Plastic Pollution is Killing Us with Judith Enck

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Plastic is everywhere. Over the past century, we’ve stuffed our landfills, lined the bottom of the ocean floor, and even managed to get microscopic particles floating through our blood and bodies. Topping things off, the industry is only growing. Plastics simply do not go away, and neither will this problem unless we do something about it. This week, Adam talks about ending plastic pollution with Judith Enck, a former EPA official under President Obama, and the author of the new book The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late. Find Judith's book at factuallypod.com/books

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a headgum podcast.
0:05.0	I don't know the truth.
0:08.3	I don't know the way.
0:10.9	I don't know what to think.
0:13.6	I don't know what to say.
0:16.6	Yeah, but that's all right.
0:19.4	That's okay.
0:21.6	I don't know anything.
0:26.6	Hey there.
0:27.9	Welcome to Factually.
0:29.1	I'm Adam Conover.
0:30.0	I'm thrilled to have you on the show with me, because today we're talking about plastic.
0:34.8	You know, I was born in the 1980s, and I don't remember a time when I was not surrounded by
0:40.3	plastic.
0:40.8	That's because plastic is the material of the mass consumer age.
0:45.4	Since the 1950s, it's been in our toys, our electronics, our cars, our planes, our clothes,
0:51.7	our water bottles, our toothbrushes, and, of course, almost every piece of our packaging.
0:58.0	Now, plastic is everywhere because it's incredibly useful.
1:00.9	It's cheap, and it can be made in whatever shape and at whatever strength for whatever purpose.
1:05.8	And that's why it was a revolution in manufacturing.
1:08.7	And today, globally, plastics are a growing $700 billion industry.
1:15.1	But while plastic is omnipresent in our lives, we're now starting to realize that maybe it shouldn't be.
	...

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