Sea Change Radio

Sea Change Radio episodes:

• 06.05.2024

  Los Angeles: The Thirstiest County in the West

  Roman Polanski’s classic 1974 film, “Chinatown,” which laid out a fictional account of California’s north-south water wars, turned out to be quite prescient. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome Katie Licari of Afro LA, who breaks down the...

  
• 05.29.2024

  Warming Sea Temps and Coral Bleaching

  With summer heat fast-approaching, it's a good reminder that the planet's oceans are warming fast too. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Elizabeth Alberts, a senior staff reporter at Mongabay about coral bleaching. We discuss how coral...

  
• 05.21.2024

  Immune To Tragedy: Gun Regulations in America (Re-Broadcast)

  Globally suicide accounts for about 20% of all gun-related deaths. But in the United States, the country with the highest per-capita civilian gun ownership, over 60% of deaths from firearms are suicides. What accounts for this disparity? And why do...

  
• 05.14.2024

  Juan Cole: Israel, Gaza and Campus Protests, Part II

  This week on Sea Change Radio, the second half of our discussion with Middle East expert Juan Cole of the University of Michigan. In this episode, we talk about some of the problems presented by certain trigger words when discussing...

  
• 05.07.2024

  Juan Cole: Israel, Gaza and Campus Protests, Part I

  Pro-Palestinian student protests are erupting on college campuses all over the country, often resulting in aggressive responses from local law enforcement. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of our two-part discussion with noted Michigan University history professor...

  
• 05.01.2024

  The Journey of Kevin Ortiz: From Punishment to Politics

  How do you think your life would be different if you had spent your first five years as an adult incarcerated? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Kevin Ortiz, a progressive political activist in San Francisco whose...

  
• 04.24.2024

  Down-Ballot Politics With Daniel Nichanian of Bolts

  Election season is still a few months away, but the scent of it is already on the wind. There is a lot at stake in the presidential election, of course, but that's not the only issue for voters in November....

  
• 04.16.2024

  Maria Gallucci: Zero Emission Marine Vessels

  When it comes to energy transitions, marine vessels tend to get overlooked, even though they are some of the worst polluters of our oceans and air. The heavy duty diesel fuel used by most ships presents serious problems for the...

  
• 04.10.2024

  California Termites and the Atmosphere

  California is famous for its picturesque sunsets, year-round mild weather, excellent surf, and largely progressive politics, including forward-thinking greenhouse emission policies. This week on Sea Change Radio, however, we learn about a less pleasant claim to fame for the golden...

  
• 04.02.2024

  Rod Graham: The Case For Legacy Preference in College Admissions

  Legacy students, applicants whose families attended the school, comprised 36 percent of Harvard's class of 2022. Notably, 77% of students admitted to Harvard via legacy preference are white. These days, however, the practice of giving legacy applicants a competitive edge...

  
• 03.26.2024

  The Myth of Meritocracy Revisited: John Brittain on Legacy Preference (2017)

  Longtime listeners know that Sea Change Radio is not a debate format - we do not generally provide a platform for climate change deniers or other purveyors of disinformation. But when it comes to certain topics, we do believe there...

  
• 03.20.2024

  Nicole Voudren: Charged Up For EVs

  According to Reuters, electric vehicle sales leapt 50% in the US in 2023, and are expected to grow by another 30% in 2024. But driving around your city or town, you'll probably still see a lot more gas stations than...

  
• 03.12.2024

  “To Serve & Protect” Whom? Alec Karakatsanis on Copaganda (re-broadcast)

  What comes to mind when you hear the words “crime” and “safety?” For many, these words evoke images of poor people stealing things, or police enforcing laws to suppress street crime. Our guest today on Sea Change Radio argues that...

  
• 03.05.2024

  Andrea Thompson: Battling Extreme Heat Fatigue

  While you're shoveling snow out of the driveway this week, you may not want to hear about extreme heat - but then again, maybe you do! This week on Sea Change Radio, we discuss the issue of a warming planet...

  
• 02.28.2024

  Raksha Vasudevan: Rocky Mountain Ways

  Denver, Colorado's majestic mountains, green space, and reputation as an ecologically advanced city draw people into this growing metropolis. But there are some unwanted byproducts that result from the influx of humanity, for example air pollution and gentrification. This week...

  
• 02.21.2024

  John Stoehr: Betting On Biden

  Sometimes it seems as though Democrats are more determined to "fall in love" than to win elections. Lately I've been hearing, from both pundits and friends, that Joe Biden is simply too old to run for reelection. This week on...

