The climate crisis seems to be missing from the overwhelming majority of the popular culture that we consume. But is that really the case?

In this compelling conversation Mark Bould, a distinguished professor of film and literature at the University of the West of England, explains how we might be able to uncover the crisis in TV, books, and film where it isn't obvious at first glance. Bould is the author of The Anthropocene Unconscious: Climate Catastrophe Culture, which challenges our conventional understanding of climate change narratives and encourages us to uncover the implicit climate themes woven into various forms of media. Bould explains in this conversation how science fiction especially can serve as a powerful lens through which we can examine the complexities of climate change and its cultural implications.

Throughout this episode, we journey through a diverse array of media, including the Sharknado, Arrival, World War Z, The Edge of Tomorrow, The Purge, and the Fast & Furious franchise to examine how climate themes appear in unexpected plas. From the explosive rise of zombie films to the nuanced storytelling of literary novels, Bould shares his insights on how these narratives not only reflect societal anxieties but also shape our collective consciousness regarding the climate crisis. Whether you're a film nerd or a climate change champion, this episode offers a thought-provoking exploration of how fiction can illuminate the biggest challenges we face. 

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

This week, David Wallace-Wells is back on the show for a wide-ranging conversation on the climate crisis unfolding in 2025. I was struck by David’s recent essay, “We Can Adapt and Prepare for Floods. But Will We?” in the wake of the horrific flooding in Texas. As David explains, the climate disasters we face today are increasingly unpredictable and widespread, challenging our traditional understanding of what our climate risks are where they can happen.

Despite the rising frequency and cost of these disasters, David notes that increasingly it appears that our most commons response is largely to normalize these events. He suggests that instead of being jolted into action, we are adapting to these new realities mostly by just accepting it as inevitable. 

In this conversation, we also discuss a number of other recent events, from the repeal of major parts of the Inflation Reduction Act to budget cuts to federal services to China’s big clean energy in push in recent years. It’s wide-ranging and the kind of fascinating talk you can always expect when David joins the show.

David Wallace-Wells is the New York Times essayist, best-selling science writer and author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming. His subscriber-only newsletter he explores climate change, technology, the future of the planet and how we live on it. His recent piece on the tragic floods in Texas “We Can Adapt and Prepare for Floods. But Will We?”

Check out our past conversations with David, first in 2021 and later with Ty in 2023. He’s always an exceptional guest and a very considerate person.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Why were there so many serial killers in the US in the 1970s and 80s? Why were so many in the Pacific Northwest?

This week, we explore the Lead Crime Hypothesis with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Caroline Fraser. In her new book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers, she explores the potential link between mid-20th century pollution from leaded gasoline and industrial smelters and the spike in violent crime. We also examine how the reduction of lead in the environment could explain the subsequent drop in crime rates since the 1990s, but how we still face a threat today. We discuss how lead pollution became such a problem, its known impacts on human behavior, and why our understanding of pollution can challenge some conventional crime reduction strategies and beliefs.

Caroline grew up outside of Seattle in the 1970s, while Ted Bundy and other murderers were in the area. We talk about her personal history with the area and how it's driven her work on the topic. 

Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize, and the Plutarch Award for Best Biography of the Year. She is also the author of God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, and her writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications.

Check out Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

We’re living through a time of extraordinary change to the US energy landscape. As Robbie Orvis, Senior Director of Modeling and Analysis at Energy Innovation argues, the combination of surging demand for electricity with new policies designed to slow the build out of cheaper, cleaner, faster energy sources like wind, solar, and batteries will result in higher utility bills, fewer jobs, and slower economic growth. And that will impact everyone, likely in more ways than you’d expect.

Orvis joins The Climate Pod this week for an in-depth examination of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. How much less clean energy will actually be built in the coming years? How much could it increase energy costs? What will be the economic losses suffered as a result? Will international momentum towards clean energy continue in absence of the United States’ leadership? Orvis answers all these questions and more as we get into the weeds of the new energy environment.

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Check out more of Robbie's work at Energy Innovation here.

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

This week, David Roberts is back on the show to discuss what has happened to the Inflation Reduction Act and what it means to clean energy and the climate movement to have such a major setback. We step back to think through the landscape of climate policy now and also reflect on pivotal moments in the recent history of legislative efforts that have shaped the current state of clean energy in the U.S. From his early days at Grist to his influential work at Vox, David offers a unique perspective on the challenges and triumphs of advocating for climate action.

We also discuss the shifting political theories and strategies that have influenced policy decisions over the years and examine the complex interplay between politics and climate policy. David explores the role of public perception in shaping policy outcomes and why waking up to the new media enviornment is critical for the climate movement. He argues that changing the narrative around climate solutions can engage broader audiences and drive meaningful action. We also discuss the U.S. and China dynamic in the global energy transition and what he has made of covering Elon Musk over the years. 

