Amy Westervelt Launches New 'Drilled' Podcast Season Along with Multi-Platform Climate Accountability Project

Third Season of 'Drilled' Investigates "The Mad Men of Climate Denial”. Listen to the first two episodes here: http://drillednews.com/

Drilled, the most-listened-to podcast about climate change, tackles "The Mad Men of Climate Denial" in its third season, which launches today and will release new episodes weekly. Alongside the new season, host Amy Westervelt is unveiling Drilled News, a new wide-ranging climate accountability reporting project.

Across an array of digital platforms, the project will keep the industry honest through the work of a team of award-winning investigative journalists, including Westervelt, Emily Gertz, Karen Savage, and contributing reporters Emily Atkin and Naomi LaChance. In addition to the new season of the Drilled podcast, Drilled News includes five website verticals, looking at climate accountability in the courts, the government, the academy, the fourth estate, and the people. It will also launch new podcasts in 2020, and underwrite two newsletters: ExxonKnews, a weekly update on climate court cases, and Emily Atkin’s Heated, a newsletter for people who are pissed about climate change. The site will also partner with and syndicate content to various national outlets, including HuffPost, New York magazine, and Grist.

“Climate accountability is an emergent beat, and one that’s critical to accelerating climate action,” Westervelt says. “We’re excited to bring together some of the best reporters on the beat, and to offer that expertise to a wide range of other outlets.”

On the third season of the Drilled podcast, titled "The Mad Men of Climate Denial," Westervelt will uncover the fossil fuel propagandists who invented fake news and spin while killing our best shot at acting on climate change. Across seven episodes brimming with new interviews and research, the show explores the origins of Big Oil's PR and advertising machines, what oil companies both taught and learned from the Nazis on propaganda, and the complicity of some press and social media companies in our climate crisis.

One of the few narrative podcasts about climate change, Drilled launched in 2018 when Westervelt had the idea to put the story of climate change, and climate denial, into a true-crime framework. The Guardian has called Drilled "the best, most important podcast out there right now," The New Yorker called it "fascinating," and Fast Company dubbed it "mandatory, frightening listening." Season 1 focused on the climate research conducted by oil companies and when and how they shifted from studying the problem to denying it. Season 2 followed a community of crab fishermen as they became the first industry to sue Big Oil.

Drilled is produced by Westervelt's women-founded and run podcast network Critical Frequency, which last month won "Best Network" alongside Radiotopia in AdWeek's Podcast of the Year Awards. In less than two years, the small startup has produced and distributed more than a dozen podcasts. All of its hosts and producers are women, POC and/or LGBTQ, as Critical Frequency sets out to prove that diversity is not about checkboxes; it’s how you produce the best content and actually serve today’s audiences.

Subscribe to Drilled in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more at www.drillednews.com/podcast.

ABOUT DRILLED

Drilled is one of the few narrative podcasts about climate change. In 2018 when journalist Amy Westervelt was covering multiple climate lawsuits, she had the idea to put the story of climate change, and climate denial, into a true-crime framework. Season 1 (November 2018) focused on the climate research conducted by oil companies and when and how they shifted from studying the problem to denying it. Season 2 (April 2019) followed a community of crab fishermen as they became the first industry to sue Big Oil. Season 3 (January 2020) chronicles the 100-year history of fossil fuel P.R. campaigns and ties them to the propaganda we still see today. At least four more seasons are planned for 2020 and 2021. What began as a limited-run 8-part series has become the most-listened to podcast on climate change and, as of January 21, 2020, a multi-platform climate accountability reporting project that keeps industry honest on climate via investigative reporting across web, newsletters, and podcasts.

ABOUT AMY WESTERVELT

Amy Westervelt is the founder of the Critical Frequency podcast network, and an award-winning print and audio journalist. She contributes to The Washington Post, The Nation, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as KQED, The California Report, Capital Public Radio, and many other outlets. In 2007, she won a Folio for her feature on the potential of algae as a feedstock for biofuel. In 2015 she was awarded a Rachel Carson award for "women greening journalism", in 2016 she won an Edward R. Murrow award for her series on the impacts of the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada, and in 2019 she won the Online News Association award for “Excellence in Audio Storytelling”. As the head of Critical Frequency, she has executive produced more than a dozen podcasts, including her own show Drilled -- a true-crime podcast about climate change. Her book Forget Having It All: How America Messed Up Motherhood, and How to Fix It was published in November 2018 by Seal Press.