NorCal Public Media’s ‘Climate California’ series to air on PBS stations nationwide

An Emmy-winning locally made documentary series telling the stories of Californians confronting climate change is set to air across the country early next year.

“Climate California,” a 10-episode series produced by Rohnert Park-based Northern California Public Media, made its debut on Sonoma County public television station KRCB in October 2024, featuring inspiring profiles of individuals across the state working to solve pressing climate issues.

So far, eight episodes have aired on the local PBS station, with the final two episodes set to premiere at the end of August and September, respectively. This month, NorCal Public Media announced that the entire series will begin running on PBS stations coast-to-coast in early 2026.

“It is a big deal,” said Darren LaShelle, president and CEO of NorCal Public Media. “It’s our first full series that’s been on PBS nationally.”

The show was conceived in the wake of a 2022 PBS announcement that the organization would put a major focus on climate issues in its programming, according to LaShelle.

“We’re a small station, but we thought, let’s do everything we can to put something together locally,” he said.

Already known for its strong environmental reporting, NorCal Public Media brought together Bay Area natives and filmmakers Charles Loi, Jeremy Jue and Hannah Lee to “tell the story of climate change in California,” LaShelle said.

“It’s been a real adventure,” LaShelle said. “They’ve been all over this state for the past two years, it’s been a huge project for us.”

Loi, who served as co-writer, director and host of the series, said he was thankful to be able to exercise his creativity on the project.

“Long story short, we did this show with a lot of heart, a lot of ambition,” he said. “Showing it to people, and having it really resonate with people has been worth it. The reception has been really gratifying.”

The series has been resoundingly praised by viewers, LaShelle said, and in June earned a Northern California Area Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the category of Environment/Science – News or Long Form Content, for its second episode, “The Songs of Strangers,” which featured conversations with Sonoma sound ecologist Bernie Krause on how to connect with the natural world by listening, and award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, best known for his “Mars” trilogy of novels, on how to build cities that allow for nature to flourish.

The episode also looked at Whale Safe, a tool developed by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara that uses AI to help shipping companies avoid whale collisions.

When NorCal Public Media showed the program to PBS, the organization was “all in” on giving the series nationwide distribution, LaShelle said.

Loi, who has worked for Disney and made films in China and Hong Kong, said the goal of the series was to look at a specific time and place while offering a wider audience something relevant.

“We tried to make something that we really believed in, that was beautiful and funny and engaging and exciting,” Loi said. “And have it be something that somebody in Texas or New York or Ohio or Louisiana can watch and feel like it speaks to them.”

The announcement of the airings comes amid a time of uncertainty for NorCal Public Media, after Congress last month approved a sweeping rollback of federal support for NPR and PBS stations nationwide. That rollback includes a projected loss of nearly 10% of NorCal Public Media’s $6 million annual budget, LaShelle said.

“If that had happened two years ago, we never would have embarked on this series,” LaShelle said. “So, what does that say about the future? Stations are going to have to make a lot of hard decisions.”

The first eight episodes of “Climate California” are currently available to stream on pbs.org.

The show’s ninth episode is set to premiere Aug. 26 at 9 p.m. on KRCB.

For more information, go to pdne.ws/3JhbVcc.