Our Mission
Broadly speaking, there are four kinds of people in the climate conversation. There are doomers, who believe we either cannot or do not have the political will to address climate change. There are deniers or skeptics, who question whether climate change is real, human-caused, and/or as bad as the alarmists claim. There are those indifferent to climate change — perhaps because they haven't observed its effects directly or have other issues front of mind. And there are optimists like myself who learned the science, know it's bad, know we can and already are fixing it without economic or social trade-offs, and try to play a constructive role in that process.
The former three groups may seem diametrically opposed, but share something in common: climate anxiety. In fact, 59% of millennial and 69% of Gen-Z social media users report feeling anxious about the future after viewing climate content according to a Pew Research poll.
I believe climate anxiety encompasses more than the prototypical alarmist activist blocking highways or throwing soup at paintings. It's all the young people too overwhelmed by doom-and-gloom headlines to know where to start, and decide to throw in the proverbial towel to put climate change out of mind. It's anyone who has been misled by the environmental movement to believe the only solutions are bans, regulations, and government control — which no doubt leads to distrust or denial of the problem. It's anyone who thinks "it's a future problem" or "it won't affect me" or "there are more important things to worry about" or "someone will figure it out." These are all anxiety coping mechanisms — caused by an unduly overwhelming and politicized topic — that lead people to disengage from the climate conversation.
But here's the thing: climate change isn't all doom-and-gloom. In fact, there are solutions happening right now all over the world that are making progress on climate, while simultaneously helping economies, justice, public health, national security, and livelihoods. And to ensure they reach their full potential, the climate movement needs everyone's perspective heard.
That's where The Sweaty Penguin comes in...
With a critical eye, solutions focus, and a large serving of comedy, The Sweaty Penguin cuts through the doom-and-gloom of the climate conversation. The goal? Bring new audiences into the climate conversation, deliver the news in a fun and welcoming manner, and get people talking to each other and finding common ground.
How do we do that? There's no single answer. I launched The Sweaty Penguin as a blog in 2017 finishing up my senior year of high school, and wrote funny listicles and satire articles covering the latest in environmental news.
Then, as a junior in college in 2020 with some free time during quarantine, I resurrected it as a late-night-comedy-style podcast, along with my friends Frank Hernandez, Caroline Koehl, and Shannon Damiano. Each "Deep Dive" podcast covers a specific climate issue, probing its impacts on the environment, economy, health, justice, and more. They also contain a variety of solutions and their pros and cons, so listeners of all political perspectives can find ideas they might like. Deep Dives are all joined by a world-renowned climate scholar — hailing from 18 countries and 6 continents.
Ethan, Frank, Caroline, and Shannon work on The Sweaty Penguin in coronavirus quarantine.
In its podcast form, The Sweaty Penguin took off. We received over 50,000 downloads (2/3 under age 34), licensed episodes to PBS's climate initiative Peril and Promise, earned honors at the Webby and Signal Awards, won Boston University's New Venture Competition, became a Solutions Journalism Network Climate Beacon Newsroom, and welcomed the contributions of over 40 college students and recent graduates over four years. Between our Deep Dives, Bonus Episodes, and our later news-style spinoff series "Tip of the Iceberg," The Sweaty Penguin published over 220 episodes, well-received by audience members of all ages and political perspectives.
Into the classroom!
Unfortunately, The Sweaty Penguin Podcast lost its primary funding in August 2023, and shut down production in January 2024. But this change allowed me to refocus The Sweaty Penguin's efforts on a new, extremely exciting project.
In Spring 2023, the University of Kansas unveiled a new course — "Geographic Adventures in Climate Change" — taught by Professor Shannon O'Lear. After learning many of her previous students never read the textbook, Shannon developed this course that replaced the textbook with The Sweaty Penguin, using a Course Transformation grant from KU's Center for Teaching Excellence. She turned the grant into scholarships for three undergrads who had recently taken an introductory geography course and done well. She asked these students to work as consultants to design the course, meeting biweekly for a whole semester in 2022 and collaborating with myself and The Sweaty Penguin team in how best to use our content.
