How to Save a Planet

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How to Save a Planet episodes

August 26, 2021The Shareholders Vs. Exxon
In our first episode on green investing, Are My Retirement Savings Invested in Fossil Fuels?? Help!, we talked about how to get your retirement money out of fossil fuels. Now, we’re looking at a different strategy – keeping your money IN fossil fuels, and using those investments as leverage to force companies into changing their behavior. Companies like Exxon Mobil, the poster child for a big, bad fossil fuel company. Because of its size and power, taking on a company like Exxon could seem kind of hopeless. But recently, an unlikely coalition of people have done just that — a coalition that included a group not typically associated with revolutionary behavior…Wall Street investors.
Guests: Diana Best, Charlie Penner, Boris Khentov
Calls to Action:
Understand and track the issues that shareholders raise via shareholder resolutions – check out Ceres’ Climate and Sustainability Shareholder Resolutions Database, which tracks shareholder resolutions focused on the climate crisis, energy, water scarcity, and sustainability reporting, and the shareholder resolutions filed by As You Sow, the shareholder advocacy group who runs FossilFreeFunds.org.
If you own stock in a company directly (not in a mutual fund), you can vote on that company’s proxy ballot. Find out what resolutions are coming up for vote – the Proxy Preview offers an annual pre-season guide.
If you’re invested in mutual funds or ETFs (e.g. via your 401k) understand how votes are being cast on your behalf by asset managers that offer those funds. ShareAction, MajorityAction, Ceres, Morningstar and others profile asset managers’ climate-related proxy voting. Contact your asset manager encouraging them to vote in support of climate-focused resolutions.
Check out The Sunrise Project’s campaign BlackRock’s Big Problem.
Learn More
Read Larry Fink’s 2020 and 2021 Letters to CEOs, and BlackRock’s report on their sustainability actions for 2020.
Read The Sunrise Project’s report on how investing trends threaten climate goals.
Read Boris Khentov’s op-ed Why Index Funds Should Tell Us How They’re Voting.

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 Rachel Waldholz and Lauren Silverman. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger and Peter Leonard.
Our fact checker this episode was Claudia Geib. Special thanks to Geoffrey Rogow, Jackie Cook and Rachel Strom.

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53 min
August 19, 2021 Presenting: Ologies Dives into Coral
Will changing your sunscreen save coral reefs? What even IS a coral? Where do they grow and what do they eat and why are they so pretty? Is it reefs or reeves? The charming coral biologist and cnidariologist Dr. Shayle Matsuda of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology/UH Mānoa takes time out of his busy schedule to chat about how magical and beautiful coral can be and why reef health is important. Today’s episode comes from our friends at the show Ologies, where host Alie Ward interviews different scientists about their areas of expertise.
If you like what you hear, follow Ologies on Spotify and check out their other episodes.
Check out Shayle’s blog post on coral spawning here!
Guest: Shayle Matsuda

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1 hr 22 min
August 12, 2021Are My Retirement Savings Invested in Fossil Fuels?? Help!
Look inside your retirement savings and you may find some surprises: oil and gas companies, pipeline operators, utilities with coal-fired power plants. It can feel like no matter what you’re doing to combat climate change in your daily life, your money is working against you. So how do you invest without wrecking the planet? Is there such a thing as green investing? And why isn’t this easier to figure out? This week we ask: What does it mean to try to put your money where your values are?
Guests: Andrea Egan, Leslie Samuelrich, Boris Khentov
Take Action!
First, if you do have a retirement account — find out what you’re invested in! You can go to FossilFreeFunds.org and plug in the names of the funds in your portfolio. They’ll give you a breakdown of the fossil fuel exposure you have right now.
Then: Demand better! If you want to go fossil fuel free and you have a retirement account at work that doesn’t offer good options, tell your HR department that you want climate-friendly or fossil fuel free funds added to your retirement plan. The shareholder advocacy group As You Sow put together a 401(k) Toolkit with advice for getting fossil fuel free options added to your retirement plan, and Green Century also created a handy guide.
You can do the same if you have an individual retirement account. Tell your asset manager you want high-quality fossil fuel free investing options. The more they hear from their customers, the more seriously they take these things!
And...keep calling Congress! The Senate is currently debating key climate policies, including a clean electricity standard, which we talked about in our episode, Is Biden’s Jobs Plan a ‘Skinny Green New Deal’? So now is a great time to call your members of Congress and demand serious action on climate change. You can use our tips or check out this handy guide from Fossil Free Media, at call4climate.com. They’ve got simple instructions and an easy script to help make your voice heard.
Want to learn more? David Roberts at Volts has a good run-down of what’s being considered in Congress right now.

