0:07

hey friends , this is your host , mindy

0:09

duff , and you're listening to up level

0:11

your life with mindy , your number

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one personal growth podcast

0:15

that will bring you closer to uncovering

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0:20

a certified holistic health and nutrition

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for anyone who desires to improve

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physically , emotionally

0:30

and spiritually . I'll

0:33

be interviewing experts and sharing

0:35

tips and tricks that have helped not only

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my clients , but that have guided

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me on my own transformational

0:41

journey . I

0:44

believe that we all have a greatness that

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lies within . We just need

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to uncover it . Are

0:50

you ready to level up ? Then let's

0:53

begin . Hi

0:58

everyone and welcome back to Uplevel your Life with

1:00

Mindy . My name is Mindy Duff and

1:03

I am here with Ethan Brown

1:05

, and we are going to talk about

1:07

climate change today . Now

1:09

, this is a little bit different

1:12

episode for me . I know a lot of you

1:14

that have been listening for a long time . I tend

1:16

to focus more on personal

1:18

growth and development . However , I

1:20

feel like climate change is

1:23

. I was just telling Ethan I think it's just something

1:25

that we all need to chip in and

1:27

just to help live a better life

1:29

for all of us . So Ethan's

1:32

going to talk to us about some things that we can do

1:34

to help the planet

1:36

and then , in turn , ourselves

1:38

. So Ethan Brown is a 24-year-old

1:41

award-winning climate journalist , best

1:43

known as the founder and host of the Sweaty

1:45

Penguin , a PBS podcast

1:49

combating climate anxiety

1:52

and polarization . In

1:54

almost four years , the Sweaty Penguin

1:56

released 220 episodes

1:59

. More than 220 episodes interviewed

2:01

world-renowned experts from 18

2:03

countries and 16 continents , earned

2:06

recognition at the Webby Awards and

2:08

Signal Awards , won first

2:10

place in Boston University's New Venture

2:12

Competition and inspired a new

2:14

geography course at the University of

2:16

Kansas that replaced their

2:18

textbook with the podcast

2:21

. That's big stuff right there . Ethan's

2:24

writing has been published in several outlets

2:26

, including Newsweek , the Hill and

2:29

Orange County Register , and he's appeared on

2:31

over 80 podcasts , radio shows

2:33

and TV shows . He graduated

2:35

Boston University in 2021 with

2:37

a dual degree in environmental analysis

2:40

and policy and film and

2:42

television . Ethan , thank

2:44

you so much for being on today .

2:46

Thank you for having me , Mindy . It's great to be here .

2:49

So , first of all , I know I just read your bio

2:51

, which is super interesting to me , but tell us just a

2:53

little bit about yourself and what you do in your

2:55

own words .

2:56

Yeah , you covered a lot of it , but I can

2:58

give more backstory , I think

3:01

, going back to childhood

3:04

. I was never an outdoorsy person . I had every

3:06

environmental allergy you can think of

3:09

and I had no hand-eye coordination

3:11

. So I think I

3:13

spent a lot of time inside , as opposed

3:15

to a lot of environmental people who fell

3:18

in love with it by being outside . But when

3:20

I learned about climate change around high school

3:22

age , I was very scared

3:25

, very confused , very worried

3:27

, but I didn't find it interesting

3:30

. It wasn't something I wanted to learn about , certainly

3:32

not something I could envision being

3:34

a part of , but I

3:36

was at the time planning to go

3:38

to college for film and television . I love telling

3:40

stories and I felt like as

3:43

a storyteller . I needed a story to tell

3:45

and this was just so important

3:47

. So I decided to try

3:49

taking some classes in college about

3:51

it , and that was when I learned that climate

3:53

change is so much more than these doom

3:56

and gloom headlines . There's a

3:58

lot of critical thinking involved and there are

4:00

so many solutions out there that

4:03

can actually address these issues and , in fact , progress

4:05

that's already been made . So in

4:08

college I was studying both these fields

4:10

. At the same time . I ran our school

4:12

satire publication , the Bunyan . For two

4:14

years I grew it from just myself

4:17

to a 90-person staff , so that

4:19

was a really great leadership opportunity , but

4:21

also just learning how to take

4:24

overwhelming topics and make them interesting

4:26

. So , having that

4:28

experience , having learned just

4:30

how much hope there is in the climate world , I

4:32

felt I had a real opportunity to put those

4:35

two things together to make climate

4:37

change less overwhelming and less politicized

4:39

for general audiences . And that's

4:41

where the sweaty penguin came from . Yeah , I love

4:43

that .

