This year’s theme is community resilience, with a focus on water quality and environmental pollutants, and the ways communities are creating change through policy, science, storytelling and collective action.
A key part of the day will be a solutions-focused panel inspired by NHPR’s Safe to Drink podcast, hosted by Jason Moon. The discussion will be followed by an interactive audience Q&A with the panel. Together, they’ll share real-world examples of how people organize, share knowledge and advocate for healthier environments. The event will also include breakout sessions designed to help participants take what they’ve learned and bring it back to their own communities.
Registration is now open, with a $10 minimum donation. Attendees can also choose to give more to help support free admission for students, teachers and nonprofit participants.
Keynote speaker
Mariah Blake
We’re excited to welcome investigative journalist Mariah Blake as the keynote speaker for NHPR’s 2026 By Degrees Climate Summit.
Blake is the author of They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals, an investigation into the global impact of PFAS that was named one of the best books of 2025 by The Washington Post and Scientific American. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic and Mother Jones, and she was a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellow in Watchdog Journalism at Harvard University.
"In recent years, forever chemicals have been increasingly recognized as one of the most significant environmental threats of our time. They persist in the environment for millenniums. They spread rapidly through air and water, polluting ecosystems and human bodies everywhere, and there they stay, with the potential to damage cells and alter our DNA."Mariah Blake
Panelists
Mara Hoplamazian, NHPR Climate Change Reporter
Mara is the lead reporter and host of NHPR’s podcast Safe to Drink. From the Document team at New Hampshire Public Radio, Safe to Drink is a four-part series about the water contamination story that keeps repeating in town after town — and about the people who fought for answers through a maze of chemistry, regulations, and illnesses.
"My mission is to bring listeners directly to the people and places experiencing and responding to climate change in New Hampshire. I aim to use sounds, scenes, and clear, simple explanations of complex science and history to tell stories about how Granite Staters are managing ecological and social transitions that come with climate change. I also report on how people in positions of power are responding to our warmer, wetter state, and explain the forces limiting and driving mitigation and adaptation."
Victor Davila, Community Organizer and Clean Water Director, Slingshot
Victor Davila is the Vermont organizer and clean water director at Slingshot, where they work with community members across the state. For more than 17 years, their work has focused on the intersection of environmental justice and community programming.
Throughout their career, Davila has used expertise in power mapping, facilitation, base building and campaign development to preserve native habitats, teach ecological skateboard design at the University of Vermont, push climate policy through legislative gridlock and explore Antarctica on expedition.
Julia Varshavsky, MPH, Ph.D. , Assistant Professor of Environmental Health, Northeastern University
Julia Varshavsky studies how chemicals like PFAS affect maternal and child health. Her work focuses on translating research into real-world impact, using systematic review and community-engaged approaches to inform decision-making at the individual, community and policy levels.
Before joining Northeastern, she worked with California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment.
More details, including additional speakers and breakout session information, will be announced in the coming weeks. In the meantime, register here for the By Degrees Climate Summit.
