Hothouse Earth: Recent Episodes
Jeannie Oliver, Mason Overstreet, Environmental Law Center, Vermont Law School
With environmental crises reaching a critical tipping point, we find ourselves sprinting to keep up with fast-changing environmental law and policy developments like regulatory rollbacks and subsequent lawsuits. Join experts from the nation's premier environmental law school as they provide concise, accessible conversation on the most pressing issues of our time. If you are an advocate, journalist, educator, student, or concerned citizen seeking to understand environmental law and how it relates to current events, Hothouse Earth is the podcast for you.
As part of the 2026 Hot Topics in Environmental Law lecture series, Professor Jared Carter JD’09, Vermont Law and Graduate School, and Heather Murray, Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic, discuss how defamation and related claims, often constituting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP), have recently been used as a sword to attempt to silence environmental advocacy organizations and journalists, and the potential defenses provided by state anti-SLAPP laws.
Christophe Courchesne, director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School, speaks with Alejandro Camacho, professor of law at UCLA School of Law. Camacho’s latest book with Brigham Daniels, Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law, traces the history of U.S. environmental law from colonization to the present, examining five distinct areas, highlighting the tension between idealists and pragmatists, and offering lessons for contemporary challenges like climate change.
Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice—the world’s largest nonprofit public interest environmental law organization—gives an inspiring address to Vermont Law and Graduate School graduates and audience members alike for VLGS’s 50th commencement.
On the latest episode, Pat Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy at the Environmental Law Center, joins Rachel Westrate and Terrence Neal, Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Parenteau Climate Action Fellows, to discuss EPA's international role, past and present. They discuss the EPA's longtime role in international environmental cooperation, the current Administration's unprecedented disengagement from international agreements and forums, and the prospects for law students to launch careers in international environmental law. Both Rachel and Terrence come to VLGS from EPA, where they worked on international law and policy issues during the Biden Administration and the early days of the second Trump Administration.
Our host, Lindi von Mutius JD'08, visiting professor of law at Vermont Law and Graduate School, Class of 1946 Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies at Williams College, and inaugural director of the Center for Environmental Networks, chats with Chandra Taylor-Sawyer, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). She is also SELC's Environmental Justice Initiative leader, which has produced "Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward," a multimedia storytelling series following the throughline from slavery to pollution—revealing how Black communities have borne environmental injustices for generations and continue to demand the healthy present and future they deserve.
Natural and man-made disasters are an important and increasingly relevant topic for us all. World-renowned expert Dr. Kirsten Bookmiller, professor in the Department of Government, Law, and International Relations and a faculty associate with the Center for Disaster Research and Education at Millersville University, discusses the complex impact of disasters on every level, including human rights, migration, and displacement, and the need for robust interdisciplinary frameworks for disaster law.
As part of the 2025 Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sean Donahue, partner at Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, discuss recent Supreme Court decisions and the state of environmental law during the second Trump administration.
As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sharmila Murthy, Northeastern University School of Law, gives an impactful Hot Topics lecture, “Sustaining Environmental Justice,” that dovetails with our last episode (28), "Advancing Environmental Justice in a Chaotic Time," by Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar.
As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar, talks about how to advance environmental justice in a chaotic time.
Julia Olson, co-executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit law firm she founded in 2010 to empower young people to secure their climate rights, delivered an empowering environmental honorary degree lecture at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
Edward Keable, Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, chats with Callum LaFrance, Legal Fellow for the Environmental Justice Clinic and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School. They discuss the intricacies of managing the Grand Canyon National Park.
Learn more - listen to the Behind the Scenery (U.S. National Park Service) podcast series. The latest episode talks about fire ecology.
Also, check out Grand Canyon Speaks - Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) and Minute Out In It - Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) ,which is a collection of short films about the park's nature and culture in action.