  
• 02.13.2024

  Standing On The Shoulders of Giants: Dara O’Rourke and Corwin Hardham

  This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to revisit a couple of discussions with sustainability innovators whose ideas never took full flight but can continue to inspire us nonetheless. First, we hear from Dara O’Rourke, the...

  
• 02.06.2024

  Chris Nelder on Energy Transitions

  The transition from fossil fuels to a cleaner energy future is perhaps the most important human adaptation of our lifetime. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Chris Nelder about his mission to take a deep dive into...

  
• 01.31.2024

  Jacob Vigdor: College Admissions Quandries

  Whether it be standardized testing, grades, extracurricular activities or personal essays, the question of how to level the playing field in education is quite a challenge. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take a deep dive into higher education...

  
• 01.23.2024

  Daniel Kammen: The Perils of Deep-Sea Mining

  Most of us have never been there but according to a quick Google search, some of the things you might see at the bottom of the ocean include sea spiders, tube worms, and something called a blob sculpin. Add to...

  
• 01.17.2024

  Darren Samuelsohn: Untangling Trump’s Trials

  The self-proclaimed "greatest country on earth" is in an unfathomable position. Heavily favored to win the Republican Party's nomination for president is a man found guilty of rape and fraud in civil courts and facing nearly 100 felony counts in...

  
• 01.09.2024

  Bob Berwyn of Inside Climate News on COP28

  COP28, or the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, took place recently in the United Arab Emirates. With representation from nearly every country in the world, COP28 is the most important...

  
• 01.03.2024

  Namrata Chowdhary: Three (50) Is A Magic Number (re-broadcast)

  In the first decade of this century many of us learned that the threshold for keeping our planet healthy was 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Advocates like those at 350.org emphasized the need to adopt practices to help the earth...

  
• 12.26.2023

  Joseph McFadden: A Cattle Biologist Explains Feed Additives (re-broadcast)

  Did you know that India accounts for about one-third of the world’s one billion head of cattle? Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke to the head of Rumin8, a startup that’s working to reduce methane emissions from cattle....

  
• 12.19.2023

  Lauren Kim: Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

  A study from 2022 found that people who identified as non-religious or atheist were more likely to identify as pro-environment, as compared with religious people who tended to be "less committed to the environment." Many of us environmentalists may not...

  
• 12.13.2023

  Christine Yoo: 26.2 To Life

  For many of us, the holiday season presents an opportunity to spend some time thinking about people less fortunate than ourselves. This week on Sea Change Radio, we spotlight a story of hope, determination and redemption. Our guest is Christine...

  
• 12.06.2023

  Matt Simon on Microplastics, Pt. 2

  Last week on Sea Change Radio, we learned that the plastics industry plans to triple production in the next 40 years, reaching 3 trillion pounds of plastic a year by 2060. This week, we have the second half of our...

  
• 11.28.2023

  Matt Simon on Microplastics, Pt. 1

  Look around you: at this very moment, chances are that within a one-foot radius of your body, there’s something plastic. The ubiquity of plastic comes with a steep cost, however. This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of...

  
• 11.22.2023

  Zealous Founder Scott Hechinger

  It’s that time of year when as the weather gets colder we warm ourselves with thoughts of gratitude and giving, which, for many, includes charitable donations to organizations making a difference. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with...

  
• 11.14.2023

  Eriel Deranger + Bill Plotkin

  This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to hear from someone who works to amplify first people’s voices in the fight for climate justice. We speak with the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Eriel Deranger....

  
• 11.07.2023

  Gigi Berardi: Eating Well, Eating Wisely (re-broadcast)

  For many, along with all that good cheer, the holidays bring a bunch of food-related conundrums: what to bring to the pot luck, what to eat and not eat at the company party, what gifts to buy for our culinary-focused...

  
• 10.31.2023

  Tim Killeen on the State of the Amazon

  Depending on your point of reference, the term Amazon may evoke the mega-retailer or a vast South American forest. This week on Sea Change Radio we are speaking about the latter with author and conservation scientist Tim Killeen. We talk...

  
• 10.24.2023

  Matthew Slater: Crypto and the Search for Trade Justice

  Did you see any of the celebrity-backed ads for the slew of now defunct crytpo businesses? Did they leave you scratching your head at the time? It was precisely the inscrutability of cryptocurrency that allowed scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried to...

  
• 10.17.2023

  Zac Unger: Looking Polar Bear Endangerment In The Eye (re-broadcast)

  We have all seen the mournful image of an unhappy polar bear isolated on a melting ice floe. It conveys the doom of that one bear as well as his species, and implies that we are all headed in that...

