Climate Podcasts

Climate podcasts are an excellent way to explore the remarkable diversity of human responses to the climate crisis and its solutions. Some listeners may find one or two climate podcasts that are well-suited to their particular interests and tastes. Others may devour every episode from as many climate podcasts as possible in an effort to broaden and deepen their understanding of the climate crisis. Either way, everyone alive on the planet today who’s willing and able to listen to podcasts can benefit from listening to a climate podcast.

There’s a climate podcast for every listener and a listener for every climate podcast. The following is a list of every climate podcast that I’ve found so far. I hope this list will help you find the right climate podcast(s) for you.

All entries on this list include the podcast link and official description. For the podcasts I’ve listened to, I also include the cover art and a brief comment or review.

If you know of a podcast that’s not listed here, please let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

Climate Podcasts I Listen To

In Hot Take, Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt take an intersectional, critical, but constructive look at climate coverage—with the ultimate goal of making the conversation more productive and powerful. Not just bigger, but more inclusive.Review: There are three reasons why this is usually the first climate podcast I recommend to people.1. It’s a podcast about climate communication. Whether the hosts are talking about the latest climate stories, interviewing a climate communicator, or just chatting with each other about climate and intersecting topics, the emphasis is always on how climate communicators are talking about climate. This includes how they can do so more effectively and how they are (or aren’t!) taking climate justice into consideration.
2. Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt’s witty banter is the absolute highlight of this podcast. The stories and interviews are interesting enough that I would listen anyway just for those. But the dialog, commentary, jokes, and artful use of just the right amount of cursing add so much to the experience. I often find myself laughing out loud and/or cursing at climate villains right along with them.
3.The Hot Take newsletter that goes along with the podcast includes one of the most thorough digests of climate news and commentary that I’ve seen. Even if you’re not a podcast person, the newsletter is worth reading.
Drilled investigates the propaganda campaign of the century — the creation of climate denial.Review: This is basically a true crime podcast about one of the greatest crimes of all time: the fossil fuel industry’s willful denial of climate change and propaganda campaign to delay and defeat climate action. The thorough research, informative guests, and gripping narration and music all come together nicely to create the atmosphere of a true crime investigation. The second season keeps the same investigate and true crime spirit as the first, but adds a new twist by exploring the struggle between the West Coast crab fishing community, which is suffering the effects of climate change, and the fossil fuel industry, which is denying those effects and shunning responsibility for them.
Think 100%: The Coolest Show on Climate Change brings heroic “solutionaries” to you every week on the coolest show on climate change. Join co-hosts, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Antonique Smith as they talk with the community leaders, the culture creators, the movement organizers, the clean energy innovators, the elected officials, and the business minds who are forging a path forward for us to get us off dirty energy and onto clean energy, which saves our lungs, our oceans, our air, our drinking water, and our climate.Review: This show lives up to its motto! Nobody surpasses Reverend Yearwood’s enthusiasm for climate activism and righteous indignation at the polluters. The guests are a great mix of policy wonks, community organizers, and artists who all work on some aspect of the climate crisis. The conversation is always rooted in a strong sense of environmental justice, with special attention paid to the voices and concerns of people of color, the indigenous, and low-income communities. The conversations get pretty heavy, but they keep the mood light with a healthy dose of music, inspiration, and solutions.
No Place Like Home: A podcast that gets to the heart of climate change through personal stories. Hosted by Mary Anne Hitt & Anna Jane Joyner & Produced by Zach Mack.Review: This climate podcast has a very personal feel to it. They bring on great guests who explore a lot of aspects of climate policy, science, and so on, which serves as a good grounding for the conversation. But part of what stands out about this podcast is how it delves into some of the “inner work” aspects of climate action: processing feelings about climate change, telling stories, communicating effectively, examining the role of beliefs, etc. Their “all the climate feels” series is a great exploration of the concept of climate anxiety and grief, and how to deal with that while also responding externally to the climate crisis.
Warm Regards. Warm Regards is a podcast about the warming planet. The show is hosted by Jacquelyn Gill, a paleoecologist at the University of Maine, and Andy Revkin, a veteran journalist at ProPublica, with a rotating group of co-hosts including Ramesh Laungani, a biologist at Doane University; and Sarah Myhre, a climate scientist, scholar, and communicator. Produced by Eric Mack and Jessie-Ann Baines.Review: This is definitely the most “science nerd” oriented climate podcast I’ve found so far. They explore both the science and its implications for climate policy, climate communication, and various other climate solutions. I found it very informative and surprisingly accessible given the amount of ground they cover. My degree is in philosophy, not any scientific or technical fields related to climate science, but I was able to follow all of the conversations and learn a great deal along the way.
Generation Green New Deal. A new generation has pushed the climate crisis to the center of American politics. Generation Green New Deal tells the story of this youth movement: who they are, what they’ve accomplished so far, and where they go from here. Hosted by filmmaker Sam Eilertsen.Review:This podcast drew me in with the glimpses behind the scenes of the rise of the current vision of the Green New Deal in American politics. Once it offers that glimpse, it moves on to explore many different aspects of the Green New Deal and the youth who have been the driving force of bringing the Green New Deal framing and policy push to the forefront of American climate discourse.
The Climate Pod. The Climate Pod is an informative and humorous podcast on the latest environmental issues and climate action hosted by brothers Ty Benefiel and Brock Benefiel.Review: This podcast is reminds me in some ways of Your Community Spirit, the radio show that I co-host on WDBX. It’s basically two guys talking about the latest climate news and spicing it up with a mix of lively commentary and goofy humor. The guests have been good so far and serve to round out their witty banter with fresh perspective and substance.

