Climate policy with civic memory.
Climate Conversations treats the climate crisis as a civic, political, and everyday reality. Robert McLean gathers interviews, webinar audio, climate news, and outside reporting into measured episodes about disasters, energy, forests, war, media, and policy.
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Climate Conversations is a long-running Australian climate show with a patient, public-interest sensibility. Robert McLean hosts from Shepparton, in northern Victoria, and repeatedly grounds the program on the lands of the Yorta Yorta people. The format is flexible. Some episodes are direct interviews, while others gather webinar audio, climate-news items, public talks, and segments from journalism or environmental conferences. The show is less concerned with personality than with evidence, accountability, and civic memory. It asks what happens after fires, floods, and political promises fade from headlines. Recovery and rehabilitation are treated as ongoing social duties, not brief disaster stories. Episodes about Lismore, east coast fires, and northern rivers communities make climate change feel administrative, emotional, and local at once. The show also follows the machinery behind the crisis. Fossil fuel influence, newsroom cutbacks, carbon pricing, market-led climate claims, forest protection, gas infrastructure, and renewable electrification all recur. It gives space to activists, academics, scientists, conservation thinkers, webinar speakers, and people who have reorganized their lives around climate action. John Brennan appears as a quiet climate campaigner shaped by the Adani Carmichael mine fight. Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe brings science, policy, public transport, renewable electricity, and the social implications of climate change into view. Professor David Lindenmayer’s forest arguments connect ecology, rural economies, tourism, biodiversity, and farming landscapes. Other episodes reach outward to EarthX, Columbia Climate School, Covering Climate Now, E.O. Wilson, Rebecca Solnit, and discussions of war, Gaza, Iran, fossil fuels, and environmental destruction. The pacing is measured. The urgency comes through accumulation: names, places, institutions, consequences, and repeated invitations for listeners to think and act. Climate Conversations suits people who want climate coverage with moral pressure, policy detail, and an Australian community-radio backbone.
Made for: For listeners who want climate news, interviews, and public forums treated with seriousness rather than spectacle. It especially suits people interested in Australian climate politics, energy transition, forests, disaster recovery, and media accountability.
What sets it apart: The show combines local Australian grounding with sourced public conversations from webinars, journalism events, environmental conferences, and expert interviews. Its strength is the steady connection between climate science, public policy, fossil fuel power, community recovery, and everyday responsibility.
A continuous conversation about climate change - news, views and interviews.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Robert McLean connects climate technology to the policies, markets, media choices and geopolitical pressures that determine what gets built.
Climate Conversations follows climate technology into the systems that determine whether it matters: public policy, energy markets, disaster recovery and news coverage.
Robert McLean connects fossil-fuel politics to your power bill, with physics firmly invited.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sober, useful look at climate recovery as a long emergency.
Climate Conversations treats recovery as part of the climate story, not a side note. It moves from the ongoing fallout in Lismore and along Australia's east coast to the harder problem of what happens when disasters stack up, then widens to the pressure on climate coverage…
A climate conversation that ties human nature, gas politics, and gradual change together.
The episode moves from E.O. Wilson's view of humanity as an archaic species in transition to the costs and politics of natural gas, then to Rebecca Solnit's case for incrementality.
A direct climate argument linking war, fossil fuels, and the fragility of connected ecosystems.
Climate Conversations frames the Iran war as an energy story first, starting with blocked fossil fuel routes and a firm push for electrifying everything.
A forest-protection argument connecting tourism infrastructure, regional renewal, and climate adaptation.
Climate Conversations frames Australia's forests as part of a wider systems question, where stronger protection is tied to tourism infrastructure, regional work, and new income for rural and regional communities.
A pending EarthX interview frames a climate-policy discussion about access, authority, funding, and institutional caution.
Climate Conversations follows Robert McLean as he prepares for a possible interview with Peter Simic, CEO of EarthX, ahead of EarthX 2026. The episode frames that hoped-for conversation around environmental leadership, climate innovation, and the challenge of moving business and…
State policy problems, worked through from the statehouse
Specialists walking through software's tradeoffs, one system at a time.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
This episode features an interview with Ryan Batchelor, chair of a Victorian State Government committee, discussing their two-year, 400+ page report on climate resilience in the built environment.
A possible EarthX interview opens the segment.
This episode discusses the challenges Australia faces in upgrading its grid for renewable energy, highlighting myths and misinformation, with a focus on farmer protests against transmission line construction in Victoria.
On Climate Conversations, host Robert McLean interviews independent Shepparton candidate Lou Costa ahead of Victoria’s November election.
Host Robert McLean, 79, presents four interviews from his 500-people-in-50-weeks project, using the same ten questions with Rob, Jack, Greg and Ian.
Climate Conversations looks at how recovery and rehabilitation turn into a long-term part of life as climate disasters keep stacking up.
This episode features an interview with John Brinnard, a climate activist from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, discussing his journey into climate advocacy and his perspectives on environmental justice and corporate influence.
This episode features an interview with Professor Ian Lowe discussing climate change solutions, focusing on transitioning to renewable energy and improving public transport to reduce emissions.
This episode previews an upcoming interview with EarthX CEO Peter Simek about the organization's annual conference, focusing on environmental leadership and climate solutions.
Climate Conversations opens with Edward O.
Robert McLean opens by linking the blocking of a narrow strait and fossil fuel reliance to the case for electrifying everything.
Climate Conversations speaks with Professor David Lindemar of the Australian National University about native forest logging, plantation timber, old growth fire behavior, and paddock trees.
Tonya defines degrowth as equitably reducing energy use and manufacturing so people can “thrive, not just survive,” rather than simply endure scarcity.
This interview with investigative journalist Marianne Wilkerton critiques how mainstream media separates climate science from energy reporting, highlighting the physical reality of climate change and her analysis of fossil fuel company Woodside's influence.
This episode features an interview with social researcher Rebecca Huntley about her journey from writing a book on climate change communication to creating the Clean Energy Solutions Index in Australia.
This episode features interviews with Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Fortescue CEO Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest discussing climate policy and emissions targets.