Drilled - podcast cover

Drilled

Critical Frequencywww.drilled.media
A true-crime podcast about climate change. Hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Amy Westervelt and reported by a team of climate journalists, Drilled investigates the various obstacles that have kept the world from adequately responding to climate change.

Episodes

The ABCs of Big Oil | So... What Do We Do About This?

Over the last five episodes we've tracked how long the fossil fuel industry has been investing in schools, why, and what impact it's had. In this episode, we look at what can be done, and who's trying to do it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 29, 202132 min

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ben Franta Talks to Us About Big Oil on Campus

Bringing you our entire interview with Stanford researcher Ben Franta on fossil fuel influence at universities because it was just too good not to share.Check out Degrees pod: https://link.chtbl.com/degrees?sid=podcast.SHOWNAME Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 22, 20211 hr 2 min

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 4: We're Going Streaking

We're wrapping up our series with Earther this week, with a look at how fossil fuel companies influence curricula and research at the university level. (Also working on a bonus episode on solutions to this problem, stay tuned for that!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 15, 202137 min

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 3: High School

In the third episode of our mini-series with Earther, we head to high school, where the fossil fuel industry's efforts to shape Americans' thinking on economics and policy really ramps up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 08, 202131 min

S5 Update: Donziger Sentenced to Six Months in Jail

Steven Donziger, the attorney who's been on house arrest for more than two years on a contempt charge that arose as a result of his work on the Chevron-Ecuador case, was sentenced Friday October 1st. Judge Loretta Preska handed down the maximum sentence, six months in jail. She also denied bail. Donziger's legal team is appealing both the conviction and the denial of bail, and he remains at home on house arrest pending those appeals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 03, 202140 min

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 2: Elementary School

Since the 1920s, oil companies have been creating music, activities, coloring books, comic books, movies and more to shape how American kids think about society, the economy, and the environment. Today, we look at their efforts in elementary school. Read more: www.earther.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 01, 202126 min

Presenting Scene on Radio, Season 5: The Repair

Drilled host Amy Westervelt is co-hosting this season of the documentary podcast Scene on Radio, all about the climate crisis—what drove it and what could propel the world out of it. If you like what you hear in episode 1, you can keep listening here: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 01, 202146 min

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 1: First Day of School

Fossil fuel companies didn't start infiltrating schools when climate change appeared on the scene, they were there shaping the minds of future citizens for decades before then. The industry has been laying the groundwork for inaction on climate since long before this crisis reared its ugly head, limiting how Americans are allowed to think about the environment and the economy. In this first episode of our new miniseries with Earther, Dharna Noor and Amy Westervelt look at how Big Oil first got i...

Sep 24, 202141 min

Drilled + Earther Present: The ABCs of Big Oil

In this collaboration with Earther, we look at the fossil fuel industry's influence in school—not just in shaping our understanding of environmental problems, but also in narrowing the spectrum of solutions we're allowed to consider. Earther reporter Dharna Noor co-hosts, and we'll be bringing you a four-part series over the next several weeks. Subscribe so you won't miss it! And make sure to check out the Earther site for complementary posts and web bonuses. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Sep 13, 20213 min

S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 5: Whack-a-Mole

In the final episode of part 1 in our Bridge to Nowhere season, we look at the chronic whack-a-mole problem in frontline communities. Just as one facility gets shut down or cleaned up, another is waiting to take its place. In a lot of ways, the plastic problem itself is a whack-a-mole issue catalyzed by progress in shifting away from fossil fuels in the transport and building sectors. How can policy makers and activists predict and prevent these sorts of problems? Learn more about your ad choice...

Sep 13, 202128 min

S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 4: Keeping Oil Alive

The team at UnEarthed, an investigative journalism project funded by Greenpeace in the UK, went undercover and got ExxonMobil execs on tape talking through the company's climate playbook in detail. Today, an unpublished part of that report, in which a former Exxon lobbyist details the company's and the industry's plans on plastics.More from UnEarthed:Watch the ExxonMobil video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFBjcrU5Pc&ab_channel=GreenpeaceUnearthedRead the story: https://unearthed.greenpeace....

Aug 06, 202120 min

S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 3: And Then There Was Covid...

Just as the fossil fuel industry was starting to worry about demand for single use plastics, along comes a global pandemic that they could leverage to push more of the stuff. And they did! But was it enough to save them entirely? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 30, 202125 min

S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep2: Erasing the Imaginary Line

Diane Wilson couldn't keep Formosa out of her town, but down the coast in Louisiana the community in St. James Parish, led by Sharon Lavigne, is fighting like hell to keep them out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 23, 202129 min

S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 1: Don't Mess with Texas

This time we're doing something a little different: a season in three parts, all about the gas industry and how it's managed to embed itself into society. First up, Part 1 Plastic Pipelines: A look at how the fracking boom led to a plastics boom, through the story of one petrochemical company operating on the Gulf Coast, and the two women—one in Texas, the other in Louisiana—taking them on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 16, 202128 min

Welcome to S6: The Bridge to Nowhere

A new season about the natural gas industry, presented in three parts. Coming soon, Part 1: Pipelines to Plastic about the direct connection between the fracking boom and the plastics boom, told through the story of Formosa Plastics, a company with an environmental record so bad it couldn't get permits in its own country so it searched the globe for a new home, with weaker environmental regulations, and found it in the American South. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

Jun 17, 20214 min

Update: Donziger's Trial in New York

Steven Donziger went to trial for the criminal contempt charge that's kept him on house arrest for 600 days and counting. Paul Paz Y Mino of Amazon Watch brings us an update on the trial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 27, 202122 min

Climate Guilt, Brought to You by Big Oil

A new study from Harvard science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran points to the use of language targeted specifically to downplay the reality of climate change and shift responsibility entirely onto consumers. Geoffrey Supran, the lead author on the study, joins to discuss.Study: https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(21)00233-5Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-change-exxonmobil-harvard-study-1169682/ Learn more about your ad choices. ...

