A People's Climate

Counterstream Media
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Society & Culture

“A People’s Climate” is a new climate podcast by Counterstream Media and The Nation. Hosted by Shilpi Chhotray.  This isn’t climate talk as usual. This is environmental justice.  We bring together activists, organizers, and movement leaders who are fighting on the frontlines. Every conversation reveals not only why the fight matters, but how communities are already putting solutions into practice and power back in the hands of the people.  The future we need is being built from the ground up. Not by corporations. Not by billionaires. By us. The people demanding justice, reclaiming power, and rebuilding what’s been broken. This is essential listening for anyone serious about building a mass climate movement. Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation Powered by Wildseeds Fund Learn more at apeoplesclimate.org We want to hear from you! Email us at hello@apeoplesclimate.org and let us know your thoughts. Love what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review—it helps others discover the show. Find us instagram: @counterstream_media

  1. 2d ago

    Ep. 1 - Earth’s Greatest Enemy with Abby Martin

    “National security has always explicitly been about fossil fuels.” The U.S. military is the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels—and one of the largest sources of environmental destruction. Yet its role in the climate crisis is rarely part of mainstream climate or environmental justice conversations.  In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray talks with independent journalist and documentary filmmaker Abby Martin about why meaningful climate action must confront militarism. As military spending rises and wars continue to devastate communities and ecosystems, the connections between war, fossil fuels, and environmental destruction are becoming harder to ignore. Martin traces how military power has shaped the climate crisis, from the toxic legacy of U.S. military bases to the destruction of land and water in Hawaiʻi and the environmental costs of modern warfare. She and Shilpi also explore why climate and anti-war movements have so often operated separately—and what it could look like to build a broader movement capable of confronting both systems. Key Topics War & fossil fuels: How fossil fuel extraction, U.S. military power, and global war are deeply intertwined.The environmental cost of war: The carbon emissions, toxic rubble, contaminated soil and water, and ecosystem destruction left behind by modern warfare.Military pollution: The toxic waste and contamination generated by U.S. military bases, including the devastating legacy of Camp Lejeune.Hawaiʻi & militarism: How colonization and militarization have turned Hawaiʻi into a military playground, with lasting impacts on Indigenous land, water, and communities—including the Red Hill fuel spill.RIMPAC: What Abby Martin witnessed at the world’s largest international maritime military exercise—and its impact on Hawaiʻi’s land and ocean ecosystems.War & wildlife: How military sonar, weapons testing, and munitions damage marine life and leave pollution that can persist for generations.Connecting movements: Why climate and anti-war movements need to break out of their silos to confront the systems driving both crises.Building power: How divestment, grassroots organizing, labor action, and community resistance can challenge militarism and corporate power.Resources to Explore Earth’s Greatest EnemyThe Empire FilesWater Protectors Rise Up: Native Hawaiian resistance in the wake of the Red Hill disasterCollateral of the Permanent War: How 'national security' made communities and ecosystems disposable Credits Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation Powered by Wildseeds Fund Host: Shilpi Chhotray Executive Producer: Mindy Ramaker Engineer: Ameeta Ganatra Project Manager: Asia Simms 🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 1 - Earth’s Greatest Enemy with Abby Martin

  2. Season 2 Trailer

    Trailer - Season 2 of A People's Climate

    A People’s Climate is back for Season 2. Host Shilpi Chhotray takes you inside the fight for climate and environmental justice with organizers, legal experts, filmmakers, and movement leaders challenging the corporate and political forces blocking real change — from Big Oil and militarism to over-policing and the Supreme Court.  This is essential listening for anyone serious about building a mass climate movement. New episodes every Saturday starting Oct 3, 2026. Guests this season include: LaTricea Adams - Founder and CEO of Young, Gifted & GreenBrea Baker - Writer, Activist and Author of ROOTED: The American Legacy of Land Theft & The Modern Movement for Black Land OwnershipDr. Hatem Bazian - Decolonial scholar, professor at UC Berkeley, author, and activistJohn Beard Jr. - Founder and CEO of the Port Arthur Community Action NetworkNalleli Cobo - Environmental Activist and Co-Founder of South Central Youth Leadership CoalitionKamau Franklin - Founder of Community Movement BuildersU.S. Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost - Florida’s 10th Congressional DistrictAbby Martin - Investigative journalist, Director of Earth’s Greatest Enemy, and founder of The Empire FilesElie Mystal - Justice Correspondent for The NationSean Sherman - Chef and Founder of Indígena by Owamni and North American Traditional Indigenous Food SystemsAnd more to be announced. Credits Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation Powered by Wildseeds Fund Host: Shilpi Chhotray Executive Producer: Mindy Ramaker Engineer: Dennis Maxwell Project Manager: Asia Simms 🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

  3. Apr 14 ·  Bonus

    A People's Climate is Nominated for a Webby!

