—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative print and audio journalist. In 2017 she founded the independent podcast production company Critical Frequency, which specializes in reported narrative podcasts. In 2020 she was executive producer of Unfinished: Short Creek, a co-production between Critical Frequency and Stitcher that was named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and received a Wilbur award for excellence in religion reporting.
In 2021, she led the reporting and production teams of This Land S2—an investigative, narrative season revealing the various forces behind efforts to unravel tribal sovereignty in the U.S. via attacks on the Indian Child Welfare Act—which was nominated in April 2022 for a Peabody Award.
Her investigative climate podcast Drilled, a Critical Frequency original production, was awarded the Online News Association award for excellence in audio journalism in 2019 and Covering Climate Now's award for excellence in audio journalism in 2021. Damages, a Drilled spin-off focused on climate litigation, launched in 2021 and received the Covering Climate Now audio award for 2022. Amy was named a Covering Climate Now Journalist of the Year in 2023. In 2015, she received a Rachel Carson award for women greening journalism, for her role in creating a women-only climate journalism group syndicating longform climate reporting to The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Economist, and many more outlets.
A 20-year veteran investigative journalist, Westervelt's earlier work for NPR, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Inside Climate News, and various other outlets earned her Edward R. Murrow, ONA, and Folio awards as well, and is often cited as amongst the earliest examples of accountability reporting on climate.
Amy hosts and produces a lot of podcasts, but Drilled is the big one I've listened to a lot. I listen partly to learn what happens behind the scenes and in the past in the fossil fuel industry. She's also covered how these companies influence the public in what until about World War II was called propaganda but the advertising industry changed to public relations. As a podcaster myself, I wanted to know how she came to win all those awards, start all those podcasts, and found the company that produces them. If you think you've struggled and failed, you'll love her story since she struggled and failed on the way to success. I recommend listening to her podcasts. First listen to our conversation to learn about the person behind the microphone.