David Roberts is a renowned journalist and the author of the "Volts" newsletter and podcast. With a career spanning over two decades, David has been a leading voice in climate and clean energy journalism, specifically offering some of the most in-depth analysis and commentary on energy policy. We are always incredibly lucky to have him on the show. You can become a subscriber to Volts here. 

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. 

Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Hey, it's been quite a while since we last posted an episode. What is going on? We explain what's been happening and what to expect now. 

Please consider becoming a supporter of our show by signing up for a paid membership to our Substack, The Climate Weekly. This will give you exclusive member content and much, much more. https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/

Prior to the New Deal, millions of rural Americans were quite literally living in the dark. Though electricity had been available for decades, it was out of reach for most living in America's  countryside post-World War I. That all changed within a decade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approach to the power sector during the Great Depression transformed electrification and public utilities on rural life and dramatically modernized the American home throught the nation. In his new book, Democracy In Power, A History of Electrification in the United States, Sandeep Vaheesan explores the rapid economic and social changes brought about by the New Deal through initiatives like the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Rural Electrification Act and argues that many lessons from the era are relevant today's push for climate action.

Sandeep joins the show this week to explain how public competition in the 20th century stimulated power consumption and improved living standards in America. He explains why Americans were ready for change during the New Deal era, how federal initiatives would later power wartime efforts, and how decisions during FDR's presidency still impact the current landscape of public and cooperative utilities. We also explore the racial and gender inequality of the era and how many New Deal programs exacerbated injustices. Finally, Sandeep argues for public leadership in achieving decarbonization targets while ensuring democratic principles in power management.

Sandeep Vaheesan is the legal director at the Open Markets Institute. He leads their legal research and advocacy, including the amicus program. 

Read Democracy In Power, A History of Electrification in the United States.

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at [email protected]. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our Substack, The Climate Weekly. 

We're back for one last episode of 2024 with our most frequent guest on The Climate Pod! Evlondo Cooper is back on the show to review how climate change was covered in mainstream media over the course of the year. In this conversation, Evlondo Cooper discusses the evolving landscape of climate media, why it remains critical to connect extreme weather events to climate change, and how that still continues to be absent from major news coverage. He highlights the power of mainstream media in shaping public perception and the role of independent media is increasingly playing in providing in-depth coverage. We also explore the commercialization of Earth Day, missing coverage of COP29, and the need for more year-round focus on extreme weather events and the integration of attribution science to enhance climate reporting. 

Evlondo Cooper is a senior writer with the climate and energy program at Media Matters. Check out Evlondo's reporting here: https://www.mediamatters.org/author/evlondo-cooper

Further Reading:

Matt Norlander's article referenced in the conversation

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at [email protected]. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our Substack, The Climate Weekly. 

What would the world look like at 3-degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels? In his latest work, Collision Course: 3-degrees of warming & humanity’s future, David Spratt explores the catastrophic implications of the planet we're heading towards as warming continues to accelerate. He argues we need to face up to realities of the crisis and have an honest discourse on risks and impacts already occuring. On the show this week, he joins us to discuss the significance of tipping points, and the systemic risks posed by climate change, and the non-linear, catastrophic impacts expected at 3-degrees. We also explore the dire implications for food security, agricultural yields, and social stability. David underscores the need for greater awareness and understanding of climate risks and the importance of leadership in tackling the climate crisis.

David Spratt is a climate and policy analyst who serves as the Research Director for Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration. He is the co-author of the book Climate Code Red: The case for emergency action.

Read Collision Course: 3-degrees of warming & humanity’s future

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at [email protected]. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our Substack, The Climate Weekly.

We're undergoing a necessary renewable energy transition. And this transition will require an enormous amount of critical metals in order to power an economy without fossil fuels. Today, the processes we use to extract these materials - from copper, nickel, lithium, and more - are causing harm to both humans and our physical environment. So what do we do about it? 

In his new book, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future, Vince Beiser argues that there are huge opportunities to make mining safer, recycle more metals, and use less energy to help lessen the burden. Though the critical metals necessary for the transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles will never come without trade-offs, it's clear we could be doing much better. In this conversation, Beiser discusses the most pressing environmental damage and human rights concerns facing critical metals and how we could start to confront the problem. We also talk about the geopolitical implications of China's dominance in the critical metals supply chain,  the scale of demand for metals, and the need for equitable solutions in the energy transition. Finally, we explore deep sea mining, the challenges and opportunities in recycling metals, the growing right to repair movement, and the importance of reducing energy consumption to help ease demand. 

Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist and author. His first book, The World in a Grain, was a finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a California Book Award. His work has appeared in Wired, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and The New York Times, among other publications.

Read Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future

Check out Vince's Substack, Power Metals

As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at [email protected]. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our Substack, The Climate Weekly.