Espen Braathe + Kirk Lombard: Sustainable Seafood

As most of us have been hunkering down over the last few months, we’ve been shopping for more of our own food and eating out less. As you’ve perused the seafood section of the grocery store, you may have wondered to yourself what type of fish is OK to buy. This week on Sea Change Radio, we look at seafood supply chains with Espen Braathe who heads up IBM Food Trust Europe. He works with the company’s clients in the aquaculture industry to help them implement blockchain technology to track the quality of sustainably farmed or fished seafood. Then, we dive into the archives to speak with Bay Area educator and entrepreneur Kirk Lombard to learn more about his sustainable seafood delivery service, Sea Forager.

Lloyd Alter: Innovation in the COVID-19 Era

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Human beings are nothing if not innovative. We have invented entire disciplines concerned with design, sustainability, and urban planning. Now, however, a global pandemic is forcing experts in these disciplines to rethink, adapt, and re-innovate. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to design expert and environmental journalist Lloyd Alter about innovation and adaptation in the COVID-19 era. We talk about the hurdles we are collectively facing when it comes to things like sky scrapers, air conditioning, and commuting – things that people, including experts, not too long ago took for granted.

Castle Redmond: Hope For Racial Justice

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In his book Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen writes that “race is the sharpest and deepest division in American life.” We recognize the peaceful protests that have emerged in the wake of the murder of George Floyd as a force for healing, and for addressing our nation’s shameful history surrounding race. Millions of Americans of all ages, races, ethnicities, and identities are taking to the streets to support the Black Lives Matter movement. It appears that white America is finally waking up and acknowledging that being “not racist” won’t undo the pervasive racism in our collective psyche — rather, we must be actively antiracist. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome Castle Redmond, a senior program manager from The California Endowment to discuss why this moment feels different. He helps put the images of looting we’re seeing on our TV screens into historical context, and we look at the places where the environmental and racial justice movements intersect.

Megan Milliken Biven: Mississippi Dredging

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Some of Louisiana’s best buffers against the storms that lash its coast annually are the little spits of land in the Gulf of Mexico — they slow down hurricanes and help throttle storm surges. But as sea level rise is eroding these coastal wetlands, new land buffers are being built up through dredging, in order to protect Gulf Coast residences and habitats. Unfortunately, those dredging efforts are falling woefully short. This week on Sea Change Radio, we talk to shoreline expert Megan Milliken Biven to learn all about dredging in the Mississippi Delta. We discuss the inadequate number of boats known as “hopper dredges,” look at the relationship between dredging and the region’s oil and gas industry, and examine what policies could turn things around before the next major hurricane hits the Big Easy.

Barbara Freese: Industrial Strength Denial

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The next time you hear the White House assert that up is down and down is up, consider what paved the way for this template of mendacity. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with environmental attorney and author Barbara Freese about her new book, “Industrial Strength Denial.” Freese takes us on a historical tour of the havoc that big business has wreaked on the planet and on truth itself. We discuss the climate change denial movement and how it relates to the Trump Administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the pernicious legacy of leaded gasoline.

Frederick Kaufman: Voices Inside Our Heads

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When faced with something overwhelming, terrifying, or incomprehensible, the human mind can get pretty creative. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to author Frederick Kaufman about the common threads running through pandemics, money, and food systems: namely, conspiracy theories. First, we look at the parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and the yellow fever that swept through this newly formed country in the 1790s, and how it contributed to some wild theories at the time, including the Illuminati. Then, we get a sneak peak at Kaufman’s upcoming book, “The Money Plot,” where he describes how frustration in trying to grasp the complexity of financial systems can also lead to unsubstantiated explanations, sometimes with very bloody outcomes. Lastly, we discuss how the corporate food industry has orchestrated a bit of a panic in order to maximize profits, taking advantage of this global pandemic.

Jeremy Miller on Foxes, Henhouses and Trojan Grouses

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The Republican habit of putting wolves in charge of our nation’s henhouses hits those who love the environment particularly hard. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with journalist Jeremy Miller about how the current EPA and Department of Interior are taking advantage of our current lockdown, working with big business and right-wing think tanks to rollback environmental protections. We discuss efforts to continue drilling on fragile lands despite plummeting oil prices, look at the uranium mining industry and its voracious thirst for water, and examine efforts by ranchers to deforest some of the West‘s hidden gems.

The Dow of Deception: Mark Tulay

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As the horrendous economic news continues to pile up, somehow stock prices keep bouncing back, leaving many of us scratching our heads. This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio tries to help us make sense of it all. Mark Tulay, a consultant and expert in the field of sustainable investing, breaks down how Wall St. can essentially ignore economic reality, and how the stock market paints a picture of economic health despite the tens of millions of Americans suddenly out of work. Will Wall St. be able to paper over the vast inequities in this country and propel the Sociopath-in-Chief to re-election in November? Or will this finally be the moment when we recognize that the stock market is a poor barometer for the country’s economic well-being? We also discuss the pandemic’s effect on sustainable investment, examine which companies are seriously committed to the green revolution, and try to predict what this upheaval will mean for Wall St. long term.

Marie Mutskui Mockett: American Harvest

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Anyone who has gone to the grocery store during the COVID-19 health crisis must have wondered to themselves at some point why there was no toilet paper, milk or flour all of a sudden. It’s an important reminder that most of us have very little idea how things go from being planted in the ground to being stocked on our shelves. On this week’s Sea Change Radio, we speak with Marie Mutsuki Mockett, an author whose family owns a wheat farm in Nebraska. Her new book, American Harvest, takes us inside the world of wheat harvesting. We get a glimpse into the lives of the farmers she met while researching her book, discuss how those in the industry are coping with the pandemic and take a closer look at some of the agricultural industry’s practices.