Connecting climate scientists and design educators together so that we can bring climate-related projects into our classrooms.

Me, Eric Benson, the host of Climify, is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Design for Responsible Innovation at the University of Illinois. I have a BFA in Graphic/Industrial Design from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Design from the University of Texas. I have published and lectured internationally on the importance of sustainable design. My work has also garnered numerous design awards and has been seen in notable venues like The Walker Art Center, the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and RISD.

My research asks how life-centered systems thinking informs the way designers think, critique existing work, create responsible solutions, and craft engaging stories of climate action within the profession and in the classroom. My research is notably seen at his NPO Re-nourish, his sustainable papermaking studio Fresh Press, and on his podcast Climify.

On Climify, I hope to connect climate scientists and design educators together so that we can bring climate-related projects into our classrooms. The discussions on this program are geared to help design educators “climify your syllabi” to assign projects that not only teach design fundamentals but also can have a positive impact on our climate.
 

I started podcasting in 2012 on a comedy variety show. For me, it was a chance to relive my childhood where I loved to record silly comedy shows on tape with my brother. I've always loved talk radio and audio in general ever since I can remember, so Climify (which I started in 2021) was a natural progression for me as I also want to make a positive impact on the world.

I'm an avid podcast listener enjoying programs like: Oologies, This American Life, Cautionary Tales, Imaginary Worlds, and anything involving a murder cold case. These heavily influenced how I started Climify in terms of format and quality. With Climify I wanted practical, fun, and conversational discussions design educators could learn from and find an assignment (given by the guest at the end) to use in design classrooms to create climate action.

Climify began during the Covid-19 pandemic, as I had ample free time at home to think through the mission, vision, and research possible guests. In addition to planning the goals of this show, I also spent a good few months in 2021 (prior to launch) learning new audio editing software (Descript) and how to best produce a program over zoom. All in all, the first episode of Climify took a good five or six months to get ready.
 

Climify is broken up into seasons with anywhere from 12-18 episodes. Each episode comes out weekly (unless my job/life gets in the way!) and each can take weeks to locate a guest, research, plan, edit, and produce. Therefore, I try to get 5-6 episodes ahead of the curve before I launch a season as a weekly rush to get an episode produced and recorded is pure insanity.

As a full time professor, podcasting is something I bake into my teaching and research so it's not something "extra". However despite that, podcasting sucks up tons of my free time. I find myself thinking about questions and editing when I should be more present with my students and family.

Thankfully, some of my University research budget has paid for things like my microphone set-up and a sponsor in season two of Climify has supported labor and technology to improve the sound and production of the podcast. Besides those, anything else I need I need to self-fund. Climify is definitely a labor of love!
 

Climify was sponsored in season two by Dreamhost.com. They wanted to get more involved in supporting projects with a climate action mission and we were a great benefactor of their generosity. Their donation has helped us support many technical elements of the program.

To get sponsorship we created a PDF that detailed levels of donation and what the donor would receive in return at each level (platinum through bronze). We were a podcast in our infancy when Dreamhost donated funding, so our downloads and subscribers were significantly less than we have currently. Dreamhost believed in us, and we thank them for it!

Season three, so far, does not have a sponsor, but we have grown our volunteer team four-fold. Our first two seasons have attracted a number of loyal listeners and fans, and our mission has inspired four new volunteers to help make the show better and improve our branding. They have also brought their connections to the program as listeners and fans. This has been the biggest benefit to me as the host - meeting new people, hearing their stories, and amplifying them to create climate action.

Recently we won a design award for our branding and I was invited to a design educator conference to present podcasting as a vehicle for social change. I hope that this is just the start of bigger and better things for the climate cause and my career in podcasting.
 

To make Climify the team uses Notion. We organize and plan all the episodes and organizational strategies there. The team researches our networks on LinkedIn and Twitter to locate the best guests for our shows theme and reach out for an introductory Zoom call. Most of the time, I do not know the potential guest, so this first Zoom conversation is a good way to build our relationship and pitch Climify. If the guest agrees, we have a standard email that directs them to a Google intake form and a Calendly link to book the recording.

We use email to go back and forth with the guests concerning the questions I will ask and issues around technology to get the best audio from a Zoom call. We recommend a room without much outside distraction (and carpeting), a microphone, and the app Krisp to enhance the audio. After the recording, I level the audio using Auphonic and use Descript for any other audio enhancing and editing.

Our podcast is hosted on Squarespace (which creates the RSS feed). All of this costs money, so we were ecstatic that the funding from our sponsor should pay for these subscriptions for a few years.
 

Our audience is mainly design educators. We polled them using a Google survey and found they wanted to hear from us on LinkedIn and email newsletters. Originally we strictly used Instagram to find new listeners and advertise our program. This had limited success, but since Meta changed their algorithms for Instagram towards reels, the time and energy to use that platform for increased marketing did not make sense to us.

Instead we use LInkedIn accounts from our team and guests to promote the program. As the podcast is supported by the Climate Designers organization, they have multiple email listservs with thousands of subscribers that also get announcements about the program.
Since day one, we also have spent time reaching out to other climate, design, and related podcasts to barter commercials that would cross promote our shows. We have located a few partners that air our commercials on their podcast and visa versa.
 

The biggest thing I've learned about doing a podcast like Climify is that you have to love to do it. It takes a lot of time and generates no income. If you're in it for the money and/or metrics, don't do a podcast. You'll likely fail or feel unfulfilled. Climify introduces me to exciting new connections and possibilities for creative collaboration on climate action. That is what keeps me going - the hope that I'm doing something positive to create a better future for us all.

In addition, if you have no funding (like me originally), you have to realize that you'll need to spend a good amount of time learning audio engineering. I enjoy it. If you don't, then maybe this isn't for you.

I found out how to make Climify by talking with other podcasters I know and YouTube tutorials. Both are free and that is important when you are starting a show from zero.
 

Where can you find Climify? Great question!
Here is our website:
www.climatedesigners.org/edu/climify
On Instagram:
www.instagram.com/climifypodcast
On LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/climifypodcast