A Week of Podcasts for the Advocate New to Climate Justice
If you care about racial justice and you’re anything like me right now, you’re tired. Then when you’re tired of being tired, you look for distractions. Then when you’re tired of distractions, you start looking for a place to put your angry energy.
Well, one thing I like to do with my angry energy is to put it into learning how to play my role better. I’m referring to my role in helping achieve racial justice and equity by creating clean, just and resilient communities for the next generation’s George Floyd. I want to help create those communities for all of us.
We need communities where the average black boy can be born and just live a healthy, liberated life. We need communities where he and his neighbors share in making decisions for the community’s resources and institutions, like how the community powers itself and how it responds to emergencies. We need communities where the economy is regenerative instead of extractive and a person’s race doesn’t affect how much they benefit or suffer.
So for anyone working towards the same things, I put together a list of podcast episodes related to energy and climate justice — one for each day of the week. My hope is that while you’re doing your morning routine or taking a lunch break this week, these episodes might help you play your role better, too.
MONDAY | Always for Our People with Elizabeth Yeampierre by Think 100%
57 minutes — released May 2020
In this episode of Think 100%, a climate justice podcast and the “Coolest Show on Climate Change” host Rev Yearwood has a conversation with Elizabeth Yeampierre, Executive Director of UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization. “UPROSE is an intergenerational, multi-racial, nationally recognized community organization, which promotes sustainability and resiliency in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.” In the discussion, Yeampierre speaks to both the pain and hope involved in building a movement for climate and racial justice.
TUESDAY | Climate Migrants by Radical Imagination
30 minutes — released November 2019
In this episode of Radical Imagination, a podcast that talks about inequality, racism, housing insecurity, and more, host Angela Glover Blackwell talks with Colette Pichon Battle, executive director at the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, about the climate crisis in some of the most vulnerable communities in America. She also speaks with Houma Nation Chief August Creppel about his work to achieve solutions for his people.
WEDNESDAY | Tackling Systemic Inequity with Debra Gore-Mann by Living Corporate
52 minutes — released May 2020
In this episode host Zach has a conversation with Debra Gore-Mann, president and CEO of The Greenlining Institute, a policy, research, organizing, and leadership development institute working for racial and economic justice. Debra speaks to her own career path and how she has worked to make systemic change, particularly through the intersectional work the Greenlining Institute leads.
THURSDAY | Fighting Energy Injustice and Coronavirus in African-American Communities by Political Climate
62 minutes — released April 2020
Political Climate is a podcast that hosts conversations on various energy and climate issues. In this episode, the fifth in their “Path to Zero” series with Third Way, they speak to Jared DeWese and Akunna Cook from Third Way. Then, they speak with Naomi Davis, a grassroots leader and green-village builder in Chicago’s Southside. Finally, they finish off with Tony Reames, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability who specializes in energy injustice.
FRIDAY | What Time It Is, with Movement Generation by How to Survive the End of the World
53 minutes — released July 2019
In this podcast series by the brown sisters, co-host adrienne sat down with Michelle Mascarenhas-Swan to frame up a recording of a talk Michelle had given prior. In the talk, Michelle discusses the climate crisis, and particularly how it intertwines with our current economic crisis.
What am I missing? Leave comments with your thoughts and any other podcast recommendations for Advocates of Energy and Climate Justice.
