Episodes
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Walden (1854) defined American environmentalism. A Sand County Almanac (1949) reinvented the field of conservation. Silent Spring (1962) alerted the world to persistent environmental toxins. The Ecology of Commerce (1994) offered a new vision for sustainable economies. Into this lineage, and at the eleventh hour of global environmental struggle, comes TERRIBLE BEAUTY: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering Our Soul, an expose on the failure of modern environmental movement and a roadmap for a new environmentalism in a world headed towards catastrophe.
But TERRIBLE BEAUTY is less a climate polemic or environmental history and more a love letter to the world, an homage to beauty and fun, and a tribute to human aspiration and potential. Harvard Professor Naomi Oreskes called it “weirdly fun and compelling.” Perhaps the world’s leading environmentalist, Bill McKibben, said that “nobody has more credibility” on the topic of sustainable business than author Auden Schendler. Obama’s climate czar and former EPA head said that reading TERRIBLE BEAUTY was like “picking the lock on someone’s personal diary.”
This isn’t your standard climate book. It starts with friends in the Utah desert chasing a dust devil, trying to get inside it. The first chapter is partly about the art of wood chopping—though it also covers topics as varied as garden gnomes, Kurt Vonnegut, and the Arab Spring. There are many Springsteen quotes, references to Jack Kerouac, and at least once mention of the band “Florence and the Machine.” Buckle up—this is a wholly different animal than any environmental book you’ve ever read.
TERRIBLE BEAUTY posits that the modern environmental movement—which in recent decades has been based in free market ideologies—has failed abjectly. Carbon emissions—and their associated superstorms, fires, and droughts—increase ever year. Yet the environmental community continues to pursue token solutions and half measures— performative actions like setting carbon targets or buying offsets—that don’t come close to a fix. They—and the “green” corporations that pledge climate salvation—are following a playbook that could have been written by the fossil fuel industry. The hard truth is that environmentalists themselves have become complicit with a carbon economy, and unless something changes, our future includes more than 4C warming over preindustrial times.
Schendler tells the story of environmentalism’s failure and America’s way out more in stories than in facts, though the book is replete with those. But, as it makes clear, the way to understand what we have to lose, and the opportunity ahead, is to understand what makes us human: teenagers playing baseball above the Lincoln tunnel in the polluted 70s; a “turtle boil” on Hatteras Island with family; or floating down the Green River with a friend twenty years your senior.
We’ve badly failed in the climate fight using technical means; our politics have lacked ambition and been co-opted by the enemy. What we need to solve climate change is a movement of people, like revolutions through the ages. The only way to get to massive social change is through the heart. TERRIBLE BEAUTY asks and answers the famous questions posed by French painter Gauguin: “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” in deeply human, inspiring, and often hilarious ways. Readers will never look at their lives the same again. -
Join Carly Peters, the visionary founder of Patchwork with Purpose. Discover how this inspiring organization is empowering young people to take action on climate change. Learn about their innovative approach to environmental sustainability that not only benefits the planet but also strengthens local communities. Tune in to hear about the passion and dedication driving this youth-led movement.
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Missing episodes?
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Aniya Butler is a 18 year old spoken word poet, published author, and youth organizer with Youth Vs. Apocalypse (YVA) from Oakland, California. Within YVA, she leads the Hip Hop & Climate Justice Team, writing workshops, and organizes community events that mobilizes youth throughout the Bay Area to learn creative writing skills and use their creative writing skills to target power holders and demand action. Through her poetry and organizing, she demands immediate and radical action to dismantle the foundational systems of oppression that are responsible for the climate crisis. Aniya believes through unity, resistance, and creativity we can rebuild a world where every living thing is allowed to thrive.
