For Sunday April 19, 2026, the Podcast class will continue the Earth Day theme with two short podcasts discussing our climate. The first is from the podcast show “How To Become a Better Human,” titled “How Texas became America’s biggest producer of wind energy.” This is the surprising story of how Texas – rich in oil and gas – became America’s biggest producer of wind energy. Ryan and Anjali talk with Pat Wood, once George W. Bush’s right hand man and head of Texas’s Public Utility Commission, to uncover the innovative approach that turned Texas into a renewable energy powerhouse. It’s a story about what could get done before partisan politics got in the way of good climate policy, and it shows that economic incentives for consumers, government, and companies can play a huge role in supercharging clean energy:

Link to Podcast
(27 min)

The second podcast is from “Ted Talks Daily,” titled “How to make transportation quieter, cleaner and cheaper.”
When Doreen Orishaba helped build Africa’s first electric car in 2011, skeptics dismissed it as a “toy for the Western world.” Now she’s running dozens of electric buses across Kenya and Rwanda, moving thousands of passengers to work every day on zero-exhaust vehicles powered by near-silent engines. She breaks down what it actually takes to scale clean transport — and why skipping the gas station pit stop is closer than you may think.

Link to Podcast
(13 min)