Dr. Jade Sasser shares her personal journey with climate change and how being evacuated during a wildfire powerfully deepened the direction of her work. She reminds us that resilience isn’t a single tool we reach for in crisis, but a wide, living landscape we tend over time. For her, that landscape stretches from teaching and advocacy to the simple grounding rituals of gardening and Pilates. And yet, at the center of it all is her devotion to students and to building intergenerational alliances, honoring the distinct gifts each generation carries while inviting us to share the responsibility for action together. Listening to her feels a bit like sitting with someone who is both steady and searching, someone who doesn’t pretend the road is easy but still believes deeply in walking it with others. I hope you enjoy hearing her as much as I did.

She also has two wonderful books and a podcast on the climate-driven reproductive anxiety and politics that places race and social justice at the center. See more about her work at her website.

In this episode, Dr. Renée Lertzman brings a rare blend of wisdom, depth, and grounded practicality to the conversation about climate change and human behavior. A pioneer in the psychology of climate emotions, she helps us move beyond overwhelm and polarization toward curiosity, compassion, and meaningful engagement. What I so appreciate in her work is the way she names what’s often unspoken—our defenses, ambivalence, and fears—without judgment, and then offers pathways forward that feel both humane and doable. In this conversation, Renée reminds us that responding to the climate crisis isn’t just about information or solutions; it’s about relationship, leadership, and learning how to stay present with what’s hard while still acting with care and courage.

Dr. Renée Lertzman is a pioneer, who for 30 years has been bridging psychology with climate change, sustainability and existential threats. An academic-turned practitioner, she designs frameworks and methods that guide people to take action and create impact on climate and sustainability issues. Over the past two decades, Renée has worked with global leaders, startups, governments, and mission-driven companies—including Google, IKEA, the California Academy of Sciences —helping them navigate the emotional complexities of climate engagement. She is developing a new academy that equips changemakers with psychologically grounded resources for collective transformation. She is also working on a forthcoming book to be published by Viking in 2027.

Website

TED Talk

Podcast, Accidental Gods

In this episode of Burning Questions, Steffi Bednarek offers the kind of grounded, soul-level guidance we ache for in a time of climate upheaval. She reminds us that navigating this moment isn’t just about strategies or solutions — it’s about honesty with ourselves, staying present with what’s hard, and cultivating the wisdom needed to move forward with clarity and courage. Her insights feel like deep water: steady, reflective, and quietly transformative.

Steffi Bednarek is the founder and director of the Centre for Climate Psychology and editor of the book “Climate, Psychology and Change”, which reckons with the ways our innocent seeming familiar perceptions impact our myriad crises. Steffi is an accredited psychotherapist with over 25 years of clinical experience, which underpin her work in climate psychology and systems thinking. She has worked for local and national governments, the corporate sector, global financial institutions, the sustainability sector and large NGOs. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post, the BBC, the Financial Times and numerous journals and publications.