TYPE 2: Episode 013 - Mario Molina

Type 2 is a podcast from Looking Sideways in association with Patagonia that explores the intersection between the outdoors, action sports and activism. This week’s guest is Mario Molina, and what a chat this one is. Mario is a climber, snowboarder, mountain biker and guide who grew up in the highlands of Guatemala and today lives in Colorado. As I discovered, he is also somebody who has dedicated his life to the fight for climate action, firstly as deputy director at the Alliance for Climate Education, and then latterly as International Director at The Climate Reality Project, where he worked with Al Gore and helped oversee that organisation’s post-Paris Agreement strategy. Today, he is executive director of Protect Our Winters, helping to drive POW and sister organisation the POW Action Fund’s strategy during the busiest and most critical period in the organisation’s history. With the 2020 election looking, POW are using a highly targeted and calculated plan to try and mobilise a potential 50 million ‘outdoor state’ voters, and drive the narrative to depoliticise the climate conversation and move it away from a binary left/right argument. These are massive ambitions that stem from POW’s ultimate aim, which is to achieve systemic change in transportation and energy at the highest possible level. And it meant myself and Mario had plenty to talk about as we caught up over Zoom in August 2020. Naturally, I was also keen to tap into Mario’s depth of experience to see what we can learn from his own unique perspective on the challenges we face when it comes to climate action, particularly in the post-Covid world. The result is a rich, fascinating and insightful conversation with somebody with a unique take on our current situation. I found Mario to be a really generous conversationalist, and greatly enjoyed our conversation. Hope you do too. New episodes of Type 2 are released every four weeks through my Looking Sideways channel. Hear it by subscribing to Looking Sideways via ApplePodcasts, Spotify or any of the usual other podcast providers. Thanks to Ewan Wallace for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson.