10 Best Environmental History Podcasts to Listen to (2026)

A Digital Magazine from the Center for Culture, History, and Environment

A quarterly discussion about the environmental history community and research in Canada.

Today's global warming has no precedent in Earth's history. Yet long before we started overheating the planet, natural climate changes shaped our past. In the Climate Chronicles, Dagomar Degroot, one of the world's leading historians of climate change, explains how climate change influenced humanity's history, from the evolution of our species to the onset of today's climate crisis.Find out more at TheClimateChronicles.com. more

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies more

Exploring Environmental History is the podcast about human societies and the environment in the past.

Our Road to Walk: Then and Now is a podcast series hosted by Deborah and Ken Ferruccio broadcast from Warren County, North Carolina, known as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. The purpose of the series is to share the inside, untold, documented, forty-four-year PCB landfill history which serves as a roadmap and guidebook for communities everywhere who want to actively help protect the environment, especially marginalized communities, through education and activism based on science for the people. Our goal is to raise the consciousness of our listeners by informing and inspiring them and by winning their hearts and minds so that they want to join Our Road to Walk on a mutual pilgrimage for the planet, person by person, community by community, region by region, and nation by nation. more

Ecocide is a narrative podcast about environmental destruction—part environmental history, part stories still unfolding. Each episode documents an ecological disaster: who caused it, who paid the price, and who fought back.The stories fall into four categories: infamous disasters you've heard of but may not know the full story; local and regional cases that never made national news; historical episodes that explain how ecosystems break and sometimes recover; and real-time conflicts you can still do something about.Environmental stories usually get covered as breaking news that's gone before the consequences arrive, or as advocacy with the conclusion already built in. What's missing are stories told in enough depth to establish the facts, name the people who made the decisions, and learn about the communities left behind. And to do it without telling listeners what to think. That's what this show is.Every episode is built on primary sources. Court documents and legal filings, agency records, peer-reviewed scientific and academic research, nonfiction books, and investigative journalism. 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. more

BRAIDEd explores the intersections of Black women's agricultural history, food sovereignty, and environmental justice. Each episode weaves together the voices of Black women farmers, historians, and food justice advocates to illuminate pathways toward collective land stewardship and climate resilience. From historical exploration of Black land ownership to innovative farming practices, BRAIDEd nurtures critical conversations that seed transformation in our relationship with land, food systems, and community economics. Join us as we unearth stories of resistance, restoration, and reimagining a future where Black women's agricultural wisdom leads the way toward healing our communities and our planet. This podcast is a production of the EcoWomanist Institute Southeast. more

The Greenhouse Environmental Humanities Book Talk has become the go-to resource for the latest in environmental humanities scholarship. Each episode features an author discussing their new book (within the last two years) in the broad field of environmental humanities, which includes environmental history, philosophy, literary criticism, anthropology, and more. The author introduces the book and then the hosts Dolly and Finn Arne Jørgensen have a conversation with the author about the book. Live audience members are also invited to ask their own questions. Live talks are sometimes streamed with video, so some speakers may reference things that the audience saw visually during the talk. The talks are organized by the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities at the University of Stavanger, Norway. more

Your podcast on the Forest History of the Great Lakes Region. The forests of the Great Lakes have been home to people for centuries and have provided great resources and wealth, shelter, food, and recreation for many. But in the wake of these uses, the region has been environmentally damaged from deforestation, fire, and erosion, and are still recovering to this day. I will be your guide for exploring the forests and sharing stories of the forests and the people who have called them home. About Rob Burg: Hi! I'm an environmental historian specializing on the forest history of the Great Lakes Region. I am a mostly lifelong Michigan resident and studied at Eastern Michigan University for both my undergraduate degree in History and graduate studies in Historic Preservation. My 35-year professional life has mostly been in history museums, including the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, the Michigan History Museum, and the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. I began my environmental history career with managing both the Hartwick Pines Logging Museum and the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum for the Michigan History Museum system, directing the Lovells Museum of Trout Fishing History, archivist for the Devereaux Memorial Library in Grayling, Michigan, and as the Interpretive Resources Coordinator for the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska. I am proud that the first person to ever call me an environmental historian was none other than Dr. William Cronon, the dean of American Environmental History. more