Communicating Earth podcast
Episode 18: Caroline Prak
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Does AI have any potential role in tackling the climate and nature crisis?
Caroline Prak is a former Communications leader for Friends of the Earth and Oxfam and creator of the Understories.io tool.
The Understories tool she created (after joining the MIT’s Sustainable AI Program) evaluates messaging against peer-reviewed research studies, scores it across eight evidence-based criteria and suggests revisions while also flagging ethical risks.
Caroline talks to Tom Clark about:
Why climate communication could do much better at cutting through the noise
Why it’s hard to connect the dots between communications science and our day-to-day work pressures
How AI could help us do better
Join Caroline and Tom as they take a deep dive on her “contrarian bet” that merging AI with climate and nature comms is a necessary strategy for saving the planet.
Recommended book: "Hope in the Dark" by Rebecca Solnit - https://canongate.co.uk/books/46-hope-in-the-dark-untold-histories-wild-possibilities/
Follow Caroline at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ca...
Additional Notes:
- Understories.io
- The Case of the Century / L'Affaire du Siècle - laffairedusiecle.net
- Oxfam Davos Inequality Report - https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/fight-inequality/oxfams-global-inequality-report/
- MIT Sustainable AI Program - https://climateproject.mit.edu/events/sustainable-ai
- The 89% Project - https://89percent.org/
- The Long Reads Interview with Rebecca Solnit (4 March 2026) - https://longreads.com/2026/03/04/questionnaire-rebecca-solnit/
- Justiça Ambiental! - https://justica-ambiental.org/
- Anabela Lemos - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabela_Lemos
- Don’t Look Up - https://www.netflix.com/title/81252357
- Maibach et al. (2015), "Do Americans Understand That Global Warming Is Harmful to Human Health?", Annals of Global Health - https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2015/12/Maibach-et-al-2015-Do-Americans-Understand-GW-is-Harmful-to-Health.pdf
- Le Monde - https://www.lemonde.fr/en/
Released: 3 June 2026
Run Time: 60 minutes
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
