TT#1: Welcome to Transition Times!

This is the first edition of the Transition Times newsletter, a new publication designed to highlight the most vital new information about the global energy transition, edited by veteran energy transition analyst and journalist Chris Nelder.

What's this all about?

The attention economy is more competitive than ever. Those who have followed my work on the Energy Transition Show for the past decade, or my decade of work as a freelance energy journalist (archive here) before that, might be wondering why on earth I would be starting a new newsletter and another podcast at this point. Especially at a time when so many creators have done similarly over the past couple of years, flooding the internet with an ocean of new text, audio and video, not to mention another ocean of AI-generated ‘podslop.’

The answer is pretty simple: Because it increasingly feels like I’m trying to sell Russian novels to an audience that now wants 30-second TikToks. The content model of the Energy Transition Show felt right a decade ago, when there weren’t that many energy/climate podcasts, and the ones that did exist were largely delivering informal, unscripted conversations without much research or data support. One of the reasons I created the Energy Transition Show is because I found them unsatisfying. So I set out to create the show that I wanted to listen to: a highly polished, professional product that was well-structured and thoroughly researched and pre-scripted for maximum information value. Meaty conversations that regularly run to 90 minutes or longer. A show that tackled the really difficult questions to which no one knows the answers, and that would always be worth our subscribers’ precious minutes of attention.

And it found an audience. One so diverse that it defies characterization, from nearly every country in the world. But they had in common a hunger for the kind of material we offered, and they have been an exceptionally loyal audience. Many of them have stayed with us since the beginning, ten years ago.

But times change.

The explosion of new things to read and listen to and watch now makes it far more difficult to hold anyone’s attention for 90 minutes. I’ve heard many of our listeners say that they are “way behind” listening to our show, not because they aren’t interested, but because they find it difficult to find the time to really pay attention for that long to a show that comes out every two weeks. And it does require attention. Our conversations are dense and complex and not easily followed if you’re multitasking or distracted. I’ve often described it as an “eat your peas” podcast, in stark contrast to the many other shows that more like casual entertainment.

Most of our competition is free, putting the subscription-based and paywalled Energy Transition Show at a significant disadvantage to an ever-expanding ocean of free content. It’s hard to know for sure, but I believe that the Energy Transition Show is still the only fully paywalled, subscriber-supported energy and climate podcast in the world, even after all this time. I think it’s a testament to the value of the show that it’s held onto its subscribers for so long.

But that audience has been getting harder to win and harder to keep for the past several years, and I think there are several reasons for that.

One is that many people changed their careers and lifestyles after the covid lockdown, and no longer have the time they used to have to listen to a podcast while on their commute. Many of our listeners have told us this.

Another is that attention spans have been getting shorter and that people are just more distracted now.

To capture and hold someone’s attention now, you have to have shorter, simpler, easier-to-digest content. Preferably on multiple platforms and in multiple media, since there are now many people who prefer to watch a video than listen to a podcast, or prefer to read than to listen or watch. And a substantial amount of what you offer has to be free if you want to compete with an ocean of free content.

I also feel like the job that needs doing now has changed. A decade ago, there was so much disinformation and uncertainty about the energy transition, and so little awareness of climate science, that there seemed to be real need for highly structured, thoughtful, deeply researched presentations that could teach people what they weren’t able to learn anywhere else. Sadly, energy and climate continue to be hardly taught at all in our educational system (most college graduates are never taught what a kilowatt-hour or a CO2 concentration is) and media coverage is highly subject to political influence, including the influence of the global fossil fuel industry.

But the world is in a very different place now. To be sure, there is still a need to teach people the basics of energy and climate, and there is still plenty of disinformation to combat. Far too many people believe that the energy transition is advancing too slowly to really address the problem of global warming, or that it's too expensive or technically challenged to work, or that it doesn't even exist!

Fortunately, none of that is true.

In reality, the energy transition is happening now, at scale, and is gaining momentum and speed every day!

So why don't more people know about it?

One reason is that those who stand to lose from the energy transition—the fossil fuel industry and their allies—literally spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to employ an army of highly skilled, well-paid media professionals to ensure that the public hears their messages, loudly, clearly, and frequently. Those messages are designed to cast doubt on the energy transition and to confuse people about the reality of global warming (aka climate change, global heating, etc.).

Another reason is that there really isn't an equally large and capable army of media professionals advocating for the energy transition. In fact, there isn't even a teeny tiny little army on the transition side.

Nor is there a go-to source for accurate, well-curated information on the energy transition drawn from across the entire information spectrum. There is a lot of good information out there, but it struggles to break out and be heard amid all the noise – noise that is only getting louder in the age of AI.

Another problem is that most individuals and organizations who are publishing the reports and evidence that demonstrate how well the energy transition is going are too busy trying to get some attention for their own work to promote the project of the energy transition itself by promoting the work of others.

So the general public who are not involved in the energy and climate domains need much better access to much more accessible information. That’s clearly one task that now needs doing, especially at a time when “the vibes” are turning ugly toward climate journalism and media coverage of climate is disappearing. (Since that article was published in March, CBS laid off its last climate reporter, NPR laid off its climate desk, and Politico folded the stalwart E&E News platform that has provided us with reliable information for many years, in favor of some new newsletters that will reportedly downplay climate and avoid political retribution from the fossil-fuel lobbyists in the White House.)

