Podcast Club ONLINE: Climate Change, El Niño & Clean Energy Technology

This week's meeting will be extra special! Our very own climate expert and longtime Curiosity Connections friend and member, Warren, will be giving us a presentation on climate change and the much-publicized El Niño! As some of you may know, Warren worked for many years at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)/NWS (National Weather Service) as a Science and Operations Officer. He was a go-to commentator on meteorology, so you might have seen him on the news in past years. Warren was also an assistant professor in Atmospheric Sciences at UCLA.

In preparation for Warren's presentation and our discussion, we ask that you listen to this week's podcast, The Ezra Klein Show, with guest Bill McKibben, a climate activist, author, and educator. This episode discusses climate change and climate politics, as well as advances in clean energy technology.

McKibben is a founder of climate action groups 350.org, an international climate justice organization, and Third Act, for Americans over age 60 who seek to protect the climate and planet for future generations. He is the author of 21 books, including Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, published last year. McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges/universities. McKibben was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (aka the alternative Nobel), and Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers.

PLEASE NOTE: We require that attendees listen to the podcast below before attending the meeting to optimize discussion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-bill-mckibben.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xlA.dXtT.KKqy3ryE6X3R&smid=url-share (includes edited transcript)

or

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogAZS7_RhhA

(1 hr, 28 min.)

What's a podcast club?
It's like a book club for podcasts. Each week we discuss an interesting and currently-relevant episode from podcasters like Ezra Klein, Michael Shermer, or Russ Roberts. We start off as a large group and spend most of the time talking in small break-out groups, which we remix 3 times during the course of the evening. Our conversations are casual and open. We ask that everyone speak respectfully at all times, and we encourage free and concise discussion relevant to the week's podcast topic. To do this, we try to adhere to Grice's Maxims: https://bit.ly/2p4uSQm

Ultimately, the idea is to help each other think a little differently, learn a thing or two and have some fun.