Free Daily Podcast Summary
Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org: Daily Summaries Delivered
by KSQD 90.7 FM in Santa Cruz & KSQD.org
Are you concerned about the Earth's future? Are you interested in what is being done in Northern California and the world to address environmental issues? Do you want to act? Then tune in every other Sunday to Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org. SN!! was launched on KSQD in 2019 by Ronnie Lipschutz. The show features interviews with activists, scholars, scientists, authors, philosophers, and others on a range of topics and issues that address the relationships among humans and nature, including life, death, taxes, biodiversity, energy, electricity, climate change, nuclear matters, animal rights, environmental activism, books, articles and many others. If you have a question, we have a podcast for you! SN! is broadcast on KSQD every two weeks, on Sundays, from 5-6 PM. Archives for shows beginning in 2019 are here and other podcast sites.Sustainability Now! is underwritten by the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, California.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 1 weeks ago51 min
The Spark Community Utility: A City-Led Path to Clean, Resilient, Affordable Energy, with Bob Krause
Electricity prices in California are on the rise and they are forecast to go much, much higher in the future. Climate change is wreaking havoc across the world even as we are pumping more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than ever before. And electric utilities want more and more control over the energy they buy or produce and sell to you. Finally, the Trump Administration is doing its best to undermine the renewable energy that could address both issues. What if there were a cost-effective way to address all three issues and giving communities more control over their economies and their future? Well, there is: community energy! Renewable energy systems designed to be locally owned and operated, with electricity locally distributed and consumed, and cheaper and more resilient than anything that private utilities could provide. But the State of California and its investor-owned utilities have done everything they can to make it impossible to build community systems that they don’t control. Is there a way around these obstacles? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Bob Krause, energy policy strategist and principal of NeoLogic Systems in Berkeley, California. For the past five years, Bob has been working to develop and disseminate something he calls “Spark Community Utilities,” which develop and deploy local electrical utilities that can operate, legally, in parallel to and independent of the private utilities. We are going to talk about the local energy conundrum in California, how it got to be this way, and how Spark could spark a revolution in how and where you get your electricity.
- Sep 27, 202652 min
Fire and Ice on the Roof of the World, with Jonathan Mingle, Independent journalist and science writer
We’ve all heard about the terrible Himalayan flash flood that traveled nearly 100 km down the Lende Kholā and Trishuli̇̄ Kholā rivers on the Nepal-Chinese border, devastating towns and villages along the way, killing at least 1,250 people and leaving more than 5,000 missing in the two countries. The causes remain under investigation, but climate change appears to have played a major role in the disaster. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Jonathan Mingle, an independent journalist and author whose reporting and writing is focused on the science and politics of climate change, energy, health, and technology. In 2015, he published Fire and Ice: Soot, Solidarity, and Survival on the Roof of the World, in which he reported about the shrinking glaciers across the Himalayas and California, the role of black carbon in that shrinkage and the impacts on the people and nature who live there. More recently, he published an essay, Mountains are Coming Undone," in The New York Times (August 29, 2026). For a detailed analysis of the disaster, see: "Rapid warming in the Himalaya exacerbates geohazard cascades beyond adaptation limits," (WWA scientific report No. 92) World Weather Attribution. DOI: 10.25560/136420.
- Sep 14, 202650 min
Rancho Coyote Viejo--A Pilot Land Access Project for Farmers, with Josefina Lara Chavez, Executive Director of RegenerationLA
Local food systems are of great importance to the Monterey Bay Region and, indeed, to California, and there is a growing number of small farms across the state supplying these systems. Join Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Josefina Lara Chavez, Executive Director of RegenerationLA, the Latine Alliance in Agroecology and the Food System, which has just launched Rancho Coyote Viejo in south San Benito County. The Rancho is a 25-acre pilot land access farm for beginning farmers practicing regenerative and organic agriculture, along with a demonstration farm to support RegenerationLA’s educational and technical assistance activities. The farm is an experimental collaboration with Paicines Ranch, south of Hollister, California, which owns the property. Regeneration LA seeks to strengthens networks of Latine farmers, food workers, and agricultural professionals through education and capacity building to create a robust food and farming system.
- Aug 30, 202654 min
Speculations on Conjunctural Futures: What Might We Expect, What Must We Do? With Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future
There are lots of dystopian futures floating around in the air and on the air. Imagining the future is never really about the future; it’s more like commentary about the present. “Conjunctural futures” extrapolate from the present: they are not-so-distant, generational futures that could or might be. What might those conjunctural futures look like? Can we imagine a positive one? And what must we do to get there? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson, author, visionary and “conjunctural futurist,” for a conversation about his work, his philosophy and his speculations on the conjunctural future. Robinson is best known for his 2020 book, The Ministry for the Future. Robinson has written more than 20 books, many of them science fiction and others not. He has received many honors both for his writing and his struggle on behalf of nature. His most recent book is The High Sierra: A Love Story.
- Aug 2, 202654 min
Trump’s War on California’s Environment, with Jason Rylander and Hollin Kretzmann from the Center for Biological Diversity
The Trump Administration has declared war on California and is hell-bent on eliminating any and all of the state’s environmental protections. As part of its “drill baby, drill” strategy, it is moving to open the California Coast to oil drilling and to increase exploration and extraction on BLM lands across the state. And not wanting to stay out of the action, the Supreme Court recently ruled that the makers of the herbicide Roundup do not have to warn users of cancer risks associated with its use. But wait, there’s more! The bad news just keeps on coming! Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for conversations on these issues with Jason Rylander and Hollin Kretzmann from the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity.
