As a climate activist, I’m always thinking about how I should engage my peers with climate topics. You can’t spell doom and gloom, or folks will get scared and shut down. But you also can’t revise the inherently terrifying moment we’re in. The future of the climate movement rests in our ability to wrestle with this question… so I wanted to bring on someone who has been experimenting in this world for years.

Today I sat down with Taiji Nelson, long-time community climate educator (and one of my comrades back home in Pittsburgh!), to chat about why engaging people around climate matters and how to do it effectively. Taiji got his start teaching kids and young adults at Pittsburgh’s Frick Environmental Center, then joined the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to foster interdisciplinary, rural-urban climate connections. Amidst his work, Taiji also had a brief stint on the west coast completing a master’s thesis on arts-based climate engagement. With so much experience learning about climate alongside communities, I thought he might have some answers for me.

Read Taiji’s thesis on arts-based pedagogies here: https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/items/80a8fbfc-595f-49c3-ac49-fdafa39cabd7

Let us know what you think at climatenichepodcast@gmail.com.

There’s a lot of places to begin talking about climate chaos. The US military, the biggest institutional fossil fuel emitter in the world, might be a good place to start. Equipped with the largest peacetime budget it’s ever seen, the US military has amassed incredible power and influence… to do what, exactly? Today I sat down with Lindsay Koshgarian, executive director of National Priorities Project, to talk about the military’s role in climate emissions, protecting resources - especially fossil fuels - instead of people, and how we can practice antimilitarism in our everyday lives.

Learn more about Lindsay’s work here: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/

Let us know what you think at climatenichepodcast@gmail.com.