Ask MIT Climate
Episodes
The reshuffling of life on Earth
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is putting pressure not only on humans, but also on our fellow species. How can plants, animals, and other living things survive as the...
Taking Earth’s temperature
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The past three years have been the three hottest humanity has ever measured. But who does the measuring, and how? Dr. Samantha Burgess, of the Europea...
The nuclear price tag
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Nuclear power offers huge amounts of round-the-clock energy free of climate-warming pollution. In the United States, it’s also become very expensive...
Marshes, mangroves, meadows
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Salt marshes humming with insects and birds. Mangrove forests with tangled, arching roots. Seagrass meadows that blanket the ocean floor. The world’...
New season, new name!
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The eighth season of MIT’s climate change podcast starts next week, and we’ve got some news! TILclimate is now Ask MIT Climate. It’s part of an ...
Update: Where we've been and where we're going
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re dropping into your feed to share the news that our founding host, Laur Hesse Fisher, is departing MIT and TILclimate. In this episode, Laur si...
Transmission: Power to the people
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Power lines may not look as high-tech and inspiring as a wind turbine or a solar field. But as MIT’s Joshua Hodge explains, these lines—and the re...
Cleaner air
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Here at TILclimate, we’re often asked about the health and environmental effects of materials in solar panels and batteries. But what if the greates...
Dealing with dead batteries
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s demand for batteries to power electric vehicles is growing at incredible speed. What will we do with all these batteries when they die? ...
Geothermal: Earth’s infinite clean power
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Deep beneath the Earth’s surface, a molten stew of metals radiates vast amounts of energy. Prof. Roland Horne, Director of the Stanford Geothermal P...
The great indoors
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Modern buildings are complex machines, using heating, cooling and a host of other appliances to turn energy into comfort. But that energy comes with a...
Did climate change do that?
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A new type of climate science is allowing us to draw clearer connections between our warming planet, and the extreme weather events this warming creat...
Hasn't the climate changed before?
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Earth has gone through massive climate change before—many times over, in fact!—but human civilization has not. Prof. David McGee, a specialist...
Farm to table, with a side of fossil fuels
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The way we grow and distribute food today is deeply dependent on fossil fuels, yet that dependence can feel invisible. Sustainable food systems resear...
2°C: the story of the global climate goal
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The landmark Paris Agreement of 2015 gave the world a shared target for halting climate change: that global warming should stop well short of 2 degree...
Slow carbon, fast carbon
30 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Earth naturally absorbs some of our climate pollution from burning fossil fuels. But how much, and how fast? Geophysicist Prof. Daniel Rothman joi...
Is it safe to store CO2 underground?
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today, companies are storing millions of tons of carbon dioxide underground every year to prevent this climate pollution from warming the planet. In t...
An introduction to carbon capture (re-air)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What if there was a way to continue using fossil fuels for energy without emitting CO2 into the atmosphere? To prepare for a new listener question abo...
How clean is green hydrogen?
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is hydrogen fuel a climate solution? That depends on how you produce it. Dr. Emre Gençer of the MIT Energy Initiative takes us on a tour of the hydro...
Why are EVs more popular than hydrogen cars?
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Just 20 years ago, hydrogen cars and battery electric cars were pretty evenly matched as clean alternatives to gas-powered vehicles. But today, batter...
An introduction to hydrogen energy (re-air)
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? To prepare for some new listener...
Do wind turbines kill birds?
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wind power is the largest source of clean, renewable energy in the United States. But the large turbines that create that power can endanger wildlife....
Do wind turbines freeze up in the cold?
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You might have heard how wind turbines failed in Texas during a terrible cold front in 2021. Does this mean we can’t rely on this clean, renewable s...
Won’t more CO2 help plants grow?
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Plants take in CO2 from the air to grow—and today’s atmosphere has about 50% more CO2 than it did before we started burning massive amounts of fos...
Season 6 Preview: Something a Little Different
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The sixth season of Today I Learned: Climate is coming in two weeks, and this time we’re doing something a little different. People all around the w...
Why does it take five years to build a wind farm?
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The United States has a goal to power the country with 100% clean electricity by 2035. Unfortunately, our energy regulations are not set up to make th...
Energy storage: keeping the lights on with a clean electric grid
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The large majority of new energy we’re building today comes from clean, renewable wind and solar projects. But to keep building wind and solar at th...
A public health expert’s guide to climate change
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We all want to live full, healthy lives. But climate change is threatening a growing number of people’s lives and well-being. Amruta Nori-Sarma, ass...
TILclimate presents: What the heck is El Niño, anyway? (from Outside/In)
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We were going to produce an episode on El Niño, and its relationship to climate change. And then we found out that Outside/In, from New Hampshire Pub...
Wildfires and how we're changing them
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you live in the U.S. Mountain West, the Pacific Coast of the Americas, or large parts of Australia or southern Europe, there’s a good chance a ma...
Can desalination solve water scarcity?
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re talking about desalination: turning saltwater into freshwater, so we can drink it or use it to grow crops. And we’re talking about thi...
Don’t throw away your refrigerator
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Refrigerants are in every refrigerator, freezer and air conditioner, and the world is on track to make a lot more of them in the years to come. They’...
How tackling methane cools the planet fast
12 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Carbon dioxide—CO2—is the greenhouse gas you’ve probably heard most about, on this podcast and elsewhere. But it turns out, methane is an incred...
Wait, how do greenhouse gases actually warm the planet?
05 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You probably know that today’s climate change is caused by certain gases—what scientists call greenhouse gases—that human activity has been addi...
Coming Soon: TILclimate Season 5
21 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This is MIT’s climate change podcast, Today I Learned: Climate. If you're looking to get smart quick on climate change – without the jargon and wi...