  
• 10.10.2023

  David Ho on Carbon Offsets: Much Ado About Nothing?

  Carbon offsets are often touted as a solution to humanity’s bad habit of emitting an awful lot of CO2. But how many of us actually know what things like carbon offsets and carbon dioxide removal are all about? This week...

  
• 10.03.2023

  Chathu Gamage: Forging Cleaner Steel

  Humans have been making steel in some form or other for over two millennia - and consistently re-using and recycling it along the way. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Chathu Gamage from the Rocky Mountain Institute...

  
• 09.26.2023

  Pain At The Pumps: Understanding Gas Prices With Dan Dicker

  It's hard not to notice how sky high gas prices are these days. Perhaps the universe is trying to tell us something about our personal transportation choices -- namely, that the status quo is untenable. This week on Sea Change...

  
• 09.19.2023

  Israeli Entrepreneur and Philanthropist Ziv Aviram on the EcoBridge Initiative

  Have you ever thought about what you'd do to save the planet if you were a billionaire? Well, this week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with billionaire high tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Ziv Aviram and see how he answers...

  
• 09.12.2023

  Tennis Anyone? James Martinez on Tennis Ball Waste

  Did you know that over 100,000 tennis balls are used in an average grand slam tournament? And unfortunately, they cannot be recycled. Given the plethora of tennis matches played across the globe in an average year, we are talking about...

  
• 09.06.2023

  John Stoehr on the Dangers of Illiberal Politics

  If you’ve happened to tune in to MSNBC or CNN on a day when a massive hurricane is not pummeling a coastal region, you might think that the only major news in this country concerns the many legal issues facing...

  
• 08.30.2023

  Neel Dhanesha on the Lesser Prairie Chicken and Other Dispatches

  This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to environmental reporter Neel Dhanesha of Heatmap to learn about his new media startup, discuss the landmark climate case Held v. Montana and take a look at the lesser prairie chicken and...

  
• 08.22.2023

  Jon Goldstein: The Fight To Reduce Methane Emissions

  In discussions about climate change we talk a lot about carbon dioxide, and with good reason. But did you know that per molecule, methane actually traps more atmospheric heat than CO2? This week on Sea Change Radio, we are speaking...

  
• 08.16.2023

  Following the Money: Alex Kotch on Charitable Giving

  They say charity is a virtue, but sometimes it's a little more complicated. The donor advised fund or DAF, has been a financial instrument for charitable giving in the United States for nearly a century - it's a useful tool...

  
• 08.08.2023

  Adam Minter + Jim Motavalli: Autonomous Vehicles and EV Update

  This week on Sea Change Radio we dig into the archives to first speak with author and Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adam Minter about the world of autonomous vehicles. We examine the impact autonomous vehicles might have on rural America, look...

  
• 08.02.2023

  Philip Jacobson: The Fight To Stop Shark Finning (re-broadcast)

  If you were a kid in the 1970s, you undoubtedly were at least a little terrified of going into the ocean – a fear placed squarely in your subconscious by the Jaws movies. But, according to the International Shark Attack...

  
• 07.25.2023

  Joseph McFadden: A Cattle Biologist Explains Feed Additives

  Did you know that India accounts for about one-third of the world’s one billion head of cattle? Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke to the head of Rumin8, a startup that’s working to reduce methane emissions from cattle....

  
• 07.18.2023

  David Messina: Rumin8 Strives To Reduce Cow Methane Emissions

  When we think about greenhouse gas emissions, automobiles, airplanes, and power plants usually figure more prominently than livestock. The methane produced by cow belching, however, is one of the biggest sources of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, there are some...

  
• 07.11.2023

  Nithin Coca: The Impacts of Plant-Based Meats

  The new generation of veggie burgers do taste more like meat than their sawdust-leaning predecessors. And most agree that plant-based meat alternatives are a step in the right direction, considering the hefty impact that cattle have on the environment. But...

  
• 07.04.2023

  FloWater: An Answer To Our Plastic Bottle Woes? (Re-broadcast)

  In the 1990s, I recall my grandfather remarking upon the new ubiquity of plastic water bottles, "When did everybody get so thirsty all of a sudden?" Indeed, plastic bottles have been proliferating at an exponential rate since the 1970s -...

  
• 06.27.2023

  An Upfront Talk About Carbon With Lloyd Alter

  For some time now, ecologists and environmentalists have been promoting life-cycle analyses - calculations of the environmental impact of a product, from the sourcing of materials all the way through to its disposal. While this is still a valid expenditure...