Superman's Not Coming with Erin Brockovich: Recent Episodes
Erin Brockovich
Please join environmental activist and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich as she sheds light on everyday citizens fighting for the environment and social justice. Superman’s Not Coming celebrates everyday people who realized that they had to rise up and join in the fight. It’s always been, By the People, For the People, We the People, that can and will get it done.
www.thebrockovichreport.com
In today’s episode, Erin and Suzanne talk with Susan Wind, a mom and environmental advocate, who has been bringing attention to public health problems associated with toxic coal ash since her daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at age 16—more than four years ago. When she learned that most of her neighbors had cancer too, she decided to do something about it.
Susan and her family lived in the Lake Norman area of North Carolina next to the Marshall Steam Station, one of the largest power-generating facilities owned by Duke Energy in the Carolinas. The station generates enough energy to power approximately two million homes, but not without a price.
Coal ash is a toxic byproduct of coal-burning power plants that contain a cocktail of hazardous heavy metals, including chromium- 6, lead, arsenic, mercury and more.
Coal ash particles have been found in the soil of her former neighborhood. The hazardous ash has been used as structural fill beneath homes, roadways, and on farm land throughout the state, and decades-old documents found that Duke Energy asked state leaders for permission to not report sales of toxic coal ash for construction projects.
To learn more about Susan’s work, check out her Facebook Group: Team Taylor Environmental Grant
Watch this short documentary about the cancer clusters in North Carolina:
Read more about the study Susan helped raise money for here and listen to a local news station talk about it more here.
You can also learn more about our friend Trevor, who survived a brain cancer diagnosis at the age of 13, and his amazing advocacy work here.
In 2016, the Strengthening Protections for Children and Communities from Disease Clusters Act, also known as Trevor’s Law, was passed. The law calls directly on the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop criteria to monitor, track, and respond to instances of potential cancer clusters in the United States, creating a national registry, which can study and document where clusters exist, why they exist, and who might be affected by them. But this law is still in limbo and has yet to be implemented.
Did you listen in? What’s one takeaway from this conversation that you want to take with you? Let us know in the comments below!
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Sound off!
It’s time to chat. Welcome to this unedited conversation with Erin where you can go behind the environmental headlines she’s watching this week and hear more of what she really thinks. Nothing off limits here!
If you want to dive deeper into the stories we talk about, you can read more below:
We’ve seen droughts before, but conditions continue to deteriorate on the West Coast here.
Read here about red tide and fish kill reported in Tampa Bay near Piney Point. You can read our original story about Piney Point here.
Bayer considers ending sales of toxic weedkiller Roundup for residential use here, sadly it’s a legal thing not an ethical choice.
Thanks for listening! Add your voice to the conversation in the comments below. What’s one take away from this convo for you? What topics do you want to hear more about?
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I’m sharing this excerpt from the audio version of Superman’s Not Comingfor a little snapshot of why I work on these important issues. The short answer? Two little words. “Help me.” It’s what communities all across the world write to me and I do my best to help inspire them to take action and fight for clean water and a healthier world.
Recording the audiobook was no easy task for me. You try saying perfluorooctanoic acid 5 times fast. But in all seriousness, this book is the culmination of the past 20 years of my life’s work, and I recommend it to anyone who doesn’t know where to start when it comes to water issues. Read this book (or listen to it), and then let’s talk about how you can get involved.
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Erin talks to environmental attorney Robert Bilott, who spearheaded a decades-long legal battle with one of America's most powerful corporations. He helped to expose Dupont's history of chemical pollution and in doing so became "Dupont's worst nightmare" according to the New York Times.
You can see his amazing story told in the movie "Dark Waters" in which he is played by Mark Ruffalo or check out his book Exposure.
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Erin talks to artist and activist Emma Robbins who directs the Navajo Water Project at Dig Deep Water. Emma talks about the issues of uranium poisoning and lack of running water plaguing many reservations. She lets us know how she got involved in the water project and what we can do to help.
www.digdeep.org
www.navajowaterproject.org
www.emmarobbins.com
www.thechapterhouse.org
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Sam Sankar is a former attorney at the Justice Department under the Obama administration, who led the the investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was the biggest oil spill ever in U.S. waters and remains one of the worst environmental disasters in world history. He talks to Erin about the things we learned during the investigation and also the effects of the Trump era environmental rollbacks.
