Activist Planet

Activist Planet is Juan Carlos Giraldo's podcast about protecting nature. He records it from the Boston area, and its episode titles are in both Spanish and English. Giraldo, who also goes by JC Giraldo, works both solo and with guests. The subjects are wide-ranging. In one stretch of episodes he covers woodpeckers, urban coyotes, rare earth metals, birds hitting windows and a year-end look at climate policy. The solo episodes start close to home. Giraldo says he hears woodpeckers on his walks in the woods, and he built an episode around them. He calls them carpenters of the forest and credits species like the black-backed woodpecker with keeping bark beetles in check. From there he follows a chain of effects: fewer beetles, healthier forests and more carbon stored in trees. The coyote episode starts with his own sightings in the neighborhood. It turns into a practical account of urban coyotes in Massachusetts, what they eat and why small dogs and cats are at risk. His conclusion is plain: the animals are not leaving, so people have to live alongside them responsibly. He is open about where his knowledge stops. He says he is no bird expert before the woodpecker episode and not a geologist before explaining rare earth metals. The rare earth episode still has real substance. It names elements such as neodymium and dysprosium, links them to electric vehicles and wind turbines, notes China's dominance in mining and processing, and mentions Greenland, where melting ice is making these deposits easier to reach. The guest episodes shift the weight to specialists, and birds hitting glass gets two separate conversations. In English, researcher and consultant Hedy Trudel argues that bird-safe building codes like New York City's protect far more birds than fixing one house at a time, though she warns that such codes can have loopholes. Giraldo ends that conversation by sharing bird sounds he recorded. In Spanish, investigator Rosemary Menacho explains why raptor silhouettes on a window rarely help. She cites field experiments by a professor at Muhlenberg showing that deterrents have to go on the outside of the glass. A December 2024 episode brings in his colleague Miguel Ángel to compare the biodiversity summit held in Colombia with the talks in Baku, which draw sharp concern. The two close on critical thinking and education as the way forward. Throughout, the tone is warm, curious and unpolished, closer to an enthusiastic neighbor sharing what he has read than a lecture.