Hothouse Earth

As part of the 2025 Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sean Donahue, partner at Donahue, Goldberg & Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, discuss recent Supreme Court decisions and the state of environmental law during the second Trump administration.

As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Sharmila Murthy, Northeastern University School of Law, gives an impactful Hot Topics lecture, “Sustaining Environmental Justice,” that dovetails with our last episode (28), "Advancing Environmental Justice in a Chaotic Time," by Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar.

As part of our Hot Topics in Environmental Law Summer Lecture Series, Marianne Engelman Lado, New York University School of Law and Vermont Law and Graduate School Distinguished Environmental Law Summer Scholar, talks about how to advance environmental justice in a chaotic time.

Julia Olson, co-executive director and chief legal counsel of Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit law firm she founded in 2010 to empower young people to secure their climate rights, delivered an empowering environmental honorary degree lecture at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Edward Keable, Superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, chats with Callum LaFrance, Legal Fellow for the Environmental Justice Clinic and the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School. They discuss the intricacies of managing the Grand Canyon National Park.Learn more - listen to the Behind the Scenery (U.S. National Park Service) podcast series. The latest episode talks about fire ecology.Also, check out Grand Canyon Speaks - Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) and Minute Out In It - Grand Canyon National Park (U.S. National Park Service) ,which is a collection of short films about the park's nature and culture in action.

Hothouse Earth is excited to share a special cross-podcast from the New Books Network, featuring over 15,000 interviews with authors about their latest books. Last month, New Books Network host Stephen Pimpare, professor of Public Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School, spoke with J. Mijin Cha, assistant professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz and Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Distinguished Energy Law Summer Scholar this year. Cha discusses her book, A Just Transition for All: Workers and Communities for a Carbon-Free Future. To meet the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, a transition away from fossil fuels must occur, as quickly as possible. But there are many unknowns when it comes to moving from theory to implementation for such a large-scale energy transition, to say nothing of whether this transition will be “just.” In A Just Transition for All: Workers and Communities for a Carbon-Free Future (MIT Press, 2024), J. Mijin Cha—

Co-hosts Mia Montoya Hammersley, director of the Environmental Justice Clinic at VLGS, and Savannah Collins JD/MCEP’26 speak with Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lewis, senior associate at Eubanks and Associates, about NEPA and the recent D.C. Circuit decision in Marin Audubon Society v. FAA.

Guest host Christophe Courchesne talks to Sean Donahue, a partner at Donahue, Goldberg, and Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, in the second of two episodes about U.S. Supreme Court rulings this last term that upended administrative law and threaten to diminish environmental protections.

Guest host, Christophe Courchesne talks to Sean Donahue, a partner at Donahue, Goldberg, and Herzog, and Bob Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program and the Robert F Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, about the Supreme Court rulings this year that have diminished environmental protections.

The Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic addresses animal issues in the fight for environmental protection. Listen to Laura Fox chat with host Laura Ireland about the Clinic, which is part of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School, and the accomplishments of the year.

Join guest host Fran Miller, senior staff attorney and adjunct faculty, and her guest, Mavis Gragg, CEO of HeirShares, as they discuss her work empowering families to use real estate as a source for intergenerational resiliency and wealth, and her work building groundbreaking technology to facilitate affordable solutions for family real estate ownership.

Listen to Robert Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program, Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, chat with host Laura Ireland about the possibility of states using tort litigation to make oil companies accountable for their role in climate change misinformation.

Listen to Gina Warren, Professor of Law, A.L. O'Quinn Chair in Environmental Studies, Co-director of the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Center (EENR), University of Houston Law Center, and Distinguished Energy Law Summer Scholar at VLGS discuss the environmental justice and energy concerns of indoor cannabis cultivation with host Laura Ireland and co-host Laurie Beyranevand.

Listen to Jenny Rushlow, dean of the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, professor of law, and faculty director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law and Graduate School talk about the Montana Court's ruling on Held v. State of Montana, how it relates to other cases such as the landmark climate law case she argued and won before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Kain v. Department of Environmental Protection, and how these cases advance environmental advocacy and justice.

Listen to Cale Jaffe, professor of law and director of the Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic at University of Virginia School of Law, chat about the Supreme Court's ruling on Sackett v. EPA and his idea of climate whisperers.

In this episode, Pat Parenteau, Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Fellow for Climate Policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School, chats about his career and how environmental law and policy has evolved, with podcast host, Jeannie Oliver, professor of law and staff attorney at VLGS’s Energy Clinic.Thank you to the Vermont School for the Environment at Vermont Law and Graduate School, Jenifer Rushlow, Anne Linehan, and Donna Kowalewski at Environmental Law Center.

GuestsDavid Deen, President, Connecticut River Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Trout Unlimited Vermont Council, former VT state legislator for 30 yearsKathy Urffer, River Steward, Connecticut River ConservancyJulia MacDonald JD'21, Vermont Law School Peter Malicky MELP'21, Vermont Law SchoolRecommended ResourcesTo get an update on the latest in surface water legislation in VT, visit the Act 173 Committee webpage.For more background on the issues, read the Environmental Advocacy Clinic's report on Vermont surface waters.

Patents on living things threaten biodiversity and our resilience against climate change. In this episode, we examine how a VLS professor is helping plant breeders use “defensive publication” to keep innovations open-source and promote biodiversity.GuestsJim Myers, Professor, Vegetable Breeding and Genetics, Oregon State UniversityEmily Spiegel, Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law SchoolRecommended ResourcesA Breed Apart: The Plant Breeder’s Guide to Defensive Publication“Could a simple database prevent massive ag companies from patenting and guarding seed varieties?” The Counter, May 13, 2021. 

The second episode in the Hothouse Earth Podcast’s “Elevate” miniseries features Brandi Colander JD’06. One of the first students to complete VLS’s dual degree with the Yale School of the Environment, Colander has a career that spans sectors and disciplines. Her work shows that environmental law can expand well beyond the scope of traditional environmentalism, intersecting with social justice and corporate governance. Listen as she shares inspiring career advice for women on support systems, inclusivity, disruption, confidence, and growth.Guest:Brandi Colander, Chief Sustainability Officer at WestRock CompanyHosts:Jeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff AttorneyVeronica Ung-Kono, JD/MERL'21 and IEE Research AssociateRecommended Resources:Operating with the Full Life Cycle in Mind  - A Q&A with WestRock Chief Sustainability Officer Brandi ColanderVermont Law School Dual Degree Programs 

GuestKarin Sheldon, President of Four Echoes Strategies and Adjunct Professor at Colorado Law University of Colorado BoulderHostsJeannie Oliver, Assistant Professor and Staff Attorney, Energy ClinicVeronica Ung-Kono JD/MERL 2021Recommended ResourcesBowman, Cynthia Grant, Women in the Legal Profession from the 1920s to the 1970s: What Can We Learn from Their Experience about Law and Social Change? (2009) Cornell Law Faculty Publications. Paper 12. Green 2.0, exploring diversity in environmental organizations. https://www.diversegreen.org/See in particular, Taylor, Dorceta E., The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations, July 2014.2019 report card with a summary hereHalton, Mary, Climate change ‘impacts women more than men’, 8 March 2018, BBC News. McCarthy, Joe, Why Climate Change Disproportionately Affects Women, 5 March, 2020, Global Citizen.