WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT? – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode, we're talking sustainable fashion and the simple joys of care and repair with supermodel, author, activist, and friend Cameron Russell. Also: why stats on the climate impacts of fashion are super sketchy.

If you haven’t heard of Cameron, chances are you’ve seen her. As a model, she’s appeared on many magazine covers for Vogue and Elle, and on runways and billboards for brands like Prada, Calvin Klein, and Victoria’s Secret.

But Cameron’s not only recognized for her modeling. She's been an activist and organizer her entire adult life – particularly on workers rights in the fashion industry and on climate. She co-founded Model Mafia, a network of hundreds of models to use their platforms to advocate for “a more equitable, just, sustainable industry and world."

CALLS TO ACTION: 1. Do care work, and value the care work of others. 2. Share resources, be it clothing, food, or soccer cleats your kids grow out of.

While you’re listening, please take a second to follow this podcast, rate it, leave a review 🌟, and tell your people to tune in. Support more climate content getting out into the world!

REFERENCES: To learn more about Cameron’s work, head to cameronrussell.org. Video Cameron produced in 2009 to explain the name of climate group 350.org. Her 2012 viral TED Talk, “Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.” (Just re-watched; still so good.) Art show she co-curated in 2025 called The Art of Care. Cameron's poignant and expertly-crafted memoir, How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone.

CREDITS: Produced and edited and Matthew Nelson/Stramash Media, with help with from Jenisha Shrestha.

For podcast bonus content and my written musings on climate and culture, subscribe to the What If We Get It Right? newsletter.

Greetings, Earthlings! 🌏 Welcome to Season 2 of the What If We Get It Right? podcast.

If you’re new here (hi!) let me quickly read you in: I wrote a book called What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures (which became a NY Times Bestseller! 😮). The heart of that book is 20 interviews with people sharing what getting it right on climate could look like and how we can make those visions into reality.

Of course, way more than 20 people have important insights for how we can get things more right on climate. Hence, a podcast to continue the conversations about solutions for creating a livable future on Planet Earth. Tada!

In each episode I’ll interview an expert — from producers, to fashion designers, to lawyers, to policymakers, to investors to journalists, and more — who will drop some knowledge. 💎 These folks also happen to be my friends, so it’s a freaking delight to yap with them.

Since we’ve gotta do more than just imagine getting it right (although that is a critical step), in every episode, there will be advice and calls to action. And jokes, there will be jokes.

Our first guest is the reason there even is a season 2: Carri Twigg, my homie and co-founder of production company Culture House. She’s also worked in politics at all levels of government from super local to the Obama White House. We're diving in on how cultural change precedes policy change.

By the end of this episode, you will want to hear more from Carri. Luckily, she’s got an incredible politics podcast, Twigg & Jenkins, and a great Substack newsletter, Carri Twigg's Cultural Capitol — subscribe!

Carri's calls to Action 📣: (1) Clean up your algorithm. Apply some hygiene to your media consumption. (2) Be okay consuming less. Quench your desire to accumulate stuff. (3) Start a podcast. 🤣

CREDITS: We have a new producer/editor for this season. Welcome the very talented Matthew Nelson/Stramash Media! And thank you to associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

MENTIONED: The Blue Green Alliance, Rewiring America, and their Electric Creatives pledge.

For behind the scenes pics and more, subscribe to the What If We Get It Right? newsletter.

Recorded at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, for the Climate One radio show and podcast, this episode features journalist and environmental legend Bill McKibben, founder of Third Act, and tenacious environmental attorney, Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice. Both are interviewed in What If We Get It Right?, but we covered new ground here, together: fossils for fossil fuels, changes in the Supreme Court, the Environmental Justice For All Act, some lessons instilled by my parents, love politics, and so much more.

CREDITS: This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks, and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Big thanks to Climate One and the Commonwealth Club, and, as always, thanks to my chief of staff and tour producer, Jenisha Shrestha.

I’ve always been impressed with Stacey Abrams from afar, so when I got an invitation to be directly in conversation with her, I was thrilled. In addition to her political leadership, Abrams is also a small business owner, a New York Times best-selling author, and —something far fewer people know — a champion for clean energy and climate justice.

In 2023, Abrams joined the team at Rewiring America as senior counsel. That’s a great nonprofit dedicated to electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities. If you want to ditch fossil fuels and upgrade to electric (and save money doing it!) their website has all the top tips.

I knew the conversation (during Climate Week NYC) would be interesting, but I had not anticipated that it would also be utterly delightful. Enjoy!

CREDITS: This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks, and me, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. And, as always, thanks to my chief of staff and tour producer, Jenisha Shrestha. Big thanks to Stacey Abrams and her team, and to the event’s sponsors: Grist, Rewiring America, Mother Jones, and the Tishman Environment and Design Center at the New School. 

The environmental movement has a voter turnout problem: 8 million environmental voters did not vote in the 2020 election. Eight MILLION! In a presidential election decided by thousands of votes. This 2024 election is similarly, stressfully close.

On September 20th, at Bowdoin College (where I teach), I sat down with Whit Jones, founder and executive director of Lead Locally, and Nathaniel Stinnett, founder and executive director of Environmental Voter Project for a conversation on climate and voting. We got into it, got nerdy and specific, about: fixing this MASSIVE voter turnout problem, how climate voters can influence policy, election wins we should celebrate, and why local elections matter very, very much.

It would be reckless to be on a book tour in September/October 2024 and not use every event to encourage people to #VoteClimate. So I’m taking Environmental Voter Project and Lead Locally on tour with me, at each stop registering volunteers to help with their worthy efforts. 30 days to go… join us!: getitright.earth/voteclimate

This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks and me, Ayana, with support from Jenisha Shrestha. Special thanks to Bowdoin college for hosting and producing the event.

