Episode 33 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet strikes a somber note to the chaos unfolding in our streets – violence led by agents of destruction wearing ICE uniforms. These are dark times in our country, around which we hope music can shed some light, echo what’s in our hearts, generate a little catharsis, and maybe even light a spark of resistance.

Episode 31 of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet meets the New Year with new resolve to inspire all our listeners to do something healing for our planet. It can be making “good trouble,” as John Lewis once told us; it can be raising awareness with song; it can be coming together in community. Or simply being a caring person to those around you. We dedicate this episode to the future.

Episode 30 (Season 2) is a profile of the legendary activist collective The Church of Stop Shopping, led by Reverend Billy (William Talen) and Savitri D. Beginning with anti-consumerist actions in New York's Times Square in the 1990s, the church grew into a powerful performing force, with infectious gospel grooves, dozens of voices in harmony, and Reverend Billy's heartfelt, eloquent anti-consumption message delivered in true prophetic voice.

Warren Senders' interview with Reverend Billy and Director Savitri D is interspersed with video of the Church's music-filled activism and activism-filled music, and supplemented with historical and cultural context.

To learn more, go to revbilly.com.

Music and Video

"I Am Not The Only One"
The Stop Shopping Choir
from "The Sun Is A Star That Keeps Me Warm"

Richard Nixon, Lloyd Shopping Center
Portland, Oregon, September 13, 1960
KGW Vault, Portland
George W. Bush
CNN, December 2006
"On The Road!"
Reverend Billy and the
Church of Stop Shopping

"Bye, Bye Buying"
Reverend Billy
December, 2013

Billy Graham Crusade
Film recorded 1957
Billy Sunday Warns America
Film recorded 1926
"It's The End of the World"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Joe's Pub, Public Theater, New York
Sep 18, 2014

"Can We Be Strange Enough to Change Enough?"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 22, 2025

"Paradise Now"
The Living Theater
Berlin Sports Palast
January 10, 1970
from "Signals Through The Flames"
Mystic Fire Video
Augusto Boal clip
Centro de Teatro do Oprimido
"Money Makes The World Go Around"
Bread & Puppet Theater
Glover, VT
September, 2019
(Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)
"Reverend Billy Exorcises BP At Tate Museum"
London, UK
Jul 19, 2011

"Love Earth"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 22, 2025

"The Fabulous Unknown"
Reverend Billy and
the Stop Shopping Choir
from "The Sun Is A Star That Keeps Me Warm"

"Monsanto's Deadly Secret in Central Park"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
New York City, Apr 1, 2016

"Fabulous Bad Weather"
Reverend Billy and the
Stop Shopping Choir
Lyrics by William Talen & Savitri Durkee
From "The Earth Wants You"
Brooklyn, Apr 7, 2016

Interview with
William Talen & Savitri D
November 17, 2025

Every attempt has been made to secure permission from copyright holders of audio and video content used in this program. The use of copyrighted material is for non-commercial, educational purposes, and is intended to provide benefit to the public. Copyrighted material used is supplementary and illustrative, and does not detract from the commercial value of the original content. "Cool Tunes For A Hot Planet" uses only the minimum amount of copyrighted material to fulfill its educational purpose. We believe our use constitutes "Fair Use" of this material as provided for in the US Copyright Act of 1976, Sections 106A-117.If you feel any content in this episode violates your copyright, please contact us immediately and we will address your concern appropriately.

Episode 25 is a mixed bag of tunes, starting out with Pay Attention by Joyce Johnson Rouse, singing with her group, Earth Mama. It’s a simple – even childlike – doo-wop kind of song that asks us to pay attention to the earth, and all the wonderful things it gives us. But it also makes clear our responsibility to keep it clean and whole.

Building on Earth Mama’s insistence to take responsibility for our planet, next is Crys Matthews, singing her Waking Up the Dead, a song about our generational responsibility to the slaves, some dead hundreds of years, now buried in the cemetery Crys finds herself walking through. She feels their suffering and celebrates their struggle to achieve the freedom they got only in death. But she also offers her gratitude for all they went through toget her to her own freedom – and wonders: Who were they? It is a moving ode to freedom and responsibility.

