscores that feeling more than trying to stop a big foreign oil interest from building a pipeline across your state. But there is something you can do to speak out against the Line 5 oil pipeline. And it’s fun! Amy looks at the Move People Not Oil campaign. Host: Amy B...

If you are feeling afraid to click on news stories every time a decision gets handed down by the US Supreme Court, you’re not alone. But some recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions are bringing much-needed good news in the fight to protect our environment. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Evan Feinauer, Clean Wisconsin attorney Resources for You:  Episode 29: Trump’s threat to safe water...

Northern Wisconsin is home to Lake Superior, to beautiful streams and wetlands, to thousands of acres os mesic forests–and to a 72-year-old oil pipeline called Line 5. Now the foreign oil company, Enbridge, that owns and operates the line is pushing to blast and trench its way across northern Wisconsin to build a reroute. Amy gets the latest on legal action to stop it. Host: Amy Barrilleaux...

Milwaukee is at the center of what the federal government calls an “Area of Concern.” A place where so much toxic water pollution and environmental degradation have happened over the course of more than a century, that it needs special attention and funding to get cleaned up.  But how do you confront and begin to heal the collective harms of legacy pollution? Of decades of injustice th...

The Big Beautiful Budget will have some ugly consequences. In this episode, why the fallout from Trump’s budget will include bigger bills, toxic emissions, and yep – more risk of blackouts. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Ciaran Gallagher, PhD, Energy & Air Manager, Clean Wisconsin Resources for You: Join Clean Wiscosin’s Action Network  

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to stand next to a wind turbine? You’re about to find out. In this epsiode, Amy meets 2nd generation Wisconsin farmer Jerry Cigelske at his Columbia County farm to talk about about why cows, grass and windmills have been the key to keeping his family on the land. Host: Amy Barrilleaux  Guest: Jerry Cigelske, Columbia County farmer Resources for You: Wisc...

June is Pollinator Month, and it’s hard to talk about protecting pollinators without talking about a class of chemicals widely blamed for their decline. If you are a regular listener, you have heard of neonicotinoids, a class of neurotoxins used on food crops all over the state and country. And it turns out, neonics are hurting a lot more than pollinators – like fish, birds, small mammals an...

You never know when a life-changing moment is going to come. For Sarah Savage, owner of Tend Native Plants, it came when she picked up a book about pollinators. Amy meets Sarah at her small plant nursery in Blue Mounds, Wis., to talk about the hidden pesticides that could be lurking in our gardens and how to make sure the flowers we buy are truly pollinator-friendly. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: S...

What’s it going to take to make clean energy Wisconsin’s new normal? It helps to have a bunch of fresh-faced new college graduates ready to take on the world. UW Platteville has a 100% placement rate for graduates in Sustainability and Renewable Energy Systems. Hear from Renee Stram who just got her diploma–and a job–about her optimistic take on fighting climate change. Host: Amy Barri...

Where to Listen: It’s not easy to locate and document Wisconsin’s endangered species, but luckily Ernie and Betty White are on the case! They are two of Wisconsin’s specially-trained conservation dogs, and they could be the secret to finding some of our state’s most threated species. Host:  Amy Barrilleaux Guests:  Laura Holder, Owner, Conservation Dogs Collective Betty White, Ernie, a...

Many farmers are choosing to integrate solar panels into their fields. Now a new analysis shows that decision can impact a lot more than energy costs and the climate. Putting solar panels on conventional farmland can actually change the environment where those panels are located–for the better. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Dr. Paul Mathewson, Clean WIsconsin Resouces for You: Integrating sol...

No Mow May is here, but is it the best way to protect pollinators in our yards? Amy walks through a typical Wisconsin yard with pollinator expert Elizabeth Braatz to learn if No Mow May really works. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Elizabeth Braatz, Bumble Bee Brigade Coordinator and Terrestrial Insect Ecologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Resources for You:  Wisconsin Bumble Bee Briga...

if you look around at houses, schools, churches–you’re probably seeing more and more solar panels on their rooftops. A lot of that is thanks to federal incentives through the Inflation Reduction Act that make solar more affordable. But those programs are now at risk of being cut, and tariffs could be pushing the low solar costs we’ve been seeing much higher. Fortunately, solar has a pretty d...

Clean Wisconsin has been keeping track of the many attacks on bedrock environmental safeguards being carried out by the Trump Administration. Dozens of rules and regulations that protect our air, water, land, endangered species and more are being targeted. With so much happening in such a short time, how do you know what’s important, what’s just a lot of bluster, and what’s even legal?  Host: Amy...

There is no question the winters of our childhood are disappearing. In 2024, a rainy January gave way to tornadoes in February, flooding in June and drought in July and August. So what is next for Wisconsin and how can we prepare? In this episode, Amy talks with Wisconsin’s state climatologist about what could be the new normal for our state. Host: Amy Barrilleaux Guest: Steve Vavrus, Wiscon...