How to Save a Planet

By GimletSociety & Culture News Science

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How to Save a Planet episodes

May 26, 2022Why Is It So Hard To Fix Our Electronics, And What Can We Do About It?
Electronics — smartphones, computers, televisions — exact a hefty toll on the planet. One way to lighten their load? Use them for longer. And yet, for decades now, manufacturers have made replacing our gadgets easier than repairing them. But Kyle Wiens, co-founder of the repair website iFixit, has been working to reverse that. He talks to us about why repair matters, why our devices are so hard to repair, and the policies that could change that.
Calls to Action
Read up on the "Freedom to Repair Act", the proposed federal right to repair bill.
Talk to your state or federal representatives (or both) about supporting Right to Repair legislation. Visit yourstatename.repair.org (i.e. california.repair.org or montana.repair.org) to locate your reps and learn more about state actions.
Have an old phone gathering dust? Check out websites like Backmarket or Swappa. There you can sell your old phone - our first call to action that might earn you some cash - extending its life. You can also try donating it in your community. Domestic violence shelters in particular sometimes have a need for old phones.

If you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us via our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Find all the actions we’ve recommended on our show here!

How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production. It's hosted by Alex Blumberg.
This episode was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney.
Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Peter Leonard, Catherine Anderson and Emma Munger.
Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib.

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35 min
May 19, 2022 Presenting: Not Past It - The "Crying Indian" Ad
We’re bringing you an episode of another Gimlet podcast, Not Past It, which looks at a moment from that week in history and explores how it shapes our world today. On Earth Day, April 22nd, 1971, a commercial debuted starring a crying American Indian. The image stuck in the country’s consciousness. But there were surprising forces behind the ad. Not Past It digs into the powerful players who helped shape how we think about environmental action.
You can hear more episodes of Not Past It on Spotify.
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34 min
May 12, 2022Feeling Doomed? How to Tackle Climate Anxiety
“We’re all doomed.” If you’ve ever thought this to yourself while looking down at the remnants of your paper straw floating in your plastic coffee cup (just me?), you may be experiencing climate anxiety. Climate feelings, like anxiety and grief, are on the rise all over the world. And researcher Britt Wray started feeling them herself when she was newly married and started thinking about having children. So she started to study these feelings to learn more about the roots of her climate anxiety, how common it was, and why learning to cope with it is an important step towards taking climate action.

Guest: Britt Wray

Calls to Action
If you’re looking for climate related mental health treatment, the Climate Psychology Alliance has a directory of climate-aware therapists in North America and the UK
If you’re looking to connect with others over climate anxiety, check out some Climate Cafe directories here and here, or search “my city + climate cafe” to find one near you. If you want to host your own Climate Cafe, here’s a discussion guide. The Good Grief Network and Climate Awakening also host virtual ways to connect.
If you want to try some of the mindfulness techniques that Britt mentioned as a way of stretching your window of tolerance, check out the Free Mindfulness Project and Headspace
If you want to check out Britt’s work on climate anxiety, you can subscribe to her substack Gen Dread or check out her book Generation Dread

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, Hannah Chinn, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producers are Katelyn Bogucki and Matt Shilts. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Stephanie Abramson.

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29 min
May 05, 2022Should I Give Up Beef?
A quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use – and a big portion of those emissions come from producing meat. Adopting a plant-based diet is one of the biggest steps an individual can take to reduce their own carbon footprint. So, should we all stop eating meat? Or is it more complicated than that? This week, we take a tour through the bodily functions of cows, millions of acres of corn, and the hidden policy that shapes the American food system to answer that question once and for all.

(This episode first aired March 25, 2021.)

Calls to action:
Sign up to track the latest U.S. Food & Agriculture bills here, and contact Agriculture Committee members (House and Senate) about supporting a climate-friendly Farm Bill.
Contact the places you eat regularly about providing beef-less options – maybe it’s the cafeteria at work or school, or a community gathering space. Meatless Monday has resources for institutions that want to provide more climate-friendly meals.
Get involved with a local organization fighting food insecurity, a mutual aid group, a community garden, or a co-op.
For more information:
Read the World Resources Institute’s report on Creating a Sustainable Food Future.
Read this study about regenerative methods in beef production.
Read this study about red seaweed reducing methane in beef production.
Check out this data visualization on land use in the U.S.
Listen to the Science Vs. episode on vegan diets.

