In this special Earth Day episode, Julia chats with 89-year-old marine biologist and oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, who joins from a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. Sylvia shares what it's like to walk untethered on the ocean floor, how her first dive changed her life, and the ocean's vital role in our survival. Plus, Julia tells a comical story about the one-and-only time she went scuba diving. She and her 91-year-old mom, Judy, also reminisce about snorkeling adventures and a unique 90th birthday gift from Judy’s grandsons. The introduction to this episode was finalized on 4/16/25. The pipeline in Santa Barbara County is an evolving story. Learn more about the pipeline and donate at the Environmental Defense Center. Follow Wiser Than Me on Instagram and TikTok @wiserthanme and on Facebook at facebook.com/wiserthanmepodcast. Keep up with Sylvia @sylviaearle on X and @dr.sylviaearle on Instagram. Find out more about other shows on our network at @lemonadamedia on all social platforms. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For exclusive discount codes and more information about our sponsor Mill, visit https://www.mill.com/wiser. For exclusive discount codes and more information about our sponsors, visit https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What personal climate challenges does Julia Louis-Dreyfus share?
In the Wiser Than Me episode you're about to hear, I mention my house, a beautiful, perfect old Spanish revival home that was built in the 1920s where we raised our two boys and lived happily ever after for 31 years. A few weeks later, that very house and everything in it all burned down in the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles.
We lost everything, all of our family photos and treasures, every memento from my career. I mean, just everything. It's an unspeakable personal tragedy. But truthfully, in the end, we do count ourselves lucky. Our family is safe, thank God. We have a place to stay. We have some insurance. We have the resources to weather this storm, and God knows not everybody does have that.
This wildfire happened about two weeks before Inauguration Day. And since that day, it has been a metaphorical wildfire. We have been overwhelmed with a chaotic frontal attack on everything from science to the economy to immigrants to democracy itself. It is just completely nuts. It's so nuts that we're barely even talking about maybe the biggest danger lurking in the shadows.
Actually, hardly the shadows. The climate disaster. It may feel existential right now, but, you know, truthfully, the climate crisis is not something that is on the way. It's actually something that is very much here right now. There's a metric that scientists use to determine the role of the climate emergency and fire risk.
This metric considered a set of factors like temperature, humidity, wind speed, and precipitation to estimate that the fire that burned down the Pacific Palisades and Altadena in Los Angeles was 35% more likely thanks to climate change. So, yeah, the climate crisis helped burn down my house, and I take that very personally.
I know it's hard, of course, but now is not the moment to turn our attention away from championing the environment. Here's an example from right here in Santa Barbara, where I am right now.
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Chapter 2: What is the environmental threat from the Sable oil pipeline in Santa Barbara?
A decade ago, a decrepit pipeline in the Santa Barbara Channel exploded and spilled more than 400,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, closing fisheries, upending lives, killing sea life, and threatening a vital ocean ecosystem that is already under immense stress. It was one of the biggest oil spills in California history.
And now an oil company called Sable is trying to restart this same corroded, failed pipeline without environmental review or public comment. Sable's project has been issued a cease and desist order by state government agencies, but shockingly, the company simply ignores that order and keeps working.
But, but, citizens in Southern California know how important our coast is, and we're not going to let them get away with it, not without a genuine fight. It's very hard to keep all the battles we need to fight right now straight. Every institution we hold sacred, everything dear seems to be threatened. And just like you, I am so exhausted, oh my God, and I am sickened by the whole thing.
So I'm trying to pick my fights. I'm thinking globally, and I am acting locally, like battling this awful Sable oil pipeline plan. If you want, you can join me in that fight by donating at environmentaldefensecenter.org. There's a link in the show notes, and we'll also have it on the Wiser Than Me Instagram website. Or you can find a fight of your own right where you live.
There are great, great rewards in fighting for something noble like the future of the planet, of a lake, of a river, a mountain, or the mighty ocean from which our gooey ancestors crawled and evolved into the beautiful, flawed humans that we are today. And that's why it's kind of perfect that on Earth Day, we have one of the greatest ocean activist scientists who ever lived as our guest.
A woman who must have gills by now. She has spent so much time submerged in the sea. A powerfully brilliant explorer, scientist, and environmental advocate, and someone who is oh so much wiser than me, Dr. Sylvia Earle. I'm Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and this is Wiser Than Me, the podcast where I get schooled by women who are wiser than me.
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Chapter 3: Who is Dr. Sylvia Earle and why is she significant?
Before the 1950s, ocean exploration was a lot like space travel, wildly dangerous and experimental. The gear looked like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel. It really did. Back then, oxygen regulators would notoriously malfunction, meeting a life-or-death struggle to reach the surface.
Divers faced constant risks from decompression sickness to the near impossibility of communicating with the surface. They had to rely on pure instinct and experience. It makes you wonder, with all that danger, what kind of person would go down there anyway? It would have to be a true explorer, someone whose drive to discover the unknown was stronger than their fear of what could happen.
Someone just like our guest, Sylvia Earle. Sylvia is a world-renowned marine biologist, activist, and oceanographer who has spent over 7,000 hours underwater. 7,000 hours. For context, that is almost 10 entire months. She has led over 100 expeditions. She's written more than 200 publications on the wonders of the ocean. She's a pioneer in American diving.
Sylvia descended 1,250 feet to walk untethered on the ocean floor and became the first human, man or woman, to ever venture so deep in this way. At the core of all of her scientific work, Sylvia has been delivering a powerful message. She is asking, begging us, in fact, to see the ocean as a place we are intricately connected to. She should know.