4:43

Generalize for all audiences , and that's where the sweaty penguin came from . Yeah , I love that

4:45

. Generalized for all audiences and take

4:48

the politics out of it , because you

4:50

can put politics into anything , and then I think it just makes

4:52

it such a polarizing topic . Um

4:55

, just take that out and like what

4:57

are the facts ? What do we need to know ? I like

4:59

that a lot . I also find it um

5:01

interesting that you did not like to go outside very

5:03

much and now you're that's like your

5:05

whole .

5:06

I like yeah , yeah .

5:08

Your whole gig is like oh , let's talk about outside

5:10

stuff . So the sweaty

5:12

penguin , which , by the way , is just

5:14

such a clever name for your

5:16

podcast . Now , for a while

5:18

it was picked up by PBS , and

5:20

I'm just a little curious on how that whole process

5:23

came to be .

5:24

Yeah . So I first started the podcast

5:27

in early quarantine I truly just

5:29

thought it would be a hobby with my

5:31

friends . We'd make like 10 episodes , have a good

5:33

time . But as we were going

5:35

I found that I really felt

5:37

that we landed on something awesome

5:40

and I wanted to continue , and

5:42

so we kind of found a way to continue

5:44

. And then , about a year in , I

5:46

reached out . I had previously interned

5:48

with the Multi-Platform

5:51

Initiatives Department at WNET

5:53

, which is PBS's New York station

5:56

, was one

5:59

on

6:01

climate called peril and promise

6:03

there were a few others and they

6:05

would . They would uh produce

6:07

national documentaries , they would do

6:09

web series , podcasts

6:11

, written work , but it was mostly

6:13

uh that they would work

6:16

with some of the other pbs shows , like pbs

6:18

news hour and I'm on poor . But they would also

6:21

bring in outside content creators

6:23

to create content . They would license it and

6:25

distribute it . And during quarantine

6:27

you can imagine there was just not

6:29

a lot of content to be had . So I

6:32

reached back out to them . I had interned

6:34

with them before and I was

6:36

like , hey , we're producing this show , we

6:38

could use some funding . You guys need content

6:41

. Let's make a deal . Um

6:44

, they loved the show , they wanted to do that

6:46

, and so we worked together from

6:49

april of 2021

6:51

up until , uh , this last

6:53

august , the initiative sadly lost its funding

6:55

, so , uh , we were not

6:57

able to continue with them , but definitely a

6:59

really great opportunity to get our

7:01

show out there yeah , that

7:04

, just like you said , to get more exposure

7:06

to that show , which is still airing

7:08

the Sweaty Penguin .

7:09

Correct , new episodes are being uploaded

7:11

.

7:12

We're not doing new episodes right now

7:14

, but we are working on some other

7:16

projects . Like you mentioned

7:20

in the intro , there

7:22

was a course at the University of Kansas that

7:24

is using the sweaty penguin

7:26

instead of the textbook , which we

7:29

were so inspired by . So we were able

7:31

to get a grant

7:33

from the Solutions Journalism Network last

7:35

year to , among other things

7:37

, start to create our own educational resources

7:40

that we can put into other classrooms

7:42

. So we're looking

7:45

for other professors and other schools

7:47

that we can partner with to bring

7:49

the sweaty penguin into their classrooms . It's

7:51

a lot cheaper than the textbook and

7:53

, I think , works a lot

7:56

better for that age range

7:58

. I know myself , having just been to college , we

8:00

barely ever opened the textbook . So something

8:03

a little more fun to learn from . And

8:05

then we also have a Patreon community where

8:08

you can join with . There's

8:10

tiered paid memberships , you get merch

8:12

and then we create

8:14

a bunch of bonus content for you , so you can

8:17

kind of come behind the scenes

8:19

and get

8:21

more bonus content and learn more

8:23

. So that's what's going

8:25

on now .

8:26

Yeah , that's awesome . So a lot of different

8:29

things going on , but all centered around this idea

8:32

of just of more awareness around this

8:34

issue of climate change , which is super

8:36

important . So let's talk about that

8:39

. Tell us a little bit about climate

8:41

change and how is our climate changing

8:43

Now ? I can say that as somebody

8:45

in their 40s , I have noticed

8:48

things in the weather now

8:50

that I feel like didn't happen when I was little

8:52

. But I mean , that's just one

8:55

anecdotal piece of information

8:57

. What is actually happening ?

