The aviation industry has gotten twice as fuel-efficient since 1990, and emissions have still quadrupled. In this episode, we reckon with the guilt of flying, tracing it from economy class all the way up to private jets, where a handful of ultra-wealthy passengers emit up to 500 times more carbon than the average person annually. Plus, we dig into sustainable aviation fuel with Alyssa Norris from Aether Fuels and what it would actually take to make flying something we don't have to feel guilty about.

Episode rundown:

• (00:35) - Should we feel guilty about flying?
• (03:12) - Our flying footprint
• (05:17) - Reckoning with guilty consciences
• (09:52) - What is SAF and why aren’t all planes using it?
• (27:19) - Following the money from private jets to economy
• (37:08) - Individual actions for systemic change

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🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

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Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Lorena, Morgan Gallagher, Bruno Olmedo Quiroga, Darice Chang, Jessica Tucker, Kayla Joy , Lena, Dom Altomari
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

Lawns cover more American soil than any other irrigated crop — but who decided they should look this way, and at what cost? In this episode, we trace the centuries-old aristocratic tradition behind the modern lawn, expose the billion-dollar industry profiting from invasive grasses and toxic chemicals, and with the help of nature educator Jason Wise (aka Journeyman), we’ll explore how your patch of green could become something far more prosperous. If you've ever questioned the monoculture outside your front door, this one's for you.

Episode rundown:

• (00:00) - Chapter 1
• (00:49) - Why are lawns a climate issue?
• (02:38) - How did lawns become popular?
• (06:05) - How is our community adapting their lawns?
• (12:34) - Tips to rewind your lawn from Jason Wise (aka Journeyman)
• (34:02) - Who’s profiting off the lawn industry?
• (43:07) - Imagining a lawn-free future

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

🌎 Find citations and further reading in the full show notes.

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Craig Brown, Nick Blocha, Lena, Grace Kinney-Broderick, Haley Murphy
• Research: Makenna McBrierty
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

Season 5 is coming very soon and this season, we're talking about the thing that's on everyone's mind (whether we like or not) — money.

Maybe you've heard that Native American proverb, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.”

But, the way we spend our money matters, and as a mindful consumer, financial decisions can feel like a burden — especially when we don’t have much control over them. We can often choose where to spend our money, but we can’t choose what companies do with that money.

Our society doesn’t run on money, it runs on the earth— water, soil, plants, air. As of late — we’ll call it the past 300 years — we’ve had a pretty one-sided relationship with these essentials we need to live and that largely has to do with the fact that what we value and the way we value it is measured in dolla dolla bills.

This season we’re talking about —

• How the rising cost of groceries is threatening food security in ways you might not expect
• If giving our money to offsets is actually worth it
• The companies that are lobbying for fossil fuels
• How everyday people are footing the bill for data centers
• Decades of war propping up the fossil fuel industry, and how that extends to our front lawns.
• What it’s going to take to get proper investment in sustainable aviation fuel

Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

📱 Want to make your money count? Download the Commons app .

📞 Want to submit to the show? We'd love to hear from you!

📷 Follow Second Nature on Instagram.

Episode Credits

• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham