Well, hello there, my friends, and welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian, and you're listening

to Episode 590 of Sustainable Minimalists. This is a listener-supported show about

intentional and eco-friendly minimalist living. And on today's show, we are outlining a framework

for how to best talk about climate change with others, with friends,

with coworkers, with neighbors, with lawmakers, and everybody in between.

Now, polls consistently show that a large majority of people are worried about climate change,

but a much smaller percentage actually talk about it with friends and family. Now let's back up. Should we even

be talking about climate change on the regular? It's a conversation that's fraught with infighting

and tribalism and politicization. So should we even bother? Well, the answer, of course, is yes. We need to be talking about the elephant in the room. We need to be calling it out, pointing it out, and we need to do it all the darn time. When everybody is staying quiet because they're afraid of causing friction, it creates a false impression that nobody cares. And so when you speak up, you're giving

others permission to speak up also. You're normalizing the concern. You're showing the people

around you that climate change is a mainstream and everyday anxiety. It's not a fringe

political obsession for the radical left. So getting comfortable about

talking about climate change and actually bringing it up all the darn time is in my view one of

the most important things you can do for the climate. So put it on your list of top five activities

and just start doing it. Now, you'd think that

the big elephant in the room, the big existential threat would be a unifying topic. But we've all been

there. You bring up climate change and suddenly everybody starts looking at their toes, shuffling their feet, maybe a couple

people get defensive.

Well, my guest today is here to lay out the how to talk about climate change formula for all

of us so that our conversations go well.

Norm Leo is a climate scientist.

He has been getting people to care about climate change

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