9:10

Yeah , so the climate is changing and the main reason why is humans are emitting carbon

9:12

dioxide and other greenhouse gases and the way these things work like carbon

9:15

dioxide you can think of you have your

9:17

oxygen in the middle and then you have two

9:19

carbon atoms . And

9:22

the way it's structured when infrared

9:24

radiation from the sun hits those molecules

9:27

, it kind of wobbles and it retains

9:29

that energy and then , when you have

9:31

more carbon dioxide in the environment

9:33

, they start to bang into each other

9:36

and they pass that energy between each other and they

9:38

basically start to become a blanket

9:40

over the earth where they end up retaining

9:42

heat . Now , some of that is good

9:44

. If we had no greenhouse gases we

9:46

would be a snowball . But if

9:49

you have too much , you can think of a planet like

9:51

Venus where it is like

9:54

800 degrees even though it's even

9:56

further than Mercury from the sun , because

9:58

there's so many greenhouse gases

10:00

in the environment . So what

10:02

we're seeing with climate change we're putting more of these

10:04

gases into the air . It is retaining

10:07

that heat and that doesn't

10:09

make every day one

10:11

or two degrees hotter . It leads

10:13

to way more extreme

10:15

heat waves , cold waves , worse

10:18

droughts , worse hurricanes , worse

10:21

wildfires . So

10:23

it's not any uniform

10:25

change , but everywhere does change

10:27

in various ways , and it's really those

10:29

extremes that give me cause for concern

10:31

.

10:32

Yeah , I would agree with that , and that's one of the things

10:35

that I have noticed

10:37

that has changed in the last 40 years . Again

10:39

, this is just one person's hey , look

10:41

at what's happening outside observation

10:44

. But when I was a kid and I grew

10:46

up I'm in Iowa for those of you

10:48

that don't know and when I was a kid I

10:50

know we had days off of school

10:53

in the winter because it snowed too much . Snowstorm

10:55

can't go out . Roads are bad , whatever that

10:57

still happens now . However , I

11:00

don't ever remember not

11:02

going to school because it was too cold

11:04

, and my kids . Now

11:06

it's just like every year . We just know there's

11:08

going to be at least one , if not

11:11

a handful of days where it's not

11:13

snowing , the roads are fine , but we can't go to

11:15

school because it's negative 47 . That

11:17

was a literal temperature here just

11:20

a few weeks ago negative 47

11:22

. I mean , that is just bananas to

11:25

me and I don't remember that ever , not

11:27

even close to that happening .

11:29

Yeah , Well , the reason that happens is

11:32

basically the

11:34

Arctic is obviously

11:37

a lot colder than it is here and

11:39

there is something called the

11:41

polar jet stream that wraps around

11:43

the Arctic and basically separates

11:45

that super cold air from the warmer

11:47

air we have down here in the United

11:50

States . But the Arctic

11:52

is actually warming a lot faster

11:54

than the rest of the world and the reason is

11:56

there's a few , but one of the main ones if

11:59

you think of all the ice in the Arctic

12:01

, of

12:08

all the ice in the Arctic , as it melts , it changes color , it gets darker . You

12:10

have white ice that goes to bluer ocean water . And if you

12:12

think about when you wear a white shirt versus a

12:14

black shirt in the summer , darker

12:17

colors absorb more sunlight

12:19

and retain more heat . So that's having

12:21

this effect where the Arctic is warming faster

12:24

than the rest of the world . So this jet

12:26

stream that is really based

12:28

on this big temperature difference . That

12:30

temperature difference is dwindling and

12:33

that's causing this jet stream to wobble . And

12:35

so when we see these extreme

12:37

colds in the US , it's actually

12:39

due to climate change , because the

12:42

jet stream wobbles and buckles down

12:44

like even as low as Texas , and then

12:46

we see these extreme cold events . So

12:48

I know sometimes those happen and we're

12:50

like , oh , I wish we could have some more global warming

12:52

. But it's actually global warming

12:54

that causes that type of thing .

12:57

Yeah , that's interesting . I've never really considered

12:59

that . I knew that it was related

13:01

, but I never thought of how and when you explain it

13:03

like that , it's kind of like duh like

13:05

of course that's what's happening

13:07

, right , but yeah

13:09

, that's interesting . So you've

13:12

touched on this a little bit about what's

13:14

causing our climate to change . Can

13:17

you go into a little bit more specifics about these

13:19

greenhouse gases ?

