PODCASTS

Podcasts have exploded and so have climate change podcasts, in part because not everyone learns by reading, some learn by listening. There are at least two sites which, in our opinion, have selected the best climate change podcasts: Player.fm with way more than 200 podcasts and a vastly more curated list (although not so up-to-date) from Earther.

Hot Take is a very outspoken site examining how the media does and doesn’t talk effectively about climate change. Go here to listen to one of Hot Take’s co-hosts, Mary Annaise Hegler, interview the other, Amy Westervelt (who also has an amazing podcast, Drilled) where true crime and climate change intersect.

Check out our own list below…

A Matter of Degrees

Give up your climate guilt. Sharpen your curiosity. This show is for the climate-curious people who know climate change is a problem, but are trying to figure out how to tackle it. We’re telling stories about the levers of power that have created the problem — and the tools we have to fix it.

America Adapts

The America Adapts podcast explores the challenges presented by adapting to climate change, the global movement that has begun to drive change, and the approaches that are already working. Join climate change adaptation expert Doug Parsons as he talks with scientists, activists, policymakers and journalists about the choices we face and the people who make them. There is also a dedicated app here.

Bite

Bite is a podcast for people who think hard about their food. Join acclaimed food and farming blogger Tom Philpott, Mother Jones editors Kiera Butler and Maddie Oatman, and a tantalizing guest list of writers, farmers, scientists, and chefs as they uncover the surprising stories behind what ends up on your plate. We’ll help you digest the food news du jour, explore the politics and science of what you eat and why—and deliver plenty of tasty tidbits along the way.

Boomtown

In a rugged corner of West Texas, billionaire wildcatters and roughnecks are fueling an oil boom so big it’s reshaping our climate, our economy, and our geopolitics. This modern-day gold rush has sent both big oil companies and scrappy start-ups scrambling to secure a piece of the action. Texas Monthly’s Christian Wallace follows characters along every rung of the oil field ladder, from the executive cutting billion-dollar deals to the itinerant pipeline worker risking life and limb, and from the traveling exotic dancer following the trail of money to those who worry that our planet is on a path to destruction. Meet the people cashing in and those just trying to get by as the world around them is turned upside down.

Center Stage Podcast

The best of live interviews on sustainable business and clean technology, conducted on stage at GreenBiz and VERGE conferences.

Climate 2020

This podcast is hosted by Years Of Living Dangerously award-winning documentary producer David Gelber and ClimateNexus Founding Director Jeff Nesbit. Each week, Climate 2020 will call out the candidates for their action, or non-action on climate. We will keep voters informed and up to date on climate issues and what the candidates are saying about climate. Expect us to tackle the most compelling and important climate stories from the 2020 presidential election.

Columbia Energy Exchange

The Columbia Energy Exchange podcast features in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia and civil society. Hosted by Bill Loveless, the program explores today’s most pressing opportunities and challenges across energy sources, financial markets, geopolitics and climate change as well as their implications for both the U.S. and the world. One episode features Dr. Katherine Hayhoe discussing how to understand and talk about climate change.

Drilled

Secret documents, psychological warfare, whistleblowers, media manipulation, this is a story that has it all. Join us as we uncover the mechanics of the longest-running and most elaborate propaganda campaign of the century—the creation and spread of climate change denial—and why it’s been so effective. By Critical Frequency.

EPISODE: Are Democrats Too Scared to Impeach? on The Argument

Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts talks Trump, Mueller and climate legislation.

EPISODE: Climate Crisis on TED Radio Hour

6/7/19

There’s no greater threat to humanity than climate change. What can we do to stop the worst consequences? This hour, TED speakers explore how we can save our planet and whether we can do it in time. Guests include climate activist Greta Thunberg, chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox, research scientist Sean Davis, food innovator Bruce Friedrich, and psychologist Per Espen Stoknes.

EPISODE: Climate Science, Explained on Here’s The Thing

Alec Baldwin has a show on WNYC called Here’s The Thing. On February 5, 2019, he interviewed two climate scientists (Dr. Peter deMenocal, a marine geologist, and Dr. Kate Marvel, creator of detailed and accurate computer climate-models, asking them to explain climate change in the simplest terms and its impacts. Also asked them each if there was one thing they would recommend doing, what would it be: In Dr. Marvel’s opinion, because climate change is a large scale problem, putting a price on carbon is one solution. For Dr. Peter deMenocal, it is supporting The Green New Deal.

