The Ethanol Kingpin of Iowa
May 18, 2026
Bruce's venture in Brazil isn't the first time he tried to go global. What an earlier attempt tells us about him, his business, and what's ahead for both Iowa and "the Brazilian Midwest." This season…
Drilled is a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate corruption and political operatives built decades of climate denial and delay. Hosted and reported by award-winning investigative climate journalists and led by Amy Westervelt, each season unravels new evidence of deception, disinformation, and the power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach. In September 2025, a group of Brazilian ministers trekked all the way to chilly North Dakota to see a presentation on a new type of clean energy project, one that promised to help them deliver Brazilian President Lula’s dream of turning Brazil into “the Saudi Arabia of sustainable aviation fuels.” It was the latest in a string of projects from Midwest Republican kingmaker and corn ethanol magnate Bruce Rastetter, whose investments in Brazil might just transform him into a global carbon czar, even as his Summit pipeline carbon project faces fierce opposition from Iowa to North Dakota. The problem? It all requires loads of land and none of it does a thing about climate change.
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Episodes
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The Carbon Gold Rush
May 11, 2026
As his American company Summit Carbon Solutions struggles with backlash to a carbon capture pipeline linking corn ethanol plants across the Midwest, Bruce Rastetter is not slowing down. Instead, he’s…
Welcome to Carbon Cowboys
May 04, 2026
For decades we’ve heard that “the markets” will solve the climate crisis. On Drilled: Carbon Cowboys, we put that theory to the test, following Bruce Rastetter, a corn ethanol kingpin-turned-carbon…
Fossil-fueled Fascism
Apr 27, 2026
The U.S. invasions of Venezuela and Iran are more of the same imperialism in service of oil majors. As the climate crisis makes its presence more urgently felt, fossil fascism dictates a…
On Petromasculinity and Protest
Apr 20, 2026
Repression of protest has ramped up in the U.S., but everything that's happening now began with the backlash to the Standing Rock protest back in 2016. In today's episode we look at the connections…
Never Let a War Go to Waste
Apr 14, 2026
Lots of people are talking about the similarities between Iraq and Iran, but in this episode we place the two in the context of another war—World War I—and the historical arc of fossil fascism. See…
Drilling Deep: Karen Hao on How Big AI Is Gambling with the Planet’s Chips
Mar 16, 2026
What is “artificial intelligence”? Is it a fancy technology? A management consulting buzzword? A PR effort to inflate corporate share prices? A political project designed to shape the world more to…
10 Years After Berta Cáceres’s Murder, Why Is Honduras Still So Dangerous for Environmentalists?
Mar 03, 2026
This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the hired hit that took Berta Cáceres’s life and robbed both the Honduran and global environmental movements of a uniquely effective leader. Cáceres was…
Just Because the U.S. Says It's Legal Doesn't Make It So: Companies Trading in Illegally Seized Venezuelan Oil Face Legal Risk
Feb 09, 2026
Fernanda Hopenhaym, member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights walks Drilled senior global climate justice reporter Nina Lakhani through the many legal pitfalls companies getting…
How Climate Protest Backlash Led to Present-Day Repression
Feb 03, 2026
It's easy to feel like climate "doesn't matter" as the United States descends into fascism, as if climate and democracy are somehow separate issues. Researcher Oscar Berglund and Amy Westervelt…
A "Green Transition"? If Only It Were That Simple
Feb 02, 2026
In More and More and More , Jean-Baptiste Fressoz shows that the human history of energy is one of accumulation, not substitution. Here, he talks to reporter Adam Lowenstein about how the "energy…
Introducing Lawless Planet: "Surveillance and Sabotage on the Dakota Access Pipeline"
Jan 20, 2026
When activists Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya take drastic measures to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, they have no idea that a shadowy private security contractor called…
Drilling Deep: John Vaillant on Climate Change and Wildfire
Jan 12, 2026
Wildfires are becoming more intense, frequent, and destructive as the climate heats up. Drilled reporter Royce Kurmelovs and Canadian author John Vallaint, author of Fire Weather , discuss the…
The Norwegian Paradox: Norway's Fossil Fuel Dilemma
Dec 29, 2025
In this bonus episode of The Black Thread, we examine a single legal case that distilles the Norwegian paradox perfectly: the planned electrification of the Melkøya gas processing plant. It's a key…
How Climate Activists Successfully Fight Obstruction
Dec 28, 2025
Despite growing repression worldwide, climate activists continue to stick it to obstructionists and drive change. In this season's finale, Jennie Stephens (University of Ireland Maynooth) and Sharon…
How Litigation Works to Fight Climate Obstruction
Dec 10, 2025
It's bleak out there and while climate obstruction can feel overwhelming, there are efforts being made to fight back against it. One of them is litigation and holding corporations legally…
Drlling Deep: Uruguay's Renewable Energy System with Natasha Hakimi Zapata
Dec 02, 2025
More than a decade ago—when wind and solar power were far more expensive than they are today—Uruguay, long plagued by droughts and energy shortages, transitioned its entire economy such that 98% of…
COP Out: What the Heck Happened at COP30?