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 Rachel Waldholz. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger and Peter Leonard.
Our fact checker this episode is Claudia Geib.

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52 min
August 05, 2021Climate Change is Driving Migration. Could Smarter Ag Help?
In recent years, more and more people from Central America have tried to emigrate north to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Many leave home not because they want to, but because they have to: Droughts, brought on by climate change, have forced many to choose between staying home – and risking starvation – or migrating. But a different way of farming could change that calculus. We look at how climate change is driving immigration, and how climate smart agriculture could help families stay on their land.
Guests: Daniel McQuillan, Alirio Martinez
Calls to action
Learn more about the work that Catholic Relief Services is doing on climate smart ag.
Check out the Biden administration's executive order, designed to increase the adoption of climate smart ag both domestically and globally. The comment period is closed but that doesn't stop you from contacting the agency or your legislators if you support what's in the bill (or have ideas on how to make it better).
Call Congress (again)! Back in May, we took a look at the Biden Administration’s proposed climate policies, especially a clean electricity standard (Is Biden’s Jobs Plan a ‘Skinny Green New Deal’?). Well, the clean electricity standard is being debated in Congress right now! So it’s a great time to call your members of Congress and demand serious action on climate change. You can use our tips or check out this handy guide from Fossil Free Media, at call4climate.com. They’ve got a simple script and directions so it’s easy to make your voice heard.
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.
Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

*A note to our listeners
Every week on this show, we try to take big, complicated climate topics and make them digestible and actionable. About a month ago in our effort to make things understandable, we got a couple things wrong. In the episode "Can I Switch to Renewables as a Renter," we talked about something called the "REC market" and we oversimplified how it worked and its impact.
We stated that a company called Clean Choice Energy was buying a lower quality type of REC (or renewable energy certificate) in New York. And this was wrong. They are buying the same kind of REC that a utility in New York has to buy -- RECs that comply with the state's renewable portfolio standard. Basically, that means Clean Choice and some other ESCOs do help spur some new renewable energy development — counter to what we said in the episode. We plan to pick apart the details of these markets in more depth in the future, but for now, we have decided to take this episode down.
We're sorry to all of our listeners for getting that wrong.
*
How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Blumberg. Our reporters and producers are Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Emma Munger. Our fact checker this episode is James Gaines.

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39 min
July 29, 2021Is Your Carbon Footprint BS?
We're tackling a sibling debate: Do your individual actions matter when it comes to climate change? Or is it all about big, systemic change? In this episode, we break down both sides of the argument. We lay out the actions that have the biggest impact on your carbon footprint – and then ask if there's a better way to think about our individual role in climate change. (This episode originally aired in March)
Guests: Katharine Wilkinson, Anthony Leiserowitz and Steve Westlake
Calls to Action
Draw your Climate Action Venn Diagram – what are you good at? What is the work that needs doing? What brings you joy? Post your Venn diagram to social media (Twitter / Instagram) and tag us @How2SaveAPlanet.
Looking for a job? Climatebase has a jobs directory and organizations directory that can be filtered by Project Drawdown sectors and solutions.
Check out the How to Save a Planet Calls to Action document. All of our episode Calls to Action can be found there.
Talk to people about climate change, but don’t be annoying about it! For tips, listen to our episode, Trying to Talk to Family about Climate Change? Here's How, and read the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication’s Attaining Meaningful Outcomes from Conversations on Climate.
Learn More
Check out Project Drawdown to learn more about the Drawdown Framework, and to see their Table of Solutions that breaks down solutions by sector(s) and their impact on reducing heat-trapping gases.
Listen to related How to Save a Planet episodes – Party Like It’s 2035, Trying to Talk to Family About Climate Change? Here’s How, and Are Electric Cars Really Better for the Climate?
Listen to the climate podcast A Matter of Degrees, co-hosted by Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and Dr. Leah Stokes.
Check out the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication to learn more about the widespread support for climate policy solutions in America, and other research.
Check out the research paper that provides a comparison of emissions reductions from various individual actions.