13:21

Sure . So there's a variety

13:24

of gases . Carbon dioxide is

13:26

by far the predominant one . There's

13:28

also methane , there's nitrous oxide

13:30

, there's several others , and

13:33

these gases are produced in

13:36

a variety of ways , but the main one

13:38

is fossil fuel combustion , so

13:40

coal , oil , natural gas . Each

13:43

of these are carbon

13:45

intensive energy

13:47

sources and when we burn them

13:50

they release carbon . There

13:52

are also processes like fracking

13:55

or even

13:58

just drilling , where when you

14:00

drill for oil , there might be

14:02

some natural gas down there that you don't want

14:04

to capture . So you just let it out into the environment

14:07

and natural gas is actually pure

14:09

methane . So that leaking

14:12

that methane is not great . Or

14:14

there's a process

14:16

called flaring , where you capture

14:18

it and burn it off as CO2 , which

14:20

is better but still

14:22

not great . So there's a lot of ways

14:25

in the fossil fuel industry that we see these

14:27

chemicals going into the atmosphere

14:29

. It also happens in some

14:31

industrial type

14:34

manufacturing like cement or steel making

14:36

. It happens through

14:38

agriculture . So there's

14:40

a lot of different ways , but

14:42

that's really where they come from .

14:45

Yeah , when you talk about methane . I

14:47

live in the Midwest so my brain goes

14:49

to cows .

14:51

That's a big one .

14:52

We have so many cows . I

14:54

wish I had statistics . Maybe you know them , but I just

14:56

know that cows produce a lot

14:59

of methane . I mean , when you have massive

15:01

amounts of cows like our , we

15:04

didn't used to have so many cows because we

15:06

didn't have so many people that we were

15:08

trying to feed . So that contributes

15:10

. Do you have any off the

15:12

top of your head ? And it's fine if you don't , I'm spraying this

15:14

on you , but what percentage

15:17

wise , who's contributing the most

15:19

to these gases

15:21

? Is it the industrial side of things ? Is it on the industrial side

15:23

of things ? Is it the burning of the fossil

15:25

fuels ? Is it more agriculture ? Who's doing

15:28

it the most ?

15:30

Very loosely you can

15:32

approximate about a

15:34

third , a third , a third from electricity

15:36

, transportation and agriculture

15:39

, and that's leaving out industrial

15:41

, which I think is a bit less . But

15:43

those three

15:45

categories , fossil

15:48

fuels are prevalent in all three

15:50

. So electricity

15:52

, obviously most emissions would be fossil

15:54

fuels because all the other

15:56

energy sources solar , wind , nuclear

15:58

are pretty much carbon free . But

16:01

transportation and agriculture

16:04

also have a lot of fossil

16:07

fuel related emissions . That

16:09

said , agriculture also has emissions

16:12

, like you mentioned , of cows belching

16:14

methane . You can talk about just

16:16

land clearance and how getting

16:19

rid of trees will be

16:21

essentially the

16:24

same effect of pulling the trees

16:26

normally are pulling carbon out of the atmosphere

16:28

. Now they're not so , but

16:30

that's to give a basic sense .

16:34

Yeah . So tell

16:37

us a little bit more about why we should be concerned

16:39

about this , because I know that

16:41

for some people listening and I know , especially

16:44

when I was younger like you hear , oh , climate

16:46

change , oh , so the temperatures are

16:48

a little bit warmer , whoop-dee-doo , you know . I mean

16:50

that's kind of think where our brain goes . First we

16:53

think , well , what's the big deal ? It's not that

16:55

, you know , it's fine , we're getting along just fine

16:57

, but that's not going to be the

16:59

case for long . So tell us about

17:01

why we should care .

17:04

Yeah , and it's sadly not even

17:06

the case right now . Right , we saw the

17:08

wildfires in Maui last summer . We

17:10

saw flooding in Pakistan

17:13

the summer before . That had a third

17:16

of the country underwater . We've

17:18

seen a lot of horrible

17:20

events recently . Recently , some of the

17:23

hurricanes and wildfires that

17:25

are taking lives heat waves are

17:27

actually the uh , most

17:29

deadly of the climate related

17:31

disasters . So , yeah

17:34

, it's , it's here

17:36

now , I think . Often we hear people

17:38

talk about oh , we gotta protect the earth for our kids

17:41

and our grandkids , like

17:43

it or not , we have to protect it for ourselves

17:45

, and I think that's how I got into

17:47

. It was the very selfish

17:49

reason of like , I want to live a normal life

17:52

and this is going to impede that . So

17:59

, yeah , these extreme events are very concerning . That said

18:01

, there are also very good

18:03

solutions to address climate change that

18:06

I'm sure we'll talk about . That , I think

18:08

, add a lot more hope to this conversation

18:10

, and I'm

18:12

not the best at scaring people . I like to

18:15

be Mr Optimist and look forward

18:17

. But yeah , it is a big deal , but

18:19

it's also something we can fix .

