Paging Earth Weekly: Kat’s Picks

Paging Earth is a climate communications blog dedicated to demystifying, depolarizing and educating the public about climate change activism and climate science.

Each week, one of our GCP team members shares the content currently making their world go ‘round. 

This week, our Media & Communications Manager Kat Shok shares their top picks of the week:

Podcast of the week: “Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions” with Bill Gates and Rashida Jones

In all honesty, I don’t listen to podcasts all that often and went internet hunting for a good recommendation. I quickly stumbled across the 5-episode podcast series “Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions” on Spotify. Their fourth question is: “Is it too late to stop climate change?” Please, Bill and Rashida, do tell.

Each episode is 45 to 50 minutes long, and they pack a lot of good information into those minutes. In digestible terms, Jones and Gates — with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Elizabeth Kolbert — lay out the basics of climate change, the nuances of the expansive issue and why climate change and international inaction is a problem. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Kolbert, Gates and Jones lay out possible paths forward. Listen to the episode — Jones’ captivating podcast voice and intelligent questioning will make you want to learn more.

Who’s in my feed: Somini Sengupta, climate change reporter

I follow Sengupta on Twitter, although her best writing takes place off of the platform. A frequent retweeter of important, interesting and ingenious climate reporting worldwide, Sengupta writes for The New York Times and is also the author of The End of Karma (which I just added to my to-read list!). I am an enormous fan of her reporting — this photo essay on heat and climate change inequality is a personal favorite. 

Although the majority of her content is informative, the occasional personality Tweet does make an appearance. For instance this crucial, poetic content about the wind in New York City is a must read and is entirely underappreciated by mainstream media.

What I’m reading: Bite Back: People Taking On Corporate Food and Winning, by Saru Jayaraman and Kathryn DeMaster

Bite Back is an analysis of how food companies — most prominently in the United States, but with an international lens — have consolidated over time, fashioning an oligopoly market.

Saru Jayaraman is a researcher, working through UC Berkeley, and an activist, co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Center and One Fair Wage. Kathryn DeMaster is a professor and researcher at UC Berkeley. Her focus is in rural sociology, farmland financialization, and “the agriculture of the middle,” or modern farmers not part of massive corporations or small, independent farmers.

Together, the authors synthesize their research and theories of political ecology to highlight issues in our food system. In essence, six or seven food companies control what we eat. This book highlights why this is problematic, delineates what food sovereignty is, and calls for a new food system based on the concept of food democracy (They also advocate for breaking down the academic/activist binary, which is really similarly to what our team is doing with Paging Earth!).

Add to your watchlist: Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival, Fabrizio Terranova

The IMDb synopsis is a wild ride, describing Haraway as known for “her ground-breaking work on gender, cyborgs, animals and post-colonialism.”  The film follows Haraway taking you through her ideas, her research, and her life with her singularly witty commentary.

Donna Haraway is a seminal voice in ecofeminism, a movement involving philosophy, economics, environmentalism, and sociology that likens the struggle of Mother Earth to that of the women that live on her. Haraway problematizes, for instance, our society’s conception of nature as feminine; of the economic oversight of labeling natural and reproductive work as nonproductive; of situated knowledges and cyborgs. 

Even if ecofeminism isn’t your thing, watch the documentary for Haraway (she’s just a really interesting human being!).

Musician carrying a Message: Childish Gambino, “Feels Like Summer”

I’ve loved this song since it came out, but only a couple of months ago did I give its lyrics a deeper listen.

Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, is truly an artistic genius, whether it comes to acting, producing, writing or rapping. Although his performances in Community, Atlanta, and Guava Island will always live rent free in my mind, I digress; his lyricism is absolutely breathtaking. Glover often writes lyrics with a political tilt — see “This is America.”

But “Feels Like Summer” uniquely details the current and future impacts of the climate crisis on cities and the world. Lines like “Every day gets hotter than the one before/Running out of water, it’s about to go down” and “Oh, I know you know my pain/I’m hoping that this world will change/But it just seems the same” make me wonder why it took me so long to appreciate the political tune of this song.

Eye on the arts:  National Geographic featured photographers

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Take a good scroll through Nat Geo’s Instagram and your eyeballs will regale you with tales of striking colors, punchy interviews, and the occasional adorable arctic hare.

More importantly, in every caption Nat Geo tags the photographer or videographer whose work they are showcasing. In this way, I’ve discovered, followed, and constantly been in awe of several artists.

A lot of these artists also are insanely talented multitaskers. Esther Horvath is a conservation photographer and climate researcher in the Arctic, and posts explanations of her work in her Instagram captions; Jared Soares has a slew of editorial and commercial clients, but also is a god with portraiture and often writes long-form essays to complement his visual work.

Although some of Nat Geo’s featured artists do more environmental shooting than others, they are all worth a scroll.

Check back next week for more leaders and creators lending their voices to the conversation on climate!