I am going to start doing reviews of climate change podcasts that touch on the long gory history (especially pre-1988). If you have recommendations, get in touch. The first review is positive (yay). Rebecca John appearing on the History of California Podcast to talk about research she did about the “Air Pollution Foundation” – an early 1950s oil-industry funded group that (spoilers) hired a young Charles Keeling to measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Tl; dr – good questions, comprehensive but not verbose answers, and some methodological nuggets for the history geeks; what’s not to love?
The review
The History of California podcast looks really good. I’ve only listened to one episode (so far), and it was even better than really good. And it’s an interview with Rebecca John who has done lots of award winning documentaries, etc, and has been fossicking in the archives for what we knew about climate change when. “we” meaning the elites, not just the scientists. This is, of course, All Our Yesterday’s jam.
John is being interviewed here about one particular article published in January of 2024 about how the oil and gas companies were funding something called the air pollution foundation in 1953 54 in Los Angeles, and how that foundation funded the first carbon dioxide measurement work of Charles Keeling, who has neglected to mention it in his memoir.
This is what you want from a podcast. The questions are both on point and to the point, the answers are comprehensive without being train- spottery. And there’s some, you know, fun methodological facts. I totally recognize that you’re sitting in an archive, and you read some phrase, and you think, “hello?”, and then you pull on that bit of string and kapow. Well, it’s takes hard work, obviously.
So have a listen, and I’ll certainly be checking up more of the history of California podcast
Two final things.
John has a really interesting news piece on DeSmog that begins thus
An Israeli private investigator wanted by U.S. authorities for allegedly carrying out a hack-and-leak operation commissioned on behalf of ExxonMobil is fighting against his extradition to a Brooklyn, NY, detention center.
Also thanks to John’s shout out at the end, I found the specific files on Inside Climate News about Exon “the path not taken.” That led me to a trove of materials, including the one I just put up, from January 29, 1980, which is going viral (by my standards) at the moment.
Next podcast review – Alice Bell as a guest on The Cursed Object.
See also Green and Red podcast (haven’t watched yet)