Hothouse Earth is excited to share a special cross-podcast from the New Books Network, featuring over 15,000 interviews with authors about their latest books. Last month, New Books Network host Stephen Pimpare, professor of Public Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School, spoke with J. Mijin Cha, assistant professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz and Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Distinguished Energy Law Summer Scholar this year. Cha discusses her book, A Just Transition for All: Workers and Communities for a Carbon-Free Future.To meet the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, a transition away from fossil fuels must occur, as quickly as possible. But there are many unknowns when it comes to moving from theory to implementation for such a large-scale energy transition, to say nothing of whether this transition will be “just.” In A Just Transition for All: Workers and Communities for a Carbon-Free Future (MIT Press, 2024), J. Mijin Cha—a seasoned climate policy researcher who also works with advocacy organizations and unions—offers a comprehensive analysis of how we can actualize a just transition in the U.S. context and enact transformational changes that meaningfully improve people’s lives. Cha provides a novel governance framework called the “Four+ Pillars,” formulated from original research to provide a way to move from theory to practice. The “Pillars” framework includes a novel analysis that guides readers in understanding how to formulate effective just transition policies, what makes them just or unjust, and, similarly, what makes transition just and unjust. The framework also combines theoretical discussions with original empirical research and provides insights into perceptions of just transition. Grounded in real-world perspectives that make the case for policies that advance a just transition for all, not just fossil fuel workers, Cha charts the path forward to an equitable and sustainable future that no longer depends on fossil fuels.
Co-hosts Mia Montoya Hammersley, director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at VLGS, and Savannah Collins JD/MCEP’26 speak with Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lewis, senior associate at Eubanks and Associates, about NEPA and the recent D.C. Circuit decision in Marin Audubon Society v. FAA.
Guest host Christophe Courchesne talks to Sean Donahue, a partner at Donahue, Goldberg, and Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, in the second of two episodes about U.S. Supreme Court rulings this last term that upended administrative law and threaten to diminish environmental protections.
Guest host, Christophe Courchesne talks to Sean Donahue, a partner at Donahue, Goldberg, and Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, about the Supreme Court rulings this year that have diminished environmental protections.
The Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic addresses animal issues in the fight for environmental protection. Listen to Laura Fox chat with host Laura Ireland about the Clinic, which is part of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and the accomplishments of the year.
Join guest host Fran Miller, senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty, and her guest,Mavis Gragg, CEO of HeirShares, as they discuss her work empowering families to use real estate as a source for intergenerational resiliency and wealth, and her work building groundbreaking technology to facilitate affordable solutions for family real estate ownership.
Listen to Robert Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program, Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, chat with host Laura Ireland about the possibility of states using tort litigation to make oil companies accountable for their role in climate change misinformation.
Listen to Jenny Rushlow, dean of the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, professor of law, and faculty director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School talk about the Montana Court's ruling on Held v. State of Montana, how it relates to other cases such as the landmark climate law case she argued and won before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Kain v. Department of Environmental Protection, and how these cases advance environmental advocacy and justice.
Listen to Cale Jaffe, professor of law and director of the Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic at University of Virginia School of Law, chat about the Supreme Court's ruling on Sackett v. EPA and his idea of climate whisperers.
In this episode, Pat Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School, chats about his career and how environmental law and policy has evolved, with podcast host, Jeannie Oliver, professor of law and staff attorney at VLGS’s Energy Clinic.
Thank you to the Vermont School for the Environment at Vermont Law and Graduate School, Jenifer Rushlow, Anne Linehan, and Donna Kowalewski at Environmental Law Center.
Guests
- David Deen, President, Connecticut River Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Trout Unlimited Vermont Council, former VT state legislator for 30 years
- Kathy Urffer, River Steward, Connecticut River Conservancy
- Julia MacDonald JD'21, Vermont Law School
- Peter Malicky MELP'21, Vermont Law School
Recommended Resources
- To get an update on the latest in surface water legislation in VT, visit the Act 173 Committee webpage.
- For more background on the issues, read the Environmental Advocacy Clinic's report on Vermont surface waters.
Patents on living things threaten biodiversity and our resilience against climate change. In this episode, we examine how a VLS professor is helping plant breeders use “defensive publication” to keep innovations open-source and promote biodiversity.
Guests
- Jim Myers, Professor, Vegetable Breeding and Genetics, Oregon State University
- Emily Spiegel, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law School
Recommended Resources
- A Breed Apart: The Plant Breeder’s Guide to Defensive Publication
- “Could a simple database prevent massive ag companies from patenting and guarding seed varieties?” The Counter, May 13, 2021.
