Drilled Podcast About Climate Change Returns For Sixth Season

 "You have to see it to believe it." That kernel of wisdom often reinforces our visual dominance. The sensory experience that is the Drilled podcast often contradicts that visual supremacist statement. In Drilled, about to begin its sixth season on July 9, the podcast uses audio to reinforce the dangers imminent in climate change. 

The sixth season, "Bridge to Nowhere,"  focuses on investigating the rise of the natural gas industry.

As host and veteran climate journalist Amy Westervelt explains in the new trailer, "A few years ago, I started to see an explosion in disposable plastic. This was even before the pandemic brought more of it into our lives. It seemed…weird. And it reminded me of what had happened with climate change, where a big environmental problem seemed like it was being addressed, but then suddenly everything shifted. When I looked into it I found...fracking."

 

Westervelt brings sonic excellence to the podcast and deftly foreshadows the sense of future danger without dismal doomsday warnings.

Broken into three parts, "Bridge to Nowhere" will explain why a Taiwanese petrochemical company set up shop in the American South, how a shrimp boat captain won the largest civil environmental settlement ever, and more climate change cautionary tales.

 

Listen to the trailer here. 

You can listen to earlier seasons of Drilled here and below is a summary of the previous five seasons.

 

 Season 1 traced the corporate-funded creation and spread of climate denial, including interviews with former Exxon scientists, primary source documents, and an in-depth look at the history of fossil fuel-funded influence campaigns.

 Season 2 : Hot Water follows a group of West Coast crab fisherman who are experiencing first-hand the devastating impacts of climate change. And this unlikely group of climate activists just became the first industry to sue big oil.    

Season 3 : The Mad Men of Climate Denial digs into the history of fossil fuel propaganda and the few "Mad Men of climate denial" who shaped it.  

Season 4 : There Will Be Fraud follows the fossil fuel industry's efforts to use the COVID-19 pandemic to push through its wishlist of deregulation and subsidies. 

 Season 5 : La Lucha En La Jungla   looks at the decades long battle between indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Chevron. 

Drilled is part of a podcast network run by Critical Frequency, which is a women-run podcast network founded by journalists and focused on the backstory of the biggest issues facing society today, climate change and justice. 

 

Critical Frequency shows are billed as answering the questions: how did we get here? And how are we going to get out? 

 

Named AdWeek's 2019 Podcast Network of the Year, Critical Frequency was founded in 2017 and has produced a total of 24 shows, including forthcoming co-productions with Stitcher's Witness Docs and Crooked Media. 

 

Sure, there are numerous podcasts about climate change. But it's an expansive topic that offers podcasts a wide berth to follow a multitude of eddies and currents that run through the climate change discussion.

 

Drilled does not play the role of climate change proselytizer. Instead, the podcast takes a "boots on the ground" view of climate upheavals through personal stories and the consequences of "ostrich in the sand" denial.