Living on a Changing Planet Carter Powis & Patrick Kennedy-Williams

President and Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum, one of the worlds largest fossil fuel companies. We speak with Vicki about how she feels about climate change and why, what it is like to work towards climate action within the fossil fuel industry, how lonely a position that can be, and how climate activists can more productively engage with the fossil fuel industry.

Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Author of multiple IPCC reports, and co-lead for the 4th US National Climate Assessment published under the Trump Administration in 2018. We speak with Don about his emotional journey over almost half a century in atmospheric sciences, about effective climate communication under challenging circumstances, and staying resilient in the face of personal attacks. Don's famous ozone paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/321755a0The latest in lethal heat research: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1838Medium Article on responding to trolls: https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/snuff-out-climate-trolls-with-this-one-sentence-it-works-every-time-7bc2d1e6dd4eOrganization mentioned by Patrick: https://climateoutreach.org/

Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology at the College of Wooster. Member of the APA task force on psychology and global climate change. Landmark contributor to the field of climate and environmental psychology, and IPCC chapter lead for the 6th Assessment Report. We speak with Susan about why she entered the field, the nature of climate anxiety, and the landscape of different options for responding to it.
The 10000 young person study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext
Why breathing is so effective at reducing stress: https://hbr.org/2020/09/research-why-breathing-is-so-effective-at-reducing-stress

Mark Maslin is a Professor of Earth System Science at University College London and the Natural History Museum of Denmark, a scientist, a science communicator, and an award-winning author. Matt Winning is an environmental economist at University College London, a climate comedian, host of the BBC radio show Net Zero: A Very British Problem, author of Hot Mess, and TED speaker on the importance of using humor to discuss climate change. We speak with our guests about what the paleoclimate record tells us about what we should be worrying about, and the effectiveness of humour as a coping mechanism to trauma.
Mark's Books:https://www.amazon.ca/Climate-Short-Introduction-Mark-Maslin/dp/0199641137https://www.amazon.ca/Book-Futures-Planet-Survive-Century/dp/0241472520
Matt's Book:https://www.amazon.ca/Hot-Mess-Matt-Winning/dp/147227668X

Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford. Director of the Leverhulme Center for Nature Recovery. World-leading expert on Tropical Forests. We talk about the Amazon forest, and his emotional response to the fires and ongoing deforestation there. We discuss dealing with grief and anxiety related to observed loss of the natural world, in addition to exploring how amazing tropical forests are and the role they play in the Earth system.A great paper from Yadvinder on the future of the Amazon: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1146961How forests cause rain: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/59/4/341/346941Teleconnections between the Amazon Forest and Tibetan Weather: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01558-4

Spencer has been an industrial engineer, an economic historian, a scholar of language and finance, and an executive for a major asset management firm. He now works to connect science and culture as the Founder of Probable Futures, a not-for-profit climate literacy initiative, and as a Senior Research Fellow at Woodwell Climate Research Center. We speak to Spencer about his journey from working in finance to becoming concerned about climate change, and about the parallels between the emotional impacts of climate change and chronic illness. (While I (Carter) won't speak on behalf of Patrick here, this is personally my favorite episode of the entire season.)
Probable Futures: https://probablefutures.org/