Microplastics are seemingly everywhere, even our clothes. From production through wash days, synthetic fabrics are shedding microplastics into the air and water. It's a big issue that's going to take shifts from manufacturing to our own homes, and we wanted to start tackling this big discussion with the help of our friends at the podcast, Conscious Chatter.

Earlier this year, host Kestrel Jenkins spoke with Dana Zhaxylykova. Dana is an environmental scientist and microplastics researcher, who's originally from Kazakhstan and currently based in Germany. She uses Instagram to share practical and actionable tips about microplastics through a scientific lens.

👖 Hear more from Kestrel and Conscious Chatter here.
📷 Follow Conscious Chatter on Instagram.

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• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0

The climate crisis has a way of making hard things even harder — and that includes gender disparities. From their professional lives to their personal lives, climate change has left many women vastly under-resourced and at risk, all while taking on the heavy toll of caring for their families and communities through climate mitigation and resilience.

In this episode, we hear how the climate gender gap is affecting our community, talk to WOCAN founder Jeannette Gurung about how women continue to work through vast climate inequities around the world, and we hear from Commons' founder and CEO Sanchali Seth Pal about how health disparities women face as a result of climate disaster.

🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading in the full show notes.

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Aliya Hirji, Lin Diaz Maceo, Nicole Collins, Sobia Zaidi
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:57) - How gender perceptions affect sustainable behavior
• (04:50) - How our community experiences the climate gender gap
• (10:50) - Interview with WOCAN founder, Jeannette Gurung
• (25:21) - How climate change is disproportionately affecting women's health
• (31:52) - Outro

Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence have us in a disposable consumption cycle. But it hasn't always been this way. When and why did we stop thinking things were worth fixing?

In this episode, we get a history lesson in planned obsolescence, visit Adrienne Ferre, who is helping run a Makers Hub in LA, complete with a tool library and repair cafes. And we catch up on Right to Repair legislation with Commons' founder and CEO Sanchali Seth Pal.

🌎 See photos of our contributors and find further reading in the full show notes.

📞 We'd love to hear from you! Season 3 submissions coming soon!

📱 To join the Commons community, download the app.

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Holly Kane, Katrina Rodabaugh, Maya Roman, Sare, Taylor Barkley, Verity
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:00) - Tempo: 120.0