How We Build This

Wahleah Johns and the Movement to Replace Extraction with Regeneration

Episode Summary

Host May Boeve welcomes visionary climate leader Wahleah Johns—former Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy.

Episode Notes

In this timely episode of How We Build This, host May Boeve sits down with visionary climate leader Wahleah Johns—former Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy and co-founder of Native Renewables. A member of the Navajo (Diné) Nation, Wahleah shares how growing up without running water or electricity shaped her life’s work: bringing clean, resilient energy to tribal communities. She recounts her organizing roots at Black Mesa, explains the meaning of a “just transition,” and reflects on what it means to lead with ancestral wisdom inside one of the most powerful institutions in the country. 

To dig deeper:

• More on Trump’s Big Bad Bill and how it hurts the climate and communities
• A New York Times oped from Wahleah Johns
• More on David Morris

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

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