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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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We're sharing another episode of Ed’s podcast Climate Book Reviews with acclaimed Canadian author Don Gillmor on his latest non-fiction work, On Oil.

Ed is joined by his regular co-host Dr. Roger Thompson, Director of Writing Programs and Professor at Arizona State University.

This episode dives into the sharply drawn and darkly funny world of On Oil, a slim and punchy examination of the most earth-altering industry of our time. Drawing from Gillmor's early years working on Alberta oil rigs and his deep experience as a journalist and novelist, the book traces how oil has shaped not only our landscapes and economies, but also our politics, foreign policy, and our public imagination.

It's a lively and wide-ranging conversation with Don about the inspiration behind the book, and how the oil industry—like a character in a novel—is navigating a world in flux.

About Our Guest:

Don Gillmor is an award-winning Canadian novelist, journalist and children's book author. His journalism and criticism have appeared in The Walrus, where he was a senior editor; Saturday Night and Toronto Life, where he was a contributing editor; and Rolling Stone, GQ, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star, among other publications. He has won 12 National Magazine Awards.

About Your Hosts:

Roger Thompson is a professor and writer at ASU. He began his career working with environmental literature and nature writing and established with Ed Whittingham an environmental internship program in Banff, Alberta for students at a VMI, a military college. His most recent environmental book, No Word for Wilderness: Italy’s Grizzlies and the Race to Save the Rarest Bears on Earth (Ashland Creek), documents the attempts by grassroots activists and university faculty to preserve the Marsican bears of Abruzzo, and it reveals for the first time the mafia’s attempts to use National Parks to fleece EU subsidies.

Ed Whittingham is a clean energy policy/finance professional specializing in renewable electricity generation and transmission, carbon capture, carbon removal and low carbon transportation. He is a Public Policy Forum fellow and formerly the executive director of the Pembina Institute, a national clean energy think tank.

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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Ed chats with Jason Walsh, Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA).

Jason and his organization recently made headlines for opposing the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act—President Trump's sweeping piece of legislation passed this summer that rolls back many of the clean energy tax credits introduced by the Inflation Reduction Act. While a lot of the climate world focused on the emissions impacts, BGA came out swinging over what they saw as a quiet gutting of labour standards, domestic manufacturing momentum, and the link between public investment and good jobs.

Jason and Ed discuss:

• How the bill reshapes the clean energy landscape
• Whether it really neuters domestic content rules
• Politics of climate and labour in an increasingly polarized U.S.
• And what political durability looks like for climate policy heading into 2026

About Our Guest:

Jason Walsh is the Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA). Named one of the Washington D.C.’s 500 Most Influential People by the Washingtonian, Walsh has more than twenty-five years of experience at state and federal levels in policy development and advocacy in a range of issue areas—including climate, clean energy, and economic and workforce development—and as a coalition organizer and manager.

Walsh previously served in the Obama administration, as the Director of the Office of Strategic Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he led Obama administration’s efforts to align and scale up federal investments in workers and communities impacted by the shift away from coal in the power sector.

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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In this latest episode of Ed’s occasional podcast Climate Book Reviews, we dive into the wildly imaginative and disturbingly plausible world of Ashley Shelby’s acclaimed story collection, Honeymoons in Temporary Locations.

Recently named one of Fresh Energy’s Favorite Climate Books of 2025 and shortlisted for the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, Shelby’s collection has been praised by Scientific American, Foreword, and the Post and Courier for its biting wit, emotional punch, and genre-bending storytelling.

Ed is joined by his regular co-host Dr. Roger Thompson—now Director of Writing Programs and Professor at Arizona State University—for a lively, funny, and far-ranging conversation with Shelby herself. They unpack her satirical takes on resistance, inequality and privilege in crisis (think "luxury apocolypse bunkers”), and what it means to grieve - and medicate away - the losses brought on by climate change.

Shelby’s work has appeared in Slate, The New York Times Book Review, LitHub, Salon, and Audubon, and she’s received the Red Hen Press Short Fiction Award, the Enizagam Short Story Award, and the Third Coast Fiction Prize. She’s also the author of Red River Rising, an acclaimed account of the 1997 Grand Forks flood.

If you like your climate fiction smart, satirical, and maybe a little too close to home, this one’s for you.

More info and past Climate Book Reviews episodes at: climatebookreviews.co

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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David & Ed chat with renowned scientist, author and Canadian, Dr. Katharine Hayhoe who argues that hope—not doom—is what drives action.