And speaking of freedom, our next song, No Kings, comes with a montage of all the demonstrations that arose on No KingsDay last June 14 – one of the largest protests in US history. The song says “No Kings in the USA,” and we all know it’s talking about that corrupt Man Who Would Be King, sitting in the White House. It’s a boisterous, rousing piece of soul music, rejoicing in the knowledge that “No man owns the USA.” It’s a good reminder that the second No Kings Day is coming up soon, on October 18. And courage is contagious, so tell all your friends.

Finally, we round out today’s episode. with something of the spoken word – Come Write a Song With Us, by Lu Aya, co-founder of The Peace Poets – a hip-hop and spoken word crew from the Bronx. Lu is an educator, musician, and champion of social justice. His poem tells us we are all interwoven, and songs have the power to embody that idea.

Episode 24 — "Old and New Sunlight"When we remember that fossil fuels are simply the sunlight that fell on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, it changes our perspective on energy use. It's ALL solar power; the only difference is whether it's old or new. All these forms of energy have their own music, and this episode of "Cool Tunes For A Hot Planet" brings together songs of coal miners and anti-mining activists, the songs of oil drillers and of those fighting to preserve their lands, the songs of anti-fracking campaigns...and songs from all over the world in acknowledgement and gratitude to the Sun — along with film clips and interviews for a fascinating musical journey through Earth's energy economy, hosted by Warren Senders.
Music:
"The Sun's Gonna Shine In My Door Someday"
Big Bill Broonzy
"Our Mr. Sun"
Directed by Frank Capra, 1956
Bell Systems Science Series
Public Domain, courtesy A/V Geeks LLC
"Black Lung"
Hazel Dickens, 1990
Film by Mimi Pickering
Courtesy of Appalshop Films
"42 Years"
Nimrod Workman, 1983
From the Alan Lomax Collection,
American Folklife Center,
Library of Congress
Courtesy of the Association for Cultural Equity
"Coal Miners' Song"
Traditional Folk Songs of Japan,
Collected by Ryutaro Hattori,
Folkways Records FE 4534
"Ham Hai Coal India"
Promotional Video
Ministry of Coal, Government of IndiaInterview with film-maker and activist Surya Shankar Dash, India
"Niyamraja's Lament"
Dombu Praska,
Niyamgiri Hills, November 2013
Film by Surya Shankar Dash
"Dharini — Earth Festival"
Domgria Kondh Tribespeople
Niyamgiri Hills, April 2016
Film by Surya Shankar Dash
"Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti Victory March"
Domgria Kondh Tribespeople
Niyamgiri Hills, April 2016
Film by Surya Shankar Dash
"I'm A Tool-Pusher From Snyder"
Slim Willet
Star Talent 770-B
"This Old Rig"
Freddie Frank
Permian Records
PR 1001-A
"Energy Crisis"
Public Service Announcement
US Department of Energy
"There is Only So Much Oil In The Ground"
Tower Of Power
From "Urban Renewal", 1974
Warner Brothers BS 2834
Interview with Eco-Musicologist Olusegan Titus, Nigeria.
"Black Tide"
Ubrei-Joe Jeru
Film courtesy Olusegan Titus
"Niger Delta"
Nneka Egbuna
From "No Longer At Ease", 2008
Yo Mama's Recording – YPS 88697111381
"Frackin' The Hole"
Wes St. John
KECO Radio, April 22, 2011
"Before The Drilling Rigs Got Here"
Thom Chacon
from "Buy This Fracking Album"
www.thomchacon.com/
"Frack Attack"
Quintin "Jitsvinger" Goliath — lyrics, vocals
Loris Raimondi — music
Pete O'Donoghue, Travys Owen — sound & animation
Produced by Pippa Ehrlich and
Treasure Karoo Action Group
"Tum Jaago Mohan Pyaare"
Khyal in Raga Bhairav
Pt. Narayanrao Vyas
HMV 78 N-7525
"Lile"
(Hymn to the Sun"
Anchiskhati Choir, Tbilisi, Georgia
March 14, 2010
"An die untergehende Sonne, D 457"
(To the setting sun)
Robert Elibay-Hartog — Baritone
Dante Lorenzo DiIanni — Piano
London, April 15, 2012
"Solar Energy"
Ambition Boyz, January 21, 2022
O-Rymz, Ox-Milez
Trainees at Solar Installation Program
Don Bosco Academy,
Kamuli, Uganda
Every attempt has been made to secure permission from copyright holders of audio and video content used in this program. The use of copyrighted material is for non-commercial, educational purposes, and is intended to provide benefit to the public. Copyrighted material used is supplementary and illustrative, and does not detract from the commercial value of the original content. "Cool Tunes For A Hot Planet" uses only the minimum amount of copyrighted material to fulfill its educational purpose. We believe our use constitutes "Fair Use" of this material as provided for in the US Copyright Act of 1976, Sections 106A-117.
If you feel any content in this episode violates your copyright, please contact us immediately and we will address your concern appropriately.