But there’s another task that needs doing, and that’s to give good and actionable guidance to decision makers and those who are professionally involved in energy and climate. Most of the technical questions that occupied the energy transition discourse a decade ago are now answered. We now know that it’s possible to run a reliable grid powered mostly by variable wind and solar. We now know that at the utility scale, renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels. We now know that so many of the arguments made by transition skeptics a decade ago—like claiming that a renewably powered grid would require enough battery backup to cover the entire load for six weeks—are absurd. We now know that “baseload” power plants like coal and nuclear plants are not only not necessary to operate a reliable grid, but that they’re actually in the way of transitioning to a far more flexible and distributed operational regime. Now, many people have a solar system on their roof and an EV in their garage and they know how they work. So much uncertainty that existed a decade ago has just fallen away.

I now see a very different landscape of information and awareness than the one that existed a decade ago. And I think the audience has different needs. Not just for shorter, simpler, and easier-to-digest content, but for someone to tell them the truth as plainly and clearly as possible. Not podcast-length infomercials dressed up as journalism, or sterile facts presented without editorial judgement, but facts that stand on their own merits, conveyed with unflinching opinions. I think people want to know what to believe. They want guidance. And they want proof.

So I’m launching these new products to take a crack at what I think the world needs now.

The first is the Transition Times newsletter. It’s free, it’s short, and it’s designed drive attention to the many great sources of good information out there struggling to be heard above the din. It will endeavor to make sure that people see the best reports and analysis, to combat disinformation, and to spread the good news about the energy transition that is unfolding, rapidly, all over the world. And importantly, it will not just be a grab-bag of news items. Instead, each issue will be organized around a specific theme or story line. So if you’re a creator and you think your new report, article, podcast, video, or whatever deserves a mention to this audience, send me an email about it. I won’t guarantee that we’ll cover it, but I am genuinely going to try to use this platform to serve the entire global community of those working to advance climate action and the energy transition.

The second is the Nelder Notes newsletter. It will also be fairly short, in order to give useful and actionable guidance to busy decision-makers. It’s aimed at people who know the subject matter fairly well, and not at a general audience. I will also use it to share my opinions far more than I have in the past, but as always, it will be fully supported by authoritative references.

The final product is the companion Nelder Notes podcast. At first, it will just be an audio rendition of the Nelder Notes newsletter. But I expect to play with the format quite a bit.

Initially I will aim to publish Transition Times weekly and Nelder Notes biweekly, but what sort of cadence I can manage while also producing worthwhile content remains to be seen.

In fact, I plan to take a fairly experimental approach to all of these new products, in order to test what audiences really want in this new era of energy and climate media. I don’t pretend to know what the winning formulas are. But I’m open to suggestions. I may even decide to launch new newsletters or podcasts, or experiment with these initial products. This isn’t a destination; it’s a journey. And I’d like it to be collaborative.

I’m launching these new products with an initial slug of material that’s publicly available so you can get an idea of what's on offer. If enough people become paying subscribers voluntarily, I will keep it all publicly available. If not, I will put up a paywall on the Nelder Notes products and future podcasts because I strongly prefer to keep this site free of ads or sponsored content.

So I hope you will subscribe now and get the free Transition Times newsletter. If you want to know what I really think, then I hope you’ll become a paying subscriber and enjoy the benefits of a Premium subscription, including the Nelder Notes newsletter and podcast. And if you’re a bona fide Transitionista, are willing to support us a little more generously and want the chance to chat with me over Discord once a month, then join that tier, with my undying gratitude.

Join us now, and start hearing the good news for a change!

—Chris

Got an item you’d like us to cover?

We’d like Transition Times to help increase the visibility of all the great work that’s being done out there. So if you have an article, report, study, podcast episode, newsletter post, video clip or anything else that you think is worthy of a shout-out in Transition Times, email it to suggestions [at] transitiontimes [dot] net! We welcome all submissions, as long as they’re relevant to the energy transition.

Sources

Ashley Carman, “The Audio Industry Is Grappling with the Rise of ‘Podslop’,” Bloomberg, April 30, 2026

Jessica Karl, “New Media Mourns the Old Media It Helped Destroy,” Bloomberg, May 7, 2026.

“Why our attention spans are shrinking, with Gloria Mark, PhD,” Speaking of Psychology Episode 225, American Psychological Association, February 2023.

David Adam, “Are attention spans really shrinking? What the science says,” Nature, May 6, 2026.

Miles Surrey, “‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Delivers a Chic Eulogy for Print,” Bloomberg, May 7, 2026.

Kate Yoder, “The planet is overheating. Why is the news looking away?,” Grist, March 11, 2026. 

Evlondo Cooper, “CBS axed its last climate reporting pillar,” Media Matters, April 3, 2026.

Sammy Roth, “NPR lays off its chief climate editor,” Climate Colored Goggles, June 2, 2026.

Max Tani, “Exclusive / Politico folds E&E News ahead of broader energy push,” Semafor, June 8, 2026.