May 17, 202122 min

New Study: The Health Impacts of the Coal-to-Gas Transition

A new study out from Harvard University explores the health impacts of transitioning from coal to other combustible fuels. The findings are important for climate policy, particularly the fact that biomass is a huge contributor to air pollution despite representing only a small percentage of energy generation and that natural gas still contributes significantly to air pollution and its associated health impacts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 11, 202120 min

Rep Ro Khanna on Fossil Fuel Subsidies

It's Earth Day 2021 and the first Congressional hearing of the day is focused on fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination was written into Biden's infrastructure bill, and House Democrats want to make sure that provision stays in the bill. Today's hearing will detail what those subsidies are, why getting rid of them is critical to climate action, and how the government can pull it off without raising the cost of living for average Americans.Watch the hearing at 10am ET: https://oversight.house.g...

Apr 22, 202113 min

S5 Update: Latest on Donziger's Case

Steven Donziger, the American attorney we profiled in S5 is scheduled for trial May 10th, but his lawyers have filed another motion to dismiss, alleging vindictive prosecution. Karen Savage joins for an update on this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 17, 202133 min

Corporate Personhood? What About Ecosystem Personhood

We talked about rights of nature a bit in the Ecuador-Chevron season, the Latin American country was the first in the world to integrate the concept of rights of nature in its Constitution. Now the Constitutional Court is reviewing its first rights of nature case. U.S. communities are pursuing the idea as well, and the fossil fuel industry is trying to block rights of nature laws from ever passing. Josh Boaz Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, co-founders of Public Herald join to talk about their new...

Apr 10, 202140 min

Infrastructure Week! Build Back Better, THRIVE, and More with Kaniela Ing

The Biden Administration has rolled out its Build Back Better plan and it includes a lot of progressive wishlist items, but the left is still pushing for more scale. The THRIVE Act, reintroduced by Sen Markey and Rep Dingell last month is what they're pushing towards and Peoples Action Climate Justice director Kaniela Ing joins to walk us through the asks, and what he's hearing from folks on the ground.Learn more:https://www.thriveagenda.com/https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/sena...

Mar 31, 202131 min

All Eyes on Weymouth as FERC Signals Interest in Environmental Justice

Local activists and legislators have been fighting the Enbridge natural gas compressor in Weymouth for years. It's too close to residents and businesses, and poses too many health risks to a community that's already borne the burden of too much pollution, they say. The project was approved by FERC in 2019, built and became operational in 2020. Then it had an emergency shutdown. And another. Now FERC is considering the unprecedented move of re-thinking its permit, a decision that could have broad...

Mar 27, 202125 min

How the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Undermining Free Speech

Fossil fuel-backed anti-protest laws have been passed in 14 states and are making their way through statehouses in several more states, including six different bills in Minnesota, the only state with a big pipeline fight this year: Line 3. Researcher Connor Gibson joins to talk us through how this all started and where it's at.Read more:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pipeline-protest-laws-coronavirus_n_5e7e7570c5b6256a7a2aab41https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-protest_n_602c1ff6c5b6c9505...

Mar 20, 202138 min

Frackalachia and the Great Fracking Jobs Myth

When a report makes oil and gas companies—and the politicians they help elect—this mad, you know the author is on to something. Researcher Sean O'Leary, with the Ohio River Valley Institute, joins us to talk about his new report, which found that the local economic benefit of fracking to communities in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia gas corridor was slim to none. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 12, 202140 min

Presenting: Hot Take — Blood for Oil, with Antonia Juhasz

A special presentation of the podcast Hot Take, featuring investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz on all the many ways oil, war, and climate change intersect.Read more:https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/light-sweet-crude-a-former-us-ambassador-peddles-influence-in-afghanistan/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/the-new-war-for-afghanistans-untapped-oil/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/why-rex-tillerson-could-be-americas-most-dangerous-secretary-of-state/Subscribe to the Hot Take newsletter: http:/...

Mar 10, 20211 hr 18 min

The API Was Pushing Climate Denial Way Earlier Than Anyone Thought

Stanford researcher Ben Franta joins to talk about a bombshell new discovery: the American Petroleum Institute not only knew about climate change back in the 70s, it started pushing climate denial as early as 1980.Read Ben's article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 05, 202126 min

S5 Ep 11 | ¿Ahora Que?

Donziger is still on house arrest and disbarred, the settlement seems impossible to collect, now what? In this episode we look at what this case says about accountability and the power of oil companies, and what options remain for the Ecuadorians seeking justice.Support our work: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 19, 202030 min

S5 Ep 10 | The Kill Step

Chevron makes good on its promise to fight the Ecuadorian judgement until hell freezes over ... and then fight it out on the ice. Donziger loses his appeal of the RICO judgement, then finds himself facing contempt charges and disbarment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 11, 202023 min

S5 Ep9 | The Judge

Corruption charges against both the Ecuadorian judge and the American judge fly as the RICO gets underway.Support our work: patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 04, 202041 min