Jaron Burke, Lonnie Portis, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
26 episodes listed below
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Join Jaron and Lonnie as they explore issues in their community through the eyes of everyday people, and discuss how environmental justice is showing up in the news. It’s not just for experts, it's for everyone! The podcast is officially 1 year old! Now that we're older and wiser, we're releasing episodes twice each month - on the second and last Monday of each month. Uptown Chats is the official podcast of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. WE ACT was founded in 1988 and has offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. You can find us online at weact.or
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at how solar buildout runs into land-use rules, grid limits, and roof readiness.
This episode treats solar energy as a practical environmental justice issue, not a slogan. Stephen Roundtree lays out the friction points with care: grid effects, local land-use rules, restrictive siting limits, and the way some towns can still block solar altogether.
Ira Glass frames weekly theme-driven segments spanning family secrets to Portland's protest conflict.
Shankar Vedantam unpacks the psychology behind relationships, careers, and money through researcher interviews.
David McRaney interviews researchers on cognitive bias, motivated reasoning, and why minds change.
Ryan Holiday pairs daily Stoic lessons with long-form guest conversations at his Texas bookstore.
NHPR's Jason Moon investigates the Bear Brook barrel murders and a New Hampshire wrongful-conviction case.
Russ Roberts interviews authors and economists on ideas from classical liberalism to AI.
This episode of Uptown Chats introduces PFAS as a key environmental justice issue, linking it to health impacts from toxic pollution and the movie Dark Waters.
This episode discusses the Green Healthy Schools Campaign, focusing on youth and climate action during Children's Environmental Health Month, featuring an interview with Faiza Azam from Align.
This episode launches the Uptown Chats book club with an interview featuring Dr.
This episode discusses heat pumps as a key technology in the clean energy transition, highlighting their benefits for reducing emissions and providing cooling access, particularly for communities affected by environmental injustice.
This episode of Uptown Chats explores wind energy as a major renewable energy source in the context of environmental justice and community empowerment.
This episode continues a book club discussion with Dr.
This episode discusses flooding and environmental justice with guest Tyler Taba from Waterfront Alliance, exploring how communities face climate-related challenges like flooding and pollution.
This episode discusses air quality monitoring and environmental justice issues with a focus on WE ACT's mission and community impact.
This episode of Uptown Chats discusses youth-led climate action and environmental justice, featuring an interview with Shiv Sohan of Triage while highlighting WE ACT's mission to empower frontline communities.
This episode discusses trash and plastic waste issues through the lens of environmental justice, focusing on how communities of color and low-income residents are affected.
This episode celebrates WE ACT for Environmental Justice's major wins in 2025, highlighting their mission to empower frontline communities against environmental racism and toxic pollution.
This episode of Uptown Chats discusses WE ACT's environmental justice policy agenda for New York City, featuring an interview with City Policy Manager Caleb Smith about plans and policies for 2026.
This episode of Uptown Chats features WE ACT's Federal Policy Director discussing the Healthy Homes First campaign and environmental justice issues affecting frontline communities.
This episode discusses WE ACT for Environmental Justice's federal policy updates, focusing on empowering frontline communities to combat environmental racism and promote health equity.
This holiday special episode features Leslie Fields, WE ACT's chief federal officer, sharing her story about getting started in environmental justice work and celebrating heartwarming stories from the movement.
This episode of Uptown Chats discusses city and state budgeting in New York, focusing on how tax money is spent and environmental justice priorities, featuring insights from WE ACT for Environmental Justice.
This episode reflects on renewable energy technologies and their role in environmental justice, while highlighting WE ACT's mission to empower frontline communities through policy advocacy.
This episode celebrates the first 50 episodes of Uptown Chats, a podcast focused on environmental justice stories, while promoting WE ACT's mission and sustainer program to support frontline communities.
This episode explores geothermal energy and thermal energy networks as overlapping technologies for environmental justice, focusing on their potential to address climate crisis impacts in frontline communities.
This episode announces the Right Direction miniseries, focusing on positive energy technologies like solar, wind, geothermal, and heat pumps, following up on last year's Wrong Direction series about problematic energy investments.
This bonus episode of Uptown Chats explores emerging renewable energy technologies through a fun game format while discussing their potential as real solutions in the context of environmental justice.
This episode explores the concept of liberatory finance in the context of environmental justice, featuring an interview with Bunny McKenzie-Mack to discuss financial empowerment for frontline communities.
This episode introduces the 'just transition' concept, exploring its history and connection to the Green New Deal, while kicking off a miniseries on clean energy technologies like solar and wind to address climate change through an environmental justice lens.
Jaron and Lonnie interview Stephen Roundtree from Vote Solar about solar energy's role in New York's just transition.
This episode discusses WE ACT's 2026 policy agenda, focusing on environmental justice, community organizing, and legislative efforts to address pollution and climate impacts in frontline communities.
The episode discusses energy justice in New York, featuring an interview with a policy manager about affordability and climate legislation.