Suzanne Simard
Mother Earth Podcast
In our conversation with Suzanne, she explains her groundbreaking findings and we hear about the controversy her findings have stirred up. We also discuss the , which is researching forest renewal practices that protect biodiversity, carbon storage and forest regeneration as the climate changes. Suzanne lets us in on her personal journey from a simple, rural upbringing in the British Columbia forests to world famous scientist and author. And she opens up about the challenges of being a woman taking on scientific orthodoxy in a male dominated field. Suzanne is professor of Forest Ecology...
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Madeleine Jubilee Saito
Mother Earth Podcast
This week’s episode of the features our first visual artist on the podcast, . Madeleine addresses the climate crisis through poetry comics, an artform that combines drawings with words. Madeleine’s poetry comics on the climate crisis take us out of the language of science and into the language of feelings and emotion. In our conversation, we discuss the role of feelings, emotion and human connectivity in solving this crisis. Madeleine’s art conveys a critical message: we are all inextricably linked; we cannot see ourselves separate from each other or from nature and we must...
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Dan Esty
Mother Earth Podcast
In the face of such grave climate threats, why has environmental policy failed us? Why has an issue that once enjoyed broad bipartisan support become a source of deep division? The 60s and 70s saw swift and effective legislation over pollution and clean air. So what has changed? In today’s episode of the , guest discusses the necessity to modernize environmental policy. He argues the 20th century policy has not failed us, but rather the policy and law of the 20th century served 20th century purposes. Now, “it’s time to refresh the game plan.” Dan Esty is the...
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Deeohn Ferris
Mother Earth Podcast
In this episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down with Deeohn for a conversation about the indispensable role of community-based environmental change. Deeohn and her team work in cities in China, India, Bangladesh and the United States, where they bring together key stakeholders--factory owners, workers, government leaders, NGOs, and folks at the grassroots level--to tackle the critical issues of making the transition to renewable energy, enhancing resiliency, reducing pollution, and making sure that equity is at the center of the process. Deeohn and her colleagues share international...
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Jeff Golden
Mother Earth Podcast
One year ago, catastrophic wildfires , including the rural towns of Talent and Phoenix. The fires destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, raced ahead of people trying to escape in their cars, and killed eleven people. Much of the devastation occurred in the district of state Senator Jeff Golden, Chair of the Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery. Senator Golden is a rare political animal: a progressive Democrat and environmental champion in a rural, conservative district and a thoughtful, respectful politician who refuses to vilify his opponents. In...
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Amanda Sturgeon
Mother Earth Podcast
In today’s episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down for an inspiring and hopeful conversation with world-leading sustainable architect and planner Amanda Sturgeon. Amanda is the founder of the biophilic design movement, which designs buildings and communities in alignment with nature. Her buildings have windows that open for fresh air and allow you to see the changing sunlight throughout the day. Biophilic design makes us happier, healthier, and more productive. Students learn better in biophilic buildings, hospital patients heal faster. The fresh air in biophilic buildings is a...
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Bren Smith
Mother Earth Podcast
When Hurricanes Irene and Sandy wiped out Bren Smith’s traditional oyster farm in the Long Island Sound two years in a row, he knew it was a wake-up call on the climate crisis. Starting yet again from scratch in a life of restarts, Bren began experimenting with ocean farming. Fast forward ten years: Bren is now recognized as the founder, leader and trailblazer of the regenerative ocean farming movement - a proven way of growing food that helps solve the climate crisis by sequestering carbon. Bren knows it works because he does it himself: he grows abundant quantities of shellfish and edible...
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Mike Calabrese of Lake Street Dive
Mother Earth Podcast
“As human beings, it’s not just survival of the fittest. We’re also social animals and we thrive when we share.” -Mike Calabrese It can be hard to remain hopeful when we're relentlessly inundated with bad news about the ever-present threat of the climate crisis. But music has the power to lift us up. And in a world where we're constantly being divided, music also has the power to bring us together. In today’s episode of the , we sit down with drummer Mike Calabrese for a conversation about how the hit band uses music to speak out on the climate crisis. Mike also opens up...
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Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
Mother Earth Podcast
This week on the Mother Earth Podcast we sit down with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha to get the back story on the Flint water crisis, her own remarkable life journey and how we can all stay safe from old lead pipes and not-so-old fixtures with lead that are still found in many cities and homes across the country. Dr. Mona is the author of on the Flint water crisis, a recipient of Time Magazine’s 100 Most influential People award, and has become a national activist and spokesperson on the toxic combination of lead pipes, environmental racism and the undermining of local democracy. Find out more...
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Michelle Wu
Mother Earth Podcast
Could Boston become the greenest city in the world? Leading Boston mayoral candidate and city council member Michelle Wu believes it can. Michelle may very well be America’s most important municipal climate leader. She joins us for an illuminating conversation in this special episode of the . In our conversation Michelle discusses her far-reaching vision of Boston as the world’s leading green city and her detailed plan that takes an integrated approach to the climate crisis with policies to address climate justice, housing, food, transportation, support of Boston’s small businesses, and...
info_outline“If we committed to the Green New Deal with the vervor that we did for World War Two, we could do this in about a decade.”
-Saul Griffith.
The Green New Deal is easier than we think! This week on the Mother Earth Podcast, we hear from America’s leading energy expert, entrepreneur and inventor, Saul Griffith, who sits down with host Matt Pawa for an in-depth conversation on the Green New Deal. Saul has a powerful message: the Green New Deal is not only possible, it will provide enormous benefits to our economy and society.
Saul is the CEO and founder of Otherlab. He and his Otherlab colleagues undertook a comprehensive study of the U.S. energy system under contract from none other than the U.S. Government. Their results show that just by electrifying most of our energy system, we can reduce our energy usage by over fifty percent! In our conversation with Saul, he leads us step-by-step through the electrification-decarbonization process; and he explains how we can produce the electricity we need to heat and cool our homes, power our cars and run our businesses with clean, green renewable energy.
Saul also describes how implementing a Green New Deal will not only mitigate the climate crisis, it will reduce air and water pollution, save us money on our energy bills, create millions of good new jobs, eliminate billions of dollars in healthcare costs, and rejuvenate our economy for decades to come by putting our people back to work building the wind turbines, solar panels, and other green technologies that we need here at home and can sell to the rest of the world. This is the roadmap to the Green New Deal that we’ve been waiting for and we get to experience it firsthand as we ride shotgun with Saul on this podcast road trip.
But Saul has gone way beyond a technocratic analysis. He is a student of history and explains how America rose up to meet this kind of a massive challenge once before. Saul reminds us of America’s greatness when it built the “Arsenal of Democracy” -- the tanks, jeeps, airplanes, and armaments that saved the world from fascim in World War Two. America turned its industrial system on a dime to produce the Arsenal of Democracy and can do so now to save the world from the climate crisis. Saul goes further still and reminds us of America’s role in devising financing mechanisms in the 20th Century, like the 30 year mortgage and the car loan, that serve as templates for how we can affordably retool our homes, offices and factories now to run on renewable energy. Saul may have grown up in Australia, but he seriously loves America.
Saul is working on a book on the Green New Deal and placing it in the historical context of America repeatedly rising up to meet great challenges. Listeners who tune in to this episode of the Mother Earth Podcast will be rewarded with a sneak preview of the ideas in this important book from one of American’s leading green thinkers as well as a stirring call to action for America to once again rise to its greatness.
For People and Planet, thank you for listening.