Practical climate living, widened into systems.
Second Nature is a warm, explanatory climate podcast from Commons that connects personal habits to larger systems. Led by Caitlin Cunningham, it moves from compost buckets, shopping lists, lawns, flights, and tap water into the economic and ecological forces behind them.
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Second Nature is a climate and sustainability podcast that starts with everyday decisions and follows them outward. It is grounded in the small stuff. Composting ratios, slow-shopping lists, lawn alternatives, reusable bottles, and grocery waste become entry points into larger stories about soil, water, money, fuel, and community power. Caitlin Cunningham leads the show with a measured, service-minded style. She explains the problem first, then gives it texture through listener stories, expert answers, and practical examples. The show is especially attentive to the emotional fatigue of trying to make good choices inside systems built for convenience and extraction. It does not pretend a compost bucket can fix aviation emissions. It also does not dismiss the value of changing a household habit, joining a local network, or asking harder questions about where money goes. That balance gives the series its shape. Episodes often begin with a familiar scene, such as an airport water station, a neat green lawn, a shopping impulse, or water arriving invisibly through a city tap. From there, the show widens the lens. A lawn becomes a neighborhood ecosystem. A flight becomes a question about sustainable aviation fuel, feedstocks, and price gaps. A shopping delay becomes a way to talk about dopamine loops, secondhand goods, and gifts that prioritize experiences. A water episode becomes a story about distance, control, and the systems that separate city residents from the sources they depend on. Listener contributions keep the show from sounding abstract. People describe the habits that actually changed their kitchens, closets, gardens, budgets, and sense of responsibility. The show can be morally pointed, especially around greenwashing, waste, and climate obstruction, but its criticism usually lands beside a practical next step. It is also comfortable with wonder. Episodes about reciprocity, nature, plants, fungi, animals, and resilience give the series a softer register without losing its civic focus. Second Nature works best for listeners who want climate media that is neither doom-heavy nor lifestyle-polished. It treats sustainable living as a daily practice shaped by money, access, infrastructure, and collective action.
Made for: For climate-conscious listeners who want concrete habits, plain explanations, and a broader view of why individual choices matter and where they fall short. It also suits people rethinking spending, travel, food waste, lawns, and local resilience.
What sets it apart: Second Nature blends listener-sourced service journalism with systems thinking, so a household tip often becomes a lesson about money, infrastructure, and ecological dependence. Its strength is making sustainability feel doable without shrinking the problem.
How can we live sustainably in an unsustainable world? Second Nature is a podcast by Commons exploring how our sustainable choices impact our lives and the planet. Every week hear how listeners are taking public transit, composting food waste, eating more plant-based meals and practicing deconsumption to create the kind of world they want to live in. We'll calculate the carbon impact of collective action and get expert answers to your burning climate questions. Everyone’s sustainable life is unique. Tell us about yours. thecommons.earth/podcast 🌎 Join a community of tens of thousands of people using the Commons app to tr...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Second Nature connects compost, food, travel, and consumption choices to the larger systems that shape their environmental impact.
Second Nature begins with ordinary choices and follows their consequences outward. Compost bins lead to food waste and soil, plant-based cheese to dairy policy and taste, air travel to sustainable fuel, and frugal habits to consumption.
This is the climate show that follows your reusable bottle all the way onto the plane.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical composting guide that makes the microbes and the method easy to follow.
Second Nature treats composting as one of the oldest fertilizers, used for more than 10,000 years, and then lays out passive and active composting in a way that stays easy to follow.
A calm, practical case for waiting longer, buying less, and keeping possessions in play.
Slow Shopping in a Fast World makes a steady, thoughtful case for pausing before a purchase. By linking delay discounting to instant gratification, social media, food delivery, and a wider loss of connection, it gives the subject clear stakes without losing its calm tone.
A LAX bottle refill opens onto the cost, feedstock, and scale problems behind sustainable flying.
It begins at LAX with a reusable water bottle and a refill-station counter in the thousands, though that figure is debated, then moves into sustainable aviation fuel, the price premium versus fossil fuel, and how early-stage production and capital costs keep SAF expensive.
Frugal habits that also support sustainable living.
Second Nature treats everyday household items - clothes on the line, a pocket handkerchief, a cool whip tub of leftovers, a cookie tin used as a sewing kit - as part of a frugal routine that also fits sustainable living.
A clear guide to how climate-friendly branding can outpace the spending behind it.
Second Nature presents greenwashing as plain, readable reporting. It starts with Chevron's 2021 claim that it is lowering emissions, investing in lower carbon technologies, and exploring renewable fuels, then sets that beside the company's 0.2% share of long-term investments…
Practical food gardening for real spaces.
Cut flowers, real fields, honest growing.
Practical permaculture from the soil up.
Second Nature returns to composting after earlier conversations about lawns and synthetic fertilizer.
The episode opens with delay discounting: the habit of choosing a smaller reward now rather than waiting for a bigger one later.
The host opens at LAX with a reusable water bottle and a refill station count that is usually in the thousands.
This episode explores the environmental impact of conventional lawns and their role in neighborhood ecosystems, questioning why they look the way they do.
This episode explores how money and financial decisions impact society and the environment, questioning the relationship between economic systems and essential resources.
This episode explores profound lessons from nature about community, resilience, and sustainability, featuring insights from scientist Rob Kutcher and Wal Kimmerer.
This episode explores the complex water supply system of Los Angeles, tracing its sources from the Sierra Nevada mountains and Owens Valley while discussing the broader human tendency to abstract nature from its origins.
This episode explores why avoiding synthetic fertilizers in grocery shopping is crucial for sustainability, revealing the environmental harms of fertilizer runoff from its historical origins to current impacts on waterways and ocean life.
Second Nature frames sustainable habits as money-saving habits.
Second Nature's "Can We Learn to Love Plant-Based Cheese?" traces how U.S.
Second Nature opens with greenwashing in the crosshairs.
This episode explores urban gardening with artist Nelson Zepiqueno, offering practical tips for growing food in small city spaces like windowsills and patios to promote sustainable living.
This episode explores food waste issues, highlighting dumpster diving at grocery stores like Aldi and revealing that while grocery stores waste food, households and restaurants contribute more to landfills, with global impacts including methane emissions.
This episode explores the health and environmental impacts of reducing meat consumption, featuring community stories, expert nutrition advice, and climate data.
This episode explores practical strategies for effectively communicating about sustainable living and climate action to friends and family without coming across as preachy or discouraging.