Think 100%: The Coolest Show On Climate Change

Energy poverty is the lack of access to reliable energy, and energy insecurity stems from the lack of affordability and a higher energy burden due to cost, infrastructure, and more. In the midst of a pandemic disproportionately impacting low income and people of color, a federal mandate on energy shut offs would have averted almost 15% of COVID-19 deaths (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021). In this episode, Rev Yearwood speaks with Shalanda Baker, the deputy director for energy justice in the Department of Energy. Shalanda shares with us her living journey and what prepared her to lead the fight for energy justice. The impact of allocating resources and including environmental justice communities in the restructuring plans. They also speak about the demand for energy justice being equitable for Black and Brown people as we move from fossil fuels to electrification. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and

The climate movement has missed its chance to intersect with other fights for equality since the 1960s. The Environmental Justice movement has been treated like an unwanted stepchild during this time. The stakes are high now, and fossil fuel companies' business plan leads to a death sentence for our people.  The Coolest Show speaks with Climate Justice writer Mary Annaïse Heglar and journalist Amy Westervelt, host of the Hot Takes Podcast.  We discuss religion in the climate space and the differences of where people draw faith doing this work. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

This Good Friday, The Coolest Show presents a difficult discussion intersecting Climate, Religion, Family, and Race. Rev Yearwood speaks with Anna Jane Joyner, the founder of the Good Energy Project and co-host of the No Place Like Home podcast.  Anna Jane is also the daughter of Rick Joyner, an evangelical preacher who has called for white evangelicals to arm themselves against Liberals. Anna Jane gives us a personal account of who her father is and where she draws the line between family ties and activism for people of color.

Environmental Liberation is a movement for and by Black people. Nature is an integral part of African spiritual systems, and the extractive systems of global racial capitalism disconnect Black people from their essence. This week on The Coolest Show, we speak with Ayana Albertini-Fleurant, the Co-executive director and policy director, and Jaylin Ward, the diaspora engagement director at Generation Green. They share with Rev Yearwood the roots and significance of Environmental Liberation while giving insight into the Generation Green team, reconnecting with nature, and their mission to shine a light on the EJ movement's intersections. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

In the words of Leah Thomas, “Intersectional Environmentalism would not exist without environmental justice… They work together really harmoniously.” Leah Thomas is the founder of Intersectional Environmentalism and Green Girls Co. Leah Shares with Rev the targeting of Black environmentalists with wokewashing, the need for cannabis reparations, and the environmental movement historically ignoring the intersectionality of other movements. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

Black people are environmentalists. Eco-conscious and zero-waste lifestyles are inherently Black and Indigenous. While the climate and environmental movement is labeled progressive, it is failing to ensure that our climate future centers Black lives. Wanjiku “WaWa” Gatheru is the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist. WaWa shares with us her research on colorism as a barrier to the outdoors, destroying green ceilings, and creating spaces that center BIPOC folx.  The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

There has been disinvestment in Black and brown communities. You can see how a city treats its people by exploring the environment. Resources tend to show up in these communities as the neighborhoods become gentrified. Better stores, cleaner streets, parks, and upgraded schools are usually a by-product of this upscaling. Kerene Tayloe is the Director of Federal Legislative Affairs at WE ACT for Environmental Justice (WE ACT). Kerene shares with us WE ACT's history of educating the community, the importance of bringing community leaders to the table for city planning processes, and creating legislation that will outlast presidential administrations.

Sanitation is a nation-wide issue for rural communities. America’s dirty secret is that there are third-world conditions in the richest country in the world. Lowndes County, Alabama is home to the original Black Panther Party, also known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party. 34 percent of its residents tested positive for hookworm, known as a disease of poverty. Catherine Coleman Flowers, a native to Lowndes County and founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice (CREEJ), was cultivated and inspired by her community to begin her activism at a young age. Tune in to hear the sacred meaning of water, how women of color have led movements, and why it’s important to tell our stories. The Coolest Show – brought to you by Hip Hop Caucus Think 100% PODCASTS – drops new episodes every Monday on environmental justice and how we solve the climate crisis. Listen and subscribe here or at TheCoolestShow.com! Follow @Think100Climate and @RevYearwood on Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram.

 We are back with a special 4-part series on transportation justice, trucking, and the climate crisis.  In this 4th and final part of this special series, after visiting Long Beach, Kansas City, and Chicago, we now take a national view. And we dive into the question of why and how poor Black and brown people can and can’t move freely within cities and within our country.  Part 4 of the Transportation Series features Darnell Grisby, the Executive Director of TransForm and a national thought leader in transportation policy and the mobility justice movement. Highways are one of the most racist monuments in American history. When we talk about where and how transportation is sited, we must address the legacy of racist policies and practices created to segregate and disenfranchise communities. Transportation justice is about abolishing pollution in communities, it is also very much about the privilege of mobility, and Darnell Grisby expertly breaks it all down for us in this final episode of this special series

We are back with a special 4-part series on transportation justice, trucking, and the climate crisis. Part 3 of this series lands us in the Chicago region, where North America’s largest inland port is just 40 miles southwest of the city. Approximately 3.5% of America's GDP flows through this area, yet resources are purposely withheld from the community. While industry seeks to pit laborers against the community, leaders like Roberto Clack, the Associate Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ), and Kimberly Wasserman, the Executive Director of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), are tackling transportation justice as a united front with warehouse workers, labor unions, and environmental justice activists. In this special 4-part series we explore transportation challenges and solutions for which dynamic leaders in frontline communities are fighting. Listen to this episode and the other three in this series. We focus on how the larger movement as well as the new administrati

