"I don't need the access anymore."

04/28/20 • 42 min

MSNBC’s Ali Velshi has been an extreme weather reporter, he’s mastered explaining the DOW and now he’s one of the most visible journalists bringing consistent climate reporting to a large audience. Ali joins us to trace his evolution as a reporter, why a scoreboard makes it easier to keep people focused and the paradox a smog-free LA being good TV. Velshi brings his trademark candor and clarity to a conversation that takes us behind the scenes of one of the country’s largest news organizations. For the climate-concerned individual, Velsi says, “There is no one coming to save you. This is work for adults, you actually have to figure out what the right things are. We are in a world in which there's no time now for us to look for the leaders who are going to save us.”

Previous Episode

Rage only gets you so far

Our interviewee Mary Heglar is a writer and a reader, so we asked her for the best ways to make ourselves smarter AND stay hot during the COVID lock-down.Here are some articles by her:

“My manifesto from last summer that lays down my beef with the climate conversation and how I want to change it.”

“As angry as I am about the climate crisis, that anger is, believe it or not, fueled by love, as outlined here.”

“The thing about climate grief is that you can never get to the final stage of acceptance, because that’s the kiss of death. So you cycle in and out of all the other phases. Me? I like to stay in anger.”

“Nothing makes me angrier than the willful obtuseness of the crowd who thinks that climate action and climate justice can be divorced.”

And here are some articles by others:

“The seminal essay on climate anger by the one and only Amy Westervelt.”

“My Personal Hero, James Baldwin, wrote this letter to Angela Davis and it includes one of my favorite quotes to apply to the climate crisis (and general crisis) of today: ‘Well. Since we live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal, I have been making as much noise as I can.’”

“When I need a kick in the pants, when I want to give up, I revisit this piece by Ijeoma Oluo.”

“My favorite Arundhati Roy piece is from 1998 and about nuclear war, but at its heart it’s about what happens when a small band of cruel fools have too much power and we all suffer for it.”

Next Episode

Things we learned

Over six episodes, HEATED explored how the emerging coronavirus pandemic and the long-growing climate change crisis were overlapping existential threats. HEATED founder Emily Atkin and Mikel Ellcessor, her co-Executive Producer for the HEATED podcast, dig into the tape to highlight the things we all learned - and what we need to do if we want to keep things from getting worse. Also...we show you what you can do if you want MORE EPISODES of the HEATED podcast!