    🗳️VOTE FOR A PEOPLE’S CLIMATE HERE 🗳️ https://wbby.co/57463N Be sure to confirm your vote via email for it to count. A People’s Climate is a top 5 Webby Award nominee (out of 13K+ entries) in the Sustainability & Environment category. And it’s an extremely tight race for the People’s Voice Award — which is decided entirely by public vote.  We’re currently in 2nd place by just 1% point, so every vote counts. If you support independent media and care about the climate, please cast a vote for A People’s Climate. It takes less than 30 seconds. Voting closes at midnight PDT on Thursday.  We are grateful for your support! https://wbby.co/57463N Voted? Let us know! hello@apeoplesclimate.org  Follow us on Instagram @counterstream_media - - - - - - - - - 🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

  4. 11/29/2025

    Ep. 9 - Reframing Resistance (Live from NYC Climate Week)

    Bringing frontline stories into focus. For this special season finale, recorded live during NYC Climate Week, host Shilpi Chhotray convenes a powerful storytelling event with three frontline media makers: Chantel Comardelle, Alexandra Norris, and B. Preston Lyles. This is more than a conversation about films or campaigns — it’s an intimate window into the lived realities of climate and environmental injustice. From Indigenous land loss in Louisiana, to the ongoing fight against the petrochemical buildout in Cancer Alley, to exposing the violence of toxic prisons, this discussion centers the human stories too often sidelined in mainstream climate narratives. Our guests speak candidly about their experiences, what sustains them in the face of systemic harm, why frontline voices must lead solutions, and how storytelling itself becomes a vital tool of resistance, survival, and collective power. This live storytelling event was made possible in partnership with Dr. Margot Brown, Senior Vice President of Justice and Equity at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Frontline Resource Institute. Special thanks to Chess Jakobs, Counterstream Media’s Impact Producer, who produced this event. Key Topics Frontline climate and environmental justice: Stories from communities directly impacted by the climate crisis  and extractive industries.Indigenous displacement: The Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation and climate-driven migration.Sharon Lavigne’s fight against petrochemical expansion in Cancer AlleyToxic prisons: The intersection of mass incarceration, environmental harm, and systemic injustice.How spiritual grounding and faith sustains organizing. Using film and media to reclaim narratives and highlight underrepresented stories.Narrative power: How media shapes perception, policy, and the climate movement’s priorities.Resources Let No One Lose Heart Toxic Prisons Campaign Rise St. James Preserving Our Place Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation Frontline Resource Institute Environmental Defense Fund 🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 9 - Reframing Resistance (Live from NYC Climate Week)

  5. 11/15/2025

    Ep. 8 - (Solar) Power to the People with Elizabeth Yeampierre

    The path to climate justice is local. In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Elizabeth Yeampierre, veteran organizer and executive director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization, to explore how frontline communities are taking climate action into their own hands. In a capitalist world that prioritizes bigger, faster, and more, Elizabeth’s work takes a different path. Small, hyper-local solutions like a community-owned solar grid have huge impacts. Residents of Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, where UPROSE focuses its work, are seeing lower energy costs, good green jobs, and local ownership. All while creating a blueprint for other communities to follow. Elizabeth also takes us beyond the buzzwords of “green economy" and “clean energy” to show what a Just Transition really looks like. Mainstream environmental efforts often focus on the end goal: shifting to renewable energy. But they fail to ask “at what cost and to whom?” Elizabeth’s work ensures community members aren’t left behind. This episode is a masterclass in how grassroots power can transition us to a just future. Key Topics A Just Transition: Shifting to renewable energy while protecting workers and communities historically harmed by pollutionThe community-led renewable energy GRID ProjectResisting extractive economies and reclaiming industrial spaces without displacement or gentrification.The importance of building an intergenerational movementHow Trump-era policies have dismantled climate protections and undermined renewable energy incentivesHow disaster capitalism exploits crises and how community-led responses offer real solutionsResources UPROSE The GRID  Sunset Park Solar A new solar project in Brooklyn could offer a model for climate justice US Spending On Climate Damage Nears $1 Trillion Per Year The Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein) 🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 8 - (Solar) Power to the People with Elizabeth Yeampierre

  6. 11/08/2025

    Ep. 7 - Seeds of Resistance with Vivien Sansour

    “If you want to support Palestine, get free.” In this episode of A People’s Climate, host Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, for a powerful conversation about resistance in the face of Israeli militarism, occupation, and ecological devastation. For two years, the world watched Israel’s genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing campaign across Palestine — including the annihilation of Palestinian land, contamination of water, and the carbon-intensive bombardment that has choked the air and scorched the soil. Entire food systems have been erased. And yet, so many environmentalists remain silent.  Vivien makes it clear that climate conversations cannot be separated from Western imperialism and genocide. From saving heirloom seeds to ancestral farming practices, Vivien shares how Palestinian farmers and land stewards are not only protecting the environment but also preserving culture, memory, and survival itself. Key Themes & Topics: The intersection of conservation, human rights, and food sovereigntyWhy protecting heirloom seeds is essential for culture, memory, and survivalIsraeli militarism and settler expansion in PalestineAncestral agricultural practices that date back tens of thousands of yearsThe long-standing destructive impact of industrialized agriculture on land and food systemsGlobal solidarity with Palestine  Resources Palestine Heirloom Seed LibraryTraveling KitchenSubversive Rebels by Vivien SansourPalestinian Land, Heritage, and Identity - Shilpi Chhotray in conversation with Rania Batrice🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 7 - Seeds of Resistance with Vivien Sansour

