Podcasts · Science · True Crime

Drilled

Pushkin Industries

269 episodes · in order

Drilled is a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate corruption and political operatives built decades of climate denial and delay. Hosted and reported by award-winning investigative climate journalists and led by Amy Westervelt, each season unravels new evidence of deception, disinformation, and the power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach.

Episodes page 3 of 6

  1. Exxon Takes Its First Amendment Battle to the Texas Supreme Court

    · 19 min · S7 E10

    Guardian journalist Chris McGreal breaks down ExxonMobil's attempt to claim lawsuits that hold the company accountable for climate disinformation amounts to a conspiracy against its free speech rights. Reach Chris's…

  2. An Update on the Youth Climate Lawsuit

    · 28 min · S7 E11

    In the 2015 case Juliana v. United States, 21 young adults sued the United States for knowingly driving and exacerbating climate change. In 2021, the 9th Circuit declared that the young people did not have a standing…

  3. The Right-Wing Web of Climate Delay

    · 35 min · Bonus

    Right-wing funders don't only work on climate denial, voter suppression, or attacks on public schools—they tackle all of it together. Lisa Graves, an expert on right-wing strategy, talks us through the tangled web of…

  4. Drilled Presents: Damages

    · 32 min · S7 E12

    Damages follows the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently happening all over the country, first examining rights of nature cases all over the world. In this episode, we start with a case that's making its way through…

  5. A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the United States

    · 32 min · S7 E13

    Rights of nature first started making its way into U.S. courtrooms via an unlikely source: Disney. Today it's a huge threat to the fossil fuel industry. So much so that the industry is pushing preemptive bans on rights…

  6. West Virginia vs. EPA: Worst-Case Scenario and What Comes Next

    · 21 min · S7 E14

    The Supreme Court is taking its time in releasing a ruling in the controversial West Virginia vs. EPA case. We explore the roots of the case, its position in rightwing judicial strategy, and what avenues for climate…

  7. Los Cedros: The Cloud Forest vs. The Mine

    · 30 min · S7 E15

    Ecuador made history as the first country to adopt rights of nature into its constitution, but its Constitutional Court—Ecuador’s equivalent to the United States Supreme Court—has not heard many cases in the decade…

  8. Ecuador's Landmark Rights of Nature Ruling

    · 22 min · S7 E16

    In our last episode, we explored Ecuador's rights-of-nature journey. Today, Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, directors of Invisible Hand and co-founders of the journalism organization Public Herald, discuss what…

  9. Responsibilities Not Rights: A Tūhoe Perspective

    · 14 min · S7 E17

    When Tūhoe negotiated legal personhood for their ancestral homeland Te Urewera, the global rights of nature community cheered. But in this conversation about how the case connects to rights of nature overall, and to…

  10. IPCC Report: Conflicts of Interest, Media Manipulation and More

    · 41 min · S7 E18

    The IPCC mitigation report dropped this week—and it's a doozy. We'll be digging into it throughout the month of April to help you make sense of it all. Read more: www.drilledpodcast.com See omnystudio.com/listener for…

  11. Climate One Collaboration: Breaking Down Climate Misinformation

    · 59 min · Bonus

    For decades, fossil fuel companies have cast doubt on climate science, delaying action and allowing them to profit. Climate communication experts, such as John Cook, have documented how such companies dismiss, delay,…

  12. A Busload of COVID

    · 22 min · S6 E6 · Explicit

    When San Luis Obispo announced its 2020 plan to become the first Southern California city to ban gas in new buildings, SoCal Gas—the largest gas utility in the country—sprung into action, threatening to bus in large…

  13. The New Climate Villains

    · 26 min · S6 E7

    For over a decade, fossil gas was promoted as part of the solution to climate change. But while it did help to reduce dependency on coal, limiting CO2 emissions and air pollution, it came with a whole new host of…

  14. Exposing an Energy Front Group

    · 19 min · S6 E8

    When Santa Barbara residents began receiving urgent text messages encouraging them to oppose the gas ban, the messages claimed to be from Citizens for Balanced Energy Solutions, a concered "grassroots" citizens group.…

  15. The Los Angeles Ports Astroturfing Scheme

    · 19 min · S6 E9

    Even before the gas industry started fake grassroots organizations, it was using questionable tactics to stave off electrification. LA Times energy reporter Sam Roth and Floodlight's deputy editor and investigative…

  16. Australia's "Gas-Fired Recovery," Carbon Capture, and Greenwashing

    · 24 min · Bonus

    Australians head to the polls for the first election since catastrophic bush fires destroyed millions of acres of land and blanketed the country in smoke for weeks. In the lead-up to the election, we examine the…