- Jul 19, 202655 min
The Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network With Dylan Skybrook, Network Manager
The Santa Cruz Mountains cover more than 1,000 square miles of the Central California Coast, running from just south of San Francisco all the way down to the Salinas Valley. The region has been actively stewarded for thousands of years by indigenous people and is a place of significant cultural, biological, and environmental diversity which supports many native plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation about the mountains and the network with Dylan Skybrook, Manager of the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network, a collaboration of twenty-six organizations engaged in land stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains, whose mission is to help cultivate a resilient, vibrant region where human and natural systems can thrive for generations to come.
- Jul 5, 202653 min
The San Francisco Bay Area—An Environmental History With David D. Schmidt
Over the past four centuries, the transformation of the Greater San Francisco Bay Region has been extraordinary. What was once a near paradise for a few hundred thousand indigenous First Peoples is now home to nearly 8 million whose accumulated activities since the arrival of Europeans have created an industrialized landscape interspersed with large areas of open space where nature is in recovery. How did this happen? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with David D. Schmidt, who spent two decades writing San Francisco Bay Area—An Environmental History, published by Back Country Press in 2025, and which is this year's winner of the California Book Awards Gold Medal for Contributions to Publishing. The book is a magisterial tome addressing virtually every aspect of SF Bay and its environmental transformation over the past 400 years. And learn how Alfred Hitchcock got the idea for his classic film “The Birds.”
- Jun 7, 202653 min
Everyone talks about climate, but no one does anything about it with Dr. Daniel Swain, UCANR and NCAR
Everyone talks about climate but no one does anything about it. In recent months, parts of Maui were nearly washed away by Kona Lows that dropped 60 inches of rain. An unusual trio of Pacific cyclones on both sides of the equator drove warm oceanic water to the east, adding to climate turbulence. And the world is being warned of an “off-the-charts” El Niño this coming fall and winter. And there’s more! Are you having trouble keeping track of all of these phenomena? Relief is at hand! Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a tutorial about climate with Dr. Daniel Swain, a weather and climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources division and a research partner at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research. He engages extensively with journalists and other media partners, serving as a climate and weather science liaison to print, television, radio, and web-based outlets and is the go-to guy when on latest climate research and findings. Watch Swain's latest "Weather and Climate Office Hour" (May 13). Read his "Weather West" blog.
Get Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org summaries in your inbox
Free AI-powered daily recaps. Key takeaways, quotes, and mentions — in a 5-minute read.
Get Free Summaries →Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
You Might Also Like
Listeners also like.
Sustainable World Radio- Ecology and Permaculture Podcast
Experts discuss ecology, permaculture, organic gardening, and sustainable living through interviews and commentary.
Unf*cking the Future
A scientist explores environmental crises and practical solutions to secure a sustainable future.
Care More Be Better: A Podcast For Sustainable Social Impact and Regeneration
Features interviews with environmentalists, activists, and scientists focused on sustainable social impact and regenerative solutions.
For What It’s Earth
Emma Brisdion & Sophie Pavelle
Resources Radio
Experts discuss climate change, energy, ecosystems, and environmental policy research in accessible weekly episodes.
Natural Causes
Explores the intersection of outdoor access, conservation, and environmental justice in an era of climate crisis and political threat.
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Discussions with experts on energy, ecology, economics, and human behavior to understand the systemic challenges facing civilization.
American Shoreline Podcast Network
Experts discuss coastal business, policy, science, engineering, and advocacy to inform and prepare listeners on American shoreline issues.
ScienceSphere
A weekly exploration of scientific discoveries across physics, biology, astronomy, and technology, explained clearly for all listeners.
A Matter of Degrees
Two climate experts explore the systems driving climate change and spotlight solutions through stories of leadership and activism.
Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science
Explores space exploration, astronomy, and science through conversations with experts and advocates shaping humanity's journey beyond Earth.
Earth and Spirit Podcast
Earth and Spirit Center
About Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org
Are you concerned about the Earth's future? Are you interested in what is being done in Northern California and the world to address environmental issues? Do you want to act? Then tune in every other Sunday to Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org. SN!! was launched on KSQD in 2019 by Ronnie Lipschutz. The show features interviews with activists, scholars, scientists, authors, philosophers, and others on a range of topics and issues that address the relationships among humans and nature, including life, death, taxes, biodiversity, energy, electricity, climate change, nuclear matters, animal rights, environmental activism, books, articles and many others. If you have a question, we have a podcast for you! SN! is broadcast on KSQD every two weeks, on Sundays, from 5-6 PM. Archives for shows beginning in 2019 are here and other podcast sites.Sustainability Now! is underwritten by the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation in Santa Cruz, California.
Customized Recaps
AI-powered recaps with compact key takeaways, quotes, and insights.
Straight to Your Inbox
Get key takeaways from Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org in a 5-minute read.
Save Hours Every Week
Stay current on your favorite podcasts without falling behind.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
How does the Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org podcast summary work?
When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by KSQD 90.7 FM in Santa Cruz & KSQD.org.
Can I get summaries of other podcasts too?
Absolutely! The free plan covers up to 3 podcasts, any in the catalog. Basic raises that to 15, Pro to 40 and Max to 100. Browse our full catalog at /podcasts.
How often does Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org release new episodes?
Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org publishes biweekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org cover?
Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org covers topics including Science, Nature, Philosophy, Culture, Society & Culture. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
Start getting Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org summaries tomorrow morning.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.
Free forever for up to 3 podcasts. No credit card required.