Breaking Green Ceilings: podcasting for environmental and social change

Podcasting is considered to be a communication medium with minimal barriers to entry, making it an attractive method for people, especially from historically underrepresented communities, to tell their own stories. Using the “Breaking Green Ceilings” podcast as a case study, we explore how podcasting serves as an ideal approach to effectively amplify the voices of environmentalists from historically underrepresented communities, specifically Disabled, Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. By sharing these stories, the podcast aims to challenge misconceptions and highlight the contributions that environmentalists from historically underrepresented communities make toward environmental sustainability at all levels—grassroots, academia, nonprofit, and government. The “Breaking Green Ceilings” podcast also helps address the lack of diversity in mainstream environmental media and organizations. We use an interdisciplinary, intersectional lens in this article to demonstrate how environmental issues are interconnected with race, religion, socio-economic status, and politics as relates to historically underrepresented communities. We explore four main themes that have emerged on the podcast: environmental justice, structural racism and conservation, traditional ecological knowledge, and access to nature and the outdoors. Finally, strategies are provided to show how the podcast goes beyond the airwaves to build an inclusive community, raising awareness on the issues discussed and moving people to action to undo and unlearn some of the harmful practices and attitudes that have divided the environmental movement for decades. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13412-021-00723-z.