Podcasts

Join our Hoffner Holiday Show and listen to poems, readings and our favorite songs.

Our first Shades of Green program was aired on KOOP radio on November 8, 2006. The original founders of the show were Programmer Ken McKenzie, and co-hosts John Hoffner and Jenny Nazak. Over the 14-year running of the show every Thursday we covered many topics with many varying co-hosts. On our retrospective show today, we are joined by several of the previous co-hosts to reminisce about the past on Shades of Green. We have John Hoffner, Reed Sternberg, Jenny Nazak, Amy Stansbury, Stacy (Guidry) Savage, Howie Richey, Christine Giordano, Brandi Clark Burton.

The iconic Austin Environmental Directory is now online and in print. Paul Robbins the editor, producer and founder of the Directory is our guest on Shades of Green. Paul shares with us the history of the Directory which has been part of the Austin environmental community for 25 years. This years is the 10th edition of the Austin Environmental Directory and it is full of interesting information and a listing of all things environmental in Austin.

Texan by Nature is an organization formed in 2011 by Mrs. Laura Bush with the idea to unite land conservation and business leaders who believe Texas’ prosperity depends on the conservation of our wonderful natural resources. Our guests on Shades of Green from Texan by Nature are:

Joni Carswell – CEO and President, and a fourth generation Texan

Taylor Keys – Program Manager, and leader of the TxN’s Conservation Wrangler Program

Jenny Burden – Program Manager, and an avid cyclist and leads the TxN’s Certification Program

The 24th annual Cool House Tour is in Austin Texas on September 27 from 2-4 PM. Although you will not be able to physically visit the sites, you will have an enriching and enlightening virtual experience on-line. There will be tours of the exciting Green Building facilities, open discussions, and presentations by experts in the industry. You will be inspired to participate in the Cool House tour by our guests on this episode of Shades of Green:

Patrice “Pete” Parsons, Executive Director of the Texas Solar Energy Society (TXSES)

Debbie Kimberly, Vice President of Customer Energy Solutions at Austin Energy

It is time for the annual Trash Makeover Challenge fundraiser for Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE). The Trash Makeover Challenge is a fun, and high energy contest for fashion designers, stylists, and models to create original high fashion pieces out of recycled and recovered materials. This year celebrates Texas Campaign for the Environment’s 29th anniversary and the event’s 10th year and it will be online allowing people from all over the world to participate and watch. The event kicks off on August 29, 2020 at 7:00 PM. More information is available a trashmakeover.com. Our special guest to get listeners fired up to attend the event are:

Ceci Guevara, Event Planner and Fashion Show Producer

Megan Pinto, Fashion Designer and a 2019 winner in the Trash Makeover Challenge

Donna Hoffman, Communications Director for Texas Campaign for the Environment

Can you see stars at night where you live? Or, do you live in an area where the streetlights and other light sources obscure the night stars? The Hill Country Alliance is working to protect and preserve our view of the night skies in the wonderful Texas Hill Country. Our guest on Shades of Green is Cliff Kaplan, the Night Sky and Community Program Manager at the Hill Country Alliance. He shares the details of the program and provides pro-active solutions to keep those night skies visible.

A new algal bloom has invaded Austin’s Lade Bird Lake killing four dogs and affecting recreational activities and could potentially affect our drinking water. Our guest, Dr. Brent Bellinger, Senior Environmental Scientist with the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department explains the issue, and how we can be mindful of it and be safe. He also gives us an update on the invasive zebra mussels that have now affected all the Hill Country’s Highland Lakes and most of the lower Colorado River below Longhorn Dam.

Public Citizen has sued the Texas Railroad Commission, the state's oil and gas regulator, over emergency orders in May that waived fees and relaxed regulations for the storage of crude oil. The the agency's three commissioners voted May 5 to enact orders that waived fees and charges for construction of new oil storage projects through the end of the year. Commissioners also gave oil companies more time to store waste in open pits and to plug abandoned wells. The relaxed regulations will affect our beautiful south and west Texas land and impinge on ranchers. Our guest on Shades of Green are:

Adrian Shelly, Director of the Texas office of Public Citizen

Hugh Fitzsimons, a South Texas rancher at the Shape Ranch, author and member of the Winter garden Groundwater Conservation District, and a beekeeper.

Our guest on Shades of Green is Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Principle of North Bridge Energy Partners and author of a forth coming book called “The Energy Switch”. Through his weekly 4-minute videos, blogs and social media outreach, Peter focuses on the fast pace of global change in energy and technology. Electric utilities are moving toward a decentralized model, customers want clean energy, and storage is helping to smooth out the smart electric grid.

Peter says:

“Humanity is attempting something more audacious than the Industrial Revolution - by orders of magnitude - and Texas is one of the few states that is sending us those proverbial ‘postcards from the future,’ about where the rest of the world may also be headed”

Join us and listen to the podcast.