Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Going Green Unpacked: Media Manipulation, Corporate Power, and Hope for the Built Environment

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.0011

Approved LUs: 0.50 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

What if the biggest obstacle to solving climate change is not the science, not the technology, not the money, but the story we have been trained to believe?

In this course session, host Dimitrius Lynch and guest Nikita Reed pull back the curtain on why the climate crisis keeps stalling even as disasters escalate, and why Dimitrius spent hundreds of hours tracing the real engine underneath public confusion. The session reframes climate change as a communications problem built over decades through industry strategy, political incentives, and media systems that learned how to manufacture doubt, blur news with commentary, and keep audiences emotionally busy while policy stays stuck. You follow the historical thread from early environmental writing and regulation into the rise of conservative talk radio and cable news, then into the tactics that made delay feel normal, including coordinated disinformation, astroturf campaigns, and the invention of the personal carbon footprint to redirect responsibility from institutions to individuals.

The session grounds the stakes in the built environment and ends with actionable leverage, showing how walkable communities, building reuse, decarbonization metrics, and shifting pressure from insurers and investors are already changing what is possible. It makes the case that architects, designers, and storytellers are not on the sidelines of this crisis: they are positioned to translate reality into understanding, design resilience into places, and use narrative to move clients, communities, and policy toward a more sustainable and just future.

Program Description:

Host Dimitrius Lynch and guest Nikita Reed discuss how decades of wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and policy decisions led Dimitrius to spend hundreds of hours researching how industry, politics, media, and messaging have shaped public understanding of the climate crisis. They emphasize that climate change is no longer just a scientific problem but a communications challenge, echoing David Attenborough’s call to move from knowledge to collective will.

Nikita highlights how the series weaves together environmental history, from early environmental writing and policy to conservative talk radio, cable news, and political strategy. The conversation explores tactics such as coordinated disinformation, astroturf campaigns, and the invention of the personal carbon footprint as a way for fossil fuel companies to shift blame from corporations to individuals. They also examine specific examples, such as the influence of the fossil fuel sector on federal administrations, the editing of scientific reports by political appointees, and the deliberate blending of news and commentary to shape public opinion.

Despite the manipulation and delay tactics uncovered, Dimitrius and Nikita find reasons for hope. They point to walkable communities, building reuse, decarbonization metrics, and shifting financial pressures from insurers and investors as levers for change that directly affect the built environment. They also stress the role of architects, designers, and storytellers in communicating climate realities, designing more resilient and equitable places, and using narrative to influence both policy and public behavior toward a more sustainable and just future.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how political messaging, media platforms, and corporate campaigns have influenced public perception of climate change and environmental policy.
2. Analyze how fossil fuel industry strategies, including scientific interference and astroturfing, have delayed climate action and shifted responsibility from institutions to individuals.
3. Explain how architects and designers can respond to the climate crisis through building reuse, walkable communities, and decarbonization metrics that reduce emissions and risk.
4. Evaluate the role of storytelling and communication in motivating climate action, shaping client and community understanding, and advancing more resilient and equitable built environments.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for health, safety, and welfare credit because it directly addresses how climate change, environmental degradation, and related policy decisions affect the well-being and security of people living in the built environment. The conversation demonstrates that climate impacts, such as extreme heat, wildfires, flooding, and sea level rise, intensify risks to human health, disrupt housing and infrastructure, and strain social and economic systems. It connects these risks to professional responsibilities by highlighting building reuse as climate action, the importance of designing walkable and mixed-use communities, and the need to use decarbonization metrics and emissions accounting to guide design decisions. The discussion also explores how communication, media narratives, and corporate influence can either hinder or support responsible planning and design, making clear that architects must understand these forces to advocate for safer, more resilient projects. As such, the episode substantially aligns with multiple acceptable HSW topics, including programming and analysis, planning and design, and construction and evaluation, and more than three-quarters of the content and learning objectives focus on protecting public health, advancing safety, and enhancing welfare in the context of climate risk and the built environment.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Embodied Carbon, Walkable Cities, and the Climate Lawsuits That Could Change Everything

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.0010

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

Who gets to decide whether climate risk becomes a legal reality with consequences, or stays a permanent argument that never has to change anything?

This course session follows the power path that sits upstream of climate outcomes: the donor networks, legal strategy shops, and political operators shaping courts, agencies, and the public story about climate risk. You see how Leonard Leo’s dark-money infrastructure functions as an influence pipeline for judicial nominations and coordinated legal pressure, then how that kind of machine shows up in real stakes like the Honolulu climate liability case and the organized efforts by Republican attorneys general and allied groups to block similar lawsuits nationwide.