The second episode in the Hothouse Earth Podcast’s “Elevate” miniseries features Brandi Colander JD’06. One of the first students to complete VLS’s dual degree with the Yale School of the Environment, Colander has a career that spans sectors and disciplines. Her work shows that environmental law can expand well beyond the scope of traditional environmentalism, intersecting with social justice and corporate governance. Listen as she shares inspiring career advice for women on support systems, inclusivity, disruption, confidence, and growth.
Guest:
Brandi Colander, Chief Sustainability Officer at WestRock Company
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Veronica Ung-Kono, JD/MERL'21 and IEE Research Associate
Recommended Resources:
Operating with the Full Life Cycle in Mind - A Q&A with WestRock Chief Sustainability Officer Brandi Colander
Vermont Law School Dual Degree Programs
Guest
Karin Sheldon, President of Four Echoes Strategies and Adjunct Professor at Colorado Law University of Colorado Boulder
Hosts
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney, Energy Clinic
Veronica Ung-Kono JD/MERL 2021
Recommended Resources
Bowman, Cynthia Grant, Women in the Legal Profession from the 1920s to the 1970s: What Can We Learn from Their Experience about Law and Social Change? (2009) Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 12.
Green 2.0, exploring diversity in environmental organizations. https://www.diversegreen.org/
- See in particular, Taylor, Dorceta E., The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations, July 2014.
- 2019 report card with a summary here
Halton, Mary, Climate change ‘impacts women more than men’, 8 March 2018, BBC News.
McCarthy, Joe, Why Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Women, 5 March, 2020, Global Citizen.
Over the next few months, Hothouse Earth will be sharing conversations with women about their experiences in shaping environmental and social change through the power of the law and some of the challenges that they've faced along the way.
Environmental justice activist Fred Tutman is the only Black waterkeeper in the United States, and in this candid discussion with his close friend and fellow waterkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur, the duo reflect on how racism has affected their very different experiences in the environmental movement. Listen as they discuss how environmentalism has historically failed BIPOC communities and consider the potential—and dire need—for the movement to change.
Guests:
Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
Theaux Le Gardeur, Gunpowder Riverkeeper
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney, Energy Clinic
Mason Overstreet, Staff Attorney, Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Resources:
- Chesapeake Bay Magazine – November 17, 2017 – Fearless Riverkeeper Fred Tutman fights for the Patuxent River and for the people who live alongside its shores
- Spinsheet – December 5, 2014 – Bay People: Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
- Bay Journal – April 11, 2014 – With river in his blood, Fred Tutman stands his ground wholeheartedly
- Capital Gazette – Oct. 2, 2013 – Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
- Waterkeeper Alliance – Native Son Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
- Smithsonian podcast: Ep. 13: The Riverkeeper
The outro music in this episode is WAKAN TANKA by Carl Filipiak and the Jimi Jazz Band, courtesy of Carl Filipiak, Art of Life Records and Geometric Records.
Exploitation, heat exhaustion in a warming climate, and a heightened risk of COVID-19 are among the many challenges farmworkers face—often magnified by undocumented immigration status. Why does the law fail to protect these essential workers, and how can advocates step in where the law falls short? In this episode we speak with a Vermont-based farmworker from Mexico, activists at the organization Migrant Justice, and Vermont Law School Associate Dean Jenny Rushlow to find out.
Guests:
Jose Luis Cordova Herrera, Dairy Farm Worker
Marita Canedo, Organizer, Migrant Justice
Will Lambek, Organizer, Migrant Justice
Jennifer K. Rushlow, Associate Dean for Environmental Programs and Director of the Environmental Law Center
Resources:
Support and get involved with Migrant Justice.
Call your legislator to support the Vermont Coronavirus Relief Fund for immigrant families. Donate to Movimiento Cosecha’s Undocumented Worker Fund.
Dontate to Justice for Migrant Women COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Sew #Masks4Farmworkers.
Sign up to milk cows in Vermont if farmworkers get sick.
Download Housing and Employment Rights for Vermont Dairy Workers, published by Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems.
Read Associate Dean Jenny Rushlow’s latest journal article on farmworkers and access to justice.