18:21

Yeah , I like that and that's why

18:23

one of the reasons that I wanted you on this

18:25

show is because that's where my

18:28

whole show steps in is like , okay

18:30

, how can we up level not just our

18:32

lives , but let's up level the planet

18:34

in this situation ? Because , like you say , there

18:36

are things that all of us can do

18:38

. I know when it sounds something

18:41

like climate change sounds so big and

18:43

you think , okay , I am one out of

18:45

how many people on this planet

18:48

the heck am I going to do ? Does it really

18:50

make a difference if I do X

18:52

, y , z ? You know we we think that it's

18:54

too small , but it's

18:56

just . These kinds of issues

18:58

has to be the bulk of us

19:00

doing things right , so we all have

19:02

to do it to

19:05

make some gains here . So what are some

19:07

actionable steps that we

19:09

can take as individuals that

19:12

can help lessen this impact of

19:14

climate change ?

19:15

I think you're right that as an individual

19:17

, we are not just one of 8

19:19

billion people , but most emissions

19:22

are coming from way bigger

19:24

systems than any single

19:26

one of us . That said , I

19:28

like to . I think

19:30

there's an in between between the you

19:33

can't do anything , you're too small , versus yeah

19:36

, everyone can make it Like . I think there are

19:38

some things we can do and I

19:41

like to give people five little

19:43

pieces of advice . Number one

19:45

is to find low-hanging fruit

19:47

. So , like

19:49

for myself , I

19:52

love meat . I also have a lot of

19:54

allergies to a lot of the plant-based proteins

19:56

, so I don't know

19:58

that I even could do a meatless diet

20:00

. Meat does have a higher environmental

20:03

footprint than plants , but that's

20:05

okay . There's also other types of solutions

20:07

to that . But on the flip

20:09

side , I'm not a big

20:11

fashion person . I'll dress

20:13

up when I need to , but otherwise

20:17

I don't feel the need . So I'll keep my

20:19

clothes as long as I can . I'll turn used

20:21

shirts into pajama shirts , and fashion

20:24

is also something that has a big impact on

20:26

the environment . So in doing

20:28

that I can have a little , I

20:30

can make a little difference , but it's

20:33

not even for that . I'm saving

20:35

money and it's not something

20:37

that affects me . So finding things

20:39

like that that can be easy

20:41

and can even make your life better or

20:43

save you money . That stuff is

20:45

awesome . Number two is

20:47

to do your research . Very often

20:50

, the trendy green solution

20:52

is actually not as

20:55

big an impact as you might think . The

20:57

example I like to bring up is actually

21:00

better for the climate to if

21:02

you have a reasonably fuel-efficient gas-powered

21:05

car , to use that to the end of

21:07

its life and then buy an electric

21:09

car , as opposed to junking

21:11

a perfectly good car and buying a new one

21:13

, because there

21:16

is an impact for manufacturing the car

21:18

as well . So things like

21:20

that . You want to do your research and know that whatever action you take is actually having the benefit as well . So things like

21:22

that you want to do your research and know that whatever action you take is actually

21:24

having the benefit you want . Number

21:27

three is to uplift others who are doing

21:29

good things . I know there's

21:32

a lot of vegan bashing here in

21:34

the US and , again , I love

21:36

meat . I couldn't do it , but I also

21:38

have a ton of respect for anyone who can

21:40

, and I think there's

21:42

actually been studies that show that the

21:45

sales of an item that's labeled vegan

21:47

drops by like 75%

21:50

or something crazy , like

21:53

people have a real

21:55

opposition to it and I

21:57

think again , you don't have to do it

22:00

. But if we encourage people

22:02

who do make decisions like that

22:04

, it will motivate more people to do it

22:06

, give more social credence to do it

22:08

that kind of thing as funny

22:10

as I think some of the jokes are . Number

22:13

four is to use your voice

22:15

. For some people that is activism

22:18

or protest , but that was never

22:20

for me . I never

22:23

feel like I have a and

22:25

like I always have such nuanced views

22:27

on issues . I could never put something on a sign

22:30

. I don't love crowds and loud noises

22:32

, but I like writing

22:34

and I found podcasting and that

22:36

was a way I could share my perspective

22:38

, work

22:50

or anything like that . There's so many different ways

22:52

you can do that , or just voting and paying attention to what candidates are proposing

22:55

. And then lastly , and what's most important to

22:57

me , is talk to someone

22:59

you disagree with , and it doesn't have to be about

23:01

climate . It can be about books

23:03

, movies , sports , whatever . But getting

23:06

more comfortable with these conversations , I

23:08

think , is such an important

23:10

step because on climate , there's

23:12

a lot of polarization and if people

23:15

just understand where each other are coming from

23:17

, what their background is , who they are . You

23:19

don't have to be friends , but it makes it

23:21

a lot easier to get stuff done .