Other Climate Podcasts

Warming Signs with Kait Parker. Warming Signs with Kait Parker is a podcast that tackles pressing environmental issues with wit and expertise. She’ll go beyond the headlines to inspire both action and hope. Join her every other Tuesday at noon.Review: This climate podcast tends to be upbeat and inspiring, yet also delves into some serious hard-hitting issues in climate policy, climate science, and climate action. It’s definitely beginner-friendly, with smooth editing, pacing, and tone similar to a mainstream news or commentary broadcast — which is not surprising given its connections with the Weather Channel. There’s enough witty commentary in there to make it fun and interesting while still keeping an overall professional tone. This would definitely be a good place to start for people who are new to podcasts generally because it may remind them (in a good way) of some of the other media they’re used to: commercially broadcast radio, TV, etc.
Climate Conversations: A Climate Change Podcast. Climate Conversations is the weekly climate change podcast from MIT Climate, an online community connecting questions to answers, research to solutions, and knowledge to action.Review: I’m still new to this podcast, so I may post a more detailed review later. The hosts and guests seem very knowledgeable and conversational about climate and related topics. I’ve enjoyed listening so far Based on the descriptions of the episodes I haven’t heard yet, it looks like they get into great range of topics rather than the science and tech-heavy content that I was expecting from an MIT-related podcast. There are episodes about teaching kids, climate and psychology, climate justice, and many other topics. I look forward to catching up.
Climate One at the Commonwealth Club.Welcome to Climate One. We’re changing the conversation on energy, economy and the environment. Climate One at The Commonwealth Club offers a forum for candid discussion among climate scientists, policymakers, activists, and concerned citizens. Our live events are recorded and distributed to a global audience. By gathering inspiring, credible, and compelling information, we provide an essential resource to change-makers looking to make a difference. We invite you to attend, explore, and add your voice to the conversation.Review: This has become the podcast that I listen to whenever my other podcasts run out of episodes and I haven’t picked a new one yet. It has over a decade’s worth of old episodes, so it’s going to take me a long time to catch up with all of that. Most listeners will probably want to start in the present day rather than devouring the whole archive. What I find interesting so far, though, is just how much they were talking about over a decade ago that is really only gaining traction in broader public policy circles now. Hybrid and electric vehicles, solar power, greening cities, sequestering carbon. I wish more people had listened to this content back then! I’m looking forward to catching up to the present day eventually and hearing what innovative responses to the climate crisis they have on tap today.
Extinction Rebellion Podcast: Welcome to Extinction Rebellion’s podcast! Here we try to answer questions, bring clarity and demystify all that is XR.Review: It’s refreshing, fascinating, and inspiring to hear about the climate crisis and climate action from people who are actively engaging in massive civil disobedience in pursuit of climate justice. The podcast has a UK emphasis because that’s where Extinction Rebellion has its roots. But I live in the US and felt like I got almost as much out of it as I would have if I lived there. The podcast includes interviews from the street actions as well as interviews with people who explain what Extinction Rebellion is, how it got started, what their demands are, and so on. It’s a great introduction to Extinction Rebellion and offers plenty of food for thought for other forms of climate advocacy.
America Adapts: The Climate Change Podcast. The America Adapts podcast explores the challenges presented by adapting to climate change, the global movement that has begun to drive change, and the approaches that are already working. Join climate change adaptation expert Doug Parsons as he talks with scientists, activists, policymakers and journalists about the choices we face and the people who make them.
Climactic. We live in Climactic times. The culmination of billions of lives lived since the Industrial Revolution. The Anthropocene — our current age of technology, machines, and an insatiable need for fuel — has changed the planet and set us on a new path. There is now broad agreement that the consequences of our collective actions are severe. We’re facing an unprecedented future with a destabilised natural world due to rising temperatures. Climactic tells the stories of the people making a difference. Regular people like us, in a daily struggle to live sustainable lives. We want to be the people’s voice on climate change, embedded in the community, from the perspective of the actual people.
Climate and Security Podcast. Welcome to the Climate and Security Podcast! Twice a month, the Center for Climate and Security takes climate change out of its environmental box, and brings it to the big kid’s table of national and international security. Featuring a series of exclusive dialogues with leading security, military and foreign affairs experts, the podcast explores our responsibility to prepare for a rapidly-changing world.
Reversing Climate Change. Our podcasts focus on the people and organizations that are coming together to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reverse climate change. We also talk about blockchains.
The ClimateReady Podcast. The ClimateReady Podcast features interviews and segments on emerging trends in the intersection of climate and water. Experts in policy, engineering, finance, and other sectors provide cutting-edge perspectives and narratives on climate adaptation challenges and opportunities. Seasons 1 and 2 each contain ten episodes, and a third season is currently in preparation.