We review The Coolest Show Season 3 with clips from guests and commentary from our producer.
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Black Women’s Health Imperative is dedicated to advancing health equity and social justice for black women and girls through policy, advocacy, education, research, and leadership development.
In the season finale of The Coolest Show, Rev Yearwood speaks with Alanna Murrell, Special Projects Manager, Black Women’s Health Imperative. They discuss the importance of the relationship between black women & men, the role that black women have played in the history of different movements, and how climate has impacted black women’s health.
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The latest edition of Green 2.0’s annual Transparency Report Card is set to release November 17, 2021. The report includes demographic data from 67 NGOs and, for the first time, a sample of foundations. Rev Yearwood speaks with Andrés Jimenez, the executive director of Green 2.0, and Jasmine Sanders, the executive director of Our Climate. They discuss decolonizing the environmental movement, holding foundations accountable, and how data supports storytelling.
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Growing up in eastern North Carolina and attending North Carolina A&T State University, EPA Administrator Michael Regan is no stranger to the disproportionate effects of air pollution in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. After graduating from A&T, he landed an internship at the EPA, and as a full-circle moment, he was sworn in as the 16th Administrator March 11, 2021.
Administrator Regan sits down with Rev Yearwood to discuss the EPA’s plans for environmental justice and how his personal and professional life experiences prepared him for this moment to transform the Agency and work to protect communities of color. He aims to ensure that the EPA’s work is done through a justice and equity lens.
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Over the past year, many of us have watched the reckoning in the environmental movement unravel in Sierra Club. Rev Yearwood speaks with Ramón Cruz, the President of Sierra Club. The two discuss leading Sierra Club’s as a person of color, Puerto Rico’s energy sector, and the future of Big Green Organizations.
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The people have spoken, and they want their planet back. After the recent protest in Washington D.C., people have demanded a fossil-free future and for President Biden to pick a side between the people or the execs.
While in Minnesota in solidarity with those fighting Line 3, Rev Yearwood speaks to Indigenous activist Sumak Helena Gualinga from the Kichwa Sarayaku community of Pastaza, Ecuador and JD, an organizer with Ginwi Collective from the White Earth Reservation. They discuss the militarization and privatization of police, Enbridge workers trafficking Indigenous children, and the connection worldwide.
Support: www.stopline3bailfunds.org
Support: www.stopline3.orgSupport: www.change.org/mariataant
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The majority of petrochemical production in the United States has always taken place on the Gulf Coast. But, with low-priced shale gas from fracking in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, the industry sees the Ohio River Valley as a manufacturing goldmine. Twenty-nine new gas-fired power plants are projected or under construction in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.
Kathy Ferguson is a community organizer in the Ohio River Valley. She sits down with Rev Yearwood to discuss how we can fight against the petrochemical industry in the Midwest.
Land in the Black community continues to be haggled away by politicians and business people who don’t live in these communities but look to profit through petrochemicals production. Petrochemicals contribute to air contamination, water pollution, and land deterioration, while greenhouse gases released also contribute to global climate change. Several studies have shown an increased amount of people with cancer living near these facilities.
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In Texas, between 2000 and 2016, petrochemical refineries released more than 400 million pounds of pollution into the air. However, in all that time, the Environmental Protection Agency never once consulted the most affected people. The Coolest Show Host Rev Yearwood dives into this issue with two experts from the Coalition for Environment, Equity & Resilience (CEER). Iris Gonzalez is the coalition director at CEER, and Carol Smith serves as its climate ambassador.
Land in the Black community continues to be haggled away by politicians and business people who don’t live in these communities but look to profit through petrochemicals production. Petrochemicals contribute to air contamination, water pollution, and land deterioration, while greenhouse gases released also contribute to global climate change. Several studies have shown an increased amount of people with cancer living near these facilities.
Support CEER: https://ceerhouston.org/
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In Louisiana, petrochemical factories are built upon the bones of African Americans as communities have been transformed into industrial structures. Sharon Lavigne is the founder of RISE St. James, a faith-based grassroots organization formed to advocate for racial and environmental justice. Lavigne sits down with Rev Yearwood to discuss how we can fight to end the destruction of the petrochemical industry in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.
Land in the Black community continues to be haggled away by politicians and business people who don’t live in these communities but look to profit through petrochemicals production. Petrochemicals contribute to air contamination, water pollution, and land deterioration, while greenhouse gases released also contribute to global climate change. Several studies have shown an increased amount of people with cancer living near these facilities.
Support RISE St. James: https://www.stopformosa.org/
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Cancer Alley, the eighty-five-mile stretch located in the southern state of Louisiana along the lower Mississippi River where enslaved Africans were forced to labor, serves as an industrial hub, with nearly 150 oil refineries, plastics plants, and chemical facilities. Over 100,000 people live in this area who have likely suffered long-term exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. With the expensive cost of cancer treatment and the density of low-income residents, developing cancer is essentially a death sentence.
Rev Yearwood speaks with environmental and climate justice experts Dr. Beverly Wright & Dr. Robert Bullard about federal environmental regulations failing to protect people, the history of “Cancer Alley,” and the unjust transition in Louisiana.
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Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. is the host of The Coolest Show. He is also the President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus, a minister, community activist, U.S. Air Force veteran, and one of the most influential people in hip hop political life. As a national leader and pacemaker within the climate movement, Rev Yearwood challenges the establishment, media, and policymakers to reimagine climate solutions as racial justice. He uplifts people of color who have dedicated their lives to climate and environmental justice. And, he stands up for communities who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, having been arrested more times than he can count as an activist in the streets. He hosts The Coolest Show so the smartest, most dedicated, and passionate leaders, who he admires, can have a platform to share their stories and truths.
