Katharina Pistor, Professor of Comparative Law and director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia Law School, discusses her most recent book The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. In this fascinating discussion, she highlights the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth—and the malleability of the legal system, that can be redesigned, and repurposed--by well paid...
Dec 13, 2021•54 min•Ep. 141
In this fascinating discussion on the COP, Professor Stefan Aykut, a German scholar working on global climate governance, on the role and expectations around COP26. Stefan shares a more positive assessment of COP26 than some others interviewed on this podcast: ultimately, he points out, the outcome is in the hands of national governments. Stefan argues that one of the main reasons climate problems have not received the necessary attention is that they have been treated as uniquely climate proble...
Dec 05, 2021•57 min•Ep. 139
COP26 debrief with Rupert Read. In the immediate aftermath of COP26, Rupert Read shares his profound disappointment with the outcome of COP26, shares his views for possible ways forward with the COPs, how they might evolve--and talks about the vital importance of adaptation-another area where he feels COP26 failed to deliver. Unvarnished and candid reflections on COP26 and worries about general progress on the scale of environmental challenges the world is facing: in particular global warming an...
Nov 28, 2021•32 min•Ep. 140
In this hugely inspiring interview, James Thornton, CEO of legal powerhouse ClientEarth, talks about how the firm uses the law to confront nature loss and climate change. At a time when market solutions are in vogue to deal with climate change, this is a powerful testimony to the power of law to build effective regulatory frameworks to drive climate mitigation – and hold companies and governments to account. James discusses how ClientEarth works, highlighting a few of the many influential legal ...
Nov 15, 2021•58 min•Ep. 137
A fascinating discussion with 3 passionate youth activists from the UK, India and Bangladesh, on 7th November 2021, about their expectations for COP26, their experience on the ground, and their concerns about the environmental challenges we are facing. Although COP26 is not yet over, and we don’t know the final outcome, these activists express profound disappointment with what they see as a “business as usual” approach-- and call out governments around the world for avoiding taking vital climate...
Nov 07, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 138
In this thought provoking interview, Frédéric Hache, co-founder of the Green Finance Observatory, asks some hard-hitting questions about carbon-offsets and related market solutions to climate change and the biodiversity crises-and financialisation of nature more generally. Frederic discusses the evolution of market-based solutions to climate. “It is interesting that the conversation now is about how to incentivize economically, corporations, as if governments no longer had the power to compel an...
Nov 03, 2021•54 min•Ep. 136
Fascinating interview with Professor Mike Hulme on his expectations for COP26, the role and importance of the COPs, and the dangers of an overly scientific approach to climate change-- a reductionist framing of the problem in terms of numbers and deadlines. He shares what he sees as some of the biggest dangers of framing climate change as an emergency—drawing lessons from government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Hulme also discusses his new book, Climate Change, where he introduc...
Oct 29, 2021•59 min•Ep. 135
In this fascinating interview, Dr Genevieve Guenther does a deep dive on the powerful ongoing ways in which the fossil fuel industry influences communication about climate change-- preventing us from not only seeing the true problem of climate change, but also preventing us from envisioning and desiring and implementing solutions. She analyses the various ways in which the fossil fuel industry try and divert attention from their activities—emphasizing, for example, individual carbon footprints, ...
Oct 25, 2021•58 min•Ep. 134
In this deep dive on resilience, Professor Daniel Aldrich gives a fascinating overview of different ways of thinking about resilience—focussing in particular on the kind of resilience that allows communities to recover from disasters in a way that brings together resources -- and allows the communities to rebuild themselves so they're not as vulnerable as they were before the shock—so they can collaborate, communicate, and work together in a more effective way. Daniel discusses his research whic...
Oct 14, 2021•59 min•Ep. 133
In this interview, Professor Katharine Hayhoe, one of climate change’s most effective communicators, provides inspired guidance on how to navigate all sides of the conversation on a topic that is currently one of the most politicised and divisive. Katharine discusses her new book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, illustrated her arguments with stories from her personal experiences. Katharine argues we need to go beyond facts and statistics and begin e...