EPISODE: Future Consequences on TED Radio Hour

9/15/17

From data collection to gene editing to AI, what we once considered science fiction is now becoming reality. This hour, TED speakers explore the future consequences of our present actions.Guests include designer Anab Jain, futurist Juan Enriquez, biologist Paul Knoepfler, and neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris.

EPISODE: How to decarbonize America — and create 25 million jobs on The Ezra Klein Show

Saul Griffith knows the US energy system better than just about anyone on this planet. He’s an inventor, a MacArthur genius fellow, and the founder and CEO of Otherlab where his team was contracted by the Department of Energy to track and visualize the entirety of America’s energy flows. I had Griffith on the show last year for our climate series to lay out what it would look like for America to decarbonize. It was an awesome episode, but it was just a start.

Farming the Countryside with Andrew McCrea

A farmer-to-farmer conversation focusing on best practices to boost yields. We’ll find out what’s working – and what’s not – in fields across farm country.

Generation Green New Deal Podcast

A new generation has pushed the climate crisis to the center of American politics. Generation Green New Deal tells the story of this youth movement: who they are, what they’ve accomplished so far, and where they go from here.

GreenBiz 350 Podcast

Listen up! GreenBiz 350, co-hosted by Joel Makower and Heather Clancy, is the weekly podcast about the people and companies behind the headlines in sustainable business and clean technology. ALSO: Check out our other podcast, Center Stage: the best of live interviews from GreenBiz events.

Hot Take

Climate change has emerged as the undisputed story of our time, even of all humanity. But we don’t know how to talk about it. And the story is so overwhelming, we don’t get to talk about storytelling. In Hot Take, Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt take an intersectional, critical, but constructive look at climate coverage—with the ultimate goal of making the conversation more productive and powerful. Not just bigger, but more inclusive.

A Conversation with Amy Westervelt and Mary Annaïse Heglar

How to Save a Planet

Does climate change freak you out? Want to know what we, collectively, can do about it? Us too. How to Save a Planet is a podcast that asks the big questions: what do we need to do to solve the climate crisis, and how do we get it done? Join us, journalist Alex Blumberg and scientist and policy nerd Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, as we scour the Earth for solutions, talk to people who are making a difference, ask hard questions, crack dumb jokes and — episode by episode — figure out how to build the future we want.

Inherited

We don’t choose the world we inherit. But we do choose what we do with it. Stories from, for, and by the youth climate movement. Produced by Georgia Wright and Julianna Bradley.

Listen to a Changing Planet, Through These 5 Climate Podcasts

By Phoebe Lett 4/17/21

Giving climate change a worthy amount of attention can seem a daunting task. The scope of the problem is colossal; the obstacles to equitable solutions myriad. Yet we know the time for ignoring global warming has long passed.

Mark Hertsgaard Assesses SF Global Climate Action Summit

By Alex Wise 09/25/2018

This past September in San Francisco, scientists, thought leaders, politicians and celebrities all gathered for the Global Climate Action Summit. Mark Hertsgaard covered the summit for The Nation magazine and is here on Sea Change Radio to provide us with his insights and takeaways from the event. Hertsgaard explains the summit’s mission, discusses his interview with outgoing California Governor Jerry Brown, and unpacks why it is that some environmental activists decided to protest the summit.

Mothers of Invention

Climate change is a man-made problem — with a feminist solution! Join former Irish President Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins in this uplifting new podcast, celebrating amazing women doing remarkable things in pursuit of climate justice. Each episode features the Mothers of Invention driving powerful solutions to climate change – from the grassroots to the court room, the front lines to the board room – all over the world.

Columbia SIPA

New Congress Weighs in on Climate Change

1/26/21

President Biden has quickly followed through on his commitment to address climate change with a series of executive orders aimed at undoing the policies of the Trump administration and appointments across the government to carry out his ambitious agenda. But his plans will also require the approval of Congress to provide the necessary funding and legislative authority.

