In November, former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced that she’s retiring from Congress after serving nearly forty years. Now, San Francisco voters and the rest of the country, are wondering: who can fill her four-inch pumps? This week on Sea Change Radio, the first half of an in-depth, sit-down conversation with Saikat Chakrabarti, who’s running for the 11th Congressional District of the US House of Representatives. We look at Chakrabarti’s unusual career path into politics – from software engineer to co-founder of the progressive political incubator Justice Democrats, to serving as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff and co-authoring the Green New Deal – Chakrabarti may be one of the most qualified individuals to ever run for a freshman seat in the House. We learn about his environmental policy ideas, how he balances local and national concerns in a congressional campaign, and the success he’s had in inspiring a younger generation as volunteers, staffers, and voters.

The environmental and counterculture movements of the 60s have been inextricably linked since day one. The hippies decried war on materialism while promoting love, kindness and care for the planet. And one of through-lines of this movement was music. This week on Sea Change Radio, we take some time to remember the life of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, who recently died at the age of 78. For many of us, across several generations, the Grateful Dead has been more than a band – it’s a movement that’s all about expanding your community and your mind. We dig into the archives to hear from Weir’s longtime bandmate, Bill Kreutzmann, and listen to excerpts of two interviews we did with Bobby’s late songwriting partner, John Perry Barlow.

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that each year a staggering 20 million tons of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers, and lakes – that’s the equivalent of about 2,000 garbage trucks dumped into the globe’s waterways every day. This week on Sea Change Radio we are speaking with Judith Enck, former EPA administrator and current professor at Bennington College. We discuss her recent book, “The Problem with Plastics: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late.” We examine some of the alarming stats associated with what seems to be a never-ending rise in plastics production and consumption, talk about how relatively little plastic is actually recycled, and delve into some policies and practices that can help stem the plastic tide.