Listen, Read, Watch: Top Lists That'll Inspire Sustainable Practices

The FIG Team has outlined epic top five lists for all things you can listen to, read, and watch. They're sure to give you something to talk about on your next Zoom meeting. With stay-at-home orders in place due to COVID-19, here's a few outlets of entertainment to help you pass the time and gain insight on issues that matter. 

WHAT TO LISTEN TO

Let's be real, podcasts are all the craze right now and for good reason. Who doesn't want to learn about the latest news, solve a cold case or listen to comedy from an angelically soothing voice? No one. Tune into these podcasts for an easily digestible way to learn about topics ranging from sustainable everyday practices, the climate crisis or environmental movement. 

1. Team Human 

Team Human is a personal favorite of our CEO! If that's not reason enough, this podcast is all about human connection. There is no time like the present to really hone in on how human intervention can ignite social change. 

2. How to Save a Planet 

Have big questions about what we can do to save the planet? Want to know how to make collective change? Journalist, Alex Blumberg and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson try to find solutions each week by asking big questions, interviewing leaders making a difference, and every now and again cracking jokes, too. 

3. Consider This 

NPR brings you everything you need to make sense of the day in a 15 minute dose. By the end of the podcast, you'll know the latest news of the day and why it matters.  

4. The Energy Gang

This is a weekly podcast that brings us the latest scoop on energy, clean technology and the environment. They talk about things from how the pandemic is changing energy use to how we can work together to diminish carbon emissions.  

5. Podship Earth

This podcast is hosted by Jared Blumenfeld. Each week a wide variety of environmental topics are dissected and explored in an effort to help people think about their greater connection with nature and the universe. Sounds vague in practice, but essentially this podcast unpacks a whole lot it can't truly be summarized in a few sentences. 

WHAT TO READ

You know that piles of books that accumulated ever since you set your New Year's Resolution to read more? In all honesty, you may never get to that stack of bestsellers, but you should consider flipping through the pages of these books that are sure to fuel the desire to cultivate real change

1. An Inconvenient Truth

This book is written by Al Gore and was released in conjunction with the a same title film. Gore's aim with this book is to tell audiences that we've reached a "planetary emergency" due to global warming. He offers insightful commentary about his growing concern for environmental issues. 

2. Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

This book is extensive to say the least and totally worth the read. Scientists, policy-makers and researchers came together to offer logical solutions to climate change, and you're going to want in and what they have to say. 

3.  The Uninhabitable Earth

Inspired by a New York magazine article "The Uninhabitable Earth," comes this book about the consequences of global warming. While the book is brutally honest and even harsh, David Wallace-Wells shakes us out of any complacency we may feel about the climate crisis. 

4. A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind 

Harriet Washington writes about how marginalized communities often suffer the worst from environmental crises. She writes of an examples from a town, Anniston, Alabama and chemical companies' causes of environmental hazards. 

5. Conscious Closet 

Elizabeth Cline offers the guide of all guides on how to build an ethical and sustainable closet of clothes you'll actually love. It's a self-help book, but concerning fashion and sustainability, so what's not to like?  

WHAT TO WATCH

Grab some popcorn, and get cozy on your couch. Here are environmental films for you to binge-watch. 

1. David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

To put it lightly, Attenborough has been around the world, and throughout his career and travels he's seen humans' impacts on nature firsthand. This brand new documentary offers his insight onto the urgency of the climate crisis. 

2. There's Something in the Water (2019)

This is a Canadian documentary directed by Elliot Page and Ian Daniels that examines the environmental racism that occurs amongst communities of Black Canadians and First Nations in Nova Scotia. 

3. The True Cost (2015) 

This documentary is a story of clothes, from where they're made, who makes them, the impact the fashion industry is having on the planet right down to the true cost of what our clothes really is.  

4. Kiss the Ground (2020)

A documentary where a variety of scientists, activists and farmers come together to explore how the earth's soil may be a key player in solving fighting climate change. A movie about soil might not sound super thrilling, but trust us, this is a movie you won't want to miss. 

5. Artifishal (2019) 

Patagonia's moving film that dives into the risks of potential wild salmon extinction and overall pressure on our waters and natural resources.