Welcome to WHAT IF WE GET IT RIGHT?: the podcast! Here, we'll continue exploring answers to the big (huge!) question “What if we get it right?”, beyond what’s in the (New York Times bestselling!!! 😮) book. Our vibe is to take climate seriously, but don't take yourself seriously. Irreverent, nerdy, soulful, goofy.

I’m on a 7-week book tour 🫠 across the USA, and I’m taking you with me: 20 cities, 40 events, each one different. I’ll be in conversation with all sorts of fantastic folks, talking climate and policy and politics and culture. I’ll be sharing the best bits of that here. And perhaps I'll get to meet some of you in person along the tour. Details are here: getitright.earth/tour.

This first episode features excerpts from the book launch Climate Variety Show, which I co-hosted with Jason Sudeikis at the Brooklyn Museum on September 17th. It featured: Roy Wood Jr., Wyatt Cenac, Dr. Kate Marvel, Perrin Ireland, Oshima Brothers, Nicole Cardoza, Hila the Earth, Jacqueline Woodson, Amber Tamblyn, Mamoudou N'Diaye, and nine of the people I interviewed in the book.

It was such a hoot – enjoy!

My guest this episode is The Jean Flemma. Jean spent over two decades working on Capitol Hill as staff to members of Congress, making magic behind the scenes over and over again. She is an absolute wizard of ocean and climate policy and the politics of achieving policy change.

Jean and I co-founded Urban Ocean Lab, a nonprofit think tank for the future of coastal cities. So you’ll hear a bit about that in this episode. Heaps of good change can happen at the city government level — adapting to climate impacts, helping communities become more resilient, and simply taking care of the people who live there.

🎙️PODCAST UPDATE — That's a wrap on Season 1, and... there will be a season 2! Coming in hot in April. 🔥

In the meantime, check out the Season 1 back catalog if you missed some episodes. 🥰 And before season 2 is fully-baked, we’d love to hear from you: What have you liked or disliked or found valuable or annoying in these first dozen episodes? What topics or guests would you be stoked for? Email us: info@aejprojects.com.

CREDITS: Many thanks to Powell’s Books for hosting us for this event, and thank you as always to my chief of staff Jenisha Shrestha. Shoutout Nora Saks, who produced and edited every single episode of season one with me. It was an absolute delight to collaborate with her. Thank you, Nora.

For behind-the-scenes pics from each episode, plus other musings from Ayana on climate and culture, subscribe to the What If We Get It Right? newsletter.

In the last few months, the term “Green New Deal” has been popping up a lot again. And it’s the Trump administration bringing it up — as a boogeyman, as a foil for everything his crew fears about accelerating the clean energy transition.

So I thought it would be a good time to discuss: What actually is the Green New Deal? How far have we gotten on implementing the concepts it includes? And why do those ideas still matter?

My guest for this episode is Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the original architects of the Green New Deal. Recently, she was Director of Climate Policy at the Roosevelt Institute. Now, she is consulting and writing a book about the intersections among white supremacy, addiction, and climate change. Suffice it to say, I’ve been eagerly following her work since we met at policy workshop she organized, back in 2019.

Note that this conversation was recorded back in October while I was on my book tour, and the political context has, well,… changed a little bit since then. But there's much more to this conversation than the Green New Deal. And her ideas about what shapes climate policy should take — from industry to employment to health care to democracy — are absolutely as relevant as ever.

This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks and me, with recording assistance in Chicago from Troy Cruz. And big thank you to Semicolon Books for hosting us.

p.s. Call your representatives!

Near the end of my book tour, I found myself gazing up at those large concrete guard lions outside the New York Public Library, astounded to be entering for an event about my book.

The occasion was all the more sweet because it was a family affair: I was in conversation with my cousin Steve Connell, whose incredible poem “This Living Earth” appears in my book (and which you get to hear him read in this episode!). We talked about how our family shaped us, the role of art and humor in the serious work of climate, and early inspirations.

And the ultimate sweetness was that my 1st grade science teacher was in the audience, right in front. You’ll hear our warm reunion in the audio — thank you, thank you, Ms. Kristiansen. ❤️

CREDITS: This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks, and me, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Big thanks to my cousin Steve Connell, and to the New York Public Library for hosting us and for recording this audio. And a huge thank you, credit where it’s due, to all the wonderful teachers out there. You never know the ripples that you create in the world...

I was originally going to title this episode “Facts Matter,” but instead chose the 90s hiphop version of that sentiment, as I’m prone to do.

Today, we are peeling back the curtain on how I achieved the maximum possible accuracy and precision in my book What If We Get It Right?: I hired a fact checker named James Gaines.

James is a freelance science writer, journalist, and fact checker with a special focus on solutions journalism, which we love. He grew up in a cabin in the woods in Texas, and as the child of two librarians, loves a good footnote. He comes by it honestly: his pedigree is people who sweat the details.

Tune in as we reveal which facts were the hardest to check, my aversion to the term “my truth,” and how we got to the bottom of things, together.

And head to the newsletter for pics and to read the poem I read to close out this episode, Marge Piercy's "To Be Of Use." It’s one of my all-time favorites, and it's the last poem that appears in What If We Get It Right? You may notice me slow down to emphasize my favorite line: “The work of the world is common as mud.” Yes. Mostly unglamorous, often solitary, sometime tedious, and that’s just fine as long as it’s a contribution to the transformation we need.

CREDITS: This episode was produced and edited by Nora Saks and me, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, recorded live at Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle, with recording assistance from John O’Brien. Check out James’ website, jmgaines.com, to find out more about all the cool work that he’s doing. And as always, huge thanks to my chief of staff (and tour producer) Jenisha Shrestha.

Thanks for listening 💛