Prof. O'Lear and Students present course at KU Center for Teaching Excellence symposium, May 2023
They came up with a class that is beyond “flipped.” This course has been widely appealing in terms of the topic of climate change and current events. It is designed to be inviting in terms of an open classroom setting, no textbook, and the integration of a timely, age-appropriate podcast. This course aims to boost interest in the field of Geography by demonstrating how current events and familiar phenomena may be usefully understood and analyzed by applying systems-centered and spatial thinking across human and environmental processes.
The first iteration of the course, taught in Spring 2023, had an enrollment of 23 students, and was a rousing success. There was a consistent and enthusiastic core of about 14 people (a higher attendance rate than most courses) who showed up no matter what and generated all sorts of interesting ideas and conversations. I did a Zoom visit in April which received full attendance, and I was blown away by the appreciation for the podcast and depth of climate discussions in class. KU is teaching the course a second time this spring, and I will be doing an in-person classroom visit and live podcast taping this time around.
Collaborating with a college course to teach geography through climate journalism has been beyond exciting. At The Sweaty Penguin, we've worked to build on our KU collaboration to bring our content into more classrooms. With support from the Solutions Journalism Network's Climate Beacon Newsroom Initiative grant, our team built resources for professors on how to incorporate each podcast episode into their curriculum. A pilot version of these resources will be rolled out in May 2024.
In the meantime, The Sweaty Penguin has done a new website redesign, and will continue to post news stories, columns, and more.
If you are an educator interested in using The Sweaty Penguin in class, email me at ethan@thesweatypenguin.com! As I complete our materials, I would love to meet you and learn how I can best be of assistance. Whether you teach geography, science, economics, journalism, or business — The Sweaty Penguin has content for you.
And for everyone else, join our Patreon! The Sweaty Penguin's primary revenue source now is YOU — and by joining, you ensure The Sweaty Penguin can continue delivering climate news, see through our educational initiatives, and, well... keep the lights on. All patrons receive a special login for our website, which allows you to view extended podcast cuts and other exclusive content. We also offer merch, signed books from experts, and more to our patrons.
I was never the outdoorsy type growing up. I was climate-anxious too, but after getting a degree in Environmental Analysis & Policy from Boston University and speaking to nearly 150 experts through this podcast, I am now more hopeful than ever. Whether you're a doomer, denier, or somewhere in between, welcome to The Sweaty Penguin. I look forward to hearing your perspective and moving this climate solution train forward together!
A huge thank you to The Sweaty Penguin's many wonderful team members over the years: Olivia Amitay, Will Andronico, Megan Antone, Bobbie Armstrong, Alia Bonanno, Tim Choi, Sophie Colbert, Hallie Cordingley, Megan Crimmins, Haley Cronin, Shannon Damiano, Dare Fitzpatrick, Iliana Garner, Velina Georgi, Saige Gipson, Mikaela Gonzalez, Ali Harrison, Frank Hernandez, Emma Jones, Dain Kim, Caroline Koehl, Ziyang Li, Sofia Mansilla, Gabby Mussulman-Watson, Melina Nguyen, Korin Norton, Ana Lucia Perla, Isabel Plower, Maxwell Pociask, Mo Polyak, Emma Quarequio, Owen Reith, Sabrina Rollings, Naomi Rubin, Madeleine Salman, Sarika Sawant, Maddy Schmidt, Aana Shenai, Trevor Snow, Ainsley Jane Tambling, and Ysabel Wulfing.
And another huge thank you to our patrons: Lawrence Harris, Brownies Central, Laura Harris, Jack Brown, Lisa Breeland, Laura Crimmins, Mike Amitay, Shannon O’Lear, Brian Mirletz, Todd, Tim Choi, The Vllorla2, and Jane Michelbach.