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.
This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Felix Poon. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our intern is Ayo Oti. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger.

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47 min
July 22, 2021Like The Monarch, Human Migrations During Climate Change
Human migration is nothing new, but the scale at which people will need to relocate due to climate change will be different than ever before. A World Bank report estimates that over the next thirty years, 143 million people will be displaced within three of the most vulnerable regions alone: sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. To handle such shifts in population, our governments and immigration systems will have to evolve. This challenge, and the stakes, are illustrated beautifully in the essay we’re featuring this week. “Like the Monarch,” written by The New Yorker staff writer Sarah Stillman, explores the complex intersections between the climate crisis and human migration. It is read by actor, producer, director, and activist America Ferrera.
Sarah Stillman’s essay, along with 40 other essays appear in the anthology co-edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson called All We can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. To find out more about the book, each of the contributors, and the nonprofit the co-editors founded to carry forward the book’s mission, check out allwecansave.earth.
Also, we put together a playlist to go with the anthology – each essayist and poet picked a song to go with their writing. Check it out!
Featuring: Sarah Stillman, America Ferrera
Calls to action:
Keen for more of Sarah Stillman’s writing? Check out her recent piece, When Climate Change and Xenophobia Collide
Craving more wisdom from women climate leaders? Pick up a copy and dive into the anthology All We can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis – now out in paperback!
Want to read this anthology with your climate squad/book club? Here’s a great facilitation guide for reading circles
Curious what’s next from the All We Can Save crew? Learn more about the new non-profit, The All We can Save Project
Eager for more from the audiobook? Listen to: If Miami Will Be Underwater, Why is Construction Booming? (here on HTSAP) and Healing the Soil, Healing Ourselves featured on A Matter of Degrees podcast. Or purchase the full shebang!
Seeking a soundtrack? Check out the playlist featuring songs chosen by each essayist and poet to accompany their writing

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.

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44 min
July 15, 2021Fighting Fire with Fire
From California’s crimson skies to smoke so thick along Colorado’s front range that sent people indoors for days, wildfires in the US have becomes more and more extreme. On today’s episode, we ask, how did the wildfires get so bad – and what can we do to address them? This episode originally aired in October of 2020.
Call(s) to action
Help build fire adapted communities. If you're interested in learning more about the range of small, wonky, zoning-type solutions to reduce pressures driving people to the WUI (pronounced wooie!)and make managed retreat a more palatable option, check out fireadaptednetwork.org, where you can keep track of all the little policy changes that would actually help make a big difference.
Prepare Your Home for Fire. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, better known as CalFire, has a great resource to teach you how to prepare your home for wildfire. You can find it at readyforwildfire.org.
Learn More about Fires from Bobbie Scopa through the audio stories she tells on her website, Bobbie on Fire

Guests: Bobbie Scopa and Suzy Cagle
*And one last thing, the anthology that Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson co-edited with Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, All We Can Save, will be published in paperback on July 20th. So, we are using that as a chance to celebrate! On publication day, Ayana and Katharine hosting a celebration featuring a bunch of the contributors to the book – women leading on climate solutions, poets, artists. And you’re invited! Please save the date, July 20th, and head to allwecansave.earth/events to save your virtual spot.*
Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. And if you take any of the actions we recommend, tell us about it! Send us your voice message, ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. We might use it in an upcoming episode. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
This episode of How to Save a Planet was produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz, Anna Ladd and Felix Poon. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Emma Munger.

