How We Survive Podcast: Focusing on Solutions To Climate Change

 In the trailer for the How We Survive podcast, host (in September 2021) Molly Wood announces, "This is not a podcast about the end of the world. It is a podcast about solutions. It's about innovating our way into a better future."

The show doesn't spend precious time trying to convince climate deniers. It plays a clip of a man who says that climate change is not a thing, and when asked why he thinks that, he replies tersely, "Because."

Instead, the podcast announces, "The climate crisis is here. The Western United States is burning; much of the Northeast is underwater after a hurricane; towns in Europe are swept away by massive floods. Time is slipping away to stop the worst effects of a warming planet, and the world is looking for solutions."

The show's marketing pitch is: "How We Survive explores the technology that could provide some of those solutions, the business of acclimatizing to an increasingly inhospitable planet, and the way people have to change if we’re going to make it in an altered world."

In its first season, How We Survive investigated the rush to mine lithium in the U.S. The need for lithium for batteries is driving a modern gold rush for the metal that could help save the world, but it relies on an old, dirty technology: mining.

And just like the gold rush of the 1800s, the rush for “white gold,” as it’s known, involves a lot of human conflict and drama: radical environmentalists who hope to destroy industrial civilization, business rivalries so fierce that one CEO was dragged off a plane, and Indigenous people who say they’ll sacrifice their lives to stop a mine from being built. 

The second season, hosted by Amy Scott, dealt with rising sea levels and how they are already affecting Miami right now and what could happen to the city in the future. HINT: How long can you tread water?

The show recently began its sixth season with Marketplace host Kai Rysdall, a Navy veteran, traveling from the Arctic to a Pacific Island to understand how the U.S. military could affect our climate future.

In a miniseries called Burning Questions (seasons 3 &5), the podcast asks questions we may have to answer about our future, such as: Where Should I Live? 

If you care about your real estate values, listen to this episode. You don't want to own a home in an area where the average temperature is over 120 degrees for months at a time. That heat tends to cool home prices.

One of the most illuminating episodes was November 8, 2023 show called Groundwater Wars, where the small farming town of Kingman, Arizona, deals with the scarce resource of groundwater. The show offers an unsparing view of how farmers, ranchers, homeowners, and government officials battle over a swindling resource -- fresh water.

How We Survive was created and produced by Marketplace, which has been podcasting since 2005. Marketplace's mother ship -- American Public Media -- has a long history of producing documentary and investigative journalism shows.

Check out How We Survive. There are plenty of climate change podcasts out there. An overwhelming majority are ear worthy. There are a few that tend to lecture listeners and get hung up on climate deniers instead of focusing on solutions like How We Survive.