Our Second Crossover Episode with Climate with Kiama! As we are one week away for the launch of the next season of Climify, we thought it would be nice to continue to provide climate education and action through the work of some of our friends. So today, we invited a kindred spirit podcast Climate with Kiana to our platform to share climate solutions through a framework of joy and justice. The host of Climate with Kiana is Kiana Michaan, a renewable energy professional and climate justice organizer based in New York City.

We're excited to let you know that season four of Climify is recorded and ready for launch on June 13th, 2024. This season, we're doing things a bit differently, which we feel will make the program more inspiring and actionable. The theme for this season is “Change the System.”

Climate change can be quite an overwhelming issue. There are so many things to be worried about and they seem to be happening all at once. This can make us feel anxious or depressed, sad, or apathetic. How can one person make a real difference? The truth of the matter is that little things can help, and our guests this season prove that. Small steps can indeed create a ripple effect leading to bigger impacts. Our guests are involved in various action levels from daily life to work, and even those who influence national policies. We will learn what has worked for them and how you can implement climate solutions in your home, design studio, or curriculum to contribute to climate action.

Besides our amazing guests in each episode, I'll be joined by new voices from the Climify team – Bhavna, Jacqui, Cam, and Abigail to make sense of the discussion and provide tools to help with the climate calls to action from the conversation with the guest.

I'm truly looking forward to this season and hearing from you. How are you changing or disrupting the system for climate action? We're all in this together. So see you on June 13th, 2024. Tune into Climify on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

- Eric Benson

Climify Producer Cam Burkins rejoins Dr. Melinda Adams to go deeper into her life and work. In particular, this episode explores solastalgia (or climate anxiety) and soliphilia (cures or mitigation methods against that anxiety). Melinda shares Traditional Ecological Practices that provide hope for our collective future, which will surely be Matriarchal!

How do we learn from the land and its lineage?

In this special bridge episode, Dr. Melinda Adams—Indigenous scholar, ecologist, and cultural fire practitioner—explores how place-specific, Indigenous-led practices are the key to stewarding and restoring our shared lands. Dismantling the rhetoric of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), Adams teaches a more actionable approach to controlled burning—Humble Fire—that reframes fire as a “more-than-human relative,” from which we must actively listen and learn. This “storytelling on the land” calls us to defer to Indigenous ways of being in our interventions and return to the land, assessing how our ancestor responds and applying what we learn to ensure our collective future.

Our First Crossover Episode with TILClimate from MIT!

As we are on hiatus this winter planning yet another amazing season of Climify, we thought it would be nice to continue to provide climate education and action through the work of some of our friends. So today, we invited a kindred spirit podcast produced at MIT - TILClimate to our platform to share what they know about materials. The host of TILClimate is Laur Hesse Fisher, the Program Director at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative.

In this crossover episode with TILClimate, Laur, and Elsa Olivetti dive into materials and their impacts on our planet. As designers, we choose materials to build the things we create. So, knowing more about how to select, reduce, and reuse materials in addition to the knowledge to find vendors that manufacture responsibly can help us be better climate designers.

What is Life-Centered Design? What is Life-Centered Systems Thinking? Are they different? Are they better than Human Centered Design? And most importantly, how do we design with all life in mind?

Michelle Fehler, Charlene Sequeira, and Jeroen Spoelstra join Eric in this final “back-to-school” episode which we hope, inspires you to learn more about the merits of life-centered design. The guests today all argue that life-centered design and systems thinking are a needed transition away from human-centered design (HCD) and design thinking. We are nature, not separate from it. So we need to consider more than just us in our design work as clearly Mother Earth isn’t happy with our past and current antics with fossil fuels and pollution. If we understand how we fit in with and the important interconnectedness of nature, then possibly we can create in a better balance respecting all around us.

What? I’m an amazing climate leader? Yes, you are.

Lis Best (Girls Club Collective) and Nivi Achanta (Soapbox Project) join Eric to share their journeys as climate leaders empowering women to be their “own secret weapon” for change. Both Lis and Nivi understand that women are fantastic leaders when they can channel their frustrations, concerns, hope, creativity, culture, anxiety, and/or dreams to encourage action through collaboration and, in turn, elevate those involved into leaders as well. We can all be the helpers. If you want to live your best life and surround yourself with good generous people whose kindness shows in relationships with themselves and with the earth, then this episode is for you; as you are capable of being a leader… we will support you.

How can you be a role model to inspire climate action amongst your friends, family, and neighbors? Does one positive action create a domino effect for more? What’s a surprising validator?

Andrea Learned joins Eric to share her work being done at her consultancy and the Living Change Podcast to empower climate leaders into creating more climate action. Her initiatives help “name and fame” climate leaders to showcase how you can emulate them and also be a positive force in the climate movement. Andrea’s consultancy and podcast help you become a climate leader using your existing social capital and influence to change social norms for the better.

In addition, Andrea discusses how her work in food and biking (low-carbon transportation) are interconnected and are habits that are relatively easy to change resulting in a big and positive climate impact.