WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?

In honor of NYC Climate Week, we’re diving into the climate initiatives happening right here in this city. There is so much going on.

Our guest is Louise Yeung, New York City’s Chief Climate Officer.

We interviewed Louise to give you a real sense of what we actually get when we elect someone who is committed to climate justice. Spoiler: We get a lot of good stuff!

We covered everything from battery-powered food carts, to heat pumps in public housing, to BRT (bus rapid transit, we love it), to social cohesion as a...

First, happy 2nd birthday to What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures (the book version). Thank you for welcoming it into the world so warmly (NYT bestseller! 10,000+ of you coming to book tour events!) that it continues on in podcast form. 💛✨

If you haven't yet checked it out, find the (massively updated) paperback edition at your local library or bookstore. The 20 interviews it contains with incredible experts (including, of course, our wise Bill McKibben, star of the “Divest and Protest” chapter) are all still very relevant. Alas, we have not gotten it right, yet. But we ar...

The clean energy industry is getting aggressive, Super PAC style. And, honestly, it’s pretty exciting.

Our guest this episode is Tom Matzzie, founder and CEO of Clean Choice Energy, an energy supplier whose mission is to make clean energy accessible to all. Highly relevant: he’s also a veteran political strategist.

Clean energy entrepreneurs and advocates have largely relied on affordability, efficiency, and environmental upsides to make their case. You know, the facts. But elections aren’t decided on facts alone. They are about power and influence.

Well, now there’s a new supe...

The environmental movement has a voter turnout problem: 11.2 million environmental voters did not vote in the 2024 election. Over 11 MILLION! That’s over half of the people who say climate/environment is their #1 voting issue.

On the one hand: Are you kidding me?! WTF 😖 — especially when elections are often decided by mere thousands of votes. On the other hand: So much room for improvement!

So, what can we do about this? Enter Environmental Voter Project.

Our guest for this episode is Nathaniel Stinnett, founding executive director of EVP. I’ve been a fan and supporter...

Welcome to Season 5 of What If We Get It Right? 💫 While it may seem counterintuitive given the electoral subject matter, Bill McKibben and I are having a blast gabbing with all these wonderful folks who work on climate and politics.

Our first guest is Dr. Leah Stokes, professor of environmental politics, energy policy wonk, activist, and writer. During the Biden administration, she also became a DC insider and was integral to the development and passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – THE biggest climate law in history.

With Leah, we reflect/debrief on the IRA, bemoan the e...

Season 5 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast is dedicated to environmental issues in the midterm elections — what’s at stake and how the planet can win. We are going to get INTO IT.

Perhaps grappling with this requires a dynamic duo? Well, it can’t hurt. I’m thrilled to be co-hosting this season with the magnificent and wise journalist, activist, and OG climate legend Bill McKibben. We’ve been having a blast recording the episodes and can’t wait to share them with you.

Environmental issues never seem to quite get the attentio...

Earlier this month at College of the Atlantic, I was over the moon to speak alongside the one and only Robin Wall Kimmerer, botanist, teacher, Earth lover and legendary author of Braiding Sweetgrass.

Our conversation went deeper than I expected — but that’s on me for not having higher expectations! We discussed everything from the value of books in this age of shrinking attention spans, to how to shift our thinking from competition to collaboration (inspired by the mutualism of ecosystems), to the urgency of reciprocity and gift giving. I shared my spicy take on strawberries and we d...

This conversation had an odd effect on me. I found it... relaxing? To hear a politician speaking competently, calmly, clearly, practically and with nuance about climate policy was so soothing, reassuring. More of this please!

How can we make things happen when your federal leaders are climate deniers in the pocket of fossil fuel industry? One answer is that state government leaders need to majorly step up. So, today’s conversation with Maine gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree is an important one.

Hannah Pingree is is a longtime public servant and climate leader from a small is...

Today’s conversation is a special one. I’m joined by someone who’s been a collaborator and a dear friend in this work: Katharine K. Wilkinson.

And tomorrow, May 5th, is publication day for Katharine's new book that’s the culmination of the last 5 years of her work — or perhaps of her lifetime. It’s called Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home.

It’s such an important book because the vast majority of people are concerned about climate change. But a much smaller portion of people are actively engaged in pushing forwar...

In the spirit of the What If We Get It Right? paperback launch, sharing an excerpt of the audiobook. The heart of this audiobook is 20 interviews with people who have shaped my understanding of the answer to the titular question. It’s kind of like a whole season of a podcast packaged up with essays by me and poetry by others. Also, ahem, the audiobook was a finalist for the Audie Award. (If you’re gonna lose, lose to Stephen King.)

Order the full audiobook here.

