VPM Forum

When Joe Biden ran for president, he pledged to make climate change a major priority. How will he make good on that promise and what are the consequences if he fails to act? On this week’s episode, we discuss climate policy with former California Governor Jerry Brown, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, 2016 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, we visit Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.

NPR and StoryCorps have produced a new one-hour special that reflects the potential for public media as a driver of civic dialogue, compassionate listening and national healing.

Hosted by NPR’s Ailsa Chang and Rachel Martin. Episode Three reports on what has come of the protests so far, and the nation’s path forward.

The national uprising ignited by the murder of George Floyd has cast a spotlight on the country’s embedded, institutional racism, including the fraught relationship between environmentalism and communities of color. Air pollution, severe weather and the economic upheaval brought on by climate change impacts black and minority communities first and worst, yet their voices are often left out of policy responses and market solutions.

Black Lives Matter might be the largest social movement in American history. Last month, an estimated 15-25 million people took to the streets to protest police violence, launching a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement. We hear from Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira, an artist whose past experiences with the police drove him to fight the system from the inside. Next, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its own history of police violence.

The Supreme Court narrowly rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – meaning life for its nearly 700,000 participants remains in limbo. In this collaboration between Think and The Texas Newsroom, host Krys Boyd explores why Congress has been unwilling to create legislation that addresses DACA, shares the stories of DACA recipients as they go about their lives unable to plan for their futures, and talks to Janet Napolitano, who initiated the program as President Obama’s Homeland Security secretary.