PODSHIP EARTH Jared Blumenfeld

Dolores Huerta is the one of the most important civil rights leaders in history. Dolores possesses an indomitable spirit, she is a fearless advocate on behalf of farm workers, women's rights and the environment. Huerta has been awarded every honor under the sun, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and yet at 90 she continues to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with farmworkers early in the morning to make sure their needs are taken care of before her own. Dolores is truly selfless. We talk about Earth Day’s 50th anniversary and just when you thought you knew everything about Dolores, she uncovers her love of Burning Man.

At 15 Doniga Markegard, left a note for her mom that she was taking off for the summer and would be back in the fall. Her hitchhiking adventure was the beginning of a quest that led her to tracking wolves in Alaska.  Doniga’s wanderlust brought her to indigenous elders who showed her the interconnectedness with all living things. Doniga shares her tracking practices.

I travel on a supply boat 30 miles of the coast of San Francisco to visit the remote Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.  This rocky outcrop in the Pacific is home to millions of birds, five species of seals, whales and great white sharks - it is the Galapagos of the Northern Hemisphere!  I meet up with Pete Warzybok with Point Blue Conservation Science who has spent much of the past 20 years studying the wildlife of the Farallones and I learn about what happens when we leave nature alone.

Earth Day is turning 50 and I talk with Dr. Arlene Blum, who exemplifies the energy, humanity and spirit of this celebration which began in 1970 and gave birth to the modern environmental movement. Arlene is a biophysical chemist, an author, a mountaineer and Executive Director of the Green Science Policy Institute. Arlene’s belief that we can all do seemingly impossible things - is the foundation to a life of adventure.

Anna Lappé, and I discuss Diet for a Hot Planet, her book about the challenges and opportunities presented by helping solve the climate crisis by changing the food system.  We uncover and debunk myths about the way food can be grown today and in the future. Anna’s mom, Frances Moore Lappé, wrote the 1971 book Diet for a Small Planet which revolutionized the way we think about food and democracy. Together Anna and Frances co-founded the small planet institute, an international network focused on root causes of hunger and poverty and co-wrote Hope's Edge.

We are made up of 70 trillion cells, more than half of which are not part of the human body - they are microbes.  Microbes play a critical role in keeping us healthy, protecting us from pathogens, boosting our immune system, and even fighting off stress. It turns out that microbes also play a pivotal role in keeping the earth’s soil healthy. I talk with Dr. Rupa Marya, who is no average doctor. Rupa is a forceful social justice advocate, a world-renowned musician, an urban farmer, a mother to two incredible kids, and Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, who is investigating how soil health is connected to people’s health.