Apr 17, 2022 Hot Take

Earth Day the Right Way: The Hot Take Podcast Is Back!

This Friday is Earth Day and we’re taking it back to its roots: social justice and pointing out the real villains: oil companies. We’re thrilled to be relaunching the pod with Crooked Media this week. First ep? The Real Fuckbois of Fossil Fuel, a reminder of all the shit oil companies are actually getting up to despite all those greenwashing campaigns and “net zero” promises. You can check out the trailer here, and make sure to tune in wherever you get your podcasts, or via our new page on the Crooked site!

Also reminder that we're running a special throughout the month of April, 30% off for new paid subscribers!

April Rage Upgrade

HotTake Trailer

0:00

/2:18

April 20 Is Still Fuck BP Day

By Mary Annaïse Heglar

Last year, we started a little tradition of trolling the oil giant BP especially hard on April 20. And this year, we’re keeping it up! For those who don’t know, April 20 is the anniversary of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that quickly overtook the Exxon Valdez spill as the biggest in U.S. history. We wrote before about how devastating that spill was, so we won’t rehash that here. Instead, this is just a quick invitation to join us on the Internet machine—be it Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, whatever—and send a terse “fuck you” to the folks over at BP to remind them that we ain’t forgot!

If last year is any indication, BP will likely not post that day… guilty conscious maybe? But it doesn’t matter. Troll their old posts, find their subsidiary accounts. They have a shit ton of them! And get in that ass!

And, oh yeah, have fun!

The Definition of Insanity

By Mary Annaïse Heglar

On Tuesday, New York City experienced a nightmare come true: an active shooter on the subway. Complete with smoke bombs and at least rumors of other “undetonated devices,” the event struck terror in the heart of the city. Anyone who has ever spent much time in New York knows that the subway is the lifeblood of the city, and almost everyone takes it. The other thing you know is that the subway is almost always crawling with cops. And not only did they not stop the shooting—which, with its smoke bomb, was VERY not subtle—the shooter just waltzed the fuck out the station! Still, there are folks clamoring for MORE cops!

Look, I don’t necessarily need to be yet another person pointing out the extraordinarily obvious fact that more cops do not solve or prevent crime, but I do want to point out that policing is not the only place where this happens. I can’t help but hear the calls for more cops on the subway and hear echoes of the calls for more fossil fuels as a solution for the war in Ukraine...

Upgrade to Keep Reading

Media and Climate Accountability

By Amy Westervelt

The March 2022 numbers on climate coverage from our friends over at the Media and Climate Change Observatory (MeCCO) came out the same week in early April that brought us the very first IPCC report to ever mention the media. The numbers show an increase from February 2022 to March 2022, but a decrease from March 2021 to March 2022. Radio coverage has also seen a sustained decline every month this year so far, which isn’t great given that about half of Americans still get their news from radio (really!). I suspect April will see the usual Earth Day spike, but I can’t help but look at the way the media has been covering soaring gas prices and the Biden administration’s subsequent moves to bend over backwards for the fossil fuel industry and wonder how the fuck it took so long to start including media in the conversation about climate accountability.

Upgrade to Keep Reading

It’s Not Depression, It’s Betrayal

By Mary Annaïse Heglar

Over the past few years, I’ve seen a lot of talk about how kids today are so much more depressed than they were before. And I’ve experienced it in my own life, with the young people I care about. It’s palpable in pop culture, especially in shows like Euphoria, as I’ve written about before. The blame is laid at the feet of a lot of new phenomena: the pandemic, social media, the economy (of course). Almost always, these discussions tend to overlook a very obvious reason kids today are so depressed: climate change. All of those other reasons are things that can get better. Climate change is guaranteed to get worse, in all of our lifetimes.

Upgrade to Keep Reading