  7. 11/01/2025

    Ep. 6 - Memphis vs Musk with Representative Justin J. Pearson

    “No matter how many billions you have, you don't have enough to buy our lives.” Host Shilpi Chhotray is joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson, a fierce advocate taking on corporate power — from Big Oil to Big Tech. You may know him as one of the two Black representatives who was expelled for demanding gun reform on the House floor after The Covenant school shooting in Nashville. But long before becoming one of the youngest members of the Tennessee legislature, Rep. Pearson was on the frontlines in South Memphis, organizing against a crude oil pipeline that threatened his hometown. Now, in Rep. Pearson’s district, Elon Musk’s xAI project is expanding its empire with massive, unregulated data centers that pollute the air, threaten their water, and undermine hard-won environmental protections.  This conversation is about fighting against entrenched corruption, unchecked corporate and political power, and billionaires who put profit over people’s health and future. Key Topics Covered: Defeating the Valero / Plains All American Byhalia PipelineThe rise of Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Memphis and the environmental toll of artificial intelligenceMoney in politics: How corporate lobbying and billionaires shape elections and policyCivil disobedience: The role of protest, direct action, and speaking truth to powerKeeping people power alive in the face of corruption and broken systemsProximity to the fight: Understanding your local representatives, connecting local struggles to federal policies, and focusing energy where it can make the most impactResources Memphis Community Against PollutionRep. Justin J. Pearson’s Speech on the House floor before being expelled“How Long, Not Long” Martin Luther King Jr. speech after marching from Selma to MontgomeryNAACP and Advocacy Groups Appeal Permit for xAI’s South Memphis Data Center🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 6 - Memphis vs Musk with Representative Justin J. Pearson

  8. 10/25/2025

    Ep. 5 - All Revolution Is Based On Land with Leah Penniman

    What the soil can teach us in the fight for climate justice. Solving the climate crisis isn’t about reinventing the wheel or the latest tech scheme — it can be as simple as growing food and building community.  Host Shilpi Chhotray chats with Leah Penniman, farmer, educator, and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, about the intersection of land, food justice, and racial equity. Leah shares how Afro-Indigenous farming practices offer solutions to the climate crisis— but also serve as a tool for personal and community healing.  From the legacy of Black farmers in the U.S. to the ongoing exploitation of agricultural workers, this conversation reveals how land is not only the foundation of sustenance but the basis of revolution, independence, and justice. Key Topics Covered: Farming as a spiritual and ecological practice that reconnects humans to the earth.Pitfalls of industrial agriculture, from soil degradation, pesticide contamination, and contributions to the climate crisis Afro-Indigenous farming practices that sequester carbon, restore soil, and increase resilience to extreme weather.Land justice and reparations: Historical land theft, racialized wealth disparities, and efforts to build Black land commons.The Trump Administration's impact on Black Farmers and the agri-food industry.How modern food systems continue to exploit the most vulnerable, including undocumented farmworkers and incarcerated individuals, whose labor produces the food we eatResources Soul Fire FarmFarming While Black by Lean PennimanBlack Earth Wisdom by Leah PennimanAP investigation “Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands”🌐 apeoplesclimate.org 📱 @counterstream_media 📧 hello@apeoplesclimate.org Love what you hear? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Please subscribe and leave a review — it helps others discover the show.

    Ep. 5 - All Revolution Is Based On Land with Leah Penniman
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

“A People’s Climate” is a new climate podcast by Counterstream Media and The Nation. Hosted by Shilpi Chhotray.  This isn’t climate talk as usual. This is environmental justice.  We bring together activists, organizers, and movement leaders who are fighting on the frontlines. Every conversation reveals not only why the fight matters, but how communities are already putting solutions into practice and power back in the hands of the people.  The future we need is being built from the ground up. Not by corporations. Not by billionaires. By us. The people demanding justice, reclaiming power, and rebuilding what’s been broken. This is essential listening for anyone serious about building a mass climate movement. Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation Powered by Wildseeds Fund Learn more at apeoplesclimate.org We want to hear from you! Email us at hello@apeoplesclimate.org and let us know your thoughts. Love what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review—it helps others discover the show. Find us instagram: @counterstream_media

Information

  • Creator
    Counterstream Media
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Counterstream Media
  • Show Website
    A People's Climate