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41 min
July 08, 2021Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution
On this week's episode, we meet two farmers who, at first glance, seem very different. One is a first-generation farmer in upstate New York raising fruits and vegetables for the local community. The other is a third generation farmer in Minnesota who sells commodity crops—corn and soybeans—to big industrial processors. But they share something in common. They’re both bucking modern conventions on how to farm. And they're paying close attention to something that is frequently overlooked: the soil. We explore how making simple changes in the way we farm can harness the incredible power of soil to help save the planet. (This episode first aired on January 7, 2021.)
Guests: Leah Penniman and Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz
Calls to action
The new US Congress will be considering the Farm Bill at some point soon, and there are lots of subsidies in there that could incentivize adoption of regenerative practices and restore and conserve agricultural lands. So keep your eyes peeled for windows of opportunity to push your elected officials to get on board with this. For now, there’s a helpful blog post from the World Resources Institute that will get you up to speed.
Also, keep your eyes out for the Justice for Black Farmers Act to be reintroduced in this new Congress, which would support training and access to land for Black farmers.
Support farmers of color through the National Black Food and Justice Alliance.
Want to learn more about regenerative farming?
Check out The Soil Health Institute.
Watch these videos from Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams, teachers who helped Grant and Dawn learn about regenerative farming.
Read Leah Penniman’s book Farming While Black, which is brimming with great information on her Afro-Indigenous-inspired approach to farming.
Watch the new film Kiss the Ground, which is all about how agriculture, and the carbon-sequestering power of soil, is a powerful climate solution.
Ayana’s mom, an organic and regenerative farmer, recommends the book Dirt to Soil by Gabe Brown. Her review: “Excellent job of demonstrating best regenerative farm practices. Great for gardeners and every food consumer to know.” She also recommends checking out the farming magazine called Acres and the array of great books published by Chelsea Green.

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.
Check out our Calls to Action archive here for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
How to Save a Planet is a Spotify original podcast and Gimlet production hosted by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Alex Blumberg. Our reporters and producers are Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music by Emma Munger. Our fact checker this episode is James Gaines.

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1 hr 8 min
July 01, 2021 Drs. Jane Goodall & Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Talk About Hope
If you’re curious to know how Drs. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Drs. Jane Goodall first fell in love with the natural world, both on land and underwater, this week’s episode is for you. Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace is an ethologist and conservationist best known for her long-term study of chimpanzees in the forests of Tanzania. Today, Jane hosts a podcast called The Jane Goodall Hopecast and is a global activist for holistic solutions to the greatest threats facing our planet like biodiversity loss and the climate crisis. One of her recent guests was our very own Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. They discuss their career paths, the role of individuals in the climate movement and then dive deep into Ayana’s tenuous relationship with the word hope.
Guests: Drs. Jane Goodall and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
Call to Action: Check out Dr. Jane Goodall’s global environmental youth program Roots & Shoots, which aims to empower young people to affect positive change in their communities with chapters all over the world.
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.

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45 min
June 24, 2021Recycling! Is it BS?
The recycling bin — many of us have learned to view this humble container as an environmental superhero. It is, after all, the critical first step in turning our trash into… well, not treasure, but at least more stuff. Or is it?
In this episode, we take a look at the science to help you understand whether recycling is an environmental boon or hindrance, and we open up the Pandora's box that is plastic. We also dive into what recycling has to do with tackling climate change. (This episode first aired on January 21, 2021.)
Guests: Deia Schlosberg, Sarah Paiji Yoo
Take Action
Check out the Break Free from Plastic campaign
Contact your members of Congress and ask them to push for the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act
If there’s a product or a brand that you love, reach out to that company and ask them to change their packaging
Check out Loop, a store that ships your favorite products to you in refillable containers that they take back, wash, and reuse
Check out Deia Schlossberg’s film, The Story of Plastic

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. 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.
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 Kendra Pierre-Louis. The rest of our reporting and producing team includes Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our senior producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
51 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.