Opportunity in Risk: Kate Gordon on California’s Environmental Policy Innovation

Opportunity in Risk: Kate Gordon on California’s Environmental Policy Innovation

Kate Gordon leads the Energy & Climate team at Next Generation. In this episode, she talks about the promising signs of change in US climate and energy policy, with a special focus on the innovations emerging from California. There’s increasing public and private investment in transforming California’s economy, which is now the world’s eighth largest, and Gordon explains its significant impact on the scale of clean energy solutions across the state and what this could mean for national policy solutions. Gordon also discusses how the green jobs movement can address systematic social and environmental injustices.

A Way to the Good Life: Political Scientist Matt Hoffman Discusses Decarbonization and Climate Negotiation

A Way to the Good Life: Political Scientist Matt Hoffman Discusses Decarbonization and Climate Negotiation

In this episode, Matt Hoffman, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, talks about potential routes toward decarbonization, the process of weaning societies from fossil fuels. His work suggests that the role of international climate negotiations in the future may be different than what we’ve come to expect—they may provide less in the way of binding agreements and more of a source of global goal setting. In this interview, Hoffman offers an entirely new frame for climate change. Rather than negotiating cost distribution among states, as climate negotiations have traditionally done, we ought to frame the topic as a way toward a better society. This re-framing would involve a more concerted look at the benefits of action and what he can hope to gain by addressing climate change collectively.

Bringing the Giants to the Table: Glenn Hurowitz Speaks on Deforestation and Agricultural Supply Chains

Bringing the Giants to the Table: Glenn Hurowitz Speaks on Deforestation and Agricultural Supply Chains

In this episode Glenn Hurowitz speaks on his pathbreaking work in eliminating both
environmental and social injustices that pervade the world’s biggest, most entrenched agricultural
supply chains. Glenn is the managing director of Climate Advisors where he has taken the international
lead on ending deforestation for commodity agriculture. In the last year, Glenn has played a major role
in getting the world’s biggest agribusinesses, like Cargill, Wilmar International, and Kellogg, to adopt
policies that will eliminate deforestation in their entire global supply chain. We discuss his recent
headlines and success and what this means for forests around the world, and also about issues with the
industry’s use of the word “sustainability,” and how much we can trust their assurances for change.

“The Future is Performance”: A Conversation with Artist, Engineer, Writing Duo Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico

“The Future is Performance”: A Conversation with Artist, Engineer, Writing Duo Salvatore Iaconesi and Oriana Persico

In this episode Oriana Persico and Salvatore Iaconesi, both teachers of digital design at La Sapienza University of Rome, discuss what the near future is, how they study it, and what implications of designing the near future has for natural resource companies such as Shell. They help listeners envision the possibilities of a collaborative and ubiquitous learning environment. Much of the conversation centers on their recent Human Ecosystems project in New Haven, Connecticut where they “mapped the city” using mass amounts of social media data. The implications this project has for creating more efficient and invigorating urban environments are striking.

The Human Right to Water: a Conversation with Mathias Risse

The Human Right to Water: a Conversation with Mathias Risse

In this podcast Mathias Risse, professor of philosophy and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, discusses his recent paper, “The Human Right to Water and Common Ownership of the Earth” which posits that humanity’s shared possession of our planet provides a philosophical foundation for a right to water and sanitation.

Protecting Pakistan: A Conversation with Environmental Lawyer and Activist Rafay Alam

Protecting Pakistan: A Conversation with Environmental Lawyer and Activist Rafay Alam

In this episode, Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer and activist in Lahore, Pakistan, speaks about the social and economic challenges the government faces in addressing endemic environmental issues. Much of the conversation revolves around problems with poverty and access to natural resources, and how Pakistan’s national identity is defined by the Indus River. Rafay also tells the story of starting Critical Mass Lahore, a bicycling advocacy group and how, person by person, it is changing people’s lives.

Climate and Agriculture: a Conversation with Peter Lehner

Climate and Agriculture: a Conversation with Peter Lehner

In this podcast Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), discusses agriculture — both NRDC’s work on the issue and his own experiences as a coffee and sugar cane grower in Costa Rica — high-impact climate litigation, and career planning.