In The Big Melt, Rolling Stone contributing editor and leading environmental journalist Jeff Goodell takes the listener up close and personal to one of the world’s most remote locations—Western Antarctica—and to the foot of the staggeringly important Thwaites Glacier.

Join Goodell aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer, an ice-capable research ship, on its unprecedented journey to study the effects of climate change on the Thwaites Glacier. Get to know why scientists are studying this glacier and discover the chilling facts that make this sheet of ice a real ticking time bomb of climate change—no matter where you live on the planet.

Mr. Goodell’s spirited reporting and narration is augmented with audio recordings courtesy of reporter Carolyn Beeler from the public radio program The World, providing listeners with an incredible sense of what Antarctica sounds like. There are also keen and fascinating insights into the day-to-day workings of a research ship speeding toward one of the fiercest places on earth.

"The Big Melt" phenomenon has shattering, real consequences for all of us. This Audible Original is produced with Rolling Stone in conjunction with Columbia Journalism Review’s Covering Climate Change initiative.

Cover art photo credit: Michael Martin/laif/Redux