Climate change doesn’t just live in headlines anymore. It’s showing up in our cities, our neighbourhoods, and sometimes right outside our front doors.
Wildfires creeping closer to urban edges. Air pollution turning skylines hazy. Flooding in places that were never supposed to flood.
This April, The Story Collider is diving into all of it with a brand new podcast series on urban climate change — and instead of stats and policy debates, they’re telling the stories of the people living through it.
Launching April 3, this special series brings together eight true, personal stories that explore the forces shaping our planet through four elements: fire, air, water, and earth.
Because while climate change is often talked about in abstract terms, that’s not how people actually experience it.
Sometimes it looks like a researcher realizing just how vulnerable a community is to rising floodwaters. Other times it’s a scientist navigating dangerously polluted air, or someone witnessing firsthand how wildfires are becoming an ever-present threat. In every case, these are the moments when something global suddenly becomes very, very personal.
“Climate change can feel abstract or distant until it suddenly shows up in your life,” says host Misha Gajewski. “These stories capture those moments — when something people thought was theoretical becomes immediate and real.”
Across the series, you’ll hear from scientists, engineers, researchers, and community advocates whose lives and work are being reshaped by a changing climate. And while the stories span different cities and experiences, they all point to the same thing: climate change isn’t happening somewhere else. It’s happening here.
It’s changing how we live, how we build, how we breathe — and how we think about the future.
If you’ve ever felt like climate change is too big, too distant, or too overwhelming to fully grasp, this series brings it back down to a human scale.
Eight stories. Four elements. One planet in crisis.
The Urban Climate Change series launches April 3 on The Story Collider podcast, wherever you listen.
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For media inquiries or interview requests, you can reach out to:
Misha Gajewski
Artistic Director, The Story Collider
mishagajewski@storycollider.org