In This Climate

Gabe talks with Barbara Buffaloe, mayor of Columbia, MO, about climate challenges and success in her community.

Elizabeth Hillborn's book " Restoring Eden" chronicles her search to discover what was poisoning her wetland.

An interview with Siri Chilukuri and John McCracken about thir Grist article.

A discussion with journalist Ryan Martin (State Affairs) about the impact of coal on energy pricing in indiana.

For Climate Week, Gabe interviews climate scientist and communicator Michael Mann about his current activities as a climate communicator.

Gabe talks with journalist Lauen Silverman about her experiences after learning that her child had elevated lead levels.

Kristina Marusic's book "A New War on Cancer" tells stories of those who are working to reduce exposure to cancer-causing chemicals in the enviroment.

Gabe talks with Heidi Roop (Univ. Minn) on her new book “The Climate Action Handbook.” 

The Anthropocene, a period in which environments are fundamentally changed by humans. Jason Kelly, Professor of History (IUPUI) and Director of the Indiana Arts and Humanities Institute explains.

Many projects and policies that could help with climate change stumble on too many decision points, places where ideas can be shot down. Francis Fukuyama discusses his idea of "vetocracy" in relation to climate.

Insects can provide protein, and increased use of them as feed and food may have beneficial climate effects. Gabe Filippelli interviews IUPUI's Christine Picard about her research.

Are top-down solutions the best way to achieve environmental improvements? Author Todd Myers discusses ways to incentivize change at the individual level.

 A discussion with Erin Posthumus from the National Phenology Network. They track the seasons through "phenology," the study of cycles and seasons in nature. She tells us if "spring" is really early, and by how much.

Emily Miles converses with noted author Priyanka Kumar.

As the Forest Service's plan for forest restoration in the Buffalo Springs moves ahead, some citizens are opposed. A conversation with Andy Mahler.

An update about the Buffalo Springs Forest Restoration project in Southern Indiana, with US Forest Service reps Chris Thornton, Marion Mason, and Todd Ontl.

A discussion with David Konisky (O'Neill School, IU) about how the energy transition is proceeding in Indiana.

A discussion of cooperatives and public-owned utilities as a way to provide rural energy, with author Michelle Moore (Rural Renaissance, Revitalizing America's Hometowns through Clean Power. Island Press).

Jim talks to Gabe about environmental resilience issues in Indiana, mainly Indianapolis. Urban heat, green insfrastructure, the White River.

Does the history of Indiana shape how Hoosiers relate to the environment today? Conversation with Eric Sandweiss, Professor of History at IU Bloomington

Ellen Ketterson is the founder of the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. She discusses her chapter in the new book Climate Change and Resilience in Indiana and Beyond.

We talk with Ben Kravitz about downscaled climate models, especially those that are focused on the Midwest and Indiana.

Gabe talks about strange weather and climate chaos. What can we do; what is being done?

To open our fourth season, we chat with Northeastern University professor of sustainability science and policy Jennie Stephens about climate movement leadership and how it needs to shift if we want to see transformative change.  https://www.jenniecstephens.com/

We're just getting into the fall semester here at IU, so what better time to share an episode that examines methods of environmental education. We revisit conversations about infusing contemplative practice into college sutainability courses, about teaching and learning science with high schoolers, about the potential for music to teach lessons about empathy and sustainability and the potential for visual art to bring ecological data to life. Featured episodes: Supporting the change agent: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA Educating (virtually) for Environmental Change: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA  Empathy through environmental music: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA  Engaging with climate through art: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4OgiTMzeQo2jbE5MJ7DGoA?si=-EQV8V4USSmUmzBu9FtIlA     

When we think of this summer's deadly heatwaves and each rollout of temperature projections, it's hard to argue that there's anything more obviously horrifying. So we wanted to go back through some heat-centric conversations from our archive. They're not not sad, but they all circle around the whys and hows of getting here and being here and going forth. We'll hear about migration histories, participatory design, Indigenous knowledge, and how heat interacts with carceral structures, like prisons. A future for Las Vegas, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ufBmcqampB8wIpGswddpQ?si=0b580da9d34e402e Building resilience through parks, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AEA7QXcLRqHHk7CGOYQjb?si=11f5294b83044e4f  The fire season is far from over, part 1: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5VdidRKyRAQ0OgEc3Jqwv6?si=18c2387714cf4b4f Prison Ecology: the law and beyond: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UJl8w739LifH2MvQbH5cu?si=3b4de8a4152149b9 

"We do have the technology," Shanti tells Jim in this interview. "What we need to do now is to put in place the policy to enable reaching these goals." Shanti Gamper-Rabindran is the author of America's Energy Gamble: People Economy and Planet and works at University of Pittsburgh to analyze the economic, legal, and political barriers and opportunities for the energy transition to renewable energy and for economic diversification of fossil fuel-reliant communities in the United States and globally.