You then zoom into Project 2025 and the Heritage agenda as a practical blueprint for deregulating energy, shrinking the EPA, and stripping climate language out of federal agencies, and you connect those institutional moves to the physical world architects and communities have to live inside.

The session grounds that urgency in the 1.5°C threshold and the idea of overshoot, then turns to where leverage actually exists in emissions sectors and the built environment, including the difference between operational and embodied carbon and the real toolkit of net-zero buildings, low-carbon materials, and walkable communities. It lands on civic engagement and day-to-day professional choices as the hinge point between a future organized around liability avoidance and a future organized around public health, safety, welfare, and planetary stability.

Program Description:

This episode examines how powerful conservative legal and political networks are shaping United States climate policy, the courts, and public perception of climate risk, and then contrasts that influence with the urgent need for collective climate action. It traces the rise of Leonard Leo and his dark money infrastructure, describing how his organizations fund judicial nominations, legal strategies, and political campaigns aimed at protecting fossil fuel interests and weakening environmental regulation. The conversation highlights a major climate liability case in Honolulu against oil companies, the coordinated effort by Republican attorneys general and allied groups to block such lawsuits, and the broader stakes for similar climate cases across the country. It then unpacks Project twenty twenty five and the Heritage Foundation’s agenda to roll back climate policies, erase climate language from federal agencies, deregulate the energy sector, and drastically shrink the Environmental Protection Agency. Finally, the episode zooms out to explain why the one-and-a-half degree warming threshold matters, outlines key emissions sectors and built environment impacts, showcases global and architectural solutions such as net zero buildings, low-carbon materials, and walkable communities, and closes by emphasizing civic engagement and the personal and professional choices that will determine whether we prioritize profit or planetary health.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how conservative legal networks, dark money organizations, and Project twenty twenty five seek to influence United States courts, federal agencies, and climate policy.
2. Explain the significance of the one-and-a-half degree warming threshold, the concept of overshoot, and the associated health, environmental, and societal risks.
3. Differentiate between operational and embodied carbon in the built environment and identify strategies such as low-carbon materials, net zero buildings, and walkable communities that reduce emissions.
4. Assess how civic engagement, policy choices, and design decisions at multiple scales can either accelerate climate risk or protect public health, safety, and welfare.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for Health, Safety, and Welfare credit because it directly connects climate policy, legal structures, and design decisions to the health, safety, and well-being of building occupants and communities. The episode explains how weakening environmental regulation and dismantling climate policy would increase exposure to heat, humidity, pollution, sea level rise, and extreme weather, all of which threaten public health and life safety, especially in vulnerable communities. It addresses multiple acceptable HSW topics, including programming and analysis through discussion of emissions data, climate thresholds, and risk assessment; planning and design through the exploration of walkable communities, transit-oriented development, and urban form; development and documentation through consideration of operational and embodied carbon, material selection, and performance targets; and construction and evaluation through examination of how building practices and infrastructure choices influence long-term environmental outcomes.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Money, Power, and Pollution: Inside the Fight Over U.S. Climate Law, EPA Authority, and Environmental Justice

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.009

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

Why are we still telling people “only you can prevent wildfires” while the legal and political system keeps rewriting what prevention even means, and what does that gap between messaging and reality cost the places we design?

This course session follows the chain from early-2000s fire on the ground to policy in Washington, showing how the built environment ends up living inside decisions that most communities never voted on directly. It starts with wildfire, not as a seasonal headline but as a management story that became a climate story, where decades of total suppression and the sidelining of Indigenous-informed controlled burns helped create hotter, faster, more destructive fire regimes that threaten life, property, and ecosystems.

From there it tracks how modern climate policy has moved in fits and starts across administrations, from the Obama era’s shift toward regulation and standards under political gridlock, to the Trump years’ systematic rollback of protections and the reshaping of enforcement through appointments and court decisions, and into the Biden effort to rebuild momentum through major legislation and regulatory tools. Running through the whole session is the question of constraint: how campaign finance, lobbying, and judicial decisions narrow what government can require, even as the risks keep escalating. The result is a clearer map of why architects and planners face the conditions they do right now, how wildfire and climate policy are linked through public safety and land management, and what recent policy shifts may actually change for emissions, environmental quality, and the communities most exposed.

Program Description:

This episode traces how U.S. climate and environmental policy from the early 2000s through the Biden administration has shaped the conditions architects, planners, and communities now face. It begins with a vivid account of the 2002 Williams Fire in California and connects historical wildfire messaging, like Smokey Bear’s “only you can prevent forest fires,” to current fire regimes made worse by climate change and land management practices. The narrative highlights how suppressing all fires, instead of using Indigenous-informed controlled burns, has contributed to more destructive wildfires and greater risks to life, property, and ecosystems.

