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Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode

By: EWG
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Join Founder and President of Environmental Working Group Ken Cook as he helps folks connect with their inner environmentalist. Through conversations with diverse innovators and disruptors, Ken delves into the challenges we face and the solutions available to address them.

Everyone on Earth has an intrinsic desire to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat clean food. So in reality, everyone already is an environmentalist, but not all of us are aware of it…yet.

Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

@kencookspodcast

www.ewg.org

@environmentalworkinggroup

2024 EWG
Natural History Nature & Ecology Political Science Politics & Government Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Democrats were MAHA before MAHA — Rep. Chellie Pingree unpacks the contradictions
    Mar 24 2026

    Long before “Make America Healthy Again,” or MAHA, existed, there was Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine): A self-described hippie, back-to-the-lander, certified organic farmer, and the first woman ever elected to Congress from Maine's first district.

    Since taking office in 2009, she has relentlessly fought pesticide preemption, championed SNAP benefits and school nutrition programs, and pioneered legislation on food waste and organic agriculture. She’s been fighting for healthier lives long before MAHA was a movement.

    Now MAHA has arrived, promising to achieve in a news cycle what Pingree has spent decades trying to accomplish legislatively. MAHA Action's president recently sent a memo to Republican Party leadership calling the movement “a once in a generation political gift to the GOP" and pledging $100 million to elect Republicans in the midterms.

    Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. once a prominent voice against toxic pesticides, now celebrates executive orders by President Dinbaly Trump expanding glyphosate production, even as former pesticide lobbyists take key positions at the Environmental Protection Agency.

    MAHA was pitched as a bipartisan effort – but reality tells a different story. In today’s episode, Ken talks with Pingree about the contradictions between what the administration says on MAHA and what it’s actually doing on policy.

    And that’s the real divide: between those doing the difficult work of governing and achieving real results, and those packaging that work into snappy branding and social media posts. One is measured in years of policy fights and incremental wins. The other is measured in headlines and clicks. Yet only one of them changes the law to protect the public.



    For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:



    Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious

    Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine

    In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides


    For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:



    Make America Healthy Again? Let’s see if they’re serious

    Chellie Pingree 1st District of Maine

    In betrayal of MAHA, House GOP farm bill exposes kids to pesticides



    Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

    @kencookspodcast

    www.ewg.org

    @environmentalworkinggroup


    Show more Show less
    39 mins
  • David A. Graham on Project 2025's assault on American government
    Mar 10 2026

    Most people heard about Project 2025 during the 2024 presidential campaign. Far fewer understood what it actually was. The Atlantic’s David Graham wrote the definitive book explaining the sweeping conservative policy blueprint.

    In today’s episode, David speaks with Ken on how what seemed like a Republican policy wishlist was actually a meticulously engineered, four-part plan for seizing control of the federal government.

    They discuss how DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) helped accelerate the wrecking-ball agenda, why the architects of Project 2025 always assumed Congress would capitulate to their plans, and whether the damage being done to American institutions can ever be undone. The conversation helps us understand what the 2028 presidential election could mean for the project’s next chapter.



    For a deeper dive into today’s discussion:



    https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-a-graham/

    https://www.davidagraham.com/work

    https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-project-how-project-2025-is-reshaping-america-david-a-graham/afe80d453ffedb79?ean=9798217153725&next=t&next=t&affiliate=2186



    Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week.

    @kencookspodcast

    www.ewg.org

    @environmentalworkinggroup

    Show more Show less
    36 mins
  • REVISIT: Protecting children from pesticides
    Mar 4 2026
    Many people find EWG while seeking information about pesticides. In today’s episode Ken is joined by our in-house Senior Toxicologist, Dr. Alexis Temkin whose research establishes safety guidelines to help people (including children) minimize their exposure to toxic crop chemicals. In the second half of today’s episode Ken is joined by renowned pediatrician Dr. Phillip Landrigan whose decades of research and advocacy is integral for understanding the effects of pesticides in children. We see this episode as Pesticides 101, to help give our audience agency over how they (and their families) are exposed to pesticides. Our government isn’t doing enough to protect us from harmful chemical residues often found in healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. Until that changes, we’re grateful for the work of Dr. Temkin and Dr. Landrigan that has helped people, including parents and caregivers, better understand how they can take steps to reduce their exposure to pesticides while eating plenty of healthy fruits and veggies. Want a deeper dive on today’s episode? Check out the links below:EWG’s 2024 Dirty Dozen EWG’s 2024 Clean 15EWG’s Dirty Dozen Guide to Food Chemicals: The top 12 to avoidEWG’s YouTubeAlexis Temkin, Ph.D.EPA warns farmworkers about risks of Dacthal60 Minutes (CBS; 2/26/1989)National Research Council (US) Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children Food Quality Protection Act Signing Safe Drinking Water Act Signing Children and Environmental Toxins: What Everyone Needs to Know® Project 2025's "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (contributed by NPR) Ken Cook Is Having Another Episode every other week. @kencookspodcast www.ewg.org @environmentalworkinggroup
    Show more Show less
    1 hr and 5 mins
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