WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?

• Earth is our only shareholder 🌏, with Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert

  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 give away basically all the company’s profits to environmental causes in perpetuity.I thought you might like a peak behind the curtain of all this, so I sat down with the CEO, Ryan Gellert, to dig into the values and practices that have shaped not just Patagonia, but set a high bar across sectors for everything from materials and manufacturing, to worker’s rights and activism, to philanthropy. Now, it’s not a perfect company, certainly, environmentally or otherwise, but it’s a model worth considering.Links/resources for the topics we covered, are all in the newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe

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• The Current Politics of Food and Farming 👨‍🌾 with Dave Herring

  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 and I talked about helping farmers make the transition to regenerative practices, getting involved in environmental policy, running a farm camp so kids understand how their food is grown, and working to make our food system a part of our climate solutions.CALL TO ACTION: Really think about (and get more curious about) where your food is coming from. And eat more local, more seasonal, more plant-based.If you’re in a position to help others access nutritious food, please do. Our neighbors and food pantries and soup kitchens need our support. Find resources near you 💛: findhelp.orgAnd if you’re inspired by what you heard in this episode, and furious that the Trump administration cancelled their grant to do exceedingly important work, support Wolfe’s Neck Center! 👩🏽‍🌾: wolfesneck.org.Podcast notes:If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help others find us — follow, rate, and review the show. ✅ Text the link of your favorite episode to your favorite group chat, and discuss! 🗣️This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.This episode was produced and edited by Remoy Philip and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.If you’re new here, peruse the back catalog. A few dozen hours of sweet podcast conversations with incredible guests await you. ✨ Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe

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• How to deal with the heat 🌎🥵 with Jainey Bavishi and Jeff Goodell

  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 author of the New York Times bestseller The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. He has also been a climate reporter at Rolling Stone for over two decades.BONUS CONTENT: Head to the newsletter (ayanaelizabeth.substack.com) to watch the hilarious cold open by Brad Einstein with sassy Earth puppet.Follow, rate, review! ✅ Text your favorite episode to your favorite group chat, and discuss!CREDITS: This episode was recorded live at Pioneer Works during Climate Week NYC. This podcast is supported by Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.Special thanks to Pioneer Works and Wellcome Foundation for hosting this live taping. This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha. Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe

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• How do you convince a room full of influential people to care about climate change… in 6 minutes? 🎤

  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 photos head to my newsletter: ayanaelizabeth.substack.com. And while you're there, I'm curious: What would you have said if you had that microphone? Let me know in the comments.Thank you to Future Being for keeping this podcast ad-free, to Remoy Philip for producing this episode, and to assistant producer Jenisha Shrestha.Okay, Earthlings 🌎, that’s it for now. We’ll be back next week with a piping hot new interview episode. Stay tuned… Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe

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• Climate hushing, fart jokes, and love. 😝 John Marshall on how to market climate action.

  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 tools to sell climate solutions.So, what messages are most effective? What words should we use or avoid? Who are the best messengers? What’s his advice for me about how to be a better one? And what’s love got to do with it?I learned so much, including that we simply have to talk about climate MORE. So, Earthlings, let’s get into it!John’s CALL TO ACTION 🗣️Rally your crew, build the team: "Do things, invite people. You invite three people and they invite three people, and that’s how change actually happens. And that’s how we get an acceleration. So do talk about it with somebody. Invite somebody to do something together."Simple, necessary, and something each of us can do more of. To put it in the words of Bill McKibben, sometimes the best thing an individual can do is to stop being such an individual.Podcast notes:If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help others find us — follow, rate, and review the show. ✅ Text the link of your favorite episode to your favorite group chat, and discuss!This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.If you’re new here, peruse the back catalog. A few dozen hours of sweet podcast conversations with incredible guests await you. ✨ Get full access to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? at ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/subscribe

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