Carbon taxes around the world and public skepticism about economists' claims

Silver Bullet: Earth Day Bonus Episode

Vulnerable communities fight for clean air in Appalachia and in Norfolk, Virginia

S3 Episode 1: Coal Dust Is Black

Coal dust pollution, racism, and the many faces of power

S3 Episode 2: The Power Game

The Berlin Wall fall effect, German citizens as renewable energy investors, and a soy field

S3 Episode 4: Breaking Even With Nature

Race, catadores, garbage transport, and innovation in Italy and Maine

S3 Episode 5: Garbage In, Garbage Out, and Charlottesville

Community based management and biodiversity in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains

S3 Episode 7: Gems of Ukraine

Season 3's finale highlights common themes from places visited in the US, Ukraine, Panama, Kenya, and Brazil

S3 Episode 10: Dignity and Banditry

August surprise: Why the US climate and renewable energy policy window slammed open now

S4 Preview: Déjà Vu and a New US Climate Law

Stories of abundance that fall short, and the disconnect between well being and economic growth

S4 Episode 1: Pilgrims and Progress 2022

The US's messy political system, the states, and a butterfly that affected the course of US climate politics

S4 Episode 2: The Wings of a Butterfly

An historic African American school and a proposed mega-landfill, what happens when landfill protections fail, the proximity principle, and a fierce battle over clean air in Los Angeles

S4 Episode 4: Shotgun Marriage, Kittens

The most polluted city on earth, seeing Brazil's forests from many angles, the US government and Brazil's military coup, and George Santos's shoes

S4 Episode 5: The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg

The Brazilian Amazon forest and the Cristalino River take us on an unforgettable journey, while the violence of history and politics of the present shadow our steps

S4 Episode 6: Everything Is a Size You Can't See

Scotland and the rest of the UK leave coal behind, Net Zero, modern struggles between the unicorn and the lion, and my Scottish grandfather

S4 Episode 9: The Unicorn and the Lion

Panama's unprecedented elections, massive demonstrations over the environment and foreign influence, and a tragedy with echoes of the US's colonial presence in Panama

S5 Episode 3: Will Panama Be Green?

A guide to the European Parliament elections, the EU's energy and climate "moonshot," bicycling in Denmark, and the 10-50 rule

S5 Episode 4: European or Italian First?

Labor's victory in the UK, aggressive climate plans, a famous lettuce, and the elephantine carbon footprint of the wealthy

S5 Episode 5: The Silly Party Takes Westminster

Yachts, inequalities reminiscent of the robber barons, and why climate policies must target the rich

S5 Episode 6: Dear Rich White People

Why swing states rule in the US's presidential elections, legal experts' fears about election stealing in 2024, and how direct popular election of the President and Vice President failed in the US Congress

S5 Episode 7: "A Crisis Waiting to Occur"

The potential impacts on swing state elections of climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act's largesse, extreme weather, state demographics, and surges in voter registration

S5 Episode 8: Will Climate Change Influence US Swing State Voters?

Trump voters on climate change, red state renewables, Republican tariffs that could lower our carbon footprints, and the March Hare's generous offer 

S5 Episode 9: Behind the Curtain in Wonderland

Japan's 2024 elections, sea turtles, rice prices, recycling rules, Japan's energy insecurity, and the proximity principle

S5 Episode 10: The Great Rice Fiasco

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 2025, why we have the civil service, the US's separation of powers, SpaceX vs. ocelots, and the Everly Brothers

S6 Episode 1: All the President's Men

Who could lose the most from overturning pollution standards for air pollution, toxic chemicals, and lead in drinking water, a box of chocolates, and the dry cleaners of Palm Springs

Season 6 Ep. 2 Let Them Drink Lead

In this preview episode, Dr. Thomson introduces The Meaning of Green's Season 1, which asks: what forces aid or constrain environmental policy success?

Season 1 Preview

Why and how environmental issues rose on the national political agenda in the 1960s and 70s.

Season 1 Episode 1: Rachel Carson and Richard Nixon

Leaded gasoline and moms, mice, misfueling, and crime.

Season 1 Episode 3: 'Bad Mothers' and Bad Drivers: Getting the Lead Out of Gasoline

Forests, the Panama Canal, hydropower in Brazil, and the US's dam building frenzy in the 20th century.

Season 1 Episode 5: Water: Undoing the Wrongs of Those Who Thought They Were Doing Right

Twists and turns in the US's dependence on coal, the ripple effects of oil crises, and a coal miner's daughter describes the devastation in her community.

Season 1 Episode 6: The Legacies of Fossil Fuels

Bad housemates, the global commons, national policy reversals in the US, what the public is thinking, and bipartisan action at the state level.

Season 1 Episode 9: Climate Change: Past Actions

Earth Day's 50th birthday, the coronavirus, Pogo, and Dr. Jane Goodall

Season 2 Preview: Big Earth Day Birthday in the Age of Covid-19

How power's various disguises shaped efforts to reduce coal pollution in the US state of Virginia, and the implications of those lessons for the coronavirus.

Season 2 Episode 2: Power Wears Many Disguises

S2 Ep 5 Sneak Peek: Prof. Emma Teeling on bats and the fountain of youth

S2 Ep6 Sneak Peek: Prof. Ron Milo on animals in children's puzzles

Joel Salatin's diaper grass, wildfires on the Pacific coast, farming, the Lorax, and all of the biomass on Earth

Season 2 Episode 6: Food's Cascading Impacts, and, Wildfires

S2 Ep9 Sneak Peek: Consuming and the Good Life

Reimagining Thanksgiving and progress, achieving the good life, COVID-19 and air pollution in India, and "stuff"

Season 2 Episode 9: Pilgrims and Progress

Spillovers, farmers who resist, and the singing revolution

S2 Episode 10.1: Resistance

The podcast about solving environmental problems.

Dr. Vivian Thomson

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