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Erin talks to Tara Mackey who investigated what was happening at Northport Middle School after her daughter and her classmates kept getting sick. Tara goes into detail about what she found out and the struggle to uncover the truth when facing backlash from the school board and the community at large.
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Erin welcomes Melissa Fitzgerald (who played Carol Fitzpatrick on The West Wing) & Scott Tirocchi to talk about Justice For Vets which is an organization that is dedicated to transforming the way the justice system identifies, assesses and treats our veterans. On this episode Melissa & Scott talk about their personal journey to getting involved with the organization and also describe the Veterans Treatment Court which is a court system better suited to deal with the issues that returning vets experience.
Check out the organization:
Justiceforvets.org
Allrise.org
Twitter:
@justice4vets
@_allrise_
Veteran's Treatment Court Explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrpytvX3YSE&feature=emb_logo
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Erin talks to Xan Parker and Michelle John about The Camp Fire which was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018.
Michelle John who was on the ground when it happened, describes what it was like to go through such a traumatic experience and Xan Parker talks about what it was like capturing the aftermath on film.
The film, "Rebuilding Paradise" is available on all major streaming platforms and it's broadcast premier is on Nov. 8th on the Nat Geo Channel 9/8c
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Standing Rock Sioux member Cody Two Bears joins Erin to talk about the history of broken treaties and its connection to the pipeline that made national headlines in 2016. He lets us know how the standing rock situation came about and discusses his quest to bring renewable energy to the Sioux reservation.
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Erin speaks with Mary Clark who wanted to find out why so many people in her community of Otsego, Michigan were getting cancer. She ended up discovering decades of illegal toxic waste dumping in the Kalamazoo River
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Actor, director, producer, and activist Edward James Olmos joins the podcast to talk about his newest film, "The Devil Has a Name", a legal thriller about a farmer taking on big oil.
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Alexandria Villaseñor is a young climate activist who founded the climate change education group, "Earth Uprising" and spoke at the UN all before graduating high school. On this episode she tells us how she got involved with climate activism and what she believe young people can do to affect change.
Her episode of Earth Focus “The Youth Climate Movement Around the World” is available now on the PBS App, The World Channel and Link TV
https://www.kcet.org/shows/earth-focus/episodes/the-youth-climate-movement-around-the-world
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Science Journalist Arielle Emmett joins Erin to talk about young women who developed a rare form of eye cancer and the link between them. She talks about the roadblocks she faced when bringing up these cases to those in power and why many scientists are scared to study cancer clusters.
Link to the Mother Jones article mentioned in the interview:
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/10/one-case-of-a-rare-eye-cancer-was-weird-when-4-more-appeared-the-town-knew-something-wasnt-right/
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Co-founder and executive director of The Sunrise Movement, Varshini Prakash joins Erin to talk about the future of the Green New Deal, the need for direct action and how we need to re-evaluate the values that govern American society
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Environmental activist and Democratic Presidential candidate Tom Steyer joins the podcast to talk about what made him turn to environmental activism, misconceptions about environmentalist and what he thinks the youth voter turnout will be during the upcoming election.
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Emmy nominated actor/director Ellen Page and Ingrid Waldron join Erin to talk about their film, "There's Something in the Water", a film that explores the disproportionate effect of environmental damage on Black Canadian and First Nations communities in Nova Scotia.
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Dan Kildee discusses the background that led to things going wrong in Michigan, how the problems that led to the Flint water crises can easily happen elsewhere and the ongoing issue with Pfas in the environment.
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Erin and Ken Cook (president and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group) talk about their battles with major corporations and government agencies over improving drinking water quality. They discuss where the road blocks are today and what needs to be done in order to prevent big companies from releasing unknown chemicals into the environment.
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On Erin's first episode, she is joined by former senator Barbara Boxer who, during her trailblazing career collaborated with Erin to help pass Trevor's Law.
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