America’s Big Year of Climate Action
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). It was the largest of three bills signed over the course of...
Announcing TILclimate's Live Event: "America’s big year of climate action"
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, April 19, TILclimate will host its first live event at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts! Reserve your seat at tilclimate.org t...
TIL about recycling
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear about recycling as a way to make an impact on climate change right in your own home. But how big a difference are we really making when ...
TIL about winter storms
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Winters are warming faster than any other season here in the U.S. So why are some winter storms getting even more intense? Today, we’re going to exp...
TIL about carbon offsets
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What if you could pay someone else to cancel out your carbon emissions? As countries, organizations, and even individuals around the world commit to l...
TIL about everyday travel
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Roughly ten percent of the world’s CO2 emissions come from passenger vehicles: cars, pickups, motorcycles, buses, and taxis. So today, we’re going...
TIL about electric cars
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Electric vehicles (EVs) are being touted as a major solution to climate change. But why is that? How do they work and what kinds of changes are needed...
TIL about hydrogen energy
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hydrogen gas acts like a fossil fuel, but with no carbon emissions. Is it the silver bullet we’ve been waiting for? Prof. Svetlana Ikonnikova of the...
TIL about the changing ocean (part 2)
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have a...
TIL about the changing ocean (part 1)
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The ocean is a critical piece of the climate change puzzle. It's estimated that the ocean has absorbed about one third of the excess CO2 humans have a...
Season 4 Preview
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At MIT, we have a commitment to sharing what we know about climate change. That’s why, this summer, we’ll be back soon with a fourth season of TIL...
TIL what it costs
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s episode is about the money of climate change. When people talk about how much it costs to stop climate change, what are we paying for? And w...
TIL about what I eat
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we bring climate change to the dining room table. In this episode, we reinvited Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig onto the TILclimate podcast to tell us ju...
TIL about farming a warmer planet
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last fifty years, our world has made remarkable progress in reducing hunger around the world. How can we keep our farms and food system resil...
TIL about planting trees
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In our last episode, we talked about using technology to suck out extra carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But you might also be thinking—don’t t...
TIL about removing CO2 from the atmosphere
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve had people ask us, if climate change is caused by adding too much CO2 into the atmosphere, can’t we just suck it back out? Won’t that solv...
TIL about national security
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is climate change really a national security issue, in the same way we think about terrorism or nuclear weapons? And if so, what are our governments d...
TIL about sea level rise, part 2
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sea level rise is already happening and affecting people right now. We invited Prof. James Renwick back to TILclimate to talk about the near future: w...
TIL about sea level rise, part 1
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve heard only one thing about climate change, it might be that sea levels are rising, and many of the Earth’s islands and coastlines are at...
TIL what Americans think about climate change
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Surveys show that both left- and right-leaning Americans support policies that slow climate change. So why aren’t we seeing more of these policies p...
Season 3 Preview
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change can be confusing, and there’s so much to know. That’s why we’re back with a third season of TILclimate, bringing you new episodes...
Is it too late?
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Is it too late to prevent climate change? Are the scary predictions that we hear about inevitable? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned Clim...
TIL about cleaning up clean tech
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Technologies like solar panels and batteries help us slow down climate change, but they’re not inherently perfect. In this episode of TILclimate (To...
TIL about fusion energy
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s talk about a technology that could change our whole energy system, but so far hasn’t generated a single watt. In the season finale of TILcli...
TIL about carbon capture
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This season, we’ve talked about alternative energy sources that don’t emit carbon dioxide -- but what if there was a way to continue using fossil ...
TIL about nuclear energy
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We know how to generate tons of electricity without pumping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, using a technology that’s already mature, widespread...
TIL about energy efficiency
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We hear a lot about technologies that produce carbon-free energy, but what about actually using less energy to begin with? In this episode of TILclima...
TIL about wind and solar
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What will it take to generate the electricity our society needs, without generating carbon emissions? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned C...
Is it energy or electricity?
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this mini-episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), host Laur Hesse Fisher breaks down what we’re actually talking about when we use the ...
TIL about fossil fuels
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Fossil fuels -- coal, natural gas, and oil -- provide the large majority of our power in the United States and around the world. In this episode of TI...
TIL about the electric grid
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The electric grid are networks that carry electricity from central power plants to our homes. But how exactly is electricity generated and brought to ...
TIL what I can do
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Here at TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), there’s one question we get from our listeners more than any other: “What can I do to make a differ...
TIL about geoengineering
01 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When talking about climate change solutions, we often hear about reducing emissions and adapting to climate impacts, but a third option is starting to...
TIL about carbon pricing
24 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What exactly is a carbon price, and how does it work? What would it look like and how would it change everyday life? In this episode of TILclimate (...
TIL about climate impacts
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With climate change, some parts of the world will get more water, but others will experience droughts. Some will start seeing more mosquitoes, but som...
TIL about uncertainty
10 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How do we make choices in the face of uncertainty? In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), MIT professor Kerry Emanuel joins host La...
TIL about hurricanes
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists predict that hurricanes will hit us harder in the future — but why? And what can we expect to see? In this episode of #TILclimate (Today ...
TIL about materials
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Humans use around 90 billion metric tons of materials every year, creating about ⅓ of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Which materials produc...
TIL about clouds
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Wrap your head around this: humans have changed clouds. In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Climate), MIT professor Dan Cziczo joins host ...
TIL about planes
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“I love to travel. But I hate the fact that something I love to do, creates so much pollution.” In this episode of TILclimate (Today I Learned: Cl...
Coming Soon: TILclimate from MIT
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
MIT Climate is launching a new show that breaks down climate science and its impact on our society. Here's a teaser. Full episodes will be released on...