The story then moves through the Obama years, explaining how the 2008 financial crisis sidelined climate policy, the political math of the Senate filibuster, and the administration’s shift from broad climate legislation toward regulatory actions. Key achievements include stronger vehicle fuel efficiency standards, appliance efficiency rules, large-scale habitat protections, rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, and U.S. leadership in the Paris Climate Accord through the Clean Power Plan. The episode also examines the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and the growing influence of fossil fuel and corporate money in politics, which made ambitious climate legislation harder to pass.

From there, the episode details how the Trump administration, guided by the Heritage Foundation, Koch network, and industry lobbyists, aggressively rolled back more than 100 environmental rules, weakened vehicle standards, replaced the Clean Power Plan with the less effective Affordable Clean Energy rule, and withdrew from the Paris Agreement. It shows how judicial appointments and decisions, including overturning Chevron deference and limiting EPA authority, reshaped the legal landscape for environmental regulation. The episode concludes with the COVID-19 pandemic’s temporary environmental “reset,” Biden’s efforts to rebuild climate policy through the Inflation Reduction Act, Paris reentry, SEC climate disclosure rules, and the ongoing challenges of science denial, censorship, corporate influence, and the political courage required to protect public health, safety, and environmental welfare.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how major U.S. administrations from Obama through Biden, along with key Supreme Court decisions, have influenced climate and environmental policy affecting the built environment.
2. Explain the relationship between wildfire management practices, climate change, and public safety, including the shift from total fire suppression toward controlled burns.
3. Analyze how campaign finance changes, industry lobbying, and judicial appointments have shaped the political and legal constraints on U.S. climate regulation.
4. Evaluate the potential impact of recent legislation and regulatory changes, such as the Clean Power Plan, Affordable Clean Energy rule, and Inflation Reduction Act, on emissions, environmental quality, and vulnerable communities.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for HSW credit because it directly connects environmental policy, climate change, and regulatory structures to public health, safety, and welfare. By exploring wildfire risk, air and water quality, emissions standards, and the legal tools available to agencies such as the EPA, the episode helps design professionals understand how political and judicial decisions shape the environmental conditions their projects must withstand. It addresses acceptable HSW topics including practice management (navigating policy and regulatory risk), programming and analysis (assessing climate-related hazards and legal context), planning and design (responding to wildfire, pollution, and emissions constraints), and construction and evaluation (understanding how regulations affect performance outcomes).

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

How Clinton, Bush, and Big Oil Shaped the Road to Deepwater Horizon

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.008

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

How did “personal responsibility” messaging, backroom energy policy, and industry-friendly regulation quietly set the fuse for Deepwater Horizon, and what did it teach the public to believe about climate change along the way?

This course session connects the dots from the Clinton years through the George W. Bush era to show how policy choices, regulatory culture, and communication strategy combined to shape both environmental outcomes and public understanding. You see how efficiency standards and programs like Energy Star helped drive real gains in air and water quality while political and business pressure pushed climate action toward compromise and voluntary frameworks. Then the session pivots into the Bush administration’s industry-aligned leadership and the mechanisms of regulatory capture, including corruption inside the Minerals Management Service and the political handling of climate science, while public relations campaigns reframed systemic harm as individual fault through carbon footprint branding and coordinated attacks on green building standards.

The final throughline ties Cheney’s energy strategy, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and its loopholes to the Macondo prospect and the Deepwater Horizon blowout, turning abstract governance into concrete consequences across ecosystems, public health, and Gulf Coast economies, with a clear picture of how preventable risk becomes “normal” when accountability gets redesigned out of the system.

Program Description:

This episode traces how United States energy and environmental policy from the Clinton through the George W Bush administrations paved the way for the Deepwater Horizon disaster and shaped public understanding of climate change. It begins with Bill Clinton’s mixed climate diplomacy record, the Kyoto Protocol negotiations, and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson’s aggressive push for stronger domestic efficiency standards and market based programs like Energy Star and Green Lights, which contributed to significant improvements in air and water quality. At the same time, the episode shows how economic analysis, regulatory reform, and voluntary initiatives were used to balance environmental protection with political and business pressures.