The people who form Appalachians Against Piplelines have been resisting the Mountain Valley Pipeline and other extractive, environmentally dangerous projects since 2018, continuing the long tradition of care for the earth and all beings among the mountains. In this sound-rich audio documentary about AAP's work, Appalachian-grown filmmaker Laura Saunders brings together the stories of folks who have dedicated years of labor, risked arrest, and continue to fight for the wellbeing of their communities. The ITC team is deeply grateful to all of the storytellers who shared their time, energy, and selves in this episode. See links at the bottom of the show notes to learn more about them. Thanks also goes to IU's Environmental Resilience Institute for offering High Impact grant funding to pay storytellers like the ones you hear in this episode — those working on the ground toward environmental justice. While our High Impact funding has now come to an end, we at ITC are always happy to collaborate in telling generative environmental justice stories that feel true and useful to the people living them. If you're interested in working together, email itcpod@iu.edu. AAP Twitter: https://twitter.com/stopthemvp  AAP Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/  AAP Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/appalachiansagainstpipelines/ Laura Saunders: http://www.saundersdocumentary.com/ 

Over the past three years (150 episodes!) of In this Climate, some themes and lessons have emerged. One of those is the necessity of more sustainable food systems. So, this episode, we're pulling interviews from different moments and tying them together for a multidimensional look at how we grow and distribute and consume. We'll hear about Californian water use, local nutrient cycling, unfair coffee trade, and Panamanian campesino land defenders. Camille Pannu: https://www.law.uci.edu/faculty/lecturers/pannu/ Jason Bradford: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1OBMe3A8erIUcLXCd5TDXZ?si=99d4fadb103d4504 Jessica Eise: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0gLExd4TnGgaRmhKlskcOh?si=75904fcd93f7477d Marvin Wilcox: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xj8w9PljHE0z8oUf8Cl3c?si=ab64598768524a49  

Wrapping up our tour of community gardens, Curtis Whittaker tells us the story of Faith Farms in the Emerson neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. Over the past nine years, a team from Progressive Community Church has turned a small patch of land into an expansive collection of year-round growing spaces that produce thousands of pounds of produce for a food-insecure community. They've also organized a Junior Master Gardner program and CSA box subscription. IER story: https://www.indianaenvironmentalreporter.org/posts/from-blight-to-light Faith Farms Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithcdc/

The 2017 and 2024 solar eclipse paths cross over Carbondale, Illinois, a college town in a largely rural region with the highest poverty rate in the state. For some here, in the midst of intensifying climate change and ongoing environmental racism, this moment between eclipses is an opportunity to focus on building dynamic resilience and nurturing community care networks. One element of this resilience is food autonomy, which hinges on a group of community gardens and chicken coops affiliated with Carbondale Spring.   In this episode, we explore the plants, critters, and distribution channels involved in Carbondale Spring's Food Autonomy initiative.   Partisan Gardens: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/   Chicken Tenders (documentary about Carbondale Spring's chicken coop project): https://vimeo.com/499285968   The Brownfield Between Us (documentary telling the environmental justice story of the tie yard plant in Carbondale Illinois, and its impact on the health and land of local black families): https://carbondalekoppersjustice.com/documentary/

About a year ago, Senate Bill 389 became law, stripping protections for more than 400,000 acres of Indiana wetlands. In contrast, a recent poll commissioned by Audubon Great Lakes reveals that 94% of Hoosiers believe state leaders should either strengthen or maintain Indiana's current wetland protections. So, what can be done? In this episode, we ask why wetlands are important and how we can take action to protect them. Our guest Cassie Hauswald, a freshwater ecologist with The Nature Conservancy, describes the varieties of Hoosier wetlands, the life that thrives within them, how they operate in the hydrologic cycle, and how we can work toward supporting these ecosystems that support us.

The 2017 and 2024 solar eclipse paths cross over Carbondale, Illinois, a college town in a largely rural region with the highest poverty rate in the state. For some here, in the midst of intensifying climate change and ongoing environmental racism, this moment between eclipses is an opportunity to focus on building dynamic resilience and nurturing community care networks. One element of this resilience is food autonomy, which hinges on a group of community gardens and chicken coops affiliated with Carbondale Spring.   In this episode, we learn about how Carbondale's community gardens have come to be and how they nourish a diversity of beings.   Partisan Gardens: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/   Chicken Tenders (documentary about Carbondale Spring's chicken coop project): https://vimeo.com/499285968   The Brownfield Between Us (documentary telling the environmental justice story of the tie yard plant in Carbondale Illinois, and its impact on the health and land of local black families): https://carbondalekoppersjustice.com/documentary/

This series of episodes grew out of our January series on year-round local food, in which Stewart from Cedar Valley Permaculture suggested we can meaningfully shift our food system by growing more of our own food. So how are people making this happen? How are people already coming together to grow both food and new food systems? Throughout this series, we'll look at a couple helpful Midwestern stories — one in Carbondale, Illinois and one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, they reveal a breadth of approaches to community gardening that have taught me a heck of a lot and that I hope will inspire you. This episode, we're in conversation with Kirk Jones of Project Grow. Partisan Gardens - Carbondale Spring: http://www.partisangardens.org/podcast/december-2020-carbondale-spring/

Chances are, you've heard the famous call of the loon. In this special release, we introduce the work of Indiana University student Mackenzie Bowlen, who has spent the past semester researching the complex vocalizations of loons.