23:24

Yeah , that's just good life advice right

23:26

there . On that last

23:28

one , absolutely , I love that

23:30

Talk to somebody . Or the

23:33

next time you're on social media and you read

23:35

the comments God forbid , oh , why

23:37

do I always click on the comments ? But I do

23:39

. I'm a glutton for punishment and

23:41

then . I lose faith in humanity . But

23:44

then like , read them and you don't have to respond

23:46

to them , but like sit with them , the ones that really trigger

23:48

you , sit with those opposing

23:51

views , just like you're saying . I think that you're

23:53

right . That is important . I'm going to circle back to just

23:56

a couple of things that you mentioned there in your list , which

23:58

I thought was amazing list , all

24:00

really doable things . Something

24:03

that I remember from I

24:05

want to say like 10 years ago , that you just

24:07

don't really hear about anymore , is meatless Mondays

24:10

. So that was like a thing . So

24:14

the idea is that if everybody

24:16

just takes one day a week doesn't

24:18

have to be Monday . If you take one day

24:20

a week and you you know you don't have to

24:22

be straight up vegan either . But if you just go

24:24

meat free one day a week , just

24:27

the amount of like greenhouse

24:29

gases and things , you know things , that saves the planet

24:31

just by everybody making that choice , it

24:34

doesn't mean you have to be vegan . If you're

24:36

somebody that is opposed to that

24:38

, if you're somebody like Ethan and just you got

24:40

to have your meat . But we all have that

24:43

one dish that we like , that just happens

24:45

to be already not

24:47

a meat-based dish , happens

24:51

to be already , you know , not a meat-based dish . Who here doesn't like a good old-fashioned grilled cheese

24:54

sandwich ? Or , you know , spaghetti with just the sauce and no meat in

24:56

it , right ? So there's a ton of different

24:58

things that you can do that way without just

25:00

being full-on vegan , and I just wanted

25:02

to address from the health side of things

25:04

a little bit here with the vegan

25:07

portion . I say this

25:09

all the time Some people feel better

25:11

when they eat meat and so , ethan , I'm going to say

25:13

that you're going to be one of those people If

25:15

you've got so many allergies to

25:18

, I'm guessing , maybe soy or some other things like that

25:20

that we find in a lot of our vegan dishes . Yeah

25:23

, that's just , you're going to have to eat

25:25

meat to some degree . Some

25:27

people actually feel better when they go

25:29

vegan or partially vegan

25:31

, like maybe 75%

25:34

of the time they're not eating

25:36

animal products . So before you

25:38

just turn away from it and think it's

25:40

dumb or whatever , try it

25:42

for yourself , because you have no idea

25:44

how you're going to feel . You can read all

25:47

the research and the scientific reports

25:49

on it , but it's not going to say anything

25:52

until you know how it feels in your

25:54

own physical body . So

25:56

try that first , and then I wanted to go back

25:58

to what you were talking about , fashion

26:00

, which is not something I think

26:03

our brains really go to

26:05

when we think about climate change and how to

26:07

stop it , but I think that's just a great , a

26:10

great suggestion .

26:12

Yeah , one of our early episodes was on

26:14

fast fashion and yeah

26:16

it was really mind blowing

26:18

for me , as , again , not a big

26:20

fashion person , to see some of these numbers

26:23

. I wish I remembered

26:25

them off the top of my head . But not

26:27

just carbon emissions , but also extreme

26:30

water use to create

26:32

a lot of our clothes . Cotton is

26:34

a very water

26:36

intensive crop to grow and

26:39

polyester , on the flip side , is made from

26:41

plastic , which is made from fossil

26:43

fuels . So that's

26:46

where our clothes mostly come from and

26:48

again , that's obviously

26:51

we need clothes . I'm not

26:53

going to go extreme , but

26:55

what we see with a lot of these fast

26:57

fashion companies is they create

26:59

these really flimsy products

27:01

that disintegrate . The second

27:03

we put them in the washing machine or dryer

27:05

machine

27:11

or dryer and we wear them a couple times . Sometimes . I know people who will wear something

