S05 Episode 227 | YESSENIA FUNES OF ATMOS ON RACE AND THE ENVIRONMENT + CENTERING FRONTLINE ORGANIZERS AS THE WRITERS OF THEIR OWN STORIES

<p><img src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/99761/Yessenia-Funes-Main-libsyn.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="600" /></p> <p class="">In episode 227, Kestrel welcomes Yessenia Funes, the Climate Editor at Atmos, to the show. A new climate and culture magazine, <a href="https://atmos.earth" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Atmos</a> is curated by an ecosystem of adventurers, creatives, and journalists, and dedicated to pioneering progress around the world.</p> <h2>“So much of what we do is working with frontline organizers, so that they can tell their own stories — inviting them to come write for us, creating space so that they’re not just quoted in an article, but they’re writing the article. And I think that there’s sometimes hesitance to do that in the media industry, out of this sort of obsession with objectivity — I think is honestly what sometimes drives some of that. And we do that in a way that, we’re not here to necessarily push an agenda, but we’re here to give people space to to tell their truth, tell their stories and to educate the public about the battles that many of these people are fighting.”<br /> -Yessenia Funes, Climate Editor at Atmos</h2> <p class="">On this week’s show, Yessenia shares more on what led her to writing about race and the environment. She is now focused on telling human-centered stories, and welcoming frontline organizers to write their own stories on how the climate crisis is impacting them and their communities.</p> <p class="">Kestrel asks Yessenia for her thoughts on where she thinks the media stands today, when it comes to covering stories around environmental racism and environmental justice.</p> <ul> <li> <p class="">“It’s an exciting moment now to see so much understanding of what environmental racism is, of what environmental justice is, but it is alarming to see the slow response to do anything about it, especially at a scale that matters.” -Yessenia</p> </li> <li> <p class=""><a href= "https://www.vox.com/2018/10/8/17948832/climate-change-global-warming-un-ipcc