The Ideas Shaping Environmental Action

What ideas are shaping responses to the environmental crisis? The Mongabay Newscast picks the brains of authors, researchers, activists and storytellers exploring the systems behind biodiversity loss and climate change. From economic inequality and governance to Indigenous knowledge and climate fiction, this podcast series examines how ideas about change take shape, gain influence and tackle resistance. Through these conversations, the podcast looks at how narratives, institutions and power dynamics shape environmental decision-making and competing visions for the future.

Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand, captured March 16, 2022. Image courtesy of Planet Labs PBC.

How the ‘wrong story’ ends up harming nature, and how we can change it

Mike DiGirolamo 3 Mar 2026

Lisa Morehead-Hillman and Leaf Hillman, both Karuk, celebrate the removal of the dams on the newly exposed reservoir floor in 2024. The former head of the Karuk Natural Resources Department, Leaf spent two decades working with other Indigenous groups, environmental organizations and government officials to bring back the Klamath River. Image courtesy of Kiliii Yüyan.

Kiliii Yüyan puts Indigenous ‘Guardians of Life’ and their planetary stewardship in focus

Mike DiGirolamo 17 Feb 2026

Coastline of Big Sur in California. In 2013, a group of researchers found eggs of California condors in the coastal redwoods of Big Sur contaminated with DDT, even though the pesticide has been banned in the U.S. since 1972. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Writer Megan Mayhew Bergman on science, emotion, and the lasting power of ‘Silent Spring’

Mike DiGirolamo 3 Feb 2026

Pattie Gonia. Image by Evan Benally Atwood, courtesy of Pattie Gonia.

Drag artist Pattie Gonia on why nature advocacy needs joy to succeed

Mike DiGirolamo, Basten Gokkon 20 Jan 2026

Statue of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

To save humanity and nature we must tackle wealth inequality, says Cambridge researcher

Mike DiGirolamo 3 Sep 2025

Emergent tree in the Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

To change the environment, change the narrative

Mike DiGirolamo 15 Jul 2025

White rhyolite spires on the shores of Jodogahama Beach in Miyako, Japan. Iwate prefecture. These spires are estimated to be around 45 million years old, and form a natural version of a Japanese garden. This beach is part of the Sanriku Fukkō National Park. It was incorporated into this national park as a reconstruction effort following the Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Photo by Mike DiGirolamo/Mongabay.

Kim Stanley Robinson on how his novel ‘Ministry for the Future’ holds lessons for the present

Mike DiGirolamo 3 Jun 2025

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Mamá Conchita in her chagra with her dogs.

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The blue shark is one of the widest-ranging sharks in the world, and its meat is the most commonly traded in commercial markets. Image courtesy of Prochym/Adobe Stock.

Shark Meat Nation

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A mountain gorilla in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Photo by Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo.

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The main phosphate factory in Gabès. Image by Khadija Ben Salah.

A man fishes in the Niger Delta near the village of Diebu, Nigeria, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Image by Jon Gambrell / AP Photo.

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