  17. The Diaster Capitalism Response to Russia-Ukraine

    · 27 min · S6 E10

    In the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the gas industry is fully embracing it's new role. Right alongside the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, the industry…

  18. Senator Whitehouse on Right-Wing Think Tanks Manipulation

    · 25 min · S7 E19

    Why does every right-wing think tank have an amicus program? On the surface, it seems to make no sense—is any judge surprised to learn that the Cato Institute is against regulation? These organizations don't waste…

  19. Why Is a California Air Board Funding Natural Gas Expansion?

    · 21 min · Bonus

    Floodlight's Miranda Green returns with a new story about the push for natural gas in southern California: an air board tasked with cleaning up pollution is giving millions of dollars in grant money to gas projects.…

  20. Regulating Greenhouse Gases Under TSCA

    · 30 min · S7 E20

    As the Supreme Court weights in on West Virginia vs. EPA, a group of climate scientists and advocates filed a petition demanding that the EPA regulate greenhouse gas emissions, not under the Clean Air Act, but under…

  21. The "Culture War" Embraces Climate

    · 37 min · S7 E21

    Jennie King, lead author on a new report on climate disinformation on the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, discusses the reports findings, including how culture warriors—including 16 key superspreaders—have embraced…

  22. West Virginia vs. EPA: Worst-Case Scenario and What Comes Next

    · 44 min · S7 E22

    The Supreme Court is taking its time in releasing a ruling in the controversial West Virginia vs. EPA case. We explore the roots of the case, its position in rightwing judicial strategy, and what avenues for climate…

  23. What the IPCC Really Said About Carbon Dioxide Removal

    · 36 min · S7 E23

    Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) came up in the latest IPCC report and the summary and report itself tell a different story. The summary is vastly more positive about the potential of this tech (thanks in no small part to…

  24. "Woke Capital": A New Front in Climate Obstructionism

    · 31 min · S7 E24

    Jesse Coleman, senior investigator for Documented, walks us through an eye-opening investigation into the State Financial Officers Federation, an obscure group organizing Republican state treasurers in the fight…

  25. The Supreme Court's Continued Climate Take

    · 47 min · S7 E25

    West Virginia vs. EPA was just the beginning of climate cases before the Supreme Court this year. From question the SEC's disclosures to major Clean Water challenges, there's more to come. EarthJustice's Sam Sankar and…

  26. West Virginia Leads on Climate Obstruction

    · 15 min · S7 E26

    From its state treasurer to its attorney general to its Senator, West Virginia is leading the charge on climate obstruction and dismantling environmental regulation. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

  27. Congressional Hearings on Climate Disinformation Reveal Industry PR Playbook

    · 16 min · S7 E27

    Three Congressional hearings shed a light on climate disinformation this week, with one looking at oil companies' role, another looking at the role of PR firms, and a third looking at corporate attempts to limit the…

  28. Widening the Lens of Accountability: Live with Naomi Oreskes, Jennifer Jacquet, Dr. David Michaels, Geoffry Supran, and Jessica Wentz

    · 2 h 00 min · S7 E28

    Taped live at the Harvard Faculty Club, Naomi Oreskes speaks to her forthcoming book The Big Myth, focused on the origin story behind free-market ideology, followed by a panel discussion on how to widen climate…

  29. Universities Are Saying No to Big Oil Money

    · 52 min · S7 E29

    Since Standard Oil of New Jersey (now ExxonMobil) began funding universities in the late 1940s, oil companies have invested heavily in higher education, not just to fund engineering programs climate science, but…

  30. COP 27: How to Neutralize Climate Disinformation

    · 37 min · S7 E30

    In just over a week, heads of state and negotiaters will meet at COP 27, the annual UN Climate Conference, to discuss a path forward on climate action. Historically, these events bring about a wave of climate…

  31. Why Is One of Big Oil's Top Greenwashing PR Firms Handling Media for COP 27?

    · 31 min · S7 E31

    COP 27 is underway in Egypt and the stakes have never been higher. So why is longtime fossil fuel industry greenwasher Hill + Knowlton handing media for the conference? We look back on the firm's longstanding history…

  32. Loss and Damage at COP 27

    · 31 min · S7 E32

    Loss and damage financing was a big focus at COP 27, and ultimately one of the few things global negotiators could agree on. Wealthy nations finally acknowledged their responsibility to compensate for climate damages.…