Sep 27, 2021•49 min•Ep. 132
In this fascinating interview, leading anthropologist Professor Philippe Descola discusses his latest book Beyond Nature and Culture —exploring the different ways mankind relate to nature. In this book, Professor Descola identifies four key ways in which different societies have thought about nature over time-animism, totemism, analogism, and our current relationship: naturalism, a strict separation between the cultural worlds of human beings, on the one hand, and the non-human things of nature,...
Sep 18, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 131
Professor Stephen Macekura explores how ideas of economic growth came into being across the 20th century world --and the types of politics and political conflicts that they have engendered across the world. He explores the work of those thinkers who have criticized and doubted the virtues of the notion of limitless growth, and in particular, those who have criticized the ways in which growth was measured and conventional accounting techniques, and proposed alternative ways of measuring and thus ...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 130
In an interview done earlier this year, long time climate activist James Cameron provides a fascinating insider’s perspective the on the COP— highlighting the highs and lows of various COPs over the last thirty years or so—and the COP’s greatest achievements—against a background of slow but growing momentum in the private and public sphere to deal with climate change. James also discusses the vital and growing role of the legal system in dealing with global warming. He talks about the work that ...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 123
As the relationship between the US and China grows more tense, we discuss the geopolitics of climate change. What impact does geopolitics have on national responses to climate change? How is the relationship between China and the US evolving? Gerald Butts believes that geopolitics is definitional when it comes to climate change. He discusses the ways in which the international political arena around climate has become yet another theater for strategic, largely economic competition. He argues tha...
Aug 08, 2021•57 min•Ep. 128
In this deep dive on sustainability within the food industry, Toby identifies three key trends –resilience, disclosure and consumer awareness – driving changes within the food industry generally. He discusses Innovation Forum’s recent detailed study on smallholder farmers, responsible for a very large amount of the world's food supply. The report highlights the ongoing challenges facilitating access to better markets, the need to develop resilient smallholder farming communities, and the importa...
Jul 22, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 127
In this fascinating interview, Nigel Topping, the UK's High-Level Climate Action Champion discusses the prospects for the upcoming COP26 in November in Glasgow. Against a background of growing momentum for change, Nigel reflects on the goals and expectations for COP26 -- and identifies some of the outstanding issues to be addressed over the coming months. Nigel discusses the growth and development of the carbon offset market, Net Zero, and the growing corporate commitments of Race to Zero, a glo...
Jul 11, 2021•31 min•Ep. 126
In this wide-ranging interview, Jeremy Lent discusses his fascinating new book Web of Meaning which combines findings in cognitive science, systems theory and traditional Chinese and Buddhist thought, to develop a framework that integrates both science and meaning in a coherent whole. Jeremy discusses what he sees as an essential problem at the heart of our current worldview: how man is separated from nature which is seen purely as a resource. He highlights a very different perspective, common t...
Jun 29, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 125
In this fascinating interview, Daniela discusses the eye-opening sums of money needed to achieve a transition to a low carbon economy - $1 trillion-$2 trillion a year to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century, according to some estimates-- and how this can be funded. She explores the evolving relationship between the public sector and private finance - a renewed partnership—and how to assure that any new flows of private capital go into genuine green investments, rather than greenwashing. At ...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 124
In this wide-ranging interview, economic anthropologist Jason Hickel discusses his most recent book Less is more: how degrowth will save the world --charting out an economic vision to a sustainable future. This is a deep dive into to the world of degrowth – a powerful critique of one of the most deeply held ideas at the heart of economics—endless economic growth. Jason argues that green economic growth is an illusion and that we need to abandon GDP growth as an economic goal—one that is even sit...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 124
In this fascinating interview, Professor Wendy Brown analyses the impact of neoliberal ideas on our current political economic moment, revealing how deeply entrenched neoliberalism is in our lives, that neoliberalism has not, as many believe, gone away. Wendy’s analysis of neoliberalism extends beyond the economics of privatisation and deregulation-arguing that we have all become in some sense “homo economicus.” Wendy shows how this logic extends to the ways in which we conceptualise and try to ...
