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Channel • 12 Shows

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Updated 27/05/2019
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Updated 01/10/2020
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Updated 26/02/2020

16/09/2025

S14, Ep1 | Welcome to the World of Obstruction

For at least a decade now, there’s been growing agreement around the fact that what’s stopping the world from addressing the climate crisis is not a lack of data or scientific certainty, or a lack of technological or policy measures available to address it. The problem is a lack of political will. And that didn't just happen; political will has been intentionally obstructed at every turn. As we gear up for the 30th UN climate summit, a new book pulls together everything we know about how this happened and what can be done about it. To prep for COP, Amy's reading the whole thing and talking to the researchers along the way. In today's episode, Amy's joined by Timmons Roberts (Brown University), Jennifer Jacquet (University of Miami), Carlos Milani (Rio de Janeiro State University), and Christian Downie (Australian National University) to through an overview of what we're dealing with and what we can expect in the year ahead. You can check out the book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/climate-obstruction-9780197787151?cc=us&lang=en& And download it for free from that same link after October 14th! You can also check out the Climate Social Science Network here: https://cssn.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

16/09/2025

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1h 8m
23/01/2024

Meet the UN's First Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders

In June 2022, Michel Forst became the first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders. In that role he has spent the past year visiting various countries and speaking out about the increasingly onerous laws and aggressive tactics being used against climate protestors. Today he released a statement on the UK, saying he is "extremely worried" about "the increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the United Kingdom, including in relation to the exercise of the right to peaceful protest." In this episode, our France reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini talks to Forst about his new position, what it means, and what power he has to do something about the creeping crackdown on climate protest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23/01/2024

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1h 12m
09/07/2024

Could You Really Charge Oil Companies with Murder? Plus: Supreme Court Climate Update

This week, we bring you an episode from our climate litigation podcast, Damages, because we've been getting SO MANY emails about what sorts of legal strategies might still be available for climate accountability given everything happening at the Supreme Court. Public Citizen has been working with various prosecutors to explore the idea of using criminal law to hold oil companies accountable for climate change, but is it really viable? The group's senior climate policy counsel, Aaron Regunburg, joins us to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

09/07/2024

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34 min
18/07/2023

Herb, Ep 1: The Panic

In the 1970s, Mobil Oil had invented the advertorial and was aggressively pursuing an entirely new type of marketing, branding the company as a person with a unique personality and opinions that deserved to be heard. When public backlash threatened to undermine their approach, they launched a campaign that would change the course of U.S. history. Transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18/07/2023

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34 min
28/08/2018

Exploiting Scientists' Kryptonite: Certainty

In addition to using journalists' views on their own objectivity against them, oil companies exploited various weaknesses in science, namely scientists' tendency toward not prioritizing or valuing good communication skills, and their absolute refusal to be certain about anything. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

28/08/2018

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14 min
11/09/2018

Weaponizing False Equivalence

As climate disinformation campaigns ramped up in the 1990s, oil companies and their PR firms exploited weaknesses in the U.S. media system and propped up "contrarian" scientists to push the narrative of scientific uncertainty and shift how journalists covered the issue. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

11/09/2018

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18 min
29/08/2018

The Bell Labs of Energy

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Exxon wanted to be the Bell Labs of energy. It hired brilliant scientists who conducted cutting-edge research on everything from the "greenhouse effect" to renewable energy. At the time, there was bipartisan support around the idea of tackling global warming, and a sense that American innovation was up to the task. To see the documents referenced in this episode, check out the timeline on drilledpodcast.com. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29/08/2018

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16 min
18/09/2018

Aggressive Think Tanks, Shouty Pundits, and a New Religious Argument

To make media manipulation and lobbying truly effective, oil companies and their public relations firms also had to shift the culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18/09/2018

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18 min
04/09/2018

The Turn

As the price of oil dipped in the early 1980s, management changed at most oil companies and the industry as a whole became more concerned with preserving its core business than expanding in new directions and being "energy companies." Then the campaigns to undermine the science began. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

04/09/2018

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18 min
18/04/2023

S8 Ep6 | Old-School Greenwashing

When we first started reporting this story, people unfamiliar with it would suggest talking to local environmental groups. Surely they would have something to say about a massive new polluting industry springing up in the country! But every group we could find operating in Guyana had taken money from Exxon or one of its partners. Several have made promotional videos praising the project. They argue that oil money is no dirtier than any other source of funding, and if it’s there, they may as well take it to do good conservation projects. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18/04/2023

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38 min

Drilled is a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate corruption and political operatives built decades of climate denial and delay. Hosted and reported by award-winning investigative climate journalists and led by Amy Westervelt, each season unravels new evidence of deception, disinformation, and the power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach. Season 15 coming April 2026.

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EARTH SCIENCES
Law & Order meets the climate crisis as we dig into the stories behind the hundreds of climate cases around the globe.

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DOCUMENTARY
In Rigged, we’ll rummage through the bag of tricks used by PR to shape the world you live in. Over the last century, these tricks have rigged the media, the government… society, really...with sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes profoundly serious effects on our democracy. This is a podcast about that war for hearts and minds right here on US soil.

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HISTORY