The narrative then shifts to the Bush administration, where a cabinet and senior staff deeply tied to the oil, gas, and coal industries reoriented national energy policy. The episode details corruption and regulatory capture within the Minerals Management Service, political editing of climate science by Philip Cooney, and sophisticated public relations tactics such as BP’s carbon footprint campaign and astroturfing efforts like Keep America Beautiful and LEED Exposed, all aimed at shifting blame from corporations to individuals and undermining green building standards. Finally, it connects Cheney’s secretive energy task force, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and its fracking and permitting loopholes to BP’s Macondo prospect and the Deepwater Horizon blowout, explaining the massive ecological, economic, and public health impacts on the Gulf of Mexico and its communities and calling out the absence of political courage to confront these systemic risks.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify how key policies and programs from the Clinton administration, including efficiency standards and Energy Star, influenced energy use, emissions, and environmental quality in the United States.
2. Explain how industry aligned appointments, regulatory capture, and political editing of climate science during the Bush administration altered federal climate and energy policy.
3. Analyze the communication tactics of greenwashing and astroturfing campaigns, including carbon footprint messaging and attacks on LEED, and assess how they shifted responsibility for environmental harms from corporations to individuals.
4. Evaluate the connections between the Energy Policy Act of 2005, weakened environmental review, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster, including the resulting impacts on ecosystems, public health, and coastal economies.

HSW Justification

This episode qualifies for Health, Safety, and Welfare credit because it demonstrates how national energy and environmental policies directly affect the health, safety, and long term welfare of building occupants and communities in the built environment. By tracing the evolution from Clinton era efficiency standards and programs like Energy Star and LEED to Bush era deregulation, fracking exemptions, and weakened environmental review, the content helps design professionals understand how policy decisions shape air and water quality, climate risk, and the resilience of coastal and urban communities, as illustrated by the Deepwater Horizon spill and its ecological and economic impacts on the Gulf Coast. The discussion addresses acceptable HSW topics including practice management, by exposing greenwashing and astroturfing that attempt to discredit sustainable design; programming and analysis, by presenting data on building energy use and emissions; planning and design, by linking green building standards and rating systems to broader environmental goals; and construction and evaluation, by highlighting the consequences of insufficient environmental safeguards for energy infrastructure.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Architects and Climate Politics: Understanding the Forces Blocking Environmental Progress

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.007

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

How did a shift in political tactics, a revolution in media, and fossil-fuel money combine to make climate science feel “debatable,” even as the architecture profession was building the early foundations of green design?

This course session follows the machinery that manufactured doubt in the United States, starting with the escalation of confrontational political strategy amplified by new media visibility, then moving into the long-lasting ecosystem of conservative outlets, think tanks, and corporate networks that learned how to turn uncertainty into a permanent feature of public life. Against that backdrop, it tracks the profession’s parallel arc toward sustainable practice, from early green architecture in the seventies and eighties to the creation of the AIA Committee on the Environment, the founding of the U.S.

Green Building Council, and the emergence of LEED as a shared framework for healthier, more responsible buildings. The session then widens to global efforts like the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, showing how polarization and organized confusion slowed progress precisely when coordinated action was most possible. It closes by tying that history to the modern attention economy, where social media accelerates division and misinformation, and explains why understanding the communication systems around climate risk is now part of understanding the conditions architects practice within today.

Program Description:

This episode traces how political strategy, media evolution, and fossil-fuel interests intersected to create climate change doubt in the United States. It outlines Newt Gingrich’s transformation of political discourse through confrontational tactics amplified by C-SPAN, then explains how conservative media outlets, think tanks, and corporate networks built long-lasting systems of misinformation. The episode highlights the rise of green architecture in the 1970s and 1980s, the creation of the AIA Committee on the Environment, and the founding of the U.S. Green Building Council and the LEED rating system. It also details global climate efforts such as the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, showing how political polarization and manufactured uncertainty hindered climate progress. The episode concludes by exploring social media’s role in accelerating polarization and the ongoing manufactured confusion that continues to obstruct environmental action today.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how political strategies in the late twentieth century shaped public perception of climate science.
2. Explain how sustainable design movements within the AIA and USGBC emerged in response to environmental and health concerns.
3. Analyze the influence of media, corporate interests, and misinformation networks on climate policy and public opinion.
4. Identify how global climate agreements and political polarization affected the advancement of sustainable building practices.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for HSW credit because it examines how political decisions, media systems, and industry influence directly affect public health, safety, and welfare through their impact on climate action and sustainable building practices. The episode connects programming and analysis, planning and design, development and documentation, and construction and evaluation by tracing the origins of passive design, the AIA Committee on the Environment, and the LEED rating system. It demonstrates how misinformation and policy obstruction delay essential measures that protect indoor air quality, reduce emissions, and support resilient and healthy built environments.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Environmental Justice, Inequality, and the Built Environment: How Legal Systems Shape Climate Futures

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.006

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

What happens to the built environment when an era turns wealth into architecture, treats pollution as someone else’s problem, and then rewrites the legal rules that decide whose health and land are protected?