May 23, 2021•53 min•Ep. 122
In this episode, we welcome veteran investor Kevin Starr to the podcast to discuss the work of the Mulago Foundation, which funds high-impact organizations working on alleviating poverty. Kevin explains how Mulago’s focus has inevitably extended over time to take into account climate and the environment--the focus of Mulago's Henry Arnhold Fellows Program. Kevin’s main focus at Mulago is on lasting change at scale and he explains how he thinks about scaling-- and the importance of structuring in...
May 12, 2021•47 min•Ep. 121
In this interview, Joanna Pocock talks about her recent book Surrender, a compelling, moving, and eye-opening exploration of the outsider eco-cultures blossoming in the new American West in an era of increasing climatic disruption, rising sea levels, animal extinctions, melting glaciers, and catastrophic wildfires. Joanna talks about the wide range of vibrant environmental movements that have taken root in response to the climate crisis – scavenger, rewilding, ecosexual--and explores the roots o...
May 02, 2021•55 min•Ep. 120
In this fascinating interview, Dr. Jeffrey Kiehl brings to bear two very different ways of thinking about climate change: the scientific and the psychological—and his journey as an experienced climate scientist to bring these different perspectives together. Jeffrey explains the essential features of a depth psychological perspective, why he believes this is essential today, helping us understand why we have failed to take action on climate change--and the roots of climate denial. Jeffrey identi...
Apr 13, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 119
In this thought provoking and spirited interview, Rupert Read shares lessons and insights from his decades long experience as an activist. Rupert believes that as a society we are facing a “long emergency” with our entire civilisation at risk—and that nothing less than a complete transformation of our way of life will be necessary to deal with our environmental predicament. He discusses the vital role that Extinction Rebellion is playing in helping to create awareness and change and the importan...
Mar 28, 2021•58 min•Ep. 118
Dale discusses his recent thinking on the metaphysical challenges of climate change --the way a rapidly changing world unmoored from the traditional sources of meaning in our lives. He also explores the way that climate change interacts with our political institutions, with their inherent short-termism--and distinguishes between what he sees as the broad values of capitalism, when he was growing up, and what he calls today’s crony capitalism. At the heart of this discussion, Dale highlights the ...
Mar 12, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 117
In this in-depth interview, Johan Frijns discusses the vital work that BankTrack does on banks and the activities they finance, tracking the involvement of banks in financing business activities with a negative impact on people and planet, so as to make information on this finance widely available in the public domain. Johan discusses some of the powerful techniques that BankTrack uses to bring about ambitious and effective sustainability commitments from banks, highlighting some recent success ...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 116
John Clark is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University, and director of La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology, and author. his latest book is Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community. In this wide-ranging and hard-hitting discussion, John analyses the roots of the environmental plight we are facing— what he calls the Necrocene- a period of mass extinction and reversal. He explores the roots of the problems through Murray Bookchin’s Social Ecology, and he consid...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 115
Tim Lenton is Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. He has had a lifelong interest in the Gaia Hypothesis and much of his recent work has been building on the work of James Lovelock, highlighting mechanisms by which the Earth system has been stabilised by negative feedbacks throughout Earth history. In this interview, Tim discusses his work with Bruno Latour, exploring how humans could add some level of self-awareness to Earth's self-regulation....
Jan 25, 2021•57 min•Ep. 114
The Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) works on the ecological restoration and conservation of land and water resources in ecologically fragile, degraded regions of India, primarily through the collective efforts of village communities. FES is currently working with more than 20,000 village communities on more than 6 s million acres of common lands across 10 states of India. Jagdeesh has overseen the growth of FES over 20 years--his work has been widely recognized and he has received the T...
Jan 12, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 113
In this episode, Zen teacher David Loy shares his thinking about EcoDharma: combining the teachings of Buddhism with ecology or ecological concerns. In this fascinating discussion, David explore the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings with insights into how to embody that understanding in the eco-activism that is needed in the world today. David explains that in Buddhism, while there aren’t prescriptive steps or writings from the Buddha on how to solve modern problems, we can follow th...
Dec 23, 2020•53 min•Ep. 112
