We Got 8 Presidential Candidates to Confront the World's Biggest Threat
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2019
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Climate change is quickly becoming the defining issue of the 2020 presidential election. How the next American president confronts that threat will define where we live, what we eat, and how nations will survive. Despite the urgency, there hasn’t been a true forum for presidential candidates of both parties to thoughtfully discuss their plans to halt current climate. That changes Thursday night. The Weather Channel has teamed up with Climate Desk, a partnership of 18 media organizations working together on covering climate change (started by Mother Jones), to deliver an hour of climate conversations with nine candidates—five Democrats and three Republicans. It's called “2020: Race to Save the Planet,” and the special airs with limited commercial interruption Thursday, November 7 at 8 p.m. ET.
On today's episode of the podcast, you'll get an exclusive preview from hurricane expert Dr. Rick Knabb from the Weather Channel, alongside Mother Jones's climate reporter Rebccea Leber, and you'll hear from candidates who visited communities on the frontlines of the current climate crisis: in the floodplains of Charleston, South Carolina; in South Bend, Indiana, and Dubuque, Iowa; as well as in Paradise, California, which was devastated by the Camp Fire almost exactly a year ago.
We asked the top frontrunners to participate, and six Democrats and three Republicans said yes. We met with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) The Weather Channel interviewed Republican presidential hopefuls, too, including ex-Massachusetts governor William Weld, former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh, and former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is the Mother Jones Podcast. |
| 0:02.8 | I'm Jamila King in New York. |
| 0:04.6 | On today's show, |
| 0:12.0 | on today's show, The Future of the Planet. |
| 0:17.0 | And, hey mom, we're on TV, that's right, we have got a special with the Weather Channel. We're super excited about it and this |
| 0:24.4 | show is all about that. It's a feast. Let's dig in. It will define where you live. |
| 0:39.1 | We have a major, major, major global crisis in front of us. What you eat. |
| 0:48.0 | 30 years from now, this could be the dominant fact of American life. |
| 0:52.0 | How nations will survive or not. |
| 0:54.2 | Right now, under Donald Trump, |
| 0:55.8 | we're just leading in the wrong direction. |
| 0:57.4 | The movement of millions. |
| 0:59.0 | We're running out of time here, |
| 1:00.3 | and we need to hit the ground running. |
| 1:03.0 | And we also have real solutions. |
| 1:05.0 | For the first time ever in a U.S. presidential race, |
| 1:10.0 | climate change has become a major campaign issue. |
| 1:13.0 | There hasn't really been a true place for presidential candidates from both parties |
| 1:19.0 | to hash out their climate change plans. |
| 1:21.0 | That is until now. |
| 1:24.0 | Something's going on that is real. |
| 1:28.0 | The science is clear. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mother Jones, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mother Jones and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.