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45 min
April 28, 2022Sacrifice Zones: ProPublica Takes Us Inside America’s Toxic Hotspots
All across the United States, industrial polluters are emitting toxic air... and people who live near those polluters are breathing it in. Kendra spoke to journalists from investigative newsroom ProPublica about the communities most affected by carcinogenic air pollution, often referred to as “sacrifice zones”: where they are, why they matter, and how you can find out if you and your loved ones are living in one.

Guests: Al Shaw, Maya Miller, John Beard Jr.

Calls to Action:
If you want to learn more about Propublica’s series and the sacrifice zones they studied, you can see the entire project on their site here. If you’re interested in finding out whether the place YOU live is on ProPublica’s map, you can see that, too— just search this map by address, city, or zipcode, and see the industrial pollution risks in your area.
The EPA data that Propublica’s investigative team used when they made the site is from the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model. You can check it out for yourself here.
Finally, if you’re interested in going beyond just industrial pollution, Al recommends looking at a database called the National Air Toxics Assessment, put out by the EPA.

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn. Our star moderator, is Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Anna Ladd, Rachel Waldholz, Daniel Ackerman, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our fact checker for this episode is James Gaines. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard.

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41 min
April 21, 2022Canvassing for Climate Action: Here's How to Make it Work
What can you do if someone you know – or an entire town – isn’t on board with renewable energy? This was the dilemma facing The West Kootenay Eco Society in Trail, a small city in British Columbia. The Eco Society wanted to gain support for an energy pledge, but couldn’t gain traction within the community. Until the Eco Society’s Executive Director got the idea (from a podcast) to send volunteers door-to-door, to have personal conversations about climate solutions. To date, they’ve had over a thousand conversations and they’ve proven that a simple discussion can yield a lot of action.

Guests: Montana Burgess, Rebecca Richards, Kade Moroney

Calls to Action
If you want to give deep canvassing a try, check out the West Kootenay Eco Society, the Deep Canvass Institute, and the People’s Action Campaign
If there isn’t a deep canvassing campaign near you, but there’s a local organization you think could use the technique, reach out to them and the New Conversation Initiative, who helped the West Kootenay Eco Society develop their script

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Anna Ladd. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Hannah Chinn, Daniel Ackerman, and Meg Driscoll. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was Nick DelRose.

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44 min
April 14, 2022 Presenting: Extreme Home Makeover - Threshold Edition
We're bringing you an episode from a podcast called Threshold.
If you've been listening to How to Save a Planet for a while, you know that our focus is exploring what communities, businesses and governments can do to address the climate crisis. But, we do get a lot of listener questions about actions they can personally take and a lot of those questions have been about decarbonizing homes.
So, we've decided to share this episode with you. It's called 'Extreme Home Makeover: Threshold Edition' and it follows a couple different people from Livingston, Montana to New York City on their journeys to make their homes more environmentally friendly. You can learn more about Threshold by visiting thresholdpodcast.org.

Credits:
This episode of Threshold was produced and reported by Nick Mott, with help from Amy Martin and Erika Janik. The music is by Todd Sickafoose.
The rest of the Threshold team is Caysi Simpson, Deneen Wiske, Eva Kalea, Sam Moore, and Shola Lawal. Our intern is Emery Veilleux. Thanks to Sara Sneath, Sally Deng, Maggy Contreras, Hana Carey, Dan Carreno, Luca Borghese, Julia Barry, Kara Cromwell, Katie deFusco, Caroline Kurtz, and Gabby Piamonte. Special thanks to Donnel Baird, Elizabeth Yeampierre, Katherine Janda, Joanne Huang, Shamim Graff, and Rebekah Morris.