Airing September 1 is a special edition of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet - it's our one year anniversary. We're offering an expanded show this time, with each of our producers looking back on what we've accomplished, and presenting a variety of music videos that stand out as representative of the year gone by. Some of the songs are reprises from earlier episodes, others are new. And for the centerpiece of the episode, we are proud to present an interview with the renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, Third Act, and author of numerous globally recognized publications about climate change and its ramifications - all while remaining optimistic about the future. So welcome to our birthday party, and enjoy the show.

Episode 22: Music Beyond Humanity — A Profile of Inter-species Musician David Rothenberg

Clarinetist, author, and philosopher David Rothenberg has spent his life making music far removed from the usual contexts of performance stages or recording studios. Rothenberg's collaborators have included cicada swarms, katydids, nightingales, lyrebirds, warblers, whales, and dolphins. His experiences have given him a unique and valuable perspective on our human musicality and how it relates to the totality of Earth's ecosystems. In this episode we hear David interacting musically with his non-human collaborators, and thinking aloud about what they have to teach us in a time of climate transformation. Featuring videos by Lewis Rapkin along with underwater footage and interviews from 2021 and 2025.

Music & Video

"Summer Symphony — Bug Music"

Video produced by Lewis Rapkin, Oscillator Media

"Helsinki Nightingale Clarinet Dawn"

Video produced by Lewis Rapkin, Oscillator Media

Paul Winter Consort

"Wolf Eyes", Living Music CD LD0018

R. Murray Schafer

"Music For Wilderness Lake", Kalvfestivalen 2014, Sweden

"Bug Music: David Rothenberg's Insect Choir"

Video documentary by Jennifer Berglund & Ian MacLellan

"Sago Beetle & Mouth Resonator"

Mahisu, Wam Tribesman, Warengema Village, East-Sepik, New Guinea

Recording by Robert MacLennan, 1961

"Cicadas and Clarinet" — Princeton, NJ, June 2, 2021

Video produced by Reuters

"Dawn Chorus Plus One"

Video produced by Lewis Rapkin

"Live with Humpback Whales in Hawaii"

Directed by François Noulens, Produced by Christophe Cosse.

"Whale Muse Seek" — Film by Maria Batlle, 2017

All other video and audio material by David Rothenberg.

The August episode of Cool Tunes for a Hot Planet is a somber one, commemorating the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, 1945, ending World War II and unleashing the atomic age. Our feelings about that momentous event have evolved over time, from triumph to uncertainty to horror - and our music has reflected those changes: country songs with pride and religious fervor, pop songs with dark humor and irony, folksongs of protest, jazz and classical both elevated and discordant, reflecting the anxieties of a world facing potential nuclear extinction. This month's show presents a powerful selection of musical expression, addressing the stark memory that still hangs over our heads 80 years later.