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I'm this long-form deep dive, Kim and Jamie explore Climates Fiction, or CliFi, through three different storytelling techniques: utopian futures, dystopian futures, and fictional stories closer to our present day reality.
Featured writers include:
Francesco Verso | Future Fiction editor and author of many climate fiction stories
Vajra Chandrasekera | Author of The Saint of Bright Doors (2023) and Rakesfall (2024)
Agustina Bazterrica | Author of Tender is the Flesh (2017) and The Unworthy (2023)
Madeleine Watts | Author of The Inland Sea (2021) and Elegy, Southwest (2025)
Olufunke Grace Bankole | Author of The Edge of Water (2025)
Sarena Ulibarri | Author of Another Life (2025) and Steel Tree (2023)
Susanna Kwan | Author of Awake in the Floating City (2025)
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Journalist and writer Todd Miller has researched and written about border issues for more than 15 years. He resides in Tucson, Arizona, but also has spent many years living and working in Oaxaca, Mexico. His work has appeared in the New York Times, TomDispatch, The Nation, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Guernica, and Al Jazeera English, among other places. Todd has authored four books: Build Bridges, Not Walls: A Journey to a World Without Borders (City Lights, 2021) Empire of Borders: The Expansion of the U.S. Border Around the World (Verso, 2019), Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration, and Homeland Security (City Lights, 2017), and Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security (City Lights, 2014). In this chat, Jamie and Kim talk with Todd about "Storming the Wall," the economic and ethical costs of militarizing our border, and the language used in different migration spaces. Check out weekly updates from Todd at The Border Chronicle.
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Vajra Chandrasekera is a writer from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors (2023) won Nebula, Ignyte, Crawford, and Locus awards, and was nominated for the Le Guin, Lammy, and Hugo, among others. His second novel Rakesfall (2024) won the Otherwise Award and is a Nebula and Locus award finalist, and was selected as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, NPR, and Esquire. His short stories, poems, and articles have appeared in many publications including Clarkesworld, West Branch, and The Los Angeles Times. In this chat, Vajra discusses the value of art in exploring different aspects of humanity, climate fiction as a theme in writing alongside capitalism and empire, and the writing pleasure in subverting literary tropes.
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Francesco Verso is the most translated Italian Science Fiction author abroad of the last 20 years. He founded the publishing house Future Fiction with the mission of translating more climate fiction in different languages from around the world. Future Fiction anthologies have featured cli-fi works originally written in Chinese, Hindi, Urdu and more than a dozen others. In this climate chat, Francesco discusses the value in battling the monoculture and the importance of celebrating a diversity of perspectives, the Solarpunk movement, and utopian visions of our shared climate future.
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FernGully: The Last Rainforest, is a 1992 animated fantasy film and part of the environmental film canon. The story takes place in the magical world of FernGully, where fairies and animals are guardians of the forest. Curious fairy Christer has accidentally shrunk a human logger, and is on a quest to protect the forest from a resurgent fossil fuel driven being called Hexus. Action aside, it’s also a banger musical!
In this Climate Review episode, Kim and Izzie talk through the main plot beats. In between gusts of nostalgia, they discuss how FernGully lands today as a communication piece, their great love for Robin Williams, and what can be said of the film's theory of change. Does, indeed, the power to change does rest in the magic of a single seed?
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Susanna Kwan is an artist and writer from San Francisco. Her work has been supported by fellowships from Kundiman, Storyknife, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, The Writers' Grotto, and Vanderbilt University. “Awake in the Floating City” is her first novel.
Susanna and I met at her Richmond district home in San Francisco. In this chat, we talk about caregiving relationships in the face of disaster, the meaning of home and how that changes in the face of climate change, and immigrant stories in the Bay Area. “Awake in the Floating City” is out now.
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Ineza Umuhoza Grace and Kevin Mtai work together on the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, an organisation that advocates for the establishment of new and adequate sources of finance to address loss and damage, the consequences of climate change that go beyond what people can adapt to. Ineza is an eco-feminist from Kigali, Rwanda, a NatGeo explorer, and was a Global Citizen Prize winner in 2023. Kevin is a Kenyan climate justice activist and co-founder of the Kenya Environmental Action Network.