  33. Climate RICO Lawsuit & James Hansen Sues EPA: Two Groundbreaking Cases

    · 41 min · S7 E33

    November brought two seismic developments in climiate ligation: the first-ever climate RICO was filed on behalf of 16 Puerto Rican municipalities, plus a cohort of scientists and researches, including NASA scientist…

  34. Rep. Ro Khanna: Inside the House Climate Disinformation Investigation

    · 18 min · Bonus

    The House Oversight Committee wrapped its investigation into climate disinformation, publishing a tranche of revealing internal documents on how the world's largest oil companies have misled the public about their…

  35. Guyana: Life Inside a Ticking Carbon Bomb

    · 49 min · Bonus

    In this special sneak preview of our next season, we hear from Melinda Janki, a lawyer who's fighting to keep her home country of Guyana from becoming one of the world's largest carbon bombs. See…

  36. New Season Coming Soon: Light, Sweet Crude

    · 2:04 · Trailer

    On paper, the small South American country of Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world, thanks to its oil boom. The country started shipping barrels of oil in 2019. Hotels are popping up all over its capital…

  37. The Bloom: Finding Oil in Guyana

    · 28 min · S8 E1

    Five years ago, Kiana Wilburg was a new reporter when ExxonMobil executives and Guyanese government officials announced they had found oil 40 miles offshore. Wilburg and her newsroom had to rapdly learn about the oil…

  38. The Contract: Inside ExxonMobil's Guyana Oil Deal

    · 35 min · S8 E2

    After a year of pressure from local press and civil groups, the Guyanese government finally released its oil contract with ExxonMobil to the public. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) calls it an unfair deal for…

  39. Unlimited Liability: The Guyanese Lawyer Taking on ExxonMobil

    · 40 min · S8 E3

    One person in Guyana understands both the inner workings of Big Oil and the intracacies of Guyanese governmental law better than almost anyone. Melinda Janki was raised in Guyana, but went to Oxford University and then…

  40. Constitutional Violation: Guyana's Climate Lawsuit

    · 37 min · S8 E4

    Melina Janki has filed seven separate legal cases aimed at blocking oil drilling in Guyana, but only one explicitly names climate change as a problem the project is guaranteed to exacerbate. It's a constitutional…

  41. Global Poverty and Global Warming

    · 37 min · S8 E5

    The tension between addressing global poverty and acting on the climate crisis is one the fossil fuel industry has been stoking in recent years. We asked Dr. Narasimha Rao to join us this week to get into the details…

  42. ExxonMobil's Greenwashing Playbook

    · 38 min · S8 E6

    When we started reporting on Guyana's oil boom, we reached out to local environmental groups to hear their concerns about this new polluting industry. But we discovered something unsettling: every environmental…

  43. The Global Oil Rush

    · 35 min · S8 E7

    What's happening in Guyana isn't an isolated case. It's part of a global oil rush, as oil companies race to tap as many remaining fossil fuel reserves as they can. Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell discusses his…

  44. The Turning Point: What's Next for Guyana?

    · 36 min · S8 E8

    Will Guyana become the fossil fuel industry's newest profit center or can it chart a different path? In the last episode of our "Light, Sweet Crude" season we look at what's next for Guyana, and for other Global South…

  45. A Verdict

    · 28 min · S8 E9

    The day after our season finale last week, we got some incredible news from Guyana: the High Court ruled against the oil company and the government in the big insurance case Melinda Janki filed. We caught up with Janki…

  46. Rethinking Electrification

    · 36 min · Bonus

    Electrification offers an opportunity to rethink how we use energy and how we get around. Researcher Thea Riofrancos wants to see the United States seize that opportunity and set the country on a path to a better, more…

  47. Jake Bittle on the Complexities of Climate Migration

    · 34 min · Bonus

    Jake Bittle's book The Great Displacement looks at how extreme weather events are likely to drive Americans to move from one part of the country (or their state) to another. He talks through the complex web of factors…

  48. The Anti-ESG Campaign Gets a Boost from RAGA

    · 19 min · Bonus

    Ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its intention to make Environmental Social and Governance metrics actually meaningful to investors, polluting industries have suddenly turned on ESG. Now that…

  49. "Cancer Alley" Fiights Back

    · 24 min · Bonus

    Louisiana's "Cancer Alley"—a stretch along the Mississippi River where petrochemical plants have created some of the worst air and water pollution America—has become a battleground. ExxonMobil, Chevron and other…

  50. The Panic: How Mobil Oil Changed Advertising Forever

    · 33 min · S9 E1

    In the 1970s, Mobil Oil invented the advertorial and was aggressively pursuing an entirely new type of marketing, branding the company as a person itself with a unique personality and opinions that demanded attention.…

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