The prelude, the first chapter, is “An Ocean Love Story...

Back in September 2024, on the day my book What If We Get It Right? was published, I did one of the most absurd and delightful things I’ve ever done. I co-hosted an over-the-top goofy Climate Variety Show with actor Jason Sudeikis at the Brooklyn Museum. Sold out crowd. Strong high school talent show energy. And we took the “variety” in variety show seriously – magic, music, hula hoops, comedy, costumes, dance off, and of course many shoutouts to climate solutions. Honestly have trouble believing it actually happened. Total fever dream of a “What if we…?” question. 🧐

As we gear up for th...

Hello Earthlings, we are back with a new episode of the What If We Get It Right? podcast. This is the first episode of Season 4, which will be a short season — maybe 6 episodes? Not sure! We’ll see how it goes.

Today’s conversation, with Dr. Heidi Roop, was recorded at The Great Northern festival’s Climate Solutions Series in Minneapolis on January 31st.

Dr. Roop is an expert in climate science and adaptation. She is the Director of the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership. From 2024-2025, she served two presidential administrations as the Assistan...

Hello Earthlings! Welcome back to What If We Get It Right?

While you and I know that we already have most of the climate solutions we need — it’s more a matter of how quickly and justly we are going to implement them — most people do not know this. And you kinda can’t blame them because most of the news, plus movies and TV and social media, focus on climate problems.

This is a massive storytelling challenge. We have a narrative gap, to put it mildly.

And so for this special last episode...

What if businesses got creative to unleash funding, political influence, and cultural clout to address our environmental challenges?

What if corporations were driven not by maximizing quarterly earnings and shareholder profits, but by being good citizens of planet Earth?

There are some companies truly trying to get it right. I happen to be on the board of one of them – the outdoor company Patagonia. I joined the board of directors in 2021, as Patagonia was going through a major transition that resulted in the world having one less billionaire, the founder Yvon Chouinard, and a plan to...

About a third of our climate problem is caused by agriculture and land use. So, what are we gonna do about it?

One key solution is shifting to regenerative agriculture, aka growing food in ways that are actually good for soil and ecosystems and water and air.

Our guest this episode is Dave Herring, executive director of Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment. It’s is a farm-based education, research, and visitor center set amidst more than 600 acres of conserved open space on the coast of Maine’s Casco Bay.

Dave a...

Today’s episode is all about HEAT, that climate change bummer from which so many other impacts ripple out. The Earth is hotter now than at any other point in all of human history. From our homes and our jobs, to our policies and culture, how do we adapt? My guests for grappling with all this are Jainey Bavishi and Jeff Goodell.

Jainey served as deputy head of NOAA under President Biden, and as head of resiliency for NYC under Mayor de Blasio. Perhaps you remember her from Season 2: “The Future of Coastal Cities.”

Jeff is the...

Last week, I received the TIME Earth Award at the TIME100 Next gala. I worked really hard on my acceptance speech because it was an opportunity to recruit those 100 culture-shaping rising stars to get more involved in climate solutions. We need them!

I’m sharing this speech with you in the hopes that hearing the way I speak about climate issues in rooms of power will encourage you to also speak up. Because the truth is that every one of us has a sphere of influence we should be activating.

For the transcript, video, and ph...

For those of us trying to advance climate solutions (go team!), there’s always the question of how to be more impactful, how to bring more people along with us into this work. And often the answer is not fancier technology or more brilliant policy, it’s more compelling communication for recruiting and persuasion.

Today’s podcast guest, John Marshall, is an expert in marketing. He spent the first half of his career working with corporations who want to sell us stuff. And now, as founding executive director of the nonprofit Potential Energy, he’s using those same too...

Almost exactly three years ago (Oct 14, 2022) a couple of climate activists hurled tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers.” It got a whole bunch of press. Do you remember this? Did you ever look into who did it and why?

Well, this week on the What If We Get It Right? podcast, we’re gonna get to the bottom of it. I’m sharing the first episode of the climate podcast Sabotage: “The Splat.” Season 1 of this fascinating investigative show, tells the story of the people behind the climate activism group Just Stop Oil. Co-hosted by Alessandra...

This week I’m chatting with environmental lawyer Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm whose tagline is “because the Earth needs a good lawyer.” Indeed, it does.

The stakes, in her words: “We could come out of this time with neither presidential authority nor congressional authority to create, and enforce strong environmental laws.”

Oof. But we are not quitters, right team? So, from from the Supreme Court, to suing the government, to Project Phoenix, to her spicy take on the whole abundance narrative, Earthlings 🌎, let’s dive in.

Abbie’s CALL TO ACTION 🗣️...