In this chat, we talk about how the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition began in the wake of COP25 in Madrid, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, communicating authentically across platforms, and financing solutions that benefit all instead of just a few.
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Dr. Jane Lubchenco is an eminent environmental scientist and marine ecologist who was formerly the Administrator of NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is a Distinguished Professor and the Wayne and Gladys Valley Professor of Marine Biology at Oregon State University, and in 2021 was loaned to the White House to serve as Deputy Director for Climate and the Environment in the Office of Science and Technology Policy under the Biden administration. She previously co-founded three organizations that train scientists to be better communicators and engage more effectively with the public, policy makers, media and industry: COMPASS, the Leopold Leadership Program (now the Earth Leadership Program), and Climate Central. She believes we can harness science and creativity and work with nature to achieve a healthy and resilient oceans, productive landscapes, vibrant communities and people.
This interview was done before Dr. Lubchenco gave a public talk at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon on April 16, 2025. We discuss a new narrative for thinking about the ocean - from “Too Big to Fail” to “Too Big to Fix” to “Too Central to Ignore." She also shares some reactions to the current administration in relation to NOAA. You can listen to the recording of her public talk at hmsc.oregonstate.edu.
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Agustina Bazterrica is an Argentine writer known for her work in the 'feminist horror' genre, particularly her 2017 dystopian novel 'Tender is the Flesh' about industrialized cannibalism. She is the recipient of multiple literary prizes and 'Tender is the Flesh' is now being adapted for the screen. Agustina's most recent novel is 'The Unworthy,' set in a post-apocolytpic world ravaged by the climate crisis, where young women in a convent must do terrible things to survive. In this chat, we talk about the importance of language as a political act, the creative process, and how some dystopian "futures" are happening right now.
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Madeleine Watts is a writer of novels, stories, and essays. Madeleine's debut novel 'The Inland Sea,' was shortlisted for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and her second novel, 'Elegy, Southwest,' was released in February. 'Elegy, Southwest,' follows a young married couple on a road trip, coming to terms with their marriage breakdown in the shadow of environmental collapse. In this chat, we talk about wildfire, fiction and what it means to have a sense of place in a climate-impacted world
You can find more about Madeleine Watts here.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at the Climate Decoded website: https://climatedecoded.com/
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Olufunke Grace Bankole is a Nigerian American writer and novelist. A graduate of Harvard Law School, and a recipient of a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship, her debut novel 'The Edge of Water' hit shelves in February. 'The Edge of Water' tells the story of a young Nigerian woman navigating hopes, dreams and reconciliation as she arrives in New Orleans amidst a devastating storm. In this chat, we discuss the balance between desiring more and finding 'enough,' and the complex layers of climate conversations.
You can read more about Olufunke and The Edge of Water here.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at the Climate Decoded website: https://climatedecoded.com/
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Political scientist and energy expert Dr. Leah Stokes was presented with the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication by Climate One. In this episode she discusses this award and more with Climate One's host Greg Dalton. Leah Stokes offers ways we can push for systemic change towards clean energy, and what this means for climate communication.
Be sure to check out Climate One's website for more compelling interviews.
You can read more about Dr Leah Stokes on her webpage here.
You can listen to Dr. Leah Stokes & Dr. Katharine Wilkinson's podcast "A Matter of Degrees" here.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at the Climate Decoded website: https://climatedecoded.com/
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Emma Pattee is a climate journalist who self describes as 'your friendly neighborhood climate mom.' A writer who has contributed to the likes of The New York Times and The Guardian, she is now releasing her her debut novel 'Tilt.' 'Tilt' explores motherhood in the face of natural disaster, and how the foundations of our lives are built and shaken. The book follows Annie, who is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon.
In 2021 Emma coined the term climate shadow, an alternative to climate footprint. She has written climate articles about climate fiction and parenting through the climate crisis. In this chat, we talk about how Emma balances both her and her reader's curiosities when writing, how to choose what to spend your time on, and the importance of subversive spaces.