We are back with a special 4-part series on transportation justice, trucking, and the climate crisis. In part 2 of this special series we visit Kansas City. Kansas City straddles the border of Missouri and Kansas, serving as a midpoint between the West and East coasts of the United States. This inland port is polluted with rail yards, highways with heavy freight traffic, and petrochemical facilities. In part 2 of The Coolest Show’s Transportation Series, we visit Kansas City and speak with community leaders Beto Lugo-Martinez, the Co-Director of Clean Air Now, and Rachel Jefferson, the Executive Director of Groundwork Northeast Revitalization Group (Groundwork NRG).  They bring to life the importance of fighting for transportation justice, centering on the community, local workers, and the environment. In this special 4-part series we explore transportation challenges and solutions for which dynamic leaders in frontline communities are fighting. Listen to this episode and the other three in this series. We

We are back with a special 4-part series on transportation justice, trucking, and the climate crisis. In part 1 of this special series we travel to Long Beach, California to speak with community and national leaders Laura Cortez, the Co-Director of the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, and Angelo Logan, the Director of the Moving Forward Network. Long Beach is a port city in Southern California and the site of ship traffic, oil refineries, and cancer clusters along freeways. Electrifying trucking ensures the health and economic prosperity of both laborers and communities, but that is only the beginning of transportation justice for Long Beach communities on the frontlines.  In this special 4-part series we explore transportation challenges and solutions for which dynamic leaders in frontline communities are fighting. Listen to this episode and the other three in this series. We focus on how the larger movement as well as the new administration can take action now to protect and uplift workin

This is the finale to season 2 of The Coolest Show! There is no guest, it’s our host, Rev Yearwood, sharing his reflections on this season. It’s been quite a year and we’re so honored to have been able to continue this show through the pandemic, through the increasing climate disasters we are working so hard to stop, through the 2020 election, and most profoundly, through our society’s largest-scale reckoning on racial justice in decades.  This season of The Coolest Show wove together all these intersecting events through the voices and expertise of  our guests, who were mostly women of color, and importantly, primarily Black women. As Rev Yearwood shares, “For too long, the climate movement has benefited from the people who are most vulnerable and most at risk… Those same people should be the ones telling their stories.” Climate justice is racial justice. Racial Justice is climate justice. Thank you for experiencing this season with us. We’ll be back soon for Season 3! In the meantime, catch up on episodes y

 Philanthropy operates in fundamentally unjust, oppressive systems. In order to be effective, grassroots work must be funded with unrestricted money, offering core support with grassroots intermediaries who know the work. The CLIMA Fund is led by Kate Kroeger, the Executive Director of Urgent Action Fund, Laura García, President and CEO of Global Greengrants Fund, and Solomé Lemma, the Executive Director of Thousand Currents. We caught up with them to discuss racism in philanthropy, moving money to BIPOC with intentional outreach, and the misconceptions of grassroots organizations not being able to handle large amounts of money. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #GrassrootsSolutions  #ClimateJustice  #Think100

We continue the discussion in this 2 part series recorded live in November 2019 from Media Impact Funders in Boulder Colorado. Thomas Lopez Jr. Thomas is an activist, water protector, defender, and the Partnerships Coordinator for Future Coalition. We caught up with him to discuss tokenization, cultural assimilation of Indigenous people, and how assimilation affected the lost in values and traditions for the next generation.

In this 2 part series recorded in November 2019, Rev. Yearwood travels to Boulder Colorado to host a town hall at Media Impact Funders. He is joined by co-host Vic Barrett from Our Children's Trust. Kaitlin Yarnall is the Chief Storytelling Officer at the National Geographic Society. We caught up with her to discuss the importance of comprehensive storytelling, how National Geographic has played a role in informing people about climate change, and her role in that process. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #ClimateStories #MediaImpact #Think100

We had the largest voter turnout in history in the 2020 election. “The status quo is no longer acceptable… We need to push further.” Tina Johnson is the Director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. We caught up with her to discuss the EPA turning 50, the energy of young people in the EJ movement, and Black women leading. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #EnvironmentalJustice #RacialJusticeNow #Think100

The Biden administration must move fast in the first 100 days to not only reverse harmful policies of the Trump administration, but also set new precedents for community-driven climate solutions. John Podesta is the former top advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama, the founder and a Board member for the Center for American Progress, and an advisory board member for Climate Power 2020. We caught up with him to discuss climate at the forefront of this election, Biden’s climate plan, and the importance of science in fighting COVID-19. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #ClimateElection #BidenClimatePolicy #Think100

 Government investment in the fossil fuel industry infringes upon our constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. A combination of litigation and demonstration is needed to hold our government accountable. Kelsey Juliana and Vic Barrett are plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States, also known as Youth v. Gov. We caught up with them to discuss the documentary Youth v Gov premiering at this year’s DOC NYC, America’s Largest Documentary Film Festival. Purchase tickets until November 19th here https://www.docnyc.net/film/youth-v-gov/. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #YouthvGov #DOCNYC #Think100

 “Other people’s discomfort can risk your whole life.” It is time that we ensure adequate representation and compensation for injustices inflicted upon us. Expanding the U.S. Supreme Court and climate reparations are places to start. Tamara Toles O’Laughlinis the North American Director of 350 Action. We caught up with her to discuss the impact of Black women, voter suppression, and false climate solutions. Listen now! More at TheCoolestShow.com and @Think100Climate. #BlackWomen #Election2020 #Think100