Climate Swings

Michael Ethan Gold
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Want to work in climate but don’t know where to start? Climate Swings takes you inside the minds of people who’ve made the leap. From reformed bankers to academics, corporate sustainability gurus to climate-tech founders, host Michael Ethan Gold explores how professionals from all walks of life blazed a trail to meaningful climate work. Each episode unpacks a unique climate career journey, revealing the pivotal moments, unexpected detours, and lessons learned along the way. Whether you’re a climate-curious professional eyeing a career shift or already working in the space, you’ll discover actionable insights to help navigate your own climate path. Join us as we swing from vine to vine across the expanding climate career jungle. New episodes drop every other Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts, on Substack at climateswings.substack.com, and on YouTube @ClimateSwingsPod. climateswings.substack.com

  1. 2025-12-19

    From Staring at Moloch to Working on Climate: Eugene Kirpichov’s Path Beyond Capitalism

    Eugene Kirpichov’s origin story is classic Climate Swings: he spent 15 years as a top-tier engineer in big tech, sent a viral farewell LinkedIn note from his job at Google that detonated a global call from thousands who wanted to do something about climate change—just like Eugene—and then founded Work on Climate, a community that turns climate grief into collective momentum. Yet Eugene’s theory of change goes well beyond “career pivot”: in this episode, he lays out a startlingly detailed, systems-level diagnosis of the polycrisis—climate, inequality, democratic backsliding, AI risk, geopolitical fracture—not as separate fires to fight, but as one underlying failure of human collaboration. With bracing honesty, he argues that “more climate jobs” and market-only solutions aren’t enough—that what we need is a new kind of movement: professionals across every industry organizing as transformation leaders, building coordinated power and rewiring incentives toward a genuinely regenerative economy. If you’ve ever wondered what real leverage looks like, Eugene offers something rare: a path from anxiety to agency—together. Notes and resources * Eugene Kirpichov’s LinkedIn * Work on Climate * Eugene’s Google farewell LinkedIn post * Climate Swings interview with Astrid Atkinson, founder and CEO, Camus Energy * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 12m

  2. 2025-12-17

    From Innovating in Snacks to Spurring System Change: Nick Halla’s Route Through Impossible Foods to GigaClimate

    Nick Halla has had a wild arc—from his upbringing on a small dairy farm in Minnesota to becoming employee #1 at Impossible Foods, where he helped turn “meat from plants” into a mainstream, climate-first movement and scaled the company from little more than an idea to a global brand reshaping how we eat. In this episode, Nick discusses ditching his safe career path in big food and energy, betting it all on a radical new way to make meat, navigating the hype and turbulence of the alternative protein boom, and why he now sees “climate” not as an industry but as a design constraint for every business he helps build through GigaClimate, his current venture. It’s a story about serendipity, stubborn optimism, and what it really takes to bend entire systems toward a livable future. Notes and resources * Nick Halla’s LinkedIn * GigaClimate * Impossible Foods * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m

  3. 2025-12-10

    From Broccoli Fields to Gigaton Goals: Duncan Logan’s Leap into Climate Entrepreneurship

    About this episode Duncan Logan is a Scottish “farm kid” who walked away from a 6,000-acre fruit and veg operation, crashed into the adrenaline of London derivatives trading, and reinvented himself as the founder of RocketSpace, the launchpad that quietly incubated Uber, Spotify, Flexport, and more. In this episode, we trace his swings from battling the National Association of Realtors over a radical real-estate play, to expanding startup hubs into China just as the political winds shifted, to shutting down RocketSpace and starting over with 9Zero, his bid to build the “rails” for climate entrepreneurship and a physical, human-scale Silicon Valley for climate. Along the way, Duncan opens up about regret, risk, compounding, mentorship, political backlash, second careers, and why he believes every company will ultimately become a climate company. Notes and resources * Duncan Logan’s LinkedIn * 9Zero * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 22m
  4. From Field Ecology to the Frontlines of Climate Politics: Tim Gray’s Journey of Science, Strategy, and Resolve

    2025-11-26

    From Field Ecology to the Frontlines of Climate Politics: Tim Gray’s Journey of Science, Strategy, and Resolve

    Tim Gray is one of Canada’s most seasoned, quietly formidable forces in conservation and climate action. He’s spent decades in the trenches—from getting arrested at an environmental protest in Northern Ontario to policy backrooms where evidence becomes law—and has built a career translating science into power, confronting entrenched interests, and evolving traditional conservation into a relentless push for deep climate mitigation. This conversation traces the arc of his impact career, from acid-rain fieldwork and old-growth forest fights to shaping modern climate policy and steering Canada through the turbulence of the global energy transition. Now, as executive director of Environmental Defence, Tim is a model for what commitment looks like when it spans a lifetime—and how conservation becomes climate action at scale. Notes and resources * Tim Gray’s LinkedIn * Environmental Defence Canada * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m

