I have plastic chemicals in my pee

A powerful argument against the certainty of doom

This July 4 weekend has the potential to be soul-crushing. On the East Coast, a brutal heat wave [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/weather/fourth-of-july-heat-wave-latest-updates.html] is reminding everyone that the climate crisis is not some future abstraction, but an extremely scary present-tense physical condition. In Europe, extreme heat has resulted in more than 1,300 deaths [https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/06/eastern-u-s-to-broil-after-heat-wave-kills-over-1300-in-europe/]. Across the U.S., dozens of large wildfires are burning [https://sg.news.yahoo.com/fast-moving-wildfires-scorch-thousands-182503474.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIA_ZRrBrTZdFLRLUiiihZ55I-P4NDKEq7GuuKV4JxbZuEOHsuDGB6HA8ltC3vcgrX-utFGEneWOXEftZSQOqiY96kgK32hcOzDYbpuASlbMV9EJ8-EZ16QmCoRL0N81jh-z_a-4lPf5Zf-H2vvstaZckmBrPkJBLKZPR6TsAuqi], drought is still gripping [https://www.newsweek.com/u-s-drought-predictions-for-july-as-new-map-released-12126259] much of the Lower 48, and the powers that be are doing [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/climate/trump-super-pollutants-hfc-epa-climate-change.html] everything [https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18062026/trump-administration-funds-coal-plants-with-repeated-violations/] they can [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/climate/trump-offshore-wind-duke-energy.html] to ensure this is not only the hottest summer on record, but the coldest summer for the rest of our lives. So if your temptation is to give in to doomerism right now, I totally get it. But if you looking for a reason not to—and if you have some free time to dive into fiction over the holiday weekend—I recommend picking up Retro [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788779/retro-by-jessica-m-goldstein/], a novel out last week by author Jessica M. Goldstein. The book’s main character, Ash, is a struggling actress dealing with similar feelings of despair and hopelessness about the future. And then she gets a job at Retro, a travel agency dedicated to taking wealthy tourists on highly-curated trips to the past. And slowly, her perspective begins to shift—but not perhaps for the reasons you’d expect. What I loved about Retro is that it doesn’t answer that feeling with some cheesy conversion to optimism. It offers something I find far more realistic and useful: the idea that you can be cynical, but you don’t have to be an a*****e. You can know the future is uncertain, and still refuse to abandon it. You can be furious, scared, and nostalgic for what we’ve already lost—and still say, basically: screw it. I’m going to try anyway. Bias alert: Jess is also one of my best friends. I don’t really know how to talk about fiction books as a critic, but I do know how to dish with my girl about climate dread, nostalgia, evil tech billionaires, and the romance and power of platonic friendship. That’s what today’s podcast conversation is: a tonic for anyone who wants to be hopeful about the future but is struggling to do it. We talk about why Retro wouldn’t exist without Jess’s own feelings about climate change, why doomerism can feel so seductive, and why the unknowability of the future is not a reason to give up on it—but the very reason not to. You can find our full conversation at the top of this newsletter, on any of your podcast apps, or on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtl3JmOlrHQ]. Just a heads up, we start diving into spoilers about halfway through the conversation, but we give a pretty explicit warning beforehand. You can buy Retro here [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/788779/retro-by-jessica-m-goldstein/] (or, for U.K. readers, here [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/477051/retro-by-goldstein-jessica-m/9780241809457]), or pick it up at your local public library. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heated.world/subscribe [https://heated.world/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

I have plastic chemicals in my pee

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heated.world [https://heated.world?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] I tested my pee for plastic chemicals! In today's episode, I go over the results with Dr. Shanna Swan and Jenna Hua, CEO of Million Marker, the company that administered my test, and talk about how my plastic detox has been going so far.

Wildfire season doesn't have to be like this

Last year, the Eaton Fire devastated Altadena, California, killing 19 people, destroying more than 9,000 structures, and leaving an entire community trying to rebuild. Now, as Altadena is still recovering, another wildfire season is already underway. In this episode of HEATED, we speak with Savannah Bradley, co-founder of A Resilient Tomorrow, a community-led disaster recovery organization launched after the Eaton Fire by Black women with deep roots in Altadena. They discuss what it means to recover from one climate-fueled disaster while preparing for the next one, and what communities actually need to rebuild safely and justly. Then we head to Capitol Hill to speak with Rep. Judy Chu about the fight for federal disaster aid, climate resilience funding, and who should pay as climate disasters become more destructive and more expensive. HEATED is 100% reader-funded journalism. No ads. No sponsors. No fossil fuel money. Support our work: heated.world [http://heated.world] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heated.world/subscribe [https://heated.world/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Why Sheldon Whitehouse keeps calling out Big Oil

For years, Senator Sheldon has been one of Congress’s most relentless climate voices, delivering more than 300 “Time to Wake Up” speeches [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyg5hj7I21jr7tP--id5EmMTmpTbdlw1] on the Senate floor about climate change and the fossil fuel industry’s political power. Lately, that persistence has taken a more targeted form: pressing the Trump administration over its extraordinary new favors to the oil and gas industry; investigating its decision to exempt Gulf drilling from endangered species protections [https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2026/4/whitehouse-investigates-trump-s-god-squad-waiving-endangered-species-protections-to-expand-oil-drilling]; and pushing a windfall profits tax [https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2026/3/as-trump-s-war-surges-gas-prices-whitehouse-and-khanna-reintroduce-big-oil-profits-clawback-to-provide-relief-at-the-pump]on oil companies at a time when Republicans control Congress and the White House. Whitehouse knows none of it is likely to move through Washington right now. So why does this gentleman from Rhode Island continue this brutal exercise of self-flagellation in the Senate? What is he trying to accomplish? And does he really think that if Democrats were in power, things would be any different? That’s what we wanted to know, and what Emily asked him. So let’s hear from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heated.world/subscribe [https://heated.world/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Why Kate Marvel left NASA

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heated.world [https://heated.world?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_7] Kate Marvel spent more than a decade at NASA studying the future of life on Earth. Then the Trump administration made that job feel impossible. Marvel, a prominent climate scientist, resigned from NASA last month amid the Trump administration’s sweeping attacks on federal science. Since Trump’s second term started, more than 10,000 federal employees with STEM Ph.D.s have left the government—mostly through layoffs, firings and buyouts—and more than 7,800 research grants were terminated or frozen. In her resignation letter—a masterclass in principled dissent [https://grist.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/docs/kate-marvel-resignation-letter.pdf]—Marvel wrote that she never expected to voluntarily leave her dream job. However, she wrote, "I’m leaving because I want to tell the truth." In our conversation today, Marvel tells the truth about what’s happening to federal science under the Trump administration. We talk about the work she was doing at NASA before Trump, and why the administration would want to make that work difficult to accomplish. We also talk about one side-effect of Trump’s attack on science that no one is talking about: The loss of nerd culture, and why that culture is important to democracy. Then, for paid subscribers, we keep going into one of the most controversial questions in climate science: geoengineering. We talk about what it means to study technologies that could intentionally alter the climate system, and why the collapse of trusted public science makes those future decisions even more dangerous. We also get into our feelings about the state of federal science, and the strategies we’re deploying to not just cope, but fight back.