Ecocide Podcast

Every environmental disaster starts the same way. Not with an explosion, a spill, or a cloud of gas, but with a decision. Sometimes the decision to cut a corner. Sometimes to ignore a warning. Sometimes to let a known risk sit until it became someone else's problem. Ecocide is a narrative podcast about environmental destruction and the many forms it can take. Each episode investigates a moment when human activity collided with the natural world, and follows what happened next and who was left to deal with the fallout. The stories fall into four categories: First, infamous cases. Disasters you've heard of but may not know the full story. Think the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Cuyahoga River catching fire. We’ll document ignored warnings, the calculations made by people who understood exactly what they were doing, and the long trail of consequences that followed to humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. Second, local and regional cases that rarely make national news. A small community's drinking water quietly contaminated while regulators looked the other way. Or a mine operating illegally in a protected landscape. These are the cases that show how the system actually works because they show what happens when nobody's watching. There are thousands of these stories touching every corner of America and the globe. Third, historical cases that explain how ecosystems function, how they break, and—sometimes—how they recover. Stories like the capture of wild orcas for entertainment, or the widespread use of DDT. Moments that changed how we understand the natural world, often too late. Fourth, real-time episodes. Stories unfolding right now—tied to specific decisions, specific timelines, and, in some cases, specific actions listeners can take. These episodes close the gap between awareness and action. You won't find a show like this anywhere else. Environmental stories typically get covered in one of two ways: either as fast-and-thin breaking news—gone before the consequences arrived—or as advocacy, with a conclusion already built in. What's missing are stories told in enough depth to establish the facts, examine the tradeoffs, name the people who made the decisions, and learn about the communities left behind. And to do it all without telling listeners what to think. That's what this show is. Every episode is built on primary sources. We use court documents and legal filings, agency records, and the investigative journalism produced by reporters who were there when it happened. Our research also draws on peer-reviewed science, academic literature, and nonfiction books. We don't start with a conclusion and work backward. We start with the record. When the facts are damning, they'll be presented without editorializing. And when the story is complicated, it'll stay complicated. The goal isn't to tell you how to feel. It's to make sure you know what happened. Because the earth doesn't forget. And neither can we.