Degrees podcast
Real talk about planet-saving careers
Want to use your job to save the planet? Degrees is your podcast community for green job mentors, insight into new and growing careers, advice to calm your climate anxiety, and actionable conversations to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Our latest season is all about how to green your job. If you’re looking to change careers or want to “green” the job you already have – this season, hosted by sustainability jobs expert Yesh Pavlik Slenk, is for you.
Year of the Climate Job miniseries
In this five-part miniseries Daniel Hill will help get you unstuck, with the best advice from the movers and shakers in the green workforce landscape. They share creative, practical ways to land a job and build a career in climate work.
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Learn how to build your climate experience with Terra.do founder Anshuman Bapna
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Transfer your skills to a green job with Work on Climate’s Eugene Kirpichov
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How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
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Taking the mystery out of finding a green job with Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman
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How to green any job with Project Drawdown's Jamie Beck Alexander
Episodes
Yesh and her team have searched high and low to bring you a-maz-ing guests. By hearing their stories, you’ll find advice and inspiration to guide you on your own purpose-driven journey to find a green job.
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Diversity equity and inclusion in the climate job hunt with Kristy Drutman BrownGirl Green
Daniel Hill talks with BrownGirl Green's Kristy Drutman about how she developed her own climate career roadmap when one wasn’t clear. She also speaks to how she’s attacking a big problem: the exclusionary history of climate-related employment.
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How Heather McTeer Toney is redefining climate action for the next generation of leaders
Heather McTeer Toney is leading a movement to ensure that everyone can be part of the green jobs of the future. Listen to this episode, and you'll see opportunities you never imagined.
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The future of climate-smart ag and the hot politics of your dinner plate
Want to fix our food system – and take gigatons of emissions out of it? Yesh gets the lay of the land from award-winning food policy journalist Helena Bottemiller Evich.
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How to solve the EV problem and a jobs problem at the same time
Yesh chats with Kameale C. Terry about ChargerHelp! — a business focused on repairing broken charging stations — and how its success rests upon the ability to train a new EV workforce.
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Tracking jaguars with a toddler: Introducing Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant
Dr. Wynn-Grant travels to Panama to study endangered jaguars in the rainforest — with her toddler in tow — and shares her experience.
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How to get a job investing millions in planet-saving tech
With the climate tech investing space growing fast, many are looking to get involved. Yesh chats with Mia Diawara about navigating to a career in climate tech investing, plus more.
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The jobs of the future to fight wildfires
Yesh talks with US Forest Service research ecologist Frank Kanawha Lake about how he's bringing Indigenous ways of knowing to managing fire into the 21st century.
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Building a Black community for green jobseekers
The environmental workforce remains overwhelmingly white. But not if Wes Gobar of BlackOak Collective can help it. Yesh talks with him about his journey.
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The woman greening the golden arches
Can you use your MBA to save the planet? Yesh teams up with Mike Toffel of Climate Rising to ask the chief sustainability officer at McDonald's, Jenny McColloch.
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How a psychology major is on the frontlines of decarbonizing a global industry
Yesh talks with Christie Gamble, Senior Sustainability Director at CarbonCure, a company that’s on a mission to decarbonize the concrete industry.
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The fastest electric vehicle fleet makeover in the west
Yesh talks with the ebullient Gilbert Blue Feather Rosas, who raised millions of dollars to bring electric buses to one of America’s biggest school districts.
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10 ways to save the planet
Yesh goes deep into the job opportunities of the future with Ryan Panchadsaram, co-author of the book Speed & Scale, an action plan to get global emissions to zero by 2050.
Check out our bonus series: Land a Green Job 101
Trying to break into a sustainability job? Tune in to our new miniseries — six short episodes with pro tips to help you find a planet-saving career.
Meet Yesh
Yesh Pavlik Slenk, host of the Degrees podcast, manages EDF’s Climate Corps alumni network of more than 2,300 sustainability and energy management professionals worldwide.
By day, Yesh works to leverage the network as a tool for facilitating lifelong learning and professional connections that empower members to create impact across industries. She oversees national network events and professional development opportunities to facilitate collaboration, share innovative ideas and advance climate actions.
By night, Yesh is a dance-party loving wife, and mother of a goofy toddler. She is deeply pleased by a bag of gummies, a glass of wine and nature documentaries.
Credits
Degrees is produced by Podcast Allies, a story-driven podcast consulting, production, and training company serving nonprofit leaders. A woman-owned agency, Podcast Allies was founded by journalists in 2019. The team has decades of experience in public radio and working with top podcast networks, including NPR and Wondery.
Degrees artwork is by Bee Johnson, an award-winning illustrator who has created art for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and National Geographic and book covers for HarperCollins and Penguin Random House, among many others.
Degrees' theme music is by the amazing band Lake Street Dive. Check out their powerful video and song about climate change called Making Do, on the album Obviously. We interviewed the band on music, activism and bravery to learn more about their inspiring work, and got an Instagram glimpse of life on tour with an awesomely talented and conscientious band.