27:13

once and then never wear it again , and that ends up being a

27:15

lot of waste . And you would actually

27:18

save money if you pay a little

27:20

more to get a sturdier piece of

27:22

clothing and you can wear it for

27:24

a couple years . So that that's

27:26

what I try to do . And then , on the vegan

27:28

point , I think so

28:11

, that that's what I try to do . And then , on the vegan point , I think , yeah , like I have a severe peanut allergy and I'm also sensitive to's not going to do it . But if you eat your

28:13

legumes and nuts and beans and everything , it's totally doable if you want , but you also don't have to . The reason it does have a positive

28:15

impact is there's something you may have heard of , being from the Midwest the feed conversion ratio

28:17

, which is a farming term where basically it's the amount of

28:19

feed that you have to give a

28:21

cow or a chicken or an animal that

28:24

will grow at one kilogram . So

28:26

, like for a chicken it might be 1.7

28:28

kilograms or two kilograms of feed

28:30

. For a cow it might be up to six

28:32

or seven kilograms of feed . But

28:35

that right there you can see

28:38

the immediate disparity between if

28:41

it's going to take . You could

28:43

feed yourself with one kilogram

28:45

of a crop or you could get that

28:48

same amount from a cow , which would take six

28:50

kilograms of that crop , and that has

28:52

a bigger impact . That said , we

28:54

can't live on a diet of corn and

28:57

I think it's pretty magical that a pig

28:59

can turn corn into bacon . So

29:01

I think there's

29:03

some good to the process too . But if

29:06

we again lowering

29:09

the amount of meat you have will naturally

29:11

lower your footprint . But there

29:13

are also solutions If you make that process

29:15

cleaner . There are even ways

29:18

to limit the belching from cows

29:20

. I interviewed an expert who has developed

29:22

seaweed additives to cattle feed that

29:25

change the reaction in their stomach

29:27

to reduce their methane emissions . So

29:29

there are absolutely ways to do this that

29:32

lower the impact . It doesn't have

29:34

to just be our dietary choices

29:36

.

29:37

That's interesting . I hadn't heard the seaweed

29:40

for the cows . That's really interesting

29:42

. I wonder how

29:44

mainstream that is for farmers

29:47

. I'm going to have to ask some farmers Again

29:50

. Ethan and I were talking about this um prior

29:52

to hitting record and I live in

29:55

the middle of nowhere . I said

29:57

it's just corn fields and bean fields here

29:59

. So I'm gonna have to chat with some some

30:01

cattle farmers in my area and see

30:03

what they know about this seaweed stuff . That's

30:05

interesting to me actually because

30:08

, like , who cares if the cows

30:10

? I , I mean as long as the cows don't care that they're eating it

30:12

right , that sounds like a .

30:14

He was in our episode on

30:16

milk , episode 90 . And

30:19

such an interesting expert . Definitely

30:21

one of my favorite interviews .

30:23

Yeah , I'll have to go back and listen to that one . Oh

30:26

so cool . Well , ethan

30:28

, I have a question of the month that

30:30

I have been asking all of my podcast

30:32

guests , and that is what is

30:34

one thing you wish everyone on the

30:36

planet would do in regards to

30:38

their own well-being .

30:42

That's a good question . I

30:47

think I have to just go

30:49

away from climate . Something

30:54

for me that has been so

30:57

helpful that I would recommend to anyone

30:59

is going to therapy

31:01

. I

31:14

know for myself it has been . I've done that since beginning

31:16

of college or a year into college and it's just been so important for me to have

31:18

that weekly check-in and not just

31:20

checking in with your therapist but checking in with yourself

31:22

and talking about your week and how

31:24

you feel and thinking , oh , my friends

31:26

, don't all hate me maybe . I

31:29

think if

31:31

people have it accessible , it's

31:34

absolutely a really valuable

31:37

thing . And again

31:39

, talking about my

31:42

inspiration to do climate

31:44

work stems from that

31:47

fear and anxiety and

31:49

distrust that people have around

31:52

climate . And I've found through

31:54

my work that people

31:56

who are climate doomers , who think

31:59

the world is going to end in six years , and

32:01

people who are climate deniers and don't think

32:03

this is happening at all , it all stems

32:05

back to that exact same fear and

32:07

anxiety and distrust . And when

32:10

I can target those emotions

32:13

through humor , through nuance , through solutions

32:15

, that opens

32:17

everybody up and it's allowed the

32:20

sweaty penguin to build an audience , that

32:22

is , people all over the political spectrum

32:24

, from doomers to deniers , and

32:27

coming into the conversation and calming

32:30

down a little bit and engaging more productively

32:32

. So I'm always thinking

32:34

about what people might be

32:36

anxious about and how that informs their

32:38

views , but I think

32:40

for myself , therapy was a big part

32:42

of how I could do it personally .

