Podcasts

This page includes recommended podcasts to understand what is going on and what you can do about it. I encourage you to explore the podcasts listed here, and feel free to discuss any of them with me. Along with the audio and video options, the show notes typically include a lot of reference material. If podcasts are not your thing, head back to the climate emergency kit home page or the reading and reference page.

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens explores money, energy, economy, and the environment with world experts and leaders to understand how everything fits together, and where we go from here.

Nate has produced over 100 weekly podcasts to date. Some of my favourites:

• An animated series for overview
• Michael Every: “The Many -Isms of the Metacrisis”. This one is a must-listen or must-watch. If you want to understand the systems-view of economy, finance, and trade, listen to Rabobank Senior Analyst Michael Every talking to Nate Hagens.
• Steve Keen: “On the Origins of Energy Blindness”. Steve Keen features in several episodes. Here he offers a deep forensic history of why modern economic theory has neglected the role of energy in productivity – and why this “Energy Blindness” is now a major blindspot in how our culture views the present – and the future.
• Leon Simons: “Aerosol Demasking & Global Heating”. Leon theorizes on the intensity of aerosol masking from particulates such as sulfur, based on the connection between recent changes in marine fuel sulfur requirements and corresponding climate data. This goes some way to explaining the scarily rapid rise in ocean temperatures since mid-2023.
• The Human Predicament in 22 Clips. A great summary podcast.
• Arthur Berman: “Shale Oil and the Slurping Sound”. Art Berman is also a regular on this show. This episode paints a poignant picture of the future of oil now that we have past the peak.

And there are many more.

Podcast

Force of Nature helps young people turn climate anxiety into action, and work with leaders to drive intergenerational solutions.

Force of Nature was founded in 2019 by then 19-year-old Clover Hogan.

”At 16, I travelled to Paris for COP21. I went in with starry-eyed optimism that world leaders would solve this existential threat. Instead, I met people who were fluent in greenwash, making promises scheduled far enough into the future that they required no immediate action. I was familiar with the anger and frustration that bubbled up within me, but never before had I felt… powerless. And looking at the people around me – anxious students, calculating policy-makers, cautious corporate leaders – I saw the same feelings reflected in their eyes, too. At 19, I started Force of Nature with the mission to mobilise mindsets for climate action. Our team has since delivered programmes to thousands of young people, and moved decision-makers across business and policy. We’re helping our community channel climate anxiety into agency; develop the skills to make a difference; and inspire change at the systemic level.” — Clover Hogan, 2022

Podcast

The Mongabay Newscast is our free, biweekly podcast delivering news and inspiration from nature’s frontline. It features inspiring guests and deeper analysis of the global environmental issues explored every day by the Mongabay.com team, from climate change to biodiversity, tropical ecology, wildlife, and more. Listen to episodes below or subscribe to it wherever you get podcasts. We […]

Some of my favourites:

• Can ‘degrowth’ solve our ecological, social & economic problems? A wonderful summary of degrowth by Timothée Parrique.
• Climate loss & damage fund ‘the furthest thing imaginable from a success’. Rachel Donald discusses the most recent meeting of the United Nations Transitional Committee to establish the highly anticipated loss and damage fund: a first-of-its-kind global fund, previously intended to compel wealthy industrialized nations to offset the damages incurred by low- and middle-income nations from the impacts of climate change.

Planet: Critical | Rachel Donald | Substack

Planet: Critical is the podcast for a world in crisis. We face severe climate, energy, economic and political breakdown. Journalist Rachel Donald interviews those confronting the crisis, revealing what’s really going on—and what needs to be done.

Some of my favourites:

• Social Tipping Points | Erin Remblance. Rachel talks to Erin Remblance, degrowth advocate and co-founder of ReBiz, an “un/school” designed to equip all people with the worldview and skills to create regenerative and pluriversal post-growth futures.
• Global Oil Depletion | Alister Hamilton. When do you think we’ll run out of oil? 2050? 2100? Never? That’s understandable given the IPCC models access to oil until 2100. Petroleum is the life blood of our global economy, and it’s difficult to imagine it drying up. But we’re running out. Fast. Alister Hamilton is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and presents research showing that we will lose access to oil around the world in the 2030s.
• What We Get Wrong About Money | Steven Hail. Rachel is joined by Steven Hail, economist and lecturer, who explains, using Modern Monetary Theory, what we get wrong about money, taxes, inflation and even currency. Steven reveals how the notion of states not being able to afford certain necessities—like education, health, the green transition—is nonsense, explaining how the supply of resources impacts our economy, not running a deficit.

The Rewild Podcast

Join James Shooter, host of The Rewild Podcast, as he travels across Europe discovering inspiring stories of rewilding across the continent. Produced in collaboration with Rewilding Europe.

This is a fantastic monthly series of stories of how vast areas of Europe are being ‘rewilded’. There is a big emphasis on reintroduction of keystone species and lots of great interviews with founders and people ‘on the ground’. Also, a lot of lovely soundtracks of each rewilding place.