The Climate Pod The Climate Pod

For 70 years, building out and expanding American highways have been core parts to the entire US transportation project. But the initial effort to connect cities and states has created gigantic problems in the subsequent decades. Instead of fixing many of these critical issues, too often we see cities and states double down on the problem and make our transportation system worse. And carbon emissions from the transportation sector are a huge part of the climate fight. So what do we do about highways as these roads continue to expand and draw investment?
Our guest, Megan Kimble, has been looking for the answers. In her new book, City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and The Future of America's Highways, she both looks back at the origins of the American highway system and examines today's fight to determine what is happening and how decisions are being made that design our transportation system. We discuss the "freeway fighters" that are working to remove highways and prevent highways from being expanded, how federal investments favor highways over transit, how highways have been used to exacerbate racial inequities, and why climate activists are helping to make change. 
Megan Kimble is an investigative journalist and former executive editor at The Texas Observer. She has written about housing, transportation, and urban development for The New York Times, Texas Monthly, The Guardian, and Bloomberg CityLab. 
Check out City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and The Future of America's Highways
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

President Biden campaigned on the promises of producing 100% of America's electricity with clean energy resources by 2035 and getting America's economy to Net Zero emissions by 2050.  Since President Biden took office, the US Congress has passed the Bi-partisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPs and Science Act - all aimed at helping America transition to a clean energy economy.  In addition to creating incentives for private companies to invest in clean energy manufacturing in America, those three bills also provided billions of dollars to the United States Department of Energy to oversee the research, development, and deployment of clean energy technologies.
Secretary Jennifer Granholm has led the Department of Energy throughout the entire Biden Administration and has completely restructured the Department to achieve President Biden's clean energy goals for America.  This week, Secretary Granholm joins The Climate Pod to discuss how the DOE helps enable the deployment of new clean energy technologies, what should be done about technology companies ramping up their energy consumption due to massive data centers, what the DOE could look like under a second Biden or Trump presidential term, and so much more.
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.

Mary Annaïse Heglar is back on the show to discuss her new book "Troubled Waters", a fictional account of a young Black woman in Mississippi that uses direct action against the fossil fuel industry as a healing mechanism for her own grief, while also learning about the grief and trauma that her own grandmother carries with her from her days at the center of the Civil Rights movement.  Mary Annaïse Heglar is one of the great essayists and writers about the climate crisis, climate grief, and climate justice.
Buy "Troubled Waters"
Buy "The World is Ours to Cherish"
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.
 

The climate movement is used to fight denial. Few who do this work escape the need to push back against critics claiming that human-created carbon dioxide emissions don't cause dangerous warming. But as the crisis becomes more clear and everpresent, it's time to expand our definition of climate denial, argues author Tad DeLay. In his new book, Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change, DeLay confronts the idea that we are rarely facing up to the real facts of the crisis and allowing for a great deal of harm to take place as a result. He joins the show to discuss what the Left often misses when it comes to the facts of climate change, why a more honest conversation is unnecessary, and what he fears most as more people are harmed by both the crisis and the reaction to it. 
Tad DeLay, PhD is a philosopher, religion scholar, and interdisciplinary critical theorist. He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Baltimore. He is the author of multiple books, including his latest, Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change.
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.
 

Hundreds of billions of dollars have already been invested in clean energy projects in America since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022. With that level of spending, clean energy jobs are on the rise, meaning there's never been a better time to start a career focused on combating the climate crisis. The variety of roles in clean energy jobs means there are plenty of ways you can become a "Climate Person" in your professional life, even if you've been one in your personal life for a while. Being a "Climate Person" also isn't restricted to just careers in clean energy, but also means incorporating climate solutions into whatever it is you do for a living.
Tom Steyer, co-founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions, founder of NextGen Climate America, and 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Candidate joins the show this week to discuss his new book "Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We'll Win the Climate War" and strategies for becoming a "Climate Person" at a time when the world needs more of them than ever. We also talk about how turning politicians, business leaders, and investors into climate people will be critical to the sustainability of human life on our planet.
Read "Cheaper, Faster, Better"
Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website!

This week, two Pultizer Prize-winning reporters join the show to discuss their new investigative series, “The Drowning South," and how the threat of sea level rise is causing a number of complex problems in America's southern coastal cities. The Washington Post's Chris Mooney, a reporter covering climate change, energy and the environment, and Brady Dennis, a reporter focusing on environmental policy, public health issues and climate impacts, explain why the American south is facing an unusual amount of problems with sea level rise, what's happening in the region compared to other parts of the country, and how flooding is causing a variety of issues testing local areas' ability to adapt.
The first three stories of “The Drowning South” series are available here:
The New Face of Flooding
A Hidden Threat  
Where Seas are Rising with ‘Unprecedented’ Speed
As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group.