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It’s Never a Strategy to Remain Quiet, With Nick Tilsen

On A People's Climate: A call for big, bad, bold courage.

Shilpi Chhotray

October 11, 2025

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

It’s Never A Strategy To Remain Quiet with Nick Tilsen | A People’s Climate
byThe Nation Magazine

What does true climate justice look like when it’s rooted in sovereignty, resistance, and liberation? 

In this powerful episode of A People’s Climate, Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Nick Tilsen—Oglala Lakota land defender and CEO of NDN Collective—to unpack the meaning of LandBack, the historic fight for the Black Hills, the release of political prisoner Leonard Peltier, and the deep ties between Indigenous struggles and Palestinian resistance. 

From direct action at Mount Rushmore to building legal strategies against unjust laws, this conversation is a call for big, bad bold courage.

Learn more at apeoplesclimate.org 

Resources:

NDN Collective

– Nick Tilsen’s Podcast: LandBack for The People

LandBack

The Fallout From The Greenpeace Verdict (The Nation)

Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation

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What does true climate justice look like when it’s rooted in sovereignty, resistance, and liberation? 

In this powerful episode of A People’s Climate, Shilpi Chhotray sits down with Nick Tilsen—Oglala Lakota land defender and CEO of NDN Collective—to unpack the meaning of LandBack, the historic fight for the Black Hills, the release of political prisoner Leonard Peltier, and the deep ties between Indigenous struggles and Palestinian resistance.

From direct action at Mount Rushmore to building legal strategies against unjust laws, this conversation is a call for big, bad bold courage.

Learn more at apeoplesclimate.org 

Resources:

NDN Collective

– Nick Tilsen’s Podcast: LandBack for The People

LandBack

The Fallout From The Greenpeace Verdict (The Nation)

Presented by Counterstream Media and The Nation

Powered by Wildseeds Fund

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/subscribe.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Reframing Resistance (Live from NYC Climate Week) | A People’s Climate
byThe Nation Magazine

For this special season finale, recorded live during NYC Climate Week, host Shilpi Chhotray convenes a powerful storytelling event with three frontline media makers: Chantel Comardelle, Alexandra Norris, and B. Preston Lyles.

This is more than a conversation about films or campaigns — it’s an intimate window into the lived realities of climate and environmental injustice. From Indigenous land loss in Louisiana, to the ongoing fight against the petrochemical buildout in Cancer Alley, to exposing the violence of toxic prisons, this discussion centers the human stories too often sidelined in mainstream climate narratives.

Our guests speak candidly about their experiences, what sustains them in the face of systemic harm, why frontline voices must lead solutions, and how storytelling itself becomes a vital tool of resistance, survival, and collective power.

This live storytelling event was made possible in partnership with Dr. Margot Brown, Senior Vice President of Justice and Equity at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Frontline Resource Institute. Special thanks to Chess Jakobs, Counterstream Media’s Impact Producer, who produced this event.

Key Topics

  • Frontline climate and environmental justice: Stories from communities directly impacted by the climate crisis and extractive industries.
  • Indigenous displacement: The Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation and climate-driven migration.
  • Sharon Lavigne’s fight against petrochemical expansion in Cancer Alley
  • Toxic prisons: The intersection of mass incarceration, environmental harm, and systemic injustice.
  • How spiritual grounding and faith sustains organizing. Using film and media to reclaim narratives and highlight underrepresented stories.
  • Narrative power: How media shapes perception, policy, and the climate movement’s priorities.

Resources

Let No One Lose Heart

Toxic Prisons Campaign

Rise St. James

Preserving Our Place

Isle de Jean Charles Choctaw Nation

Frontline Resources Institute

Environmental Defense Fund

Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com

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Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts

Shilpi ChhotrayShilpi Chhotray is the host of A People’s Climate, a new podcast from Counterstream Media and The Nation. New episodes every Saturday, starting September 27.


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