Food is a major driver of our environmental problems. It uses ~38% of Earth’s land, drives ~70% of our water use, and emits ~22-34% of our greenhouse gas pollution globally. I know it’s not popular to say it, but a lot of that impact is driven by beef and dairy.

On the one hand, agriculture is driving deforestation and warming the planet. And on the other hand, our changed climate is determining what foods we can continue to grow and where.

So, this week I’m sharing what turned out to be, notwithstanding those terrible stats...

"Every single day you live you make a difference in the world, and you get to choose the difference that you make." — Jane Goodall

Last week, when I heard that Jane Goodall had died, it knocked the wind out of me. It hit me as more than a loss; it felt like the end of an era. A naturalist, a deep thinker, an expert, and so elegant, Jane's animals, of nature, set the bar for how much we each could and should devote ourselves to preserving life on Earth.

Amid the outpourings on social media th...

Today’s guest is Jigar Shah, a clean energy entrepreneur who served as director of the Loan Program Office in the US Department of Energy during the Biden administration. Previously, he was co-founder of Generate Capital, founder of Sun Edison, and founding CEO of the Carbon War Room. Now, he’s advising clean energy companies. He’s also a devout optimist. (I know, go figure.)

I interviewed Jigar for my book What if We Get It Right? back in April of 2023. Given how much has changed in the last 2+ years — especially since the start of the Trump administ...

Earthlings, hello! 👋🏽 This week’s guest is Ari Matusiak, CEO of Rewiring America, a nonprofit focused on accelerating the clean energy transition.

With the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits expiring on December 31st, I wanted to sit down with Ari to talk about our energy bills, how we can still install heat pumps and more before those incentives run out, how your home could become energy infrastructure for your community. Plus, soba noodles, K-pop, and the very sexy topic of group scheduling. Hold onto your hats. This episode is going to be electrifying. ⚡️

CALL TO ACTI...

This August marked 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and the devastation that storm had across the Gulf South is still reverberating throughout the country. Today I’m talking with Dr. Samantha Montano, a professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and co-founder of Disaster Researchers for Justice. She wrote a great book called Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis.

Now, amidst a continuing string of disastrous storms and wildfires, there are massive cuts at FEMA. We are clearly getting this very wrong. So I wanted to check back in with Samantha to understand what’s re...

Welcome to Season 3 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast! 🥳

If you’re new here: This show is about what we need to do to address the climate crisis, and how to make those things happen. Here, we take climate change seriously but absolutely do not take ourselves seriously. We take a brutally honest look at the science, policy, economics, and culture of climate issues, and dive in on solutions and strategies that will help us create a livable future on Planet Earth.

My first guest for Season 3 is a stalwart of the clima...

Hey there Earthlings. 🌎 Season 3 is launching next week! Thus, here’s a trailer with tidbits from previous seasons to get you stoked. We’ve got a dozen ace guests booked, and 4 episodes already recorded. We’re diving all the way in — on clean energy, FEMA, farming, messaging, and so much more. I’ll be re-interviewing a few of the experts I interviewed for my book because, turns out, some things have changed in the last year. 🫠 Anyway, follow/subscribe, rate/review, share with your homies. More coming very soon...

I'm aiming to live a more analog life in August (🛶🥾🏕️), so, until September, leaving you with this summer listening: an excerpt from my audiobook, the chapter titled “Away From the Brink.” To remind you, that book (which inspired this podcast) is What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures.

This chapter is essentially my answer to the BIG question: What if we get it right? What would that look like and feel like? I hope it's appealing to you — and perhaps even sparks something in you.

If you dig it, you can listen to the whole audi...

Hey there Earthlings. I’m living a more analog life this summer (highly recommend). 🛶🏕️📚 So for this week’s episode, I want to introduce you to another podcast I think you just might love.It’s called Science Vs., hosted by Wendy Zuckerman. In each episode they tackle a different topic to sort out what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s still TBD.

As a scientist and lover of facts, I super appreciate how Wendy and her team dig into the scientific literature, fact check everything, share their sources, and interview experts. So I think you’ll enjoy the episod...

Hey there Earthlings. 🩵 If you’ve been paying any attention to U.S. politics, these past 2 weeks have been a doozy.

So, let’s get into the Big Brutal Billionaire Bailout Bill of it all. Welcome to this very special collab episode of What If We Get It Right? x Twigg & Jenkins. Carri Twigg (hey bestie) and Brad Jenkins (who was her officemate in the Obama White House) host my favorite politics podcast. So smart, so incisive, so fun. Yes, you should definitely follow/subscribe.

We hopped on a call to sort through the wreckage togethe...