32:45

Oh , I love that answer . I think that's

32:47

a great way to tie all this climate

32:50

stuff into up leveling our lives

32:52

as well . I completely agree with

32:54

you . Again , if therapy is not accessible

32:56

for you , there's so many different forms

32:59

of self self help out

33:01

there , whether it's a book or a podcast or whatnot

33:03

. But yeah getting curious and that really gives you a lot of answers . Love that

33:05

answer and that really gives you a lot of answers

33:07

. Love that answer , Ethan . Thank

33:09

you so much for being on today . If

33:15

people are interested more in your work

33:17

and the climate change and the Sweaty Penguin podcast

33:19

, where can they find you ?

33:21

Yeah , thanks so much for having me . And one more thing I

33:23

wanna quickly add , since this

33:25

is called up-leveling

33:27

your life . This is very important to me with

33:29

climate solutions . I feel very

33:31

strongly that the climate

33:33

solutions we pursue should also

33:35

make our lives better . They should not be

33:37

sacrifices , they should not be

33:39

things that annoy us and in

33:42

fact , that's a lot more doable than we realize

33:44

. The Intergovernmental Panel

33:46

on Climate Change did a really cool study

33:49

where they it was part of their

33:52

sixth assessment report . They

33:54

looked at 43 climate solutions

33:57

and compared them to the

33:59

17 sustainable development

34:01

goals things like world hunger

34:03

and poverty , gender equality

34:05

innovation things we all

34:08

want to see gender

34:10

equality innovation things we all want to see and they compared each of these solution categories

34:12

to a goal to see are there synergies , are there

34:14

trade-offs or are there

34:16

a combination ? And they found , of like

34:18

400-ish combinations

34:21

, only 12 were trade-offs

34:23

. Almost 300 were synergies

34:25

. There were some combinations , but only 12 were

34:27

trade-offs . And what that means is

34:29

, if we create smart

34:32

policies around these things , we

34:34

can improve our lives and improve the climate

34:36

with the same solutions . That's

34:38

really exciting and that

34:40

I definitely wanted to leave your listeners

34:43

. The Sweaty Penguin you can

34:45

find at thesweatypenguincom

34:48

. Our Patreon is at patreoncom

34:50

. Slash the sweaty penguin , so I would

34:52

encourage you to join . We'll be doing

34:54

more cool stuff there soon and

34:57

you can find myself at Ethan

34:59

Brown 5151 on

35:01

Twitter , instagram , tiktok and thanks again

35:03

for having me .

35:04

Oh , absolutely yeah , and I just real quick on touch on what you just ended with there , which was so I'm

35:06

glad you threw that in there Because , yeah , it should enhance your . Yeah , and I just real quick on touch

35:08

on what you just ended with there , which was so I'm

35:10

glad you threw that in there Because , yeah

35:13

, it should enhance your life . And I just immediately

35:15

my mind went to minimalism , and not to

35:17

say that everyone listening needs to become

35:19

full on minimalist . If you're

35:21

curious , you can check out . I did an episode with Joshua

35:24

Becker , who is quote the minimalist

35:26

. But you hear so many people

35:28

that become minimalist , that

35:31

find so much more joy in their life , and

35:33

when you do that , you do reduce your carbon

35:35

footprint just by the virtue

35:37

of the fact that you're purchasing less

35:40

and using what you have and using it

35:42

to the fullest . So that , to me , is just

35:44

one of , I'm sure , many , many ways

35:46

that you can enhance your life and

35:48

still help the planet at the same time . Such

35:51

great information , ethan . Again

35:53

, thank you so much for being on today .

35:56

Yeah , thank you so much for having me . This was a lot

35:58

of fun .

35:59

And everybody that's listening . I hope that you gained

36:02

a little tip or trick here from Ethan

36:04

. Be sure to message me

36:07

if you want to talk about this conversation

36:09

a little bit more . Tell me how it's going

36:11

for you . I'm sure you could reach out to Ethan

36:13

as well if you have more questions

36:15

about things regarding climate change

36:17

and wherever you're at today

36:19

. I hope you're having a fantastic day and I

36:21

will catch you on the next one . That's

36:28

it for today . Friends , if you enjoyed

36:31

this episode , don't forget to subscribe

36:33

or , even better , leave

36:35

a review and let me know what resonated

36:37

with you the most . The more

36:39

you tell me what you love , the better

36:41

I'm able to create future episodes

36:44

with even better content . I'm

36:46

sending you so much love and light

36:48

. I'll see you in the next episode .