  5. 2025-11-12

    From ChickTech to Climate Conscience: Jenny Morgan’s Path Beyond Fear

    What if we could swap fear for courage as the key driver of the climate movement? Jenny Morgan, former business operations program manager at Microsoft and author of Cancel Culture in Climate, joins Climate Swings for a raw and wide-ranging conversation about the future of climate communication and advocacy. From designing inclusive experiences at Microsoft and championing B Corp values to confronting silence at COP26 and calling for empathy in an acrimonious era, Jenny unpacks how we can replace shame with curiosity, apprehension with dialogue, and paralysis with progress. Notes and resources * Jenny Morgan’s LinkedIn * Cancel Culture in Climate * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1 hr

  6. 2025-10-29

    From Pharma to Performance: Neelambaree Prasad’s Leap into ClimArts

    Neelambaree Prasad grew up in Mumbai the daughter of a mathematician and a nuclear scientist. She later became both a pharmacologist and a practitioner of traditional Indian dance. For sixteen years she built a corporate career in biotech and pharma, until the pandemic—and motherhood—cracked something open. What began as a restless question about purpose turned into ClimArts, a global collective weaving climate science with performance and storytelling, from stand-up comedy in Jakarta to ballet about coral reefs in Madagascar. In this conversation, Neelambaree talks about how art can illuminate evidence, how purpose can evolve, and how imagination might just be climate’s most renewable resource. Notes and resources * Neelambaree Prasad’s LinkedIn * ClimArts * Climate Swings interview with Kamal Kapadia * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 2m

  7. 2025-10-24

    SPECIAL EPISODE: From East Asian Journalism to Climate Communications: Terra.talk x Climate Swings w/ Michael Ethan Gold

    In this special crossover episode, we flip the mic: I sit down in the guest chair for a heart-to-heart with Jae Canetti of Terra.talk, the official podcast of Terra.do. Together we dive into the strange, sprawling world of climate communications—from my early days in global media (Global Times, Reuters, The Economist Group), to launching Word Clouds, my climate communications consultancy, to my reflections on how AI, authenticity, and attention economics are reshaping storytelling. The conversation ping-pongs from greenwashing and the economics of journalism to the human pulse behind good communications, the rise of curated communities over clickbait, and that infamous 2020 “Orange Sky Day” that pushed me fully into climate work. It’s a lively, meta, and sometimes philosophical tour through why we talk about climate the way we do—and why it still matters to keep talking. Notes and resources * Michael Gold’s LinkedIn * Climate Swings homepage * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 17m

  8. 2025-10-15

    From Diplomacy to Deep Blue Innovation: Amelie Desrochers’ Uncharted Waters

    From scaling an AI startup before it was cool, to negotiating international trade deals, to building Canada’s first blue innovation cluster from a literal garden by the sea, Amelie Desrochers’ journey is anything but linear. In this episode, she traces the unlikely path that led her from Silicon Valley’s tech bubble and diplomatic corridors to the beating heart of the ocean economy. Now principal for blue economy and maritime sustainability at Cleantech Group, Amelie’s work represents the culmination of her search for meaning at the intersection of innovation, diplomacy, and nature—a place where technology meets tides, and purpose truly finds its depth. Notes and resources * Amelie Desrochers’ LinkedIn * Cleantech Group * Climate Swings Substack Get full access to Climate Swings at climateswings.substack.com/subscribe

    58 min
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About

Want to work in climate but don’t know where to start? Climate Swings takes you inside the minds of people who’ve made the leap. From reformed bankers to academics, corporate sustainability gurus to climate-tech founders, host Michael Ethan Gold explores how professionals from all walks of life blazed a trail to meaningful climate work. Each episode unpacks a unique climate career journey, revealing the pivotal moments, unexpected detours, and lessons learned along the way. Whether you’re a climate-curious professional eyeing a career shift or already working in the space, you’ll discover actionable insights to help navigate your own climate path. Join us as we swing from vine to vine across the expanding climate career jungle. New episodes drop every other Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts, on Substack at climateswings.substack.com, and on YouTube @ClimateSwingsPod. climateswings.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Michael Ethan Gold
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    38
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Michael Ethan Gold
  • Show Website
    Climate Swings