In 2019 Charles Booker, a 35-year-old Kentucky state representative decided to challenge Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican Senator, by running for Senate on a Green New Deal. But the Democratic establishment already had a preferred candidate, Amy McGrath. As the campaign got underway Booker looked like the longest of long shots. And while he did not ultimately win the primary, Booker shocked the world by very nearly defeating the best funded Senate candidate in history, winning 43% of the vote in a state many had written off as impossible for a progressive candidate. 

GenGND tells the story of Charles Booker’s incredible 2020 campaign and the lessons it holds for how the Green New Deal movement can win even in states the Democratic party has abandoned. Featuring Charles Booker himself, Charles’ former Deputy Campaign Manager (and Sunrise Movement Electoral Politics Director) Shante Wolfe, Sunrise Political Director Evan Weber, and Creative Director Alex O’Keefe. 

When former Rep Joe Kennedy decided to launch a primary challenge against Senator Ed Markey, pundits began writing Markey’s political obituary. He was trailing badly in polls and a lot of his own constituents had never heard of him. But Markey is the co-author of the Green New Deal resolution, and the GND movement mobilized to his defense. Along the way the 74-year-old Senator acquired a large fanbase of Very Online Teenagers, and Markey’s victory helped convince Democrats that climate action is a winning issue.

GenGND looks at the story of Ed Markey with Senator Markey himself, Evan Weber and Alex O’Keefe of Sunrise Movement, and Shanaz Uddin of Students 4 Markey.

In this **SPECIAL** holiday-bonus pod, we run through the nominees rolled out last weekend, including the ground-breaking Rep. Deb Haaland for Secretary of Interior, and Gina McCarthy who will hold the new office of National Climate Advisor at the newly formed Office of Domestic Climate Policy, fulfilling a key demand of progressive climate activists.

We’re now more than a month removed from the 2020 elections, and a little more than a month away from President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris officially taking office...So, what do we know about their plans for tackling the climate crisis? What’s been happening on that front during these last five weeks? And, most importantly, what could happen over the next four years? Well, quite a lot, actually...

Jamie Margolin is a climate organizer from Seattle and freshman in college. As a 14 year old high school student, she co-founded the youth climate activist group Zero Hour and went on to help organize and lead the massive Youth Climate Strike in the fall of 2019. Jamie was a surrogate for Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic primary, and is also a plaintiff in a climate lawsuit against her home state of Washington. 

Jamie also recently authored an amazing new book called “Youth to Power: Your Voice and How to Use It.” The book is a fascinating sort of DIY manual for activism and in each chapter, Jamie interviews another youth activist about a particular aspect of activism. Our conversation with Jamie is stitched together from a couple of different interviews, and it touches on how she came to activism at a young age, sparring with Republicans on Capitol Hill, writing her book, and dealing with burnout. 

Meteorologist-turned-climate-writer Eric Holthaus is an outspoken advocate for climate justice. He’s also the first parent we’ve had on GenGND Conversations, raising his two young children in Minnesota, one of the fastest-warming states in the U.S.

In our interview with Eric, we’ll hear about his path from studying climate-change as a meteorologist to writing about it as a journalist, his thoughts on the prospects for climate action during the incoming Biden-Harris Administration, and the climate-fueled extreme weather we’re now constantly seeing around the globe. 

In his new book, THE FUTURE EARTH, Eric delves into a hopeful 30 year plan for reversing the effects of climate change. And in his newsletter, THE PHOENIX, you can read Eric’s musings on topics such as ‘Focusing on a Just Transition’ and why it’s terrifying that ‘The Arctic’s refusing to refreeze this winter.’

Young Americans voted in record numbers during the 2020 election and played a key role in tipping the scales to Joe Biden. The Sunrise Movement and other environmental groups mounted extensive campaigns to register and mobilize voters to oppose President Trump and vote climate champions into office. 

Biden’s climate platform isn’t the Green New Deal plan that many climate activists called for, and Democrats will have a tough time passing progressive climate policies unless they win both Senate runoff races in Georgia. Still, Donald Trump’s defeat gives the planet a better chance of avoiding an apocalyptic future. 

Political Climate's Julia Pyper speaks to first-time presidential election voters, Troy Distelrath in Michigan and Gabriela Rodriguez in Florida, about what they want to see next from their political leaders.

Plus, while Biden’s win represents a new era in the climate fight, the United States remains deeply divided and the policy path forward remains murky. So in the second half of this episode, Julia speaks to Andreas Karelas about his critically acclaimed new book Climate Courage, and how to advance climate solutions in these polarized times. 

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