If you have a Republican senator: call, email, comment on all their social posts. Tell them to vote NO on the abominable budget bill. Get your friends to do it too. ☎️ Seriously, call Congress: (202) 224-3121. (Especially if you live in Maine or Alaska.) Details in this week's newsletter and all over the news.

Okay, Season 2 is a wrap — 12 delightful conversations with people showing us the ways forward on climate. This summer, we’ll be dreaming up season 3… so if have any wishes, ideas, or requests, drop a note over on Substack and let us know: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com. Pipin...

Today’s guest is Ben Wolkon. Ben is founding partner at MUUS Climate Partners, a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in climate solutions, and operates on the belief that “climate is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.”

To be honest, when I think of venture capital, I often think of like that "greed is good" mentality and just corny finance bros. And maybe that's a bit unfair. But I'm also very pleased to say that Ben is nothing like that. He's thoughtful, and generous, super funny, and cares so deeply about this sweet planet we liv...

Today is publication day for our favorite climate scientist. Dr. Kate Marvel wrote a book called Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet. Kate is a researcher at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (one of the world’s leading research centers), where she specializes in climate modeling. Although, given the various infuriating, retrograde, anti-climate science shenanigans of the Trump administration 😤, who knows how much longer that will remain the case...

I wrote a blurb for the back cover of Human Nature: “This is the best climate book I’ve ever read. It’s magnifice...

Alexia Leclercq is a face of the youth climate movement — something that, as we discussed, is a tricky thing to be.

She is a grassroots environmental justice organizer and scholar in Austin, Texas. Alexia is also co-founder of the Colorado River Conservancy and of Start:Empowerment, an education non-profit that provides students and teachers with an immersive climate justice curriculum. She’s led campaigns at the international and local levels to phase out fossil fuels, fight for clean water, and so much more — and she’s still in her mid-20s!

In this conversation, we talk abo...

For this live event at the WBUR Festival, Gina McCarthy and I discussed the EPA, the IRA, what’s at stake for us all... and, why we must never, ever pave paradise.

Gina led the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Obama, was president of NRDC, and then, under President Biden, became the first ever National Climate Advisor, setting up a climate team in the White House.

Perhaps Gina’s crowning achievement was her work on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Congress passed this landmark bill in 2022, which allocated about $400 billion to the clean energy tran...

Today’s episode is a very sweet reunion with my former podcast co-host Alex Blumberg. Alex and I co-created How to Save a Planet, which ran for 2 years as Spotify’s flagship climate show. This episode opens with the hilariously unlikely origin story of our fab collab. (Note: When you hit play, remember to also follow this podcast :)

Podcast nerds will be familiar with Alex’s work, but for the rest: Alex was a longtime producer at This American Life, one of the biggest radio/podcast shows of all-time. He went on to co-create to show Planet Money...

A tale of over-ups, poison, sludge, and the last bipartisan environmental issue. They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals by Mariah Blake is a true crime story on the scale of what the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have done to knowingly imperil our health and our futures. But this book also highlights what’s possible when unlikely advocates, regular folks, come together and unite for a common cause. In other words, there are heroes in this story too.

The book is a landmark investigation that required years of her on-the-ground re...

Today's guest, Sarah Stillman, is a Pulitzer and MacArthur genius award-winning journalist. She founded and leads the Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale, and she's been a staff writer at The New Yorker for about a decade. Sarah’s writing typically focuses on our immigration and justice systems, but increasingly (and in some part due to my nudges), she's also writing about climate change.

Sarah's first piece about climate was an essay, “Like the Monarch,” she wrote for my first book, All We Can Save, an anthology I co-edited with the wonderful Dr. Katherine Wilkinson. And, fun fact, Sarah...

Hey there Earthlings. 💛 We’re talking sustainability and fashion, again. It’s a major industry impacting the environment and shaping the cultural context within which we make climate decisions... and I may be overcompensating for having not given fashion a chapter in the What If We Get It Right? book.

A few weeks ago, I shared here a conversation on Sustainable Fashion and the Art of Care with supermodel/artist Cameron Russell. And what better time to continue this discussion than in the wake of the 2025 Met Gala. Our guest this week is phenom Gabriela Hearst, a super-e...

This week, I’m chatting with Jainey Bavishi, an expert in climate adaptation and resilience. We cover everything from social aid and pleasure clubs, to recovering from climate disasters, civic infrastructure, why we should absolutely not privatize weather forecasts, and – of course! – what getting it right in coastal cities looks like, in New York City, New Orleans, and beyond. I’m so glad to be sharing this conversation with you, because local action matters so much right now.

One in seven people in the U.S. live in coastal cities — that’s more than 47 million Americans. Plus, the U.S. coa...