No Ordinary Lawsuit

No Ordinary Lawsuit follows 21 young Americans who are suing the United States government in a landmark constitutional case, Juliana v. US. The podcast will take listeners behind the scenes of the trial and bring to life the stories of these young plaintiffs’ fight to reverse the course of climate change. The nonprofit Our Children’s Trust commissioned this podcast to offer the backstory of the plaintiffs and explain the stakes of this legal action. By Our Children’s Trust.

Political Climate by Greentech Media

A biweekly and bipartisan podcast on energy and environmental politics in America. Political Climate goes beyond the echo chambers and brings you civil conversations, fierce debates and insider perspectives, with hosts and guests from across the political spectrum. Join Democrat and Republican energy experts Brandon Hurlbut and Shane Skelton, along with Greentech Media Senior Editor Julia Pyper, as we explore how energy and environment policies get made.

Soil4Climate’s Seth Itzhan & Karl Thidemann On Whether Or Not To Eat Meat

To meat or not to meat? That is the question. Recent innovations in lab-grown meats seem to be making non-meat burgers and tacos a tastier option than they have ever been. But are these products too good to be true? And are non-meat alternatives always more ecologically responsible than actual meat?

Terrestrial

Terrestrial explores the choices we make in a world we have changed. Host Ashley Ahearn travels the country to bring listeners stories about people making personal choices in the face of environmental change.

The Anthropocene Reviewed

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. Here on The Anthropocene Reviewed, we review different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale.

New York public radio

The Birth of Climate Denial

3/11/17

Starting with the 1925 Scopes Trial — also known as the “trial of the century” — we look at one of the most controversial topics in our time: the debate over evolution versus a Fundamentalist understanding of the Bible.

The Drawdown Agenda

The Drawdown Agenda is an exciting new podcast series exploring the ground-breaking research behind the best-selling book Drawdown, a new and inspiring vision how we can reverse global warming by achieving “drawdown” – when atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations peak and begin to decline.

The Energy Gang

By Greentech Media
Looking to understand the fast-changing world of energy? This isn’t your ordinary energy business show. Every week, we debate and discuss the latest trends in energy, cleantech, renewables, and the environment. Join us as we explore the forces transforming energy markets in America and around the world.

The Interchange from Gtm

The Interchange is a weekly podcast on the global energy transformation, hosted by Stephen Lacey and Shayle Kann. Each week, the duo provide deep insights into technology, markets, projects, company financials, mergers and acquisitions, policy changes, and market data.

Think 100%: The Coolest Show on Climate Change

Hosted by national civil and human rights, and environmental and climate leaders, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Mustafa Santiago Ali, Think 100% challenges environmental injustices and shares solutions to climate change, including a just transition to 100% clean energy for all. The show breaks down silos across the climate movement and beyond by interviewing leaders from communities on the front-lines of climate change, elected officials who are boldly leading, and cultural creators and artists who are reaching hearts and minds.

TILclimate Podcast

Climate change is confusing. This MIT podcast breaks down the science, technologies, and policies behind climate change, how it’s impacting us, and what we can do about it. Each quick episode gives you the what, why, and how on climate change — from real scientists — to help us make informed decisions for our future. Listen on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

UNFOLD a Podcast by UC Davis

The Earth’s climate is changing. Temperatures around the world are rising. Traditional weather patterns are shifting, and extreme weather events are happening more often. In Season 2 of Unfold, hosts Amy Quinton and Kat Kerlin will talk to researchers who believe this unprecedented crisis calls for unprecedented solutions, including projects that pull CO2 out of the air. From carbon farming to electric cars, we’ll examine the best ways to transition to a low-carbon future.

Urban Resilience Project Podcast Series

In an era rocked by climate change and other large-scale disruptions, our cities must be resilient in order to survive and thrive. But what does that mean, exactly? What is known about urban resilience, and what remains to be explored? To help answer those questions, Island Press launched the Urban Resilience Project (URP) in 2013, with support from The Kresge Foundation and The JPB Foundation.

TED Talks Daily

Why I protest for climate justice: Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda

At age 81, actor and activist Jane Fonda is putting herself on the line for the planet — literally. In a video interview with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Fonda speaks about getting arrested multiple times during Fire Drill Fridays, the weekly climate demonstrations she leads in Washington, DC — and discusses why civil disobedience is becoming a new normal in the age of climate change.