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Aishani Garg is a senior in high school and the co-chair of environmental youth organization BAYCS. She is passionate about youth organizing and bringing people together to fight for a common cause. Aishani is also the host of an environmental career podcast and launched a green career curriculum at her school, and hopes to encourage more high school students to pursue green careers after college. Listen to her podcast here: https://www.theclimatecareerkit.com
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Cherish Lodico is a 17 year old Climate and Social Justice activist from Quezon City, Philippines and Daly City, California. She is a proud environmental leader in her high school's environmental action club, where she tackles multiple projects locally such as promoting a climate petition to pass a school board policy, a thrift store on campus, a local native plant garden, and more. Outside of school, she serves her Filipino-American migrant community with GABRIELA Daly City -- a Filipina women's organization fighting for national democracy in the Philippines and the fights for the rights and welfare of all women and children. Outside of community organizing spaces, Cherish loves to read, write, and create ceramics pieces. You can connect with her on Instagram on @cherishlodiko.
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Avery Roslansky is a climate activist from San Francisco, California, studying architecture at UC Berkeley. Her work in climate activism ranges from public policy to aquatic insect research, and she's enthusiastic about doing whatever she can to stop the crisis. Currently, she is working on building mycelium-engineered living materials to replace conventional building materials that are harmful to the environment. When she's not working on school or research, she loves to hike, play guitar, or visit the beach.
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Miki Agrawal, a renowned entrepreneur and social activist, joins us to discuss her journey of challenging societal norms and revolutionizing industries. Known for her bold and provocative approach, Miki has successfully launched companies that tackle taboos head-on, such as feminine hygiene, poop, and diapers.
In this episode, Miki shares her insights on:
- Breaking barriers: How she has challenged societal taboos and stigma surrounding personal care products.
- Building successful businesses: The lessons she has learned through her entrepreneurial ventures.
- Social impact: Her commitment to creating products that improve people's lives and contribute to a better world.
Join us as Miki shares her inspiring story of turning challenges into opportunities and making a positive impact on society. -
Radha Agrawal is an entrepreneurial force. She is the co-Founder, CEO and Chief Community Architect of Daybreaker, the global morning dance, music and wellness movement in five continents with a community of almost half a million people around the globe.
She co-founded, sold and invested in multiple nine-figure businesses in the wellness space including THINX underwear, is a best-selling author, speaker, DJ, inventor, and investor in mostly female-owned businesses.
She and her Daybreaker team spent the first 3 months of 2020 touring with Oprah and WW on a 9-arena sold-out tour where Radha opened every stop of the tour and led 155,000 people through a motivational movement experience with 30 dancers, musicians and performers behind her.
She and her team recently launched a science-backed platform called DOSE by Daybreaker, a first of its kind membership to practice JOY and developed a movement Method connected to the 8 virtues of joy. Her goal is to make "practicing joy" as ubiquitous as practicing yoga and meditation.
Her book BELONG peels back the curtain and shares how she and her team built the Daybreaker community around the world with zero ad spend and answers the questions, "how do I find my people?" and "How do I create large and meaningful communities in the real world?".
She was named by MTV as "one of 8 women who will change the world" and has won numerous entrepreneurship awards and accolades on disruptive innovation.
Radha is currently teaching joy practices on DOSE every week supporting her members on their journey to joy, she is pioneering the field of Functional Happiness and writing her next book, "The Joy Ride". She lives between Brooklyn and her farm in Rhinebeck with her family and her most coveted title is mother. -
The Blue Plate: A Food Lover's Guide to Climate Chaos is the latest book by ecologist Mark J. Easter. Did you know more than a quarter of the dangerous climate-heating greenhouse gas emissions produced around the world today come from the simple steps of growing, catching, processing, transporting and cooking food—and then dealing with leftovers? This alarming statistic motivated Easter to dramatically change what and how he and his family eat.
Easter researches the carbon footprint of food as part of a CSU team of “greenhouse gas accountants” whose mission is to understand how greenhouse gases move into and out of soils and plants on farms and ranches. He has traveled globally to collaborate with farmers, ranchers, foresters, and others to learn how the ways people grow food and fiber make agriculture healthier and less damaging to the climate.
Offering an education on how to eat in a way that nourishes both our bodies and the planet, he wrote The Blue Plate, the first book by a scientist to provide a detailed picture of the carbon impact of our favorite foods on the Earth. -
Allison Wolff is CEO of Vibrant Planet PBC which builds platforms that help build community and landscape resilience in the face of climate change and wildfire. After building the Netflix brand and digital experience, Allison advised corporate and nonprofit leadership teams on vision, strategy, and social and environmental innovation. Clients include Google, eBay, Facebook, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Omidyar Network, Patagonia, Nike, HP, Drawdown, Conservation International, and GlobalGiving. She is now leveraging her experience and network to develop solutions for forest and landscape resilience and carbon drawdown.
