The effects of climate change can turn a family’s world upside down in the blink of an eye. Whether fighting for cleaner air amid a wildfire, seeking cooler temperatures during an unexpected heat wave, or enduring threats of fresh food scarcity, climate change causes unpredictable harms and makes it difficult for families to live healthy lives.

Climate change impacts everyone, but people of color and communities with low incomes face greater health burdens. Policy inequities, structural racism, and historic disinvestments can worsen the impacts of climate change, or make recovery harder, or both.

With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, StoryCorps recorded conversations of friends, families, and loved ones across the United States who shared their stories about how their health is being impacted by climate change.