In conversation with Threshold and Drilled

November 28, 2025·44 min·2 clips

Future Ecologies hosts sit down with Amy Westervelt of Drilled and Amy Martin of Threshold to discuss their latest seasons.

Two podcasters named Amy finally meet. The cold open sits with the funny, sincere pleasure of two people realizing they have admired each other's work for ages without ever actually meeting. Mendel and Adam ease into it, call the episode a format breaker, and give Amy Westervelt from Drilled and Amy Martin from Threshold room to talk about why their recent seasons took the shapes they did. The tone is warm, but there is weight underneath it. One thread is about making stories where human drama is not the obvious engine. Will listeners stay if there is no clear hero, villain, or tidy conflict? Nobody pretends that question is simple. One guest talks about how the work changed her before anyone can know whether it changed anything beyond the production itself: love for the process, tears, delight, learning, and pride. The hosts pick up on that, answering with their own sense that the season carried them somewhere unfamiliar, with joy sitting right beside pathos and fascination. Then the joke tilts sideways. Someone admits to being tired of hearing humans, which is especially funny coming from people who make a living with voices. Westervelt's work pulls the conversation into sharper territory: Drilled seasons on Standing Rock, the Energy Transfer lawsuit against Greenpeace, and the Manosphere as a way into environmental setbacks. The question is why those stories matter now, especially when one lawsuit could affect climate work well beyond the Dakota Access Pipeline fight. The appeal is the maker-to-maker exchange: how to tell ecological stories honestly when the pressure is high and the shape is not obvious. The episode stops midstream, with supporters pointed toward a second conversation about journalism and podcasting.

As heard by us

A thoughtful roundtable on how environmental podcasters choose stories about nonhuman life, climate litigation, masculinity, grief, and delight.

Future Ecologies hands the mic to two peers, Amy Westervelt of Drilled and Amy Martin of Threshold, for a looser conversation about how environmental stories get made.

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Want two environmental podcasters comparing how they built their latest seasons?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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