In this course session, the built environment is treated as a receipt for the nineteen eighties. You look at how status culture and suburban expansion translated into resource-heavy housing, land consumption, and the spatial logic of separation, then follow the consequences into the places that were chosen to absorb risk through discriminatory policy and siting. Environmental justice emerges here as a design-relevant reality, grounded in the work of Robert Bullard and defining protests that exposed pollution as a civil rights and human rights issue, while the story of Chico Mendes shows how conservation, labor rights, and Indigenous sovereignty collided in global environmental governance.

Running through it all is the institutional battle over climate risk and regulation, from the early authority of the IPCC to the rise of legal and political strategies that reframed environmental protection and narrowed what policy could require. The result is a clearer understanding of why housing form, inequality, and law are inseparable from environmental outcomes, and why architects inherit those consequences in the decisions they make today.

Program Description:

This episode traces how the material excess of the 1980s, exemplified by shows like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and the rise of McMansions, intersected with widening inequality, environmental degradation, and the built environment. It contrasts earlier, smaller, durable homes with large, energy-intensive suburban houses that turned inward behind gates, used cheap materials, and consumed outsized amounts of land and resources, positioning them as the architectural expression of an era obsessed with wealth, separation, and status.

The narrative then shifts to the emergence of environmental justice, showing how discriminatory housing policies, redlining, and enterprise zones concentrated polluting facilities in Black and low-income communities. Through the work of Robert Bullard and landmark protests like Warren County, the episode shows how environmental harms were exposed as a civil rights and human rights crisis, culminating in Executive Order 12898 on Environmental Justice and an ongoing, uneven struggle to protect vulnerable communities. In parallel, it tells the story of Chico Mendes and the rubber tappers in Brazil, whose fight for extractive reserves linked forest conservation, Indigenous and labor rights, and global environmental governance, even as Mendes was assassinated for his activism.

Finally, the episode explains how environmental concern, which had become the top public issue by the late nineteen eighties, was systematically contested through legal and ideological strategies. It describes the founding of the Federalist Society and its mission to reshape the judiciary toward originalism, limited regulation, and strong private property rights, supported by major corporate donors. It examines President George H W Bush’s mixed environmental record, including his role in the Clean Air Act Amendments and acid rain cap-and-trade, alongside the efforts of Chief of Staff John Sununu and fossil fuel interests to sow doubt about climate science, politicize environmental policy, and reframe environmentalism as anti-business, setting the stage for today’s polarized discourse.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how the cultural values and economic policies of the nineteen eighties influenced suburban development, the rise of McMansions, and the environmental impacts of residential design.
2. Explain the origins and key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and how its early reports framed human-caused climate change and policy responses.
3. Analyze how discriminatory housing policies, redlining, enterprise zones, and siting decisions produced environmental injustice in marginalized communities in the United States and how activists like Robert Bullard and Chico Mendes responded.
4. Evaluate how legal and political movements, including the Federalist Society, Executive Order on Environmental Justice, and the Clean Air Act Amendments, have shaped environmental regulation, public perception of climate risk, and the conditions in which architects practice.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for HSW credit because it directly examines how law, policy, and development patterns affect public health, safety, and welfare in the built environment. By tracing the emergence of environmental justice, the episode shows how discriminatory housing and land-use decisions exposed communities of color and low-income residents to disproportionate pollution, hazardous facilities, and degraded living conditions, clearly linking policy choices to health outcomes and environmental risk. It situates early climate science, the IPCC, and the Clean Air Act Amendments within a broader legal and political context, illustrating how regulatory tools like cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, and environmental enforcement protect air quality, ecosystems, and building performance, aligning with programming and analysis, planning and design, and construction and evaluation topics. The discussion of McMansions, sprawling suburbs, and extractive land-use practices highlights how design scale, siting, and material choices influence energy use, emissions, and community resilience, all central to architects’ responsibility for occupant health and environmental stewardship.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Greed, Energy, and Power: How Reaganomics, Think Tanks, and Big Oil Shaped Today’s Climate Crisis

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.005

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

How did a Middle East alliance, an oil embargo, and a domestic energy panic turn into decades of environmental consequences, and what happens when the people who understand the risk best choose delay over responsibility?

This episode follows the tight braid of geopolitics, energy markets, and environmental policy from the mid twentieth century through the late nineteen eighties, showing how power, profit, and public messaging shaped the climate path as much as science did. You move from the conflict dynamics of the Levant and the emergence of the U.S.–Israel alliance into the OPEC oil embargo and the shock that forced Americans to face fossil dependence, then into the lived reality of the nineteen seventies crisis, where regulation, tax policy, corporate behavior, and consumption collided with global disruption. From there, the episode contrasts the era of conservation-minded policy and institution-building under Carter with the free-market turn of the Reagan years that weakened enforcement, politicized oversight, and invited deeper corporate influence, even as major environmental disasters and new scientific alarms made the stakes impossible to ignore. Along the way, it exposes the fossil fuel industry’s early internal climate research and the deliberate strategies used to stall regulation, then widens out to the global response, from ozone discovery and NASA’s research to the Brundtland Commission and the Montreal Protocol, revealing how scientific warning becomes policy only when the political will is stronger than the incentives to postpone.

