About Distilled
dis·till (verb): to extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of.
Climate change can be overwhelming. Everyday there’s a new report, a new “breakthrough” solution, a new political battle. It’s easy to get lost in the noise of this dizzying array of information. I started Distilled to help readers cut through some of that noise and better understand the problem and potential solutions to the climate crisis.
When I write stories and work on reporting projects, I spend dozens—sometimes hundreds—of hours reading books, academic papers, and news coverage on a topic. I interview experts. I read through long, often dry, history books on the topic. Sometimes, I travel to distant countries. Other times, I end up in the basement of a library, deep in the archives. In short, I do whatever it takes to learn as much as I can about a subject.
Then, I do my best to distill everything I’ve learned into relatively short (and hopefully) engaging stories.
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About Michael
Distilled is written by me, Michael Thomas.
Before starting this newsletter, I wrote about home energy and electrification for Carbon Switch, an online publication I started in 2020. At Carbon Switch, my work was featured in CNN, The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and dozens of other publications.
Before starting Carbon Switch, I wrote stories for magazines like FastCompany, The Atlantic, and Quartz.
My previous work
On climate change
On gas stoves and indoor air quality
On heat pumps
On climate politics and policy
