Reflections So Far and an Intermission
Some reflections from Jacquelyn and Ramesh on our season so far and a note that we’ll be taking a brief intermission until after the US November election.
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The full transcript of this episode can be found below.
Jacquelyn Gill
Hey everyone, Jacquelyn and Ramesh here. We’re going to be taking a short intermission for the next couple of weeks to get us through the election. But before we do that Ramesh and I wanted to just quickly check in with each other and with you to talk about what we’ve been learning so far and all the ways in which this has been a really exciting and surprising season for both of us. We came into this thinking we wanted to do these themed seasons just as a way to bring some depth and cohesion and some themes to the work that we’re doing with the show. Before we were just kind of just following our whims and we were a little bit all over the place in terms of our guests. And we really wanted the opportunity to take a deeper dive on a concept or theme. And data for the two of us seemed like a really good idea, both because we’re both scientists, but also because we wanted to dig in or dive into the surprising stories behind data as very human stories. But I feel like neither one of us really knew what to expect in the end. So, Ramesh, I want to know from you, what’s been your favorite moment or moments so far and why?
Ramesh
So I’ll say beyond learning about some great history about things like modeling and sort of even conceptualizing the idea of things like climate models as world-building, which I had never really thought of before we had our conversation with Geetha and Dr. Washington. You know, one of the amazing moments for me was listening to Jenn Marlon and really seeing how opinions about climate change have been trending towards action on climate change. I guess for me, I keep listening to these episodes as reasons for hope. And despite the fact that there’s been some sort of heavy content, right, I see all of the indicators moving in the right direction. And that, that to me has been really hopeful. It’s been inspiring. And I also see that in my students. So it’s amazing to see what Jenn Marlon was saying reflected in my classroom. And so those two things almost feedback on each other. I find myself thinking about that Jenn Marlon episode quite a bit.
Jacquelyn
Yeah, I would definitely agree with you that the show for me, just as someone who’s a scientist and an advocate and activist for climate, the conversations that we have with our guests are incredibly inspiring and really hopeful for me too. And I, there has not been a conversation where I haven’t come away feeling, you know, just really pumped. Not pumped like “woo hoo climate change!”, but like that this is a tractable problem that we can actually make headway on and that we are making headway on. And in a world right now where there’s so many things that I do not feel, I feel very helpless about. Or that there are so many things that are out of my control and I just, you know, we’re doing everything that we can on so many fronts. It feels good to have this sort of biweekly just injection of okay, yes, things are moving forward. You know, we are a team, we are a community. No one of us is alone, you know, in facing these issues by ourselves. And that, you know, to, to quote one of my favorite old web comics, I don’t know if there are any Homestar Runner listeners out there.
Ramesh
Oh, I’m one.
Jacquelyn
There’s one point where we’re Strong Bad’s like “We have our top men working on it round the clock.” And I’m like, yes, we do, we do have our top people working on this, around the clock!
Ramesh
I’m pretty excited about what’s coming up. You know, we’ve got conversations about art and we’ve got conversations about how you make decisions based on climate data. So what do you do as a decision maker and at various scales, from personal to citywide. How do you use, how do you use climate data to make those decisions? I’m really excited for that conversation as well.
Jacquelyn
Yeah, we’ve got some episodes coming up where we’re going to be talking to folks about indigenous knowledge. We’ve got some conversations with activists. We’re going to be breaking down some of the, you know, apocalyptic headlines we see in the media and this whole idea of, you know, tipping points or thresholds, or are there points of no return with the climate? Or what does the future actually look like. And how can we envision, you know, better, more just, more equitable and healthy futures for all of us.
Ramesh
Yeah, so for our listeners, we’re going to be back after the election. Remember the election is November 3rd. Go vote, go vote, go vote! And like Jacquelyn said, we’ve got some really, really great episodes coming up. And so we’re really excited to share those stories and those, those voices with you.
Jacquelyn
And as always, thanks for making it this far with us. Thank you for, you know, for being a part of our show and our community. Thank you to all of our amazing Patreon supporters who have helped us kick the show to the next level and pay our amazing volunteer team. It’s been really great to hear your feedback, your support, to hear your data stories. You know, we would love to hear more of those while we’re taking our intermission. Please do keep sending those to us and yeah, we’re just really grateful for all of you. And it very much feels like Warm Regards is a community. So thanks for being part of that.
Ramesh
Thank you. Thanks for letting us into your head.
