Prefer to Listen?
Subscribe to our podcast to listen to this week’s episode on your favorite podcast platform (Available 4/22).
Corporate greenwashing has hijacked Earth Day, but the ideas behind the holiday are more urgent than ever. There are environmental issues all around us — even within recent new stories like the Baltimore bridge collapse and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Will the media be talking about the environmental impacts of mass military onslaught this year or the corporate polluters that will dodge taxes this season? In this installment of Meet the BIPOC Press, our monthly media roundtable featuring journalists of color, hear how the idea of the environment has been siloed and why it’s up to the media to undo that. Our guests are Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University; Francesca Fiorentini, host of The Bitchuation Room podcast and Maximilian Alvarez, Editor in Chief of The Real News Network. With Laura Flanders, they unpack whether Earth Day is still relevant and how the media can help make Earth Day intersectional.
“We are all the victims of unregulated runaway corporate capitalism. The chickens are coming home to roost after 40 years of deregulation, disinvestment, corporate consolidation, and Wall Street takeover of every vital industry.” – Maximilian Alvarez
“If you look at Flint, people got together and to a great degree did it themselves. It wasn’t the state of Michigan that was blaring the alarm bells about the water. It was the people who lived in Flint . . . It’s going to be that kind of ground-up people power that is going to be the stuff of solutions if we’re going to find them at all.” – Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
“We’ve seen what happens when you report on climate stories. People don’t click it. Why? Because it’s a bummer. And as a comedian, we have to un-bummer this topic in any way we can.” – Francesca Fiorentini
Guests
- Maximillian Alvarez: Editor-in-Chief, The Real News Network; Author, The Work of Living
- Francesca Fiorenti: Host, The Bitchuation Room Podcast
- Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: Associate Professor Philosophy, Georgetown University; Author, Reconsidering Reparations
Transcript
Related Episodes, Articles, Uncut Conversations and More
Head to our Patreon for a list of related episodes and articles, and the full, uncut conversation from this week’s episode (coming soon). And check out our full Climate, Environment & Energy playlist on YouTube.
Accessibility
Laura Flanders & Friends is committed to making our programming, website and social media as accessible as possible to everyone, including those with visual, hearing, cognitive and motor impairments. We’re constantly working towards improving the accessibility of our content to ensure we provide equal access to all. If you would like to request accessibility-related assistance, report any accessibility problems, or request any information in accessible alternative formats, please contact us.
