A Climate Change with Matt Matern
A Climate Change with Matt Matern is a weekly show featuring influential guests from government, business, activism, academia, and culture. The show serves to inform its audience with a focus on environmental and climate issues. Join us as we commit to making "a climate change." Similar to these great podcasts: TED Climate, Reversing Climate Change, Climate One, My Climate Journey, Volts, America Adapts, & A Matter Of Degrees.
Episodes
This week, Matt Matern speaks with Nick Wise about how satellite technology and artificial intelligence are transforming ocean protection and climate accountability. Wise shares his personal journey from ocean exploration to founding OceanMind and co-founding Climate TRACE, explaining how space-based data can detect illegal fishing, monitor shipping emissions, and support enforcement of existing regulations. Nick also highlights ho...
Today, Matt Matern speaks with Cora Stryker, co-founder of BrightSaver, about expanding access to clean energy through plug-in “balcony solar.” Cora shares her personal journey from tropical biology and nonprofit leadership to climate entrepreneurship, emphasizing equity, affordability, and empowerment. She also discusses how small, modular solar systems can bypass regulatory barriers, lower electricity bills, and accelerate clean ...
Pollinators are declining fast - here’s why it matters. This week, Matt speaks with Kelly Bills, Executive Director of Pollinator Partnership, who explains why pollinators are critical to global food systems and ecosystem health. She discusses declining bee and insect populations, the role of climate change in habitat loss and disrupted plant–pollinator timing, and how agriculture, communities, and corporations can help reverse the...
Leah Thomas (aka Green Girl Leah) is an award-winning environmentalist, writer, and founder of the Intersectional Environmentalist nonprofit. She hosts the new season of As She Rises and writes the newsletter Earth Anxious. Leah also created an eco-friendly holiday guide to help people shop sustainably. A leading voice in climate justice, she blends storytelling, activism, and accessible environmental education.) discusses her path...
In this episode, Matt speaks with climate writer and researcher Stephen Lezak about Bill Gates’s recent essay arguing that climate change is serious but will not lead to humanity’s demise and that global policy should focus more on poverty and disease. Lezak explains why he challenged that framing in his New York Times op-ed, noting that Gates downplays risks like runaway warming and ignores how climate harms fall disproportionatel...
Matt speaks with Harvard historian of science Naomi Oreskes about the long-standing scientific consensus on climate change and the political forces undermining it. Oreskes explains how Congress understood climate risks as early as the 1960s, why the EPA’s endangerment finding remains crucial, and how powerful interests have attacked science as climate change shifted from prediction to observable reality. The conversation highlights...
In this week’s episode of A Climate Change, host Matt Mattern welcomes comedian and writer Bill Kessler for a spirited, no-filter take on the intersection of climate politics, policy, and everyday life. Blending wit with insight, they dissect the week’s environmental headlines, from viral AI spectacles to the deeper economic and moral choices shaping our planet’s future.
Matt and Bill unpack the $700 million clean energy project...
Fact: According to an IRENA report on Reuters from mid-July, over 90% of new renewable projects are now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives. Solar is 41% cheaper, and onshore wind is 53% cheaper than fossil fuel energy. The consumers are speaking up, and market dynamics are pushing the growth of renewables. In this episode of A Climate Change, host Matt Mattern speaks with Dr. Gernot Wagner, climate economist at Columbia Business...
Every single person, regardless of vocation, can be a climate activist. Just ask Andrew Zimmern - world renowned chef, James Beard awardee and Emmy-winning TV personality, who's now leading the fight for ocean health. He joins us on the latest episode of A Climate Change with powerful insights from his PBS series "Hope in the Water," revealing why artisanal fishing communities are crucial for our planet's future, and sharing eye-op...
Fact: According to a December 2024 report by WRI, 75% of greenhouse gases and 90% of CO2 emissions are linked to extracting and burning fossil fuels. While sustainability measures like emission control and renewables focus on the demand side of the equation, the real high-impact change lies in measures to control the supply side. This week, Matt sits down with Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initi...
Two birds, one stone is always a good approach, isn't it? Especially when it comes to climate action. So, what if cities could tackle climate change while building more equitable communities? Dr. Sheila R Foster, Professor at Columbia University and an expert in environmental justice, explores innovative urban governance models that combine climate action with social equity. Dr. Foster shares insights from her groundbreaking work w...
In this bonus episode, Matt is joined by comedian and writer Bill Kessler, to take a lighter look at President Trump’s infamous UN speech from last week. They dive into Trump’s climate denial on the world stage, his bizarre tangents about wind energy, and the sheer comedy gold of his word salads. This episode is meant to be more fun and less heavy than usual - we hope you enjoy the laughs while still catching the serious undertones...
While corporate companies chase returns and profits, there are those few who chase sustainability, and even fewer who get it right. In this episode, we sit down with Alexia Kelly, Managing Director of the High Tide Foundation and former Netflix sustainability executive, to explore the complex world of greenhouse gas accounting and carbon credits. Backed by her extensive and high-stakes experience in key sustainability events and mi...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.
"SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!