This podcast will empower people from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast with the information and analysis they need to understand how the fossil fuel industry, racism, and corrupt political systems impacts their health, culture, and economic well being, and provide them with ways to become leaders in the fight for a just and healthy future.
Episodes
Season One
Voices from the Sacrifice Zones
What would you do if industry was right in your backyard? In the premiere episode of Breaking the Cycle, your host Courtney Naquin talks with four grassroots environmental activists from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast who are organizing in their communities and saying no to the fossil fuel industry. Kayley Shoup, a community organizer with Citizens Caring for the Future in Carlsbad, New Mexico, works towards a future where the Permian isn’t dependent on oil and gas. Emma Guevara, a local organizer with Sierra Club, defends the Rio Grande Valley against exploitative industries. Elida Castillo, activist and Program Director with Chispa Texas, explains how the fossil fuel industry has radically transformed her home in the Coastal Bend. Roishetta Ozane, founder of the Vessel Project and organizer at Healthy Gulf, works diligently to expand local conversations about oil and gas in southwest Louisiana while meeting the needs of her community through mutual aid in the wake of multiple natural disasters
Connect with the guests and read the episode one transcript.
Protecting Land and Place With Chiara Beaumont and Jessi Parfait
In our second episode of Breaking the Cycle, we take you from the Karankawa Kadla lands of the Coastal Bend in Texas to the United Nation of Houma in southern Louisiana. Your host, Courtney Naquin, discusses the efforts of two Indigenous women activists, Chiara Sunshine Beaumont and Jessi Parfait, to protect and reclaim culture, history, and land from polluting industry in the Gulf Coast.
Connect with the guests and read the episode two transcript.
Economic Diversification: Healthy Jobs With Angelica Rubio and James Hiatt
In this episode of Breaking the Cycle, we compare and contrast the environmental and economic realities between New Mexico and southwest Louisiana. New Mexico state Representative Angelica Rubio envisions a multigenerational plan for the people of the Permian Basin. James Hiatt of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade talks about his previous connections to the fossil fuel industry as well as the shortcomings of Louisiana’s Industrial Tax Exemption Program.
Connect with the guests and read the episode three transcript.
Health Activism and How Fracking Harms the Body - Interviews With John Beard, Dr. Steingraber, and Dr. Dyrszka
In our fourth installment, we talk with our good friend, John Beard, resident and activist of Port Arthur, Texas, who illuminates the reality of living in a fenceline community, and how pollution has impacted the health of the people in his life. Later, Dr. Susan Steingraber and Dr. Larysa Dyrszka of Concerned Health Professionals of New York discuss the frack cycle’s critical and immediate harm to public health and the environment.
Connect with the guests and read the episode four transcript.
Why Just Recovery is Necessary for a Just Transition - Interviews with General Russel Honoré, Alice Liu, and Andrew Barley
Hurricane recovery is an incredibly complex issue and a largely inequitable process. To draw the connection between recovery to fossil fuels, we spoke with General Russell Honoré, a retired veteran, leader of the Green Army, who is known for his leadership and aid in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. We also spoke with Alice Liu and Andrew Barley from West Street Recovery, a community-based disaster preparedness and recovery organization out of Houston.
Connect with the guests and read the episode five transcript.
The Abandoned Well Epidemic: Interviews with Miguel Escoto and Cyrus Reed
Cyrus Reed, the conservation director for the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, talks about the efforts to properly regulate venting and flaring and well closure, as well as federal support for closing the wells. Miguel Escoto with Earthworks walks us through the realities on the ground.
Read the episode six transcript.
Land, Loss, and Recovery
Land loss is an issue for all coastal communities from the Gulf and beyond and has an enormous impact on the broader global ecological balance. To help paint a coherent and detailed picture, we interviewed Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at the environmental justice organization, Healthy Gulf.
Read the episode seven transcript.
Greenwashing and the False Promises of CCS and LNG
In our eighth episode of Breaking the Cycle, we explore how polluting industries perpetuate disinformation about their projects and products. To help explain greenwashing and how it relates to carbon capture and storage, we talked with Bekah Hinojosa with Sierra Club and Jade Woods of the Center on International Environmental Law.