Nov 25, 2025
We're bringing you episode 5 of Dana R. Fisher's COP Out podcast, from the Center for Environment, Equity and Community at American University, featuring our own Amy Westervelt and legendary climate…
How and Why Climate Adaptation Measures Get Blocked
Nov 25, 2025
Working against regulations on emissions might protect the economic interests of those with money to lose, but why would anyone fight against adapting to survive climate disaster? In the negotiating…
Carbon Bros Mailbag: Navigating Traditional Male Spaces and the Benefits of Solidarity
Nov 24, 2025
Daniel Penny and Amy Westervelt return for the Carbon Bros mailbag episode, answering listener questions from around the world about masculinity, traditional male spaces, vocational therapy…
Drilling Deep: Jessica Green on Why We Need More Confrontation at COP
Nov 17, 2025
After four decades of the United Nations climate conference COP, progress on global climate action remains slow. So what isn't working? How is it possible that so much fanfare, so many words, and so…
The Corruption of COP: Inside Climate Obstruction at the UN
Nov 10, 2025
The United Nations' climate processes were created to drive global climate action, but from the beginning they've faced organized efforts to delay progress. As COP 30 begins, Kari de Pryck…
Norway Beyond Oil: Climate, Policy, Society
Nov 05, 2025
We look ahead to Norway's future, exploring how the country might begin to loosen oil's grip on its politics and identity. Hear how different voices envision aligning the country's actions with its…
How Climate Obstruction Works at the Local Level
Nov 04, 2025
Local governments are a double-edged sword when it comes to climate policy, with the power to either do far more or far less than national governments. They can be an agent of change or an agent of…
Climate Obstruction in the Global South
Oct 29, 2025
The United States is a global leader of climate obstruction, but it's not the only guilty country. M. Omar Faruque (Queen’s University, Canada) and Ruth E. McKie (De Montfort University) look at how…
Challenging the Narratives
Oct 27, 2025
Do the facts behind the narratives being told by Norway's fossil fuel industry, and government, add up? We hear experts critique some of the stories that keep Norwegian oil and gas pumping, while…
Drilling Deep: Karen House on Saudi Arabia Under Mohammed bin Salman
Oct 25, 2025
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Wall Street Journal publisher Karen Elliott House , author of The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia …
Abdul El-Sayed on Climate Complexities and Benevolent Masculinity
Oct 24, 2025
In this extended conversation, climate policy expert Abdul El-Sayed explores the complexities of the climate crisis and the role of masculinity in shaping how men engage, or fail to engage, with…
Petroganda: How the Oil Industry Is Shaping Norway's Politics and Culture
Oct 22, 2025
A growing number of experts and commentators suggest "petroganda"—the pervasive phenomenon of oil industry manipulation—is at work in Norway, influencing the country's politics, culture, and support…
How the Animal Agriculture Industry Blocks Methane Regulation
Oct 21, 2025
For decades, the meat and dairy industries avoided scrutiny for the planet-heating emissions they pump into the atmosphere. As governments began considering methane regulation, the animal agriculture…