Earthbound
Earthbound is a podcast about what it means to be human on a warming planet. Host Thomas Schueneman, a climate writer, global freelance journalist, and audio producer, talks with scientists, philosophers, activists, artists, Indigenous leaders, policy experts, and everyday people about how a changing Earth is reshaping our lives—and how our choices, values, and imaginations are reshaping the planet in return.
From climate politics and planetary health to environmental justice, mental well‑being, psychology, and philosophy, the show explores the quiet work of repairing our relationship with nature and each other. Earthbound offers clear‑eyed, human‑centered stories from the Anthropocene.
New to Earthbound?
Where Have All the Golden Toads Gone? A Tale of Extinction and Hope
The Golden Toad If you’re like me, by the time you first heard about the Golden Toad, it was already gone. A flash of gold high in the damp cloud forest of Costa Rica. This mysterious and elusive species, native to a tiny hab...
Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning of the Americ…
Wildfire Days "Wildfire is actually a natural part of our ecosystems and our landscape, particularly in the American West. Fires had been burning naturally for millennia and keeping the forest healthy." "It's the most incredi...
The Fourth Turning Meets the Ways of the Duck | Responding With Calm …
Feed the inner duck Not with human news Or greedy things that suck, But give it quiet views; Comments from the moon. Opinions from the sky. The insights of a tune. The wisdom of a sigh. -Michael Leunig History Doesn’t Repeat,...
Recent Episodes
Peter Solomon: 100 Years to Extinction
Do We Need to Colonize Mars to Survive? A Book Review of Dr. Peter Solomon's 100 Years to Extinction In 2017, Stephen Hawking warned that humanity had just 100 years to move beyond Earth or face extinction. That bold predicti...
The Climate of Our Moral Character | Energy, Capital, and Human Well-…
Climate, Energy, Morality, and How We Thrive as a Species on a Finite Planet We tell ourselves stories to help us cope with existence, but too often we bend our stories to fit a misguided, destructive, and utterly unsustainab...
Climate and Peace | Lessons of Minneapolis
This bonus episode features a short reading from my Thinking Out Loud section of my newsletter. Is empathy a strength or a weakness? How do we respond to forces that hide behind masks and seek to coerce, intimidate, and terro...
Bill McKibben: Here Comes the Sun and How Renewables Can Power the Fu…
What if the sun, the same star that’s powered life on Earth for billions of years, could finally free us from the fossil fuel stranglehold that’s choking our future? That’s the question at the heart of this episode’s conversa...
Katherine Lacefield: From Purity to Pragmatism
In a world of either-or thinking, where you’re expected to choose between hugging trees or hugging flags, Katherine Lacefield offers a refreshing alternative. The founder of Just Be Cause Consulting and host of the Just Be Ca...
Blood and Cigarettes: The Christmas Truce of 1914-Finding Peace on Co…
With this bonus holiday episode, I revisit a short article I originally wrote for a now-defunct website and republished on Medium back in 2022. Blood and Cigarettes takes us back to Christmas Eve and the trenches of World War...
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Reviews
Genuine conversation, not just an interview
- Diana Colleen
- Oct. 20, 2025
Like sitting down with a good book.
- Shan girl30
- Oct. 31, 2025
This is about so much MORE…
- Comedy Salesman
- Dec. 7, 2025