Drilled
Pushkin Industries
Drilled is a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate corruption and political operatives built decades of climate denial and delay. Hosted and reported by award-winning investigative climate journalists and led by Amy Westervelt, each season unravels new evidence of deception, disinformation, and the power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach.
In September 2025, a group of Brazilian ministers trekked all the way to chilly North Dakota to see a presentation on a new type of clean energy project, one that promised to help them deliver Brazilian President Lula’s dream of turning Brazil into “the Saudi Arabia of sustainable aviation fuels.” It was the latest in a string of projects from Midwest Republican kingmaker and corn ethanol magnate Bruce Rastetter, whose investments in Brazil might just transform him into a global carbon czar, even as his Summit pipeline carbon project faces fierce opposition from Iowa to North Dakota. The problem? It all requires loads of land and none of it does a thing about climate change.
In September 2025, a group of Brazilian ministers trekked all the way to chilly North Dakota to see a presentation on a new type of clean energy project, one that promised to help them deliver Brazilian President Lula’s dream of turning Brazil into “the Saudi Arabia of sustainable aviation fuels.” It was the latest in a string of projects from Midwest Republican kingmaker and corn ethanol magnate Bruce Rastetter, whose investments in Brazil might just transform him into a global carbon czar, even as his Summit pipeline carbon project faces fierce opposition from Iowa to North Dakota. The problem? It all requires loads of land and none of it does a thing about climate change.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 17, 2022 • 22min
Ecuador's Landmark Rights of Nature Ruling
In our last episode, we explored Ecuador's rights-of-nature journey. Today, Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, directors of Invisible Hand and co-founders of the journalism organization Public Herald, discuss what the landmark Los Cedros ruling means for not only Ecuador, but the world at large.Subscribe to Damages so you won't miss future episodes! https://podlink.to/damagesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 11, 2022 • 30min
Los Cedros: The Cloud Forest vs. The Mine
Ecuador made history as the first country to adopt rights of nature into its constitution, but its Constitutional Court—Ecuador’s equivalent to the United States Supreme Court—has not heard many cases in the decade since the law was added. The new Constitutional justices made a point of picking several cases to test rights of nature, and in 2021 handed down a major judgement about the future of one of the world's most biodiverse cloud forests.Subscribe to Damages: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/damages/id1606039896See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mar 3, 2022 • 21min
West Virginia vs. EPA: Worst-Case Scenario and What Comes Next
The Supreme Court is taking its time in releasing a ruling in the controversial West Virginia vs. EPA case. We explore the roots of the case, its position in rightwing judicial strategy, and what avenues for climate action would remain in a worst-case scenario. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 24, 2022 • 32min
A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the United States
Rights of nature first started making its way into U.S. courtrooms via an unlikely source: Disney. Today it's a huge threat to the fossil fuel industry. So much so that the industry is pushing preemptive bans on rights of nature laws in states across the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 18, 2022 • 32min
Drilled Presents: Damages
Damages follows the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently happening all over the country, first examining rights of nature cases all over the world. In this episode, we start with a case that's making its way through the courts right now, on behalf of wild rice, or manoomin in the Ojibwe language. The rights of manoomin case was originally filed in an effort to stop construction of the Line 3 pipeline. That pipeline has been built, but the case is still active, and it could have major implications for other pipeline fights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feb 12, 2022 • 35min
The Right-Wing Web of Climate Delay
Right-wing funders don't only work on climate denial, voter suppression, or attacks on public schools—they tackle all of it together. Lisa Graves, an expert on right-wing strategy, talks us through the tangled web of funding and ideology fighting against climate action.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 28, 2022 • 28min
An Update on the Youth Climate Lawsuit
In the 2015 case Juliana v. United States, 21 young adults sued the United States for knowingly driving and exacerbating climate change. In 2021, the 9th Circuit declared that the young people did not have a standing to bring the case—but the Juliana 21 weren't done. It's been mandated back to district court where the plaintiffs are preparing for another round.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 21, 2022 • 19min
Exxon Takes Its First Amendment Battle to the Texas Supreme Court
Guardian journalist Chris McGreal breaks down ExxonMobil's attempt to claim lawsuits that hold the company accountable for climate disinformation amounts to a conspiracy against its free speech rights. Reach Chris's story here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 14, 2022 • 15min
Reclaiming Environmentalism
For decades, the fossil fuel industry has successfully framed environmentalists as silly, radical, elitist, or out of touch. And for too long, the climate movement has bought into this framing, self-flagellating for caring about nature and buying into the false divide between humans and nature. It's time to rethink what it means to be an environmentalist.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jan 7, 2022 • 32min
Climate Crisis, Meet Democracy Crisis
What happens when the climate crisis collides with the unraveling of American democracy? Max Berger, a longtime progressive organizer who helped incubate the Sunrise Movement and worked with both Cori Bush and Elizabeth Warren, discusses movement building and the climate crisis.(Check out Scene on Radio's climate season here: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
