Temperature Check

At the Grist 50 2024 launch event, we grabbed several of the people featured on this year's list for a rapid-fire Q&A designed to get your wheels turning about how to make a difference on climate issues in your own life. The Grist 50 launch event was produced in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. Discover this year's full Grist 50 list at grist.org/grist50.

A tree planting program gone wrong, and what Cate Mingoya-LaFortune learned about how to empower communities to improve their built environment. Recorded live at the launch of the 2024 Grist 50. The Grist 50 launch event was produced in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. Discover this year's full Grist 50 list at grist.org/grist50.

How language barriers during his time studying in Macedonia set Hikaru Wakeel Hayakawa on a path to making climate information accessible around the world. Recorded live at the launch of the 2024 Grist 50. The Grist 50 launch event was produced in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. Discover this year's full Grist 50 list at grist.org/grist50. 

After getting her linguistics degree, Nicole Horseherder planned to return home to Black Mesa and teach. But with the region’s aquifers under threat from coal companies, she rallied against them – and won.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/nicole-horseherder-coal-navajo-water/

Struggling with depression and on medical leave from his corporate job, Olatunji Oboi Reed decided to get his bike out of the basement and go for a ride. That ride set him on a new path that led to his current work: promoting racial equity in transportation and beyond, through his organization Equiticity.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/olatunji-oboi-reed-equiticity-biking-equity

Growing up, Hamid Torabzadeh experienced the impacts of climate change and pollution. In high school, he found a club that showed him his path to doing something about it. Now a college freshman, he's studying to be what he calls a "new type of doctor" in the field of climate health.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/hamid-torabzadeh-readyteens-climate-health

Maya Lilly had achieved the dream of many a theater kid: studying at Juilliard. But when she realized her environmental activism didn’t have a home there, it set her on a mission to bring climate storytelling to mainstream audiences. It was a journey that took decades.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/maya-lilly-climate-hollywood-producer/

Until last year, Nate Johnson was a journalist at Grist, covering climate. But when he felt his passion for writing start to wane, he found a new direction — as an electrician. Now, instead of writing about the need to electrify everything, Nate is doing that work himself … and he says he is happier than ever.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/nate-johnson-journalist-electrician/

Sharon Lavigne lives in St. James Parish, Louisiana, where industrial pollution causes high cancer rates. For decades, Sharon witnessed her neighbors suffer as air quality worsened. But when yet another plant planned to open in her community, she decided to do something about it.Full transcript and related reading: https://grist.org/temperature-check/sharon-lavigne-cancer-alley-industry-formosa/