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Daniel Goldsmith is Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Julius, a company that is on a mission to address the talent needs of the energy transition by providing inclusive solutions - powered by AI and data - to start and grow green careers.
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"The cheapest and most efficient kW of electricity is the one you don't use." -Bob Hinkle
Bob established Metrus in 2009 and created the Efficiency Services Agreement (ESA) and Sustainable Energy Services Agreement (SESA) that are the contractual backbone of financing large-scale energy efficiency retrofit and renewable energy projects. Bob helped develop and grow the Energy as a Service market which is currently a $5.4 billion industry. He has developed and implemented over $500 million of large-scale energy efficiency projects and clean energy investment programs in the U.S. and in emerging global markets for utilities, major energy end-users, government agencies, export credit agencies and international donors. -
Raviv Turner is a serial big data and AI entrepreneur and the founding member of the Nature Tech Collective, a non-profit coalition of nature tech companies covering satellite imaging, drones, IoT, LIDAR, eDNA, bio-acoustics and other tech that helps financial institutions and corporations measure, report and verify their nature-related impact claims and disclosures, to fight greenwashing and accelerate investment in nature-based solutions. Raviv also sits on the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) nature data working group. He speaks on the topics of biodiversity ESG, natural capital, spatial finance, and digital MRV.
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Hannah Bellamy is Managing Director of charity: water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe water to people around the world.
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Recently named one of “Time 100 Most Influential Companies of 2023,” Patagonia has been widely regarded over the years for its ground-breaking environmental and social practices. The company that pioneered corporate responsibility is now in its 50th year and has plans to thrive responsibly for another fifty.
The Future of the Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 50 Years reveals how businesses and nonprofits can (and should) prioritize purpose over profit to restore and protect our home planet.
Written by Vincent Stanley, Patagonia's Director of Philosophy (also one of the company's original employees), with Yvon Chouinard, founder and former owner of Patagonia, the book challenges business owners and leaders to rethink their business in a time of cultural and climate chaos.
The advice is simple, but powerful: reduce your environmental footprint (and its skyrocketing cost), make legitimate products that last, reclaim deep knowledge of your business and its supply chain to make the most of opportunities in the years to come, and earn the trust you’ll need by treating your workers, customers, and communities with respect. -
Steve Pantano is the Head of Market Transformation at Rewiring America, where he leads efforts to build and share comprehensive working knowledge of how to replace more than one billion fossil fuel devices with clean electric alternatives. For the past fifteen years Steve worked with CLASP and ICF International to develop policy, market development programs, research, and technical analysis aimed at maximizing the climate benefits that can be achieved with energy efficient appliances and equipment. He spent years before that tinkering with and testing everything from Hydrogen fuel cells to Space Shuttle hardware. He has a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.
Rewiring America is the leading electrification nonprofit, focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. They develop accessible, actionable data and tools, and build coalitions and partnerships to make going electric easier for households and communities. Rewiring America helps Americans save money, tackle nationwide emissions goals, improve health, and build the next generation of the clean energy workforce. They believe in an abundant, flourishing, climate-safe future, and know that, together, we can realize one.
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Jo is an architect specialized in green home design and passive solar strategies. That means, the things you can do to your house that don't cost money running them (unlike your aircon).
You can find out more about Jo's projects here:
https://maven.com/jopetroni/climateproof
https://thecarbonalmanac.org/connect-the-dots
https://permarchitecture.net/
https://jopetroni.substack.com/
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As Head of Product and Sustainability, and founding member of Better for All, Raegan Kelly works with biopolymer engineers and manufacturing experts to create a unique line of PHBH™ home compostable bioplastic cups. Prior to Better for All, she produced creative projects for USC Annenberg, Warner Bros Records, LACMA, Otis College of Design, Disney’s Epcot Center and more.
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