Emma’s Substack “Just One More Question”
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at the Climate Decoded website: https://climatedecoded.com/
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Emma’s Instagram (@emmapattee)
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Welcome to Season 3 of Climate Decoded, the podcast that deciphers climate change communication. We untangle how different narratives illuminate or obscure pathways to climate justice.
This season, we have an abundance of climate comms content coming your way!
Moving forward there will be three types of episodes:
In our Climate Chats, we speak to experts, authors, and activists from around the world. These are more unscripted and casual.
In our Climate Reviews, we review contemporary and classic pieces of creative and critical climate work, from books to films and beyond. Kind of like a climate change book club.
And in our Deep Dive Episodes, we really dig into the biggest climate topics of today, from misinformation to eco-anxiety to climate litigation. We spend months researching, interviewing, and considering nuanced perspectives to bring thoughtful, approachable analyses of big climate topics.
And occasionally, we do Episode Swaps with other climate change podcasts, to spread awareness about all the great conversations happening in the climate comms space.
Our mission with Climate Decoded is to improve climate media literacy, foster meaningful climate conversations and spur informed, just action on climate change. We hope you’ll share this episode with a friend, in an effort to do just that.
Website: https://climatedecoded.com/
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On the final episode of Season 2, we talk with Mary Annaïse Heglar. Mary is a writer with a focus on climate change, climate grief and climate justice. She is author to several books, including the 2024 novel Troubled Waters, which navigates themes of love, family and Black resistance. Mary also co-hosts the popular podcast Spill with Amy Westervelt. We chatted with Mary about her experiences writing about climate, intergenerational healing and what makes a liveable future.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2
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Dr. M Jackson is a glaciologist, geographer, and National Geographic Explorer, with a number of public talks, award winning books and a Netflix show to her name. She advocates for a nuanced view of the future, embracing both positive and negative aspects, and stresses the need for adaptability and resilience in addressing climate change. In this episode, M talks with Kim about the interconnectedness of personal and environmental grief and the importance of finding the communication medium that works best for you.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2
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Ahead of COP29 kicking off on November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, we're dropping an old favourite episode into the Climate Decoded feed. Attracting tens of thousands of delegates, the Climate COP is the world's biggest climate conference, held annually with the aim of advancing collective decision-making on climate change.
In this two-part episode, producers Greg and Izzie offer an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of COP. They delve into the inherent challenges embedded in its structure, engage in conversations with a diverse range of COP participants, from former prime ministers to youth activists, and unravel this year’s big talking points - and all of this will be viewed through the prism of that stormy formative period in one's life: high school.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2
Support the podcast by buying us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/climatedecoded
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Ahead of COP29 kicking off on November 11 in Baku, Azerbaijan, we're dropping an old favourite episode into the Climate Decoded feed. Attracting tens of thousands of delegates, the Climate COP is the world's biggest climate conference, held annually with the aim of advancing collective decision-making on climate change.
In this two-part episode, producers Greg and Izzie offer an exclusive glimpse behind the scenes of COP. They delve into the inherent challenges embedded in its structure, engage in conversations with a diverse range of COP participants, from former prime ministers to youth activists, and unravel this year’s big talking points - and all of this will be viewed through the prism of that stormy formative period in one's life: high school.
Follow Climate Decoded on Instagram @climatedecoded and LinkedIn!
Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2-episode-6
Support the podcast by buying us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/climatedecoded
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Ani Kame'enui is the Director for Strategic Initiatives and U.S. Policy and Advocacy at Breakthrough Energy, an organisation founded by Bill Gates with the goal of getting to net-zero emissions by 2050 through equitable access to affordable, reliable energy. Ani has over 15 years of climate, conservation, and advocacy campaign experience and is a policy aficionado. In this climate chat, Kim and Ani talk about U.S. climate policy, how to move the market to clean energy, and the three D's of Breakthrough Energy: discovery, development and deployment.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2
Support the podcast by buying us a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/climatedecoded
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Environmental defenders — who work on the frontlines of climate change — face multiple dangers, legal and lethal. In this episode, we investigate the role of communication in their frontline work and how it can both amplify and counter the dangers they face.
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Read the transcript and find resources mentioned in the episode at https://climatedecoded.com/season-2-episode-4
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