Dr. Hayhoe is one of the world’s most prominent climate communicators and known for crossing political, religious, and cultural lines to connect with audiences that most climate advocates can’t or won't reach. It's an engaging discussion that delves into the psychology of despair, the limits of data in changing minds and behaviour, and whether hope still has a fighting chance.

Show Notes:

Available on the episode page on our website.

About Our Guest:

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Professor of Public Policy and Public Law in the Dept. of Political Science at Texas Tech University. She is the author of the book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, has given a TED talk with over 4 million views, and hosted the PBS digital series Global Weirding. Katharine has been named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People, Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Thinkers, and the United Nations Champion of the Environment.

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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LIVE from the Montreal's Climate Solutions Prize Festival 2025

Na'im Merchant, Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada and the host of The Carbon Curve podcast, and Grégoire Baillargeon, President of BMO Quebec and Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets join Ed Whittingham for a panel discussion exploring how Canada can become a global leader in carbon removal.

With two podcast hosts and one Bank of Montreal president, Ed, Na'im and Greg pass the host's mic like a baton as they unpack the developer, buyer and policy dimensions of today’s CDR market in Canada and abroad.

About Our Guests:

Na’im Merchant is the Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada. He is passionate about the potential for carbon removal to meet climate goals while driving economic and social change. He previously founded Carbon Curve, a consulting practice focused on equitably scaling up carbon removal. Na’im is an advisor to Terraset and the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative, and was previously an Elemental Impact Policy Fellow. He brings 10+ years of leadership experience in non-profits that expanded access to health innovations around the world.

Grégoire Baillargeon is President of BMO, Quebec and Vice Chair, BMO Capital Markets, in November 2022. Passionate about transition and fighting climate change, Mr. Baillargeon has also been acting as Vice Chair of the BMO Climate Institute since September 2024. He recently joined the advisory board of Volt-age: Electrifying Society, a research program at Concordia University, and also serves on Carbon Removal Canada’s advisory board. Under his leadership, BMO became the first bank to join the Montréal Climate Partnership, as well as the launch of conVERTgence, two movements aimed at accelerating decarbonization and integrating sustainable business practices in the city.

Produced by Amit Tandon & Bespoke Podcasts

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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David & Ed chat with Dr. Rose Mutiso about the tension between energy, climate, and economic development in Africa and the global south.

They touch on many topics to do with sub-Saharan Africa, including energy production & consumption, electricity and power grids, and the vast economic inequity that still exists between the global north & south.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Rose M. Mutiso is a Kenyan scientist, thought leader, and social entrepreneur. She is the Founder & Executive Director of the African Tech Futures Lab (ATFL), a new institute helping decision-makers across the continent navigate emerging science and technology in energy, climate, AI and digital systems—with clarity, agency, and long-term vision. Previously, she was Research Director at the global think tank Energy for Growth Hub. Rose is also the co-founder and former CEO of the Nairobi-based nonprofit Mawazo (“Ideas”) Institute, which supports early-career African women scientists through doctoral research funding and professional development. Prior to this, she served as a Senior Fellow on energy and innovation policy in the U.S. Department of Energy and Senate. She also writes Kibao, a Substack focused on energy, climate, tech, and Africa.

Show Notes:

(00:15) Dr. Mutiso, Energy for Growth Hub

(00:15) Office of International Climate & Clean Energy - US Department of Energy

(00:15) The Mawazo Institute

(02:17) High Energy Planet podcast co-hosted by Dr. Mutiso

(02:58) Kibao, Substack newsletter by Dr. Mutiso

(09:54) The Economist: Nigeria has more people without electricity than any other country

(15:04) D. Kammen, UC Berkeley professor, energy expert

(24:51) O. Okunbor, former Shell Nigeria country chair

(30:00) TED Talk: The energy Africa needs to develop - and fight climate change

(38:56) High Energy Planet Ep.31-Katie & Rose on the Future of Foreign Aid

(43:36)

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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Ed and David chat with special guest Andreas Malm, author of How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire.

They discuss Malm’s critiques of climate inaction—how liberal democracies, fossil capital, and the Global North have collectively abandoned meaningful efforts to stop climate breakdown—and what comes next for movement strategy, the ethics and effectiveness of disruption, and what kind of climate action might actually work in the next crucial decade.

Full show notes & references

About Our Guest:

Andreas Malm is an associate professor of human ecology at Lund University. His latest book, with Wim Carton, is The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It's Too Late, forthcoming from Verso in October.

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Energy vs Climate Podcast
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