Western Resource Advocates
60 episodes listed below
Western climate policy with ground-level stakes.
2 Degrees Out West follows conservation and climate fights across the West with a practical, interview-centered style. Episodes move from rivers, coal plants, data centers, and wildfire risk into the policy choices that shape daily life.
PRESS PLAY
2 Degrees Out West is a climate, conservation, and public-policy podcast centered on the West. It has the shape of a public-interest explainer. Each episode starts from a visible pressure point, then follows the institutions underneath it. Poor air quality becomes a story about runners climbing above smog in the Wasatch and Colorado, then descending back into what their communities breathe. A coal plant near Craig becomes a test of reliability claims, emissions, utility planning, and who pays when old fossil infrastructure is kept alive. Nevada’s energy problems are presented through rising bills, summer heat, wildfire risk, and the growing demand created by data centers. The show is strongest when it makes complicated systems feel local. AI is not treated as a novelty; it is examined through server farms, water use, cooling technology, transmission, and power generation. The Colorado River is not only a scenic icon; it is a shared system connecting tribal nations, states, farms, cities, deserts, mountains, and future negotiations. The pacing is steady. Guests are allowed to explain, and the narration supplies bridges, definitions, and stakes. There is advocacy here, but it is generally grounded in specific policy choices rather than slogans. Episodes often point toward petitions, donations, state leadership, or public engagement, so the show feels designed for people already near the work or looking for a way in. It also makes room for emotional attachment to the West, especially in episodes built around personal stories, wilderness, rivers, and outdoor access. That gives the policy coverage some human scale. The recurring frame is simple and consistent: land, water, air, energy, and health are connected, and state-level decisions can still matter. For listeners who want climate coverage with regional texture and practical consequence, 2 Degrees Out West offers a serious, place-based guide.
Made for: For climate advocates, conservation-minded Westerners, policy staff, utility watchers, and listeners who want regional climate reporting tied to practical action.
What sets it apart: The show connects technical systems to lived Western consequences, moving from coal plants, data centers, rivers, and statehouses to bills, air, water, health, and access.
Listen in as we examine the story behind some of the most pressing conservation issues facing the West. 2 Degrees Out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.On 2° out west we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.We find, legislators, researchers, organizers, conservation advocates, and more to ask about what we can do to help protect the West’s land, air, and water – and, yes, to fight the climate crisis and ho...
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Climate policy becomes concrete through close attention to Western utilities, water systems, state action, public health, and community experience.
2 Degrees Out West follows climate politics through the institutions, infrastructure, and communities shaping the American West. Host-led narration moves between policy explanation and interviews, connecting state decisions to practical consequences for water, electricity,…
River-guide campfires meet data-center water demand when your climate curiosity wants story and policy.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A mountain race opens into a direct case for cleaner air in the West.
The episode uses a mountain race as a way into a larger Western air-quality story, moving from Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front to Colorado and the cost of keeping coal plants running.
A grounded look at Nevada's power squeeze, from bills to wildfire risk.
The piece treats Nevada's energy squeeze as something people feel in their bills, homes, and summers, not just in policy memos. It works best when it ties higher costs, heat, emissions, and wildfire risk together, then shows how the state lost some of its earlier footing on…
A sharp look at how AI's growing power demand becomes a water and climate problem.
Two Degrees Out West makes a clear case that AI's climate cost lands in data centers, where rising compute demand pulls hard on water and electricity.
A state-by-state climate case linking federal retreat to Nevada and Colorado action.
2 Degrees Out West builds a steady case for state-level climate action by starting with the federal retreat and then moving through the rollback of fossil fuel protections, the Paris Climate Accords withdrawal, and the freeze on climate resilience spending.
A basin-wide river story that turns the Emerald Mile into a vivid human drama.
The Colorado River anchors the region, linking tribal nations, seven present-day states, and communities spread across mountains, farmland, and desert.
Documentary storytelling on ecology and Indigenous land stewardship, hosted by Mendel and Adam.
BBC World Service reporters explain climate mechanisms and policy from the Amazon to Delhi to the Alps.
Books, systems, and the questions that unlock them.
Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
Climate justice from the ground up.
The episode follows a Western air-pollution story through a race that rises above the smog and then drops straight back into it.
Nevada is dealing with rising utility bills, hotter summers, worsening drought, and more dangerous wildfire conditions.
2 Degrees Out West looks at the climate cost of artificial intelligence through the data centers behind it.
The episode opens with the federal rollback.
The Colorado River sits at the center of this conversation.
This episode features a Valentine's Day-themed celebration called 'Love Letters to the West,' where the host shares community-submitted letters about what they love in the Western U.S.