With agriculture accounting for 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it's easy to argue that farmers need to be involved in our work to mitigate and adapt to intensifying climate change. Hot Farm, a new podcast from the Food & Environment Reporting Network hosted by Eve Abrams, travels across the Midwest, learning from farmers about what they're doing, or could be doing, to improve our relationship with the earth and fellow inhabitants. Listen to Hot Farm: https://thefern.org/podcasts/hot-farm/

How are Hoosier forests shifting, and what can we do to ensure our cities maintain healthy canopies? In this episode, Jim talks with Burney Fischer, former state forester and co-lead of the Bloomington Urban Forestry Research Group, about the dynamics of urban forestry.

In this show, taped live at Hopscotch Coffee, we talk with Jane Martin, Anagha Gore, and Amy Thompson about the work of ERI and how we can coordinate to improve our relationships with each other and our environment. ERI Crowdfunding Campaign: https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/climate-change-internships Recommended Indiana-Native Plants for Attracting Pollinators: https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/POL-6/POL-6.html   

Bridging spiritual ecology with urban forestry, we find themes of emergence and the voice of Kyle Lemle. In this episode, he tells us about fasting in the desert as a teenager, turning guns into shovels, supporting community forestry in Bhutan, and training people of many faiths to know and build collective power. Through these stories and more, he helps us understand how land stewardship and social justice work can be acts of love.

Here in Indiana, we talk often about wind and solar, but what could renewable marine energy development mean for people from the Hoosier State to small remote island? Andrea Copping, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Marine Sciences Laboratory, helps us understand the science, collaborations, and potential of several varieties of marine energy. If you like this, you might want to listen to Just Energy: https://open.spotify.com/show/1IkLxMbUL3EeYTWPjnDlt2?si=2b904bd5d59a414a

Host Gabe Filippelli talks with Paul Harvey about his book and project Plasticology, microplastics in the environment, and how we can deal with our legacy of plastics pollution—which, like most things, is a climate problem.

In this episode, host Gabe Filippelli talks with Laurate Professor Ravi Naidu at the University of Newcastle about environmental contamination, emerging issues, and how to work with industries in a constructive way to help solve environmental problems. 

As institutions of higher education aim to prepare students of sustainability and support environmental research, what are we missing? And what does it take to turn our knowledge of chemistry and physics into new ways of relating with the earth? In this episode, Lissy Goralnik and Laurie Thorp of Michigan State University share what they've learned through teaching with contemplative practices.

We've been talking a lot about ecological anxiety and grief, vague and muddy feelings that they are. In this episode, climate emotions researcher Panu Pihkala helps us name and explore what these wide terms hold. An insightful episode from Panu's new podcast: https://climatechangeandhappiness.com/episodes/episode-03-eco-anxiety-demystified

We talk with Ashlee Cunsolo, founding dean of the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies at the Labrador Campus of Memorial University, about the connective capacity of grief, the role of land in Inuit mental health research, and the relationship between agency and letting go. Ashlee's site: https://ashleecunsolo.ca/

While we're not in the business of pathologizing feelings toward our changing environment, we recognize those emotions can be difficult to work with. So, in this episode, Leslie Davenport helps us understand what climate-aware therapy is, why it matters, and how we can tend the interactions between our brains and the structures in which we exist. Leslie's website: https://lesliedavenport.com/

What if the science story and the emotion story are the same story? What could we do if we were to deconstruct the dualism of feeling and acting? In this episode, Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jennifer Atkinson walk us through their research on and experience with climate feelings, from grief to guilt to hope. We work on understanding how we can engage with emotions together to help us get into ever-better relationship with each other and the earth. Sarah Jaquette Ray's reflection on The Unbearable Whiteness of Climate Anxiety: https://gendread.substack.com/p/sarah-jaquette-ray-on-the-unbearable?utm_source=url&s=r Jennifer Atkinson's Facing It podcast: https://www.drjenniferatkinson.com/facing-it 

In this episode, Jim talks with Michael Hamburger, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, about the letter that Concerned Scientists at Indiana University-Bloomington recently sent to University admonistrators. It includes requests for a formal climate action plan and an implementation planning taskforce of diverse stakeholders. We reached out to IU Director of Media Relations Chuck Carney for comment and received a statement, which Jim reads at the end of the episode.

Stephanie Kaza—a long-time lover of trees, practicing Zen Buddhist, and environmentalist—walks us through some of the teachings and practices of Zen Buddhism that can help us get into right relationship with the earth and ourselves, which as we learn, are not one and not two.

In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? In this episode, we ask James Keys about his experience and study of wonder, about the many ways we can access, experience, and use this emotion.

In this series, we ask, how can spiritual connection with our environment help us enter into right and restorative relationship with the earth, including human and nonhuman inhabitants? In this episode, we talk with Lisa Sideris about wonder as it relates with science, religion, Rachel Carson, and policy change. We also return to a discussion on the importance of religious and ethical approaches to environmental issues.