Heat! Camera! Action!

The planet’s losing.

We’re in a hole. Climate, nature and social inequality crises. Story with a swerve gets us out. It’s the shape of all our lives. Up-down, down-up. And this shape of slantwise story, it creates hope and agency.

In this podcast, we hear from culture leaders and wanderers, the crossers of boundaries, the story-tellers. They share their ideas on how we get out of holes. Good story is not just a hiding place. It’s a finding place.

The podcast vibe is the warm-dark daguerreotype photograph, invented at the start of the industrialised era, before human-induced carbon pollution of the atmosphere.

My guests are writers and poets, artists and scientists, environmental and business leaders, farmers and landowners, local and national activists, festival directors, therapists, religious leaders. All are storytellers too.

The music clips at the start and end of episodes were recorded at public dances in Punakha and Thimphu (Bhutan).

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027. It is called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformative Stories for Climate and Nature Recovery."

All Episodes

Heat! Camera! Action!

Trailer: Heat! Camera! Action!

April 17, 2026 • Jules Pretty • Season 1

0:00 | 5:03

A 5 minute trailer for Heat! Camera! Action!

Heat – too much in the air and oceans

Camera – for focus and attention

Action – what we need

We’re in a hole. The planet’s losing. This is how we get out.

Story with a swerve, slantwise.

More hope, more agency.

In the pod, we hear from culture leaders and wanderers, the crossers of boundaries, the story-tellers.

Good story is not just a hiding place. It’s a finding place.

My guests are writers and poets, artists and scientists, environmentalists and farmers, business leaders and activists, international negotiators and free festival directors.

Containing clips from 7 episodes - featuring:

Anita Roy, author, scyther and transitioneer

Lloyd Peck, veteran of 800 Antarctic dives

Jo Roberts, wilderness therapist

Rupert Read, on activating the climate majority

Mandy Haggith poet and Assynt activist – who says verse can’t make it worse

Ian Collins, on the 100-year-life of Ronnie Blythe

Nicky Saunter, mask maker, and on being a magpie

Launch date for the podcast: midsummer 2026, 2 episodes Friday May 29th and 2 on June 3rd, then weekly.

SPEAKER_06 0:07

This is a trailer for a new podcast. Heat, camera, action. Heat, too much of it in the atmosphere and in the oceans. Camera. Focus upon the important stuff. Action because we need it now. The new podcast uses story as a method to explore how we get out of the hole. It's a big hole we're in. Now we need to get out. Story with a swerve. Story that slant-wise helps us get out. The podcast launches on the 29th of May. Two episodes drop. Then two more on the 3rd of June, and then weekly through the summer and autumn. Just pop on to an app for your pods and click and search and subscribe. You can do it now. Let's hear a little bit about what we'll find. In the pod, we hear from culture leaders and wanderers, the crossers of boundaries, the storytellers. Good stories, not just a hiding place, it's a finding place. My guests are writers and poets, artists and scientists, environmentalists and farmers, business leaders, activists, international negotiators, free festival directors. All are storytellers, too. Here's a taste of some of the clips that you'll be seeing and hearing in the episodes to come. Anita Roy, author, scyther and transitioner.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

We are incredibly lucky here to have, as a Wellington resident and active member of Transition Town Wellington and a big supporter of ours, a wonderful lady called Andy Rickard, who is the UK world scything champion.

SPEAKER_06 2:15

Lloyd Peck, veteran of 800 Antarctic dives.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Sea spiders in the UK, the biggest ones are about one and a half centimetres across. The biggest ones in the tropic are less than a centimetre. So we're talking this over size. So this is not a very big Antarctic sea spider. This is sort of mid-range. The biggest ones are 50, 60, 65 centimetres across. So two feet. Yeah. Three times the diameter of this one. So you're thinking the alien where it grabs you on the face, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 2:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:49

Joe Roberts, wilderness therapist.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

We don't ask people to force them into being vulnerable. But actually, when you're in the wild, you are vulnerable. You know, you're all going for a wee behind a tree and picking up the spade who to call Douglas and disappearing with your roll of blue paper. You know, those those things we hide away from in everyday life, that's part of our humanity, just come to the fore. You know, the tears fall quickly in more than this.

SPEAKER_06 3:15

Rupert Reed on activating the climate majority.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

Uh throughtopia is is if we're going to achieve any elements of throuttopianism in the real world, it's going to require all of us, it's going to require all of us to lean into the kind of adaptation spirit that we need. It's going to require enormous feats of creativity and imagination.

SPEAKER_06 3:38

Mandy Haggis, poet and ascend activist, who says verse can't make it worse.

SPEAKER_05 3:45

And yet how we respond to the kind of multiple problems that we're facing, whether that's biodiversity or climate change or whatever, are all driven actually by how we feel about things.

SPEAKER_06 3:55

Ian Collins on the Hundred Year Life of Ronnie Blythe.

SPEAKER_07 3:59

And how nice to be talking to Ian Collins, his biographer here. We're sitting in the garden in a little bit like Ronnie would have done. In his chairs, in his chairs on a lovely sunny day in February. The weather's turned out well for us. Things always turn out well in the story of Ronnie Blythe.

SPEAKER_06 4:16

Nicky Saunter, mask maker. And on being a magpie.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

I would sort of say be be a magpie. You know, be a magpie. Choose the good things, the bright, shiny things that other people are doing that are working and looking good. Don't feel like you've got to come up with some great philosophy yourself.

SPEAKER_06 4:32

This is what you'll get from the pod. Ideas, insights, a sense of agency. Subscribe now. You can watch the video episodes on my YouTube channel. You can listen on all the commercial platforms. Heat Camera Action, the new podcast for Midsummer.