This summer, whether you’re hitting the road or staying home to tend your community garden, take a listen to these five compelling, well-produced podcasts below that we can’t get enough of. All of them have helped us sustain hope during these times, offering intellectual and creative inspiration for walking into a viable future together.
Beyond Ecological Grief is a six-part podcast, hosted by Amy Romer, investigating the emotional realities of living through a planetary health crisis. Guided by the five stages of grief, each episode follows a personal story — from scientists to land defenders and youth — whose ties to land and history shape how they respond to a rapidly changing world. Intimate interviews and in-depth reporting trace how eco-grief shows up as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. When the place that shaped you is threatened — or destroyed — what does it take to keep going and take action?
Tending the Tides explores Oregon’s growing need for and interest in an emergent farming method called mariculture. To many, the Oregon Coast is an ideal place for mariculture because of its unique ecology; high winds are frequent along its shores. The result is a natural phenomenon known as upwelling that stirs up cold, nutrient rich water that saltwater organisms thrive in. Mariculture refers not only to the farming of marine life for food, but also to the restoration and conservation of essential marine habitats, and the preservation of Indigenous knowledge.
Tending the Tides looks closely at how the ocean farming of oysters, urchins, and seaweed can help Oregon’s struggling coastal communities build a flourishing, blue economy.
On Capitalism, the world’s dominant economic system is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. This podcast tells the story of capitalism — how people with power built and shaped it over time. We’ll also explore what to do now that many people see capitalism as the problem, not the solution.
Salmon Wars is a 2024 podcast series from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), who teamed up with ProPublica to produce six episodes in which one Yakama Nation family tells the story of the fight to save vanishing salmon in the Northwest. “Salmon Wars” is OPB’s follow-up to “Timber Wars” (2020), two podcasts that examine conflicts over resources in the Pacific Northwest.
The Great Simplification is a weekly podcast hosted by Dr. Nate Hagens that explores the systemic intersections of energy, ecology, economics, and human behavior. Episode 14, The Future Is Local: Bioregioning 101, features members of the bioregioning movement as they investigate what have we lost and forgotten through the process of globalization.
