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."
Episodes
23 episodes
22 Olivier De Schutter on the poverty of GDP-Growth, the Inequality Emergency, and the new UN Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty
I’m chatting with author, academic and former double UN Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter at a street table in the heat of an Oxford summer. Olivier is professor at the University of Louvain in Belgium, and says, “We have not made the econ...
21 Charlotte Hollins on community-owned Fordhall Farm: being courageous with 8000 member-landlords
I’m talking online with Charlotte Hollins who with brother Ben are the farmers and business leaders of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative in Shropshire. Their father Arthur was an early adopter of organic methods in the 1940s, also of invit...
20 Simon Lyster on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy and bringing joy to conservation
In his farmhouse kitchen in central Essex, Simon Lyster chats about local nature recovery. He is Chair of the Essex Local Nature Partnership that comprises 40 organisations. Like all counties there is now an obligation to produce a statutory Lo...
19 Hattie Phillips on being a young activist and the power of arts and community
I’m sitting with Hattie Phillips in the OWLS community garden in Maldon during one of the summer heatwaves. She was one of the first WWF Youth Ambassadors, and is currently studying at Black Mountains College in Wales. She is a very fine commun...
18 Aria Mckenna on the greening of Hollywood and building bridges with story
In this online chat, award winning actress, director, producer and writer Aria Mckenna talks from her north Florida home on building bridges between climate scientists, policy makers and the media. She talks of efforts to get positive climate a...
17 Dave Goulson on the wonderful world of insects, and why they’re only just clinging on
In his wildlife-friendly garden in East Sussex, I’m chatting with author and scientist Dave Goulson about insects, and especially bees. “They’re clinging on in little fragments of habitat.” Across the world, there are one million species of ins...
16 Danyah Miller on how nature in story helps young children imagine new worlds
I’m sitting with the award-winning oral storyteller and author, Danyah Miller, in her West Sussex garden to hear about “swimming in the sea of story.” Danyah tells of vision and method – how story works best and what we might do to create story...
15 James Canton on renaturing and the transformation of his Two-Acre Field
In his Field at Maplestead in north Essex, author and nature restorer James Canton chats about the transformation by renaturing of small spaces in the landscape. “I evolved,” he says, “the field evolved.” From barren land to cricket pitch to ab...
14 Denise Baden on the power of positive stories to spark sustainability transformations
In our online chat in her Southampton studio, we hear from activist, author and creator Denise Baden about the power of positive story. She is Professor of Sustainable Business, and came to realise that teaching business ethics does not make st...
13 Leanne Hepburn on saving both the seas and us with the Ocean Literacy Project
We’re sitting at the edge of land and sea on Mersea Island, the tide is out. There are terns and gulls, bees flying, a perfect place to hear from Leanne Hepburn, director of the Ocean Literacy Project. All is dependent on a healthy ocean. It ab...
12 Ben Goldsmith on rewilding in cities and country, and personal journeys of loss and discovery
We’re talking online about rewilding, Ben Goldsmith at his London home. Ben is activist, rewilding advocate, financier, farm owner and host of the podcast Rewilding the World. Ben talks about rewilding cities, and the work for the Mayor of Lond...
11 Nicky Saunter on making masks and how people really love beavers
In her Somerset home in Wiveliscombe, Nicky Saunter chats about her life as author, poet, mask maker and activist. On the table is a large mask of Frog, and in the kitchen are masks of Octopus, Beaver and Ant. She says, “You wear a mask at an o...
10 Richard Bawden on a long life as a radical agricultural educator, and how it feels to be dying from cancer
In this online conversation, I’m chatting with an old friend and radical agricultural and development educator, Richard Bawden. He’s on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, I’m in Suffolk. This is a longer pod than usual. Richard is dying from can...
09 Mandy Haggith on poetry as a kind method for climate and nature action
In this online chat, author, poet and community activist Mandy Haggith talks from her Assynt croft in the north-west of Scotland. She is using poetry to create a sense of agency when so much seems bleak. We hear of community development in Scot...
08 Rich Yates on leading Essex Wildlife Trust and the social values of nature recovery
At Abbotts Hall by the Blackwater Estuary, chief executive of Essex Wildlife Trust, Rich Yates, chats about the 67 years of county wildlife action. We sit in sunshine by a pond, and hear about the Trus’s many reserves and visitor centres. And h...
07 Genevieve Christie on the cultural and environmental values of a free-festival at the coast
In her home in central Suffolk, First Light Festival director Genevieve Christie chats about the reinvention of Lowestoft around the free festival held at the summer solstice. Once famed fishing town, then seaside resort, like many coastal plac...
06 Jacquie McGlade on hope from the Global South and the value of talk in international negotiations
In our online discussion, Jacquie McGlade chats about her unique perspective on environmental harms and solutions. She’s Professor at UCL in London and Strathmore in Kenya, is former Director of the European Environment Agency, Chief Scientist ...
05 Ian Collins on the wonderful life and home of Ronald Blythe
In the garden at Bottengoms, on an early spring morning, biographer and art curator Ian Collins chats about the 100-year-life of Ronnie Blythe. We talk about how Ronnie was hyper-local to the landscapes of south Suffolk and north Es...
04 Rupert Read on how to activate the climate majority
In his garden in the Norfolk Broads, philosopher, author and climate activist Rupert Read talks to me about climate movements and action. We hear of the formation of Extinction Rebellion, thrutopian ideas and transformative adaptati...
03 Phoebe Barnard on the science of climate and need for public engagement
I’m chatting online with prize-winning global change scientist and film-maker Phoebe Barnard in her borrowed home in Ireland, as the sun breaks through on her and her happy dog. We talk about Phoebe’s life as a climate scientist, ab...
02 Lloyd Peck on living in the Antarctic and how it’s changed over two decades
In his brim-full office at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, I chat with Lloyd Peck just after his return from a spell at Rothera Research Station. We talk about how fast things are changing. He’s a veteran of some 800 cold water dives...
01 Anita Roy on nature writing and making good things happen in transition towns
In a borrowed room at local Tone Dale House, author and activist Anita Roy chats to me about personal and community transformation. We are in Wellington in Somerset, winner of the national prize for best transition town, and we hear how the peo...