Program Description:

This episode traces the intertwined history of geopolitics, energy, and environmental policy from the mid twentieth century through the late nineteen eighties, framed by the idea that unchecked greed shapes both climate risk and political choices. It opens with the long arc of conflict in the Levant, the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the strategic alliance that developed between the United States and Israel, which helped trigger the OPEC oil embargo and a global energy crisis that forced Americans to confront their dependence on fossil fuels. The narrative then follows the domestic energy crisis of the nineteen seventies, explaining how U S regulation, tax policy, oil company behavior, and surging consumption combined with international shocks to produce fuel shortages, long gas lines, and political backlash.

The episode explores President Jimmy Carter’s response, including comprehensive energy conservation efforts, the creation of the Department of Energy, tax incentives for efficiency and renewables, the strategic petroleum reserve, and major environmental legislation such as Superfund and large-scale land conservation in Alaska. Against this, it reveals the fossil fuel industry’s early and remarkably accurate internal climate science, dating back to the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, and shows how oil companies privately understood the catastrophic potential of continued emissions while publicly questioning the science and investing in strategies to delay regulation.

The story then shifts to the Reagan era, describing how deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and reliance on free market ideology reduced environmental protections and undercut federal agencies like the EPA through budget cuts and politicized oversight. The Heritage Foundation and its Mandate for Leadership document provided a detailed conservative blueprint that heavily influenced Reagan’s policies, while key appointees such as James Watt and Ann Gorsuch advanced an aggressive pro extraction, anti regulatory agenda that weakened enforcement and invited corporate influence into rulemaking. The episode situates these choices in a broader cultural turn toward materialism and individualism symbolized by the “greed is good” ethos in corporate culture, even as global environmental disasters, the discovery of the ozone hole, the Brundtland Commission’s sustainable development work, the Montreal Protocol, and NASA’s climate research underscored the profound public health and ecological stakes.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how geopolitical alliances, especially between the United States and Israel, contributed to oil embargoes, energy crises, and shifts in global energy markets.
2. Explain how U S energy and tax policies under Presidents Carter and Reagan affected fossil fuel consumption, environmental regulation, and the capacity of agencies such as the EPA and the Department of Energy to protect public health and natural resources.
3. Analyze the role of the fossil fuel industry, conservative think tanks, and key political appointees in shaping public narratives about climate science, environmental regulation, and the balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
4. Evaluate how international agreements and institutions, including the Brundtland Commission and the Montreal Protocol, translated scientific warnings about climate change and ozone depletion into coordinated global responses that inform contemporary sustainable development and environmental policy.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for HSW credit because it directly examines how energy policy, environmental regulation, and climate science affect the health, safety, and welfare of people and the ecosystems on which they depend. By detailing the evolution of U S energy policy, the weakening and partial restoration of EPA authority, and the consequences of deregulation, budget cuts, and corporate influence, the episode provides architects and design professionals with essential context for practice management, programming and analysis, planning and design, and construction and evaluation in an era of climate risk and resource constraints. The discussion of Superfund, land conservation, toxic releases, ozone depletion, water contamination, and global climate impacts foregrounds public health and environmental protection as central to the built environment, while the case studies of policy choices and international agreements illustrate how regulatory frameworks shape energy efficiency, pollution control, and long term resilience.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

Divergence in Design: From Modernism to Postmodern Architecture and Sustainability

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.004

Approved LUs: 0.5 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

When “form follows function” stopped being enough, what replaced it, and how did that argument quietly set the stage for the way we talk about cities, meaning, and environmental performance now?

This course follows the split in architectural thinking from early modernism and the international style into postmodernism and the first waves of green architecture, using the major voices and factions as a map of what the profession was trying to solve in each era. You move from Bauhaus influence and the authority of Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier into the critiques that reframed urban life and architectural meaning through Jane Jacobs and Robert Venturi, then through the competing schools and groups that pushed the discipline in different directions as culture shifted and the profession diversified. Alongside that design debate, the course introduces early sustainability precedents and “living lightly” experiments, including arcology, Paolo Soleri’s vision, and Arcosanti, set against the growing visibility of climate science and the environmental crisis. By the end, participants can connect these historical movements to current decisions about urban form, density, resilience, and environmental responsiveness, with a clearer sense of what survives, what fails, and what cities require in a warming world.