Guests:
Sophia Kruszrewski, Clinic Director, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems
Hillary Hoffmann, Professor of Law, Environmental Law Center
Barry Hill, Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute and Adjunct Faculty at Vermont Law School
Russel Mendell, MERL’20
Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law and Senior Counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC)
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney, Energy Clinic
Mason Overstreet, Staff Attorney, Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Guests:
Marianne Engelman Lado, Visiting Professor, Douglas Costle Chair in Environmental Law and Director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law School
Phyllis Gosa, sixth-generation resident of the Ashurst Bar/Smith Community
Ronald Smith, Pastor and resident of the Ashurst Bar/Smith Community
Ashley Harper JD'21, Vermont Law School
Environmental Justice Law Society at Vermont Law School - Arielle King JD/MELP’21, Jameson Davis JD'20/MELP'19, Mariana Muñoz JD'21, Jerry Thomas JD'21
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney, Energy Clinic
Mason Overstreet, Staff Attorney, Environmental Advocacy Clinic
Recommended Resources:
- EPA Slams Door to Justice on Historic Black Community,Earth Justice
- EPA Quietly Closes Complaint at Heart of Civil Rights Suit, Greenwire
- The Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing
- US Commission on Civil Rights, "Environmental Justice" (2016)
- Marianne Engelman Lado, No More Excuses: Building a New Vision of Civil Rights Enforcement in the Context of Environmental Justice, 22 U. Pa. J.L. & Soc. Change 281 (2019).
- Costle Lecture at Vermont Law School by Douglas Costle Visiting Professor of Law, Marianne Engelman Lado, No More Excuses: Building a New Vision of Civil Rights Enforcement in the Context of Environmental Justice, November 2019.
Guests:
Erik Dorfman, Activist and Poet
Russel Mendell, MERL’20
Gus Speth, Co-Founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, former Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Vermont Law School Professor 2010-2015
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Pat Parenteau, Professor of Law and Senior Counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC)
Recommended Resources:
Children Change Their Parents’ Minds about Climate Change
Is There Any Point to Protesting?
What Is the Climate Strike? An Adult’s Guide to What, Why, and How to Help
Juliana vs. United States
Guests:
Barry Hill, Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute and Adjunct Faculty at Vermont Law School
Carmen Gonzalez, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guests:
Barry Hill, Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute and Adjunct Faculty at Vermont Law School
Carmen Gonzalez, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
Recommended Resources:
Professor Carmen Gonzalez's Hot Topic Lecture: Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene
Their country is disappearing, a short documentary on the Marshall Islands
Natural Disasters: Developing Resilience and Addressing Climate Refugees, VJEL Top 10 Watch List 2019
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
In the third and final episode on Trump's "America First Energy Plan" hosts Jeannie Oliver and Mason Overstreet examine the wide variety of regulations that protect our water, air, land and public health. In an effort to put industry first, is the Trump administration ultimately putting environment last?
Vermont Law School Professor Pat Parenteau and Boston College Law School Professor Zygmunt Plater discuss the legal actions fighting regulatory rollbacks as well as the effect these decisions have on the economy and public health.
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guests:
Patrick Parenteau, Professor of Law and Senior Counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC)
Zygmunt J. B. Plater, Professor of Law at Boston College Law School
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guest:
Professor John Echeverria, Environmental Law Center
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
Recommended Resources:
Professor John Echeverria's Hot Topic Lecture
United States District Court, Northern District of California Decision
Court of Appeals Filings
United States Courts for the Ninth Circuit Oral Arguments
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guests:
Kyle Tisdel JD'05, Western Environmental Law Center
Shiloh Hernandez JD'08, Western Environmental Law Center
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
With special thank you to the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and the Top 10 Environmental Watch List 2019: http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/topten/?toptenyear=2019
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guests:
Hillary Hoffmann, Professor of Law, Environmental Law Center
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
With special thank you to the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and the Top 10 Environmental Watch List 2019: http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/topten/?toptenyear=2019
For more Hothouse Earth, follow us on Twitter @HothouseEarth, and subscribe to our newsletter on our website, www.hothouseearthpodcast.com.
Guests:
Laurie Beyranevand, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law
Sophia Kruszrewski, Clinic Director, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems
Ferd Hoefner, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Cynthia Larson, Larson Farm and Creamery
Cris Coffin, American Farmland Trust
Hosts:
Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney
Mason Overstreet, LLM Toxics Fellow with the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic
With special thank you to the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law and the Top 10 Environmental Watch List 2019: http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/topten/?toptenyear=2019