Examining The Deadly Impacts of Rising Temperatures on Everyday Life with Jeff Goodell

Air Dates: December 16-22, 2024 

Climate change has been part of the public lexicon for decades, now.  But what once seemed like some dystopian, distant future is, according to Jeff Goodell, a reality—where higher temperatures are reshaping agriculture, animal migrations, the health of the oceans, and our futures.  

Goodell is a bestselling author and has written seven books including “The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World,” which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.  As a commentator on climate and energy issues, he has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. 

In his latest book, “The Heat Will Kill You Fist: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet,” Goodell conveys how climate change effects people’s everyday lives. He argues the urgency of rising heat stating, “on hot days, you have bridges in New York that don’t open and close the way they’re supposed to. You have runways that begin to melt. You have outdoor workers that are at risk for heat stroke.” He describes his motives for writing this book, explaining, “my goal is to convince you to think about heat in a different way. The kind of heat I’m talking about here is an active force, one that can bend railroad tracks and kill you before you even understand your life is at risk. In this sense, extreme heat is an entirely human artifact, a legacy of human civilization as real as the Great Wall of China.”  

“Story in the Public Square” broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Check your local public television listings for air times near you! An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 2:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a project of the Pell Center at Salve Regina University. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.