Program Description:

This course traces the divergence of architectural thought from early modernism and the international style to the rise of postmodernism and early green architecture, set against growing awareness of the environmental crisis. Learners will explore how Bauhaus ideas, the work of leaders such as Gropius, Mies, and Le Corbusier, and later critics like Jane Jacobs and Robert Venturi reshaped the built environment and challenged the mantra of pure functionalism. The course examines influential groups including the New York Five, the Grays, the Chicago Seven, the third bay tradition, and the emerging L A school, and connects their experiments to broader cultural shifts, civil rights, and diversification of the profession. It then introduces early sustainability concepts, from the first global conversations on the human environment to Paolo Soleri’s arcology and the experimental community of Arcosanti, along with evolving climate science and its implications for design. Throughout, participants will connect historical movements to contemporary concerns about urban form, environmental performance, and the survival of cities in a warming world.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the evolution from modernism and the international style to postmodern architecture, and relate these shifts to changing social, cultural, and environmental priorities.
2. Analyze how key figures and groups such as Jane Jacobs, Robert Venturi, the New York Five, the Grays, and the Chicago Seven challenged modernist planning and influenced contemporary approaches to context, symbolism, and urban life.
3. Explain early sustainability concepts and precedents, including arcology, Arcosanti, and living lightly on the land, and evaluate how these ideas inform current strategies for environmentally responsive design.
4. Interpret key developments in climate science discussed in the course and assess how long term environmental trends and public perception should influence architectural planning, urban density, and resilience strategies.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for HSW credit because it directly links architectural history and theory to the health, safety, and welfare of the public within the built environment. By examining how modernist and postmodern planning affected real communities, including the failures of high rise urban renewal and the displacement of vulnerable residents, the episode foregrounds the social consequences of design decisions and underscores the need for humane, context sensitive cities that support survival and well being. The discussion of early sustainability, the first global conference on the human environment, countercultural responses to sprawl, and Paolo Soleri’s arcology at Arcosanti addresses planning and design, programming and analysis, and construction and evaluation topics central to environmentally responsible practice. The narrative on climate science, sea level rise, and urban form further reinforces how architects must understand long term environmental trends to protect public health and safety in dense, resilient, low impact communities.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

The Longer We Wait: Environmental Policy, Public Health, and the Rise of Sustainable Design

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.003

Approved LUs: 0.5 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

How did a pesticide warning that rattled the public, a single day of citizen action, and a new way of reading land and ecology end up shaping the air you move through buildings, the envelopes you detail, and the energy systems you choose today?

This course uses the stories of Rachel Carson, Gaylord Nelson, Ian McHarg, and other environmental pioneers to show how real crises became real policy, and how that policy became everyday design responsibility. You move through the public health stakes behind toxic chemicals, smog disasters, nuclear risk, and offshore oil spills, then into the reforms and frameworks those moments produced, including the EPA era and the regulatory backbone that still guides practice.

Program Description:

This course traces the evolution of modern environmental awareness from early pesticide use and industrial pollution to the creation of Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency, and contemporary sustainable architecture. Through the stories of Rachel Carson, Gaylord Nelson, Ian McHarg, and other environmental pioneers, participants connect historical crises such as toxic pesticides, deadly smog events, nuclear risks, and offshore oil spills to today’s expectations for health, safety, and welfare in the built environment.

Architects will learn how environmental science, citizen activism, and public policy reforms led directly to regulations like the Clean Air Act, OSHA, and NEPA, and how those frameworks now inform design strategies such as airtight envelopes, natural ventilation, passive solar heating, and renewable energy systems. The course equips practitioners to make more informed design decisions that reduce pollution, protect occupants and workers, address environmental justice, and support resilient, low-carbon communities.

Learning Objectives

1. At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to describe how key historical events and figures in the environmental movement influenced modern building regulations and sustainable design practices.
2. Participants will be able to analyze the links between air pollution, toxic chemicals, and public health outcomes, and relate these links to architectural decisions that affect indoor and outdoor environmental quality.
3. Participants will be able to identify sustainable design strategies such as airtight envelopes, natural ventilation, passive solar heating, and renewable energy systems that respond to the health, safety, and welfare concerns raised in the course.
4. Participants will be able to evaluate their own design and practice decisions in light of environmental justice, regulatory requirements, and the ethical duty to protect human and ecological systems.