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46 min
April 07, 2022Bringing Climate Change to the Frontlines: The Fight to Get Militaries to Go Green
Militaries around the world emit a lot of carbon, but they aren’t required to report these emissions directly…plus they aren’t exactly known for prioritizing climate change in their projections. Still, if we want to lower emissions and limit global warming, we’re going to need their help. So how exactly do you get an institution whose focus is national protection, to care about climate protection? This week we spoke with retired general Richard Nugee about when he first realized the dangers of climate change, his efforts to put it on the UK military’s agenda, and what it’s like to try and change an organization from the inside out.

Guest: Richard Nugee

Further Reading
Go through Richard’s report and learn more about how the UK Ministry of Defense is approaching climate change and sustainability.
Look at the US Department of Defense’s Climate Adaptation Plan, and the US Army’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Calls to action
Check out militaryemissions.org, it’s a website dedicated to putting an end to the discrepancies in today’s military emissions reports.
If you are in the US military and looking for ways to make a difference, check out the US Army Environmental Command, whose goal is to provide environmental solutions for the Army and the nation as a whole. You can read more about what they do, internship opportunities, and upcoming events.

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by our intern Nicole Welch. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd, Daniel Ackerman, and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode was James Gaines. Special thanks to Dr. Neta Crawford.

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30 min
March 31, 2022Kelp Farming, for the Climate
Seaweed and giant kelp are sometimes called “the sequoias of the sea.” Yet at a time when so many people are talking about climate solutions and reforestation — there aren’t nearly enough people talking about how the ocean can be part of that. In part one of our two-part series, we go out on the water to see how seaweed can play a role in addressing climate change, and how a fisherman named Bren Smith became kelp’s unlikely evangelist.

(This episode originally aired Feb 18, 2021.)

Calls to action:
Check out Bren Smith's book, “Eat Like a Fish.”
A simple and direct way to help kelp farmers like Bren is to support GreenWave’s work, whose team is building 10 reefs and sponsoring 500 farms in the next five years.
Want to start your own hatchery, farm, or underwater garden? Check out the University of Connecticut and Ocean Approved manuals and GreenWave’s Regenerative Ocean Farming toolkit.

Finally, if you take an action we recommend in one of our episodes, do us a favor and tell us about it! We’d love to hear how it went and what it felt like. Record a short voice memo on your phone and send it to us at [email protected]. We might use it in an upcoming episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
53 min
March 24, 2022Mind Your Mines: The Push to Make Mining Safer and Cleaner
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to stop digging up fossil fuels. But the switch to renewables doesn’t mean we stop digging altogether. Wind turbines contain literal tons of copper and iron. Batteries for electric vehicles contain lithium, cobalt and nickel. All those materials come out of the ground—and we need to dig up more of them to power the switch to renewables. In other words, we need more mining. But mines can wreak havoc on the environment and on communities living nearby. One group of unlikely allies is trying to change that. Today on the show: the global push to make mining cleaner and safer.
Guests:
Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance
Nuskmata, Land Defender, Nuxalk and Secwepemc Nations
Jon Samuel, Global Head of Responsible Business Partnerships at Anglo American
Jessica Duran, Social Responsibility Coordinator for Carrizal Mining

The U.S. Department of the Interior is working to strengthen mining regulations. In the coming months, you can provide public comment on these efforts and make your voice heard!
Check out this map of mines—past, present and proposed—from the U.S. Geological Survey. So many mines!
Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Alex Blumberg. This episode was produced by Daniel Ackerman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd and Hannah Chinn. Our supervising producer is Katelyn Bogucki. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Our intern is Nicole Welch. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard, with original music by Peter Leonard and Emma Munger. Our fact checker for this episode is Claudia Geib.

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37 min

About How to Save a Planet

From the publisher's feed

Climate change. We know. It can feel too overwhelming. But what if there was a show about climate change that left you feeling... energized? One so filled with possibility that you actually wanted to listen? Join us, journalist Alex Blumberg and a crew of climate nerds, as we bring you smart, inspiring stories about the mess we're in and how we can get ourselves out of it.