She's been diving for over 50 years and has witnessed firsthand the changes in our oceans, the grave effects of overfishing, pollution, and climate change. And she's still diving at the age of, well, we're going to ask her her age.
Dr. John McCosker, head of San Francisco's Steinhardt Aquarium and someone who has worked with Sylvia for many years, said, I think Sylvia may have mellowed a bit in recent years and thank goodness because her magnetism and dynamism are almost impossible to keep up with. Sylvia in her most enthusiastic state is just too hot to handle. And that's exactly how we like her here on Wiser Than Me.
She is the president and chairman of Mission Blue, a critical organization and global coalition that inspires public awareness, access, and support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas.
She is the winner of the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, a TED Prize, and has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and recognized by the Library of Congress as a living legend. She's a mother... an aquanaut, and a woman who is infinitely wiser than me, Sylvia Earle. Dr. Sylvia Earle, I should say. Welcome, Sylvia.
Great to be on board, really.
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Chapter 4: How does Dr. Sylvia Earle describe her experience walking untethered on the ocean floor?
Chapter 5: What can individuals do to help protect the ocean and the environment?
Divers, especially over time, because you keep stressing your ears. I don't hear as well as I did when I was a teenager.
Oh, interesting.
But if you focus too much on how old or young you are and use it as a reason why you can't do something, why you shouldn't, I just say, why not? Why not? Oh, I love that. It's up to you. Yeah. You're too tall. You're too short. You're too fat. You're too thin. You're the wrong color. You speak the wrong language. Whatever it is, there are plenty of excuses. why people tell you you cannot do that.
Yeah.
Look them in the eye and say, why not? There may be reasons, maybe good reasons. Okay, but don't let somebody else tell you that.
Yeah, that's incredibly wise. By the way, we had the lucky chance many, many years ago to meet here at my house. I don't know if you remember this, but you came and spoke. You may not remember because it was probably... I do remember. Yeah, it was for Heal the Bay. Yeah.
It was an event for Heal the Bay in Los Angeles, a wonderful local organization that is dedicated to protecting the Bay in Santa Monica and, you know, up and down the coast here of Los Angeles County. And I'm a big believer in local and grassroots environmental movements, as I'm sure you are too, Sylvia. Yeah. So it was really an honor to have you in the house.
And we raised a lot of money that night for that organization. So I thank you again for that.
And we both have an association with NRDC.
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Chapter 6: What was the experience of the all-women Tektite II underwater mission like?
From the top all the way to the bottom.
Mm-hmm.
And even beneath the bottom of the ocean, all life needs water, at least life as we know it. And 97% of Earth's water is ocean. And the rest, that 3%, is mostly ice. Antarctic and Arctic and glacier ice. And we need to take care of the ocean. That's where life is. The ocean governs climate and weather. The ocean governs our life support system. The ocean makes Earth habitable, the living ocean.
It isn't just rocks and water. But 97% of the ocean is currently open for exploitation. Only 3% is highly or fully protected. And that's part of why I'm here on the Gulf of Mexico. There's a goal, I'm sure you know, many people probably don't know, that
Nations around the world, most of them, have come together to say that by 2030, it's not far away now, of course, but to safeguard 30% of the land and sea that give back to nature to secure our safety, our security, by securing our life support system, the diversity of life in the ocean.
Well, then let me ask you this, because like for the people who are listening to this, you know, it feels, I mean, I know we have the chance, but it's a daunting task. Doesn't mean it can't be done, of course. But what can we say to our listeners? What can an individual do? What are actions individuals can take in their own lives towards this goal that you're discussing?
Are there actions they can take?
So many possible things. Nobody can do... I can't do what you do, Julia. I mean, I can't do what anybody else does. Everybody has power. My question is, what have you got? Do you have a way with music? Are you a great communicator? Are you good with kids? Do you love animals?
Are you okay with signing up and being a part of an organization that's doing something that you see as doing the right thing by your measure? Whatever it is you've got, do you have resources that you can invest in solutions? Everybody can do something.
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Chapter 7: How does Sylvia Earle balance her personal life and career as a marine explorer?
Chapter 8: What practical Earth Day advice does Julia give about food waste?
I don't feel any particular age. I mean, my knees are a little creaky.
Yeah.
Divers, especially over time, because you keep stressing your ears. I don't hear as well as I did when I was a teenager.
Oh, interesting.
But if you focus too much on how old or young you are and use it as a reason why you can't do something, why you shouldn't, I just say, why not? Why not? Oh, I love that. It's up to you. Yeah. You're too tall. You're too short. You're too fat. You're too thin. You're the wrong color. You speak the wrong language. Whatever it is, there are plenty of excuses. why people tell you you cannot do that.
Yeah.
Look them in the eye and say, why not? There may be reasons, maybe good reasons. Okay, but don't let somebody else tell you that.
Yeah, that's incredibly wise. By the way, we had the lucky chance many, many years ago to meet here at my house. I don't know if you remember this, but you came and spoke. You may not remember because it was probably... I do remember. Yeah, it was for Heal the Bay. Yeah.
It was an event for Heal the Bay in Los Angeles, a wonderful local organization that is dedicated to protecting the Bay in Santa Monica and, you know, up and down the coast here of Los Angeles County. And I'm a big believer in local and grassroots environmental movements, as I'm sure you are too, Sylvia. Yeah. So it was really an honor to have you in the house.
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