HSW Justification

This podcast episode qualifies for AIA HSW credit because it directly links environmental history to the protection and enhancement of public health, safety, and welfare in the built environment. The discussion shows how toxic pesticides, air pollution, nuclear incidents, and industrial accidents harmed human health and ecosystems and how these crises led to major reforms such as OSHA, the EPA, the Clean Air Act, and other environmental standards that now shape planning, design, development, and construction practices. By tracing the creation of Earth Day, the influence of Ian McHarg’s ecological planning methods, and the rise of sustainable architecture strategies like airtight envelopes, natural ventilation, passive solar heating, and renewable systems, the episode demonstrates how architects can reduce pollution, safeguard workers and occupants, address environmental justice, and strengthen community resilience.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership

Welcome to the Gābl Media Continuing Education podcast feed! Each podcast is approved for continuing education credits.

From Dust Bowl to Dymaxion: Climate Science and Resource-Efficient Architecture

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.002

Approved LUs: 0.5 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

What if one historical event could reshape how you approach land, resources, energy performance, and the lived experience of people in buildings?

This course follows a direct line from U.S. land policy and agricultural expansion into the Dust Bowl, revealing how ecological decisions can ripple into air quality, displacement, and public welfare across entire regions.

You’ll then trace the science of CO₂ and temperature measurement through Callendar and Keeling and carry that knowledge into design thinking through Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion vision—turning history, data, and “do more with less” ingenuity into practical strategies for resource-efficient envelopes, resilient housing, and environmental stewardship.

This course traces a powerful arc from nineteenth and early twentieth century land use and agriculture to modern climate science and innovative building design, drawing direct connections to contemporary architectural practice. Participants will examine how the Louisiana Purchase, aggressive homesteading policies, and extractive farming practices culminated in the Dust Bowl, exposing the human health, safety, and welfare impacts of ecological mismanagement in profound ways.

Building on that context, the course highlights the work of indigenous communities and George Washington Carver, whose holistic, resource-conscious approaches to land management offer models for regenerative design and equitable practice. Learners are then introduced to the pioneering climate research of Guy Callendar and Charles David Keeling, whose data on carbon dioxide and global temperatures underpins today’s standards for energy performance and climate-responsive design. Finally, the course explores Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, Dymaxion House, and the philosophy of doing more with less, translating these ideas into actionable strategies for resource efficiency, resilient envelopes, and human-centered environmental stewardship in the built environment.

By taking this course, participants will:

1. Describe how historical land policies, agricultural practices, and the Dust Bowl illustrate the direct links between environmental mismanagement and occupant health, safety, and welfare in the built environment.
2. Analyze indigenous land stewardship and George Washington Carver’s soil-centered agricultural strategies to identify principles that can inform regenerative site planning, landscape design, and resilient community development.
3. Interpret the foundational climate science work of Guy Callendar and Charles David Keeling and relate their findings on atmospheric carbon dioxide to contemporary energy codes, performance targets, and climate-responsive building design.
4. Apply Buckminster Fuller’s concepts of doing more with less, geodesic domes, and the Dymaxion House to evaluate structural systems, envelopes, and housing typologies that use fewer resources while enhancing human comfort and environmental performance.

This course is designed for professionals who want stronger environmental reasoning inside real-world practice. Perfect for:

1. Architects and designers seeking deeper context for climate-responsive design, resilient building strategies, and resource-efficient detailing
2. Urban planners and landscape professionals applying land stewardship principles to site planning, community stability, and long-term welfare outcomes
3. Building performance and energy teams aligning CO₂ science with energy codes, performance targets, and climate-informed decision-making
4. Firms pursuing HSW credit through programming and analysis, planning and design, and responsible practice informed by environmental systems

If you want your sustainability decisions to land with more clarity, stronger precedent, and better long-term logic, this course is for you.

This is a direct line from history to human outcomes: land policy to ecological collapse, climate science to performance standards, and resource efficiency to safer, more stable shelter. The built environment carries the consequences of environmental decisions for decades. This course equips you with the context and frameworks to design with greater resilience, smarter resource use, and stronger protection of health, safety, and welfare.

This program qualifies for Health, Safety, and Welfare credit because it directly links environmental history, climate science, and resource-efficient design to the protection and improvement of human well-being in the built environment. By examining the Louisiana Purchase, homesteading policies, and the Dust Bowl, the course illustrates how land use and agricultural practices can create profound health and safety risks for occupants and communities through air quality degradation, economic displacement, and ecological collapse. The work of indigenous land stewards and George Washington Carver provides concrete models for regenerative land management and community resilience that inform programming and analysis, planning and design, and development of sites and landscapes that support physical, social, and economic welfare. The climate science contributions of Guy Callendar and Charles David Keeling underpin contemporary energy performance standards and environmental controls that safeguard occupants from the long-term risks of climate change, while Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes, Dymaxion House, and doing more with less philosophy demonstrate structural and envelope strategies that use fewer resources to deliver safe, comfortable, and equitable shelter.

Take the Quiz for your Certificate

AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gabl Membership