This episode features a conversation with award-winning speechwriter and author, Rune Kier Nielsen. It was recorded in June 2025.

Rune has worked across the public and private sectors, including within the Danish Government as well as leading Danish technology companies, and as Public Advocacy Lead on Climate Action at the UN Environment Programme, where he led campaigns such as ACT NOW: Speak Up, empowering youth and communities in developing countries to drive systemic change.

A two-time international Cicero Speechwriting Award winner, Rune has lectured widely and authored several books on climate speechwriting. Drawing on his background in Social Anthropology, he champions human-centered climate communication, guiding others to speak effectively about the world they want to see.

He currently works at VIA University College, Denmark’s largest and most international university college, where he develops engaging science communication strategies for the green transition.

I discovered Rune through his most recent book, Speaking on Climate: A Guide to Speechwriting for a Better Future, which I would recommend to all climate communicators, since it offers foundational insights that are valuable not only for speechwriting, but climate communications of all kinds.

Amongst other things, Rune and I discussed the mechanics of a powerful speech, where climate speeches have – and continue to – fall short, and the unique benefits this format offers for bringing people together and energising collective action.

Additional links

Visit Rune’s website

His latest book Speaking on Climate: A Guide to Speechwriting for a Better Future

Check out Rune’s video introduction to the book

Read the Kirkus review of the book here.

Find Rune’s book, Speaking on Climate, getting lots of love on We Don't Have Time

This episode features a conversation with award-winning investigative climate journalist, Amy Westervelt. It was recorded in June 2025.

Amy has been on the climate beat for more than 20 years, reporting for a wide range of outlets including Inside Climate News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, The Intercept, NPR, and many more.

In the past 10 years, Amy has worked extensively in the audio realm, most notably with Drilled, a true crime podcast about climate denial.

What was planned to be a single limited-run audio series was an absolute hit, and has now grown into an ongoing investigative reporting project digging into the various forces obstructing action on climate.

Despite her successes in audio though, Amy continues to write regularly for a wide range of publications. In 2023 she was named one of Covering Climate Now’s Journalist of the Year and her work has previously received Murrow, ONA, SEJ, Rachel Carson, and Folio awards, as well as a Peabody nomination.

Amongst other things, Amy and I discussed the structural influence the fossil fuel industry has carefully crafted over our information ecosystem; the magic that narrative injects into climate journalism; and the need for more of us to don our tin-foil hats a bit more often, because things are frequently way wackier than we’d maybe like to believe.

Additional links

Drilled: https://drilled.media/

Amy’s 5 petroganda narratives: https://drilled.media/news/petroganda-narratives

Ben Franta’s paper on weaponising economics: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2021.1947636

The Media Matters bubble graph: https://www.mediamatters.org/google/right-dominates-online-media-ecosystem-seeping-sports-comedy-and-other-supposedly

The Black Thread: https://communicatingclimatechange.com/the-black-thread

The Black Thread is a new documentary podcast series unravelling Norway’s complex relationship with prosperity, identity, and responsibility in a warming world.

Episodes will be dropping weekly over on Drilled Media.