In an extra special live edition of Mothers Of Invention, US Senator Bernie Sanders and Mary meet for the first time! Moderated by Thimali, they discuss reentering the Paris Agreement, reimagining global governance and planned migration. With help from our guest Mother, Sacajawea Hall of Cooperation Jackson, we learn what justice looks like when led by communities most affected by social, economic and racial inequity. Recorded at I.NY Festival in partnership with I.NY and The Sanders Institute....
Dec 16, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Are you new to climate justice and want to learn more? Looking to get involved in the movement and not sure where to start? Mary, Maeve & Thimali have the rundown on what you need to get going.
Nov 11, 2020•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast The only way to create the future is to imagine it first. In our final release of Season Three, Mary, Maeve & Thimali explore regenerative futures for all on the other side of a very special US election.
Nov 04, 2020•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The climate crisis has made our young people a marginalized group. But the youth climate movement is being led by no ordinary generation. They are passionate, educated and organized. In our season finale, six days before the US election, Mary, Maeve & Thimali recognize the importance of these critical perspectives from global North and global South youth. In an unprecedented episode, we learn about their hopes, their fears, their ambitions, and their strategies and visions for the future....
Oct 28, 2020•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thimali engages in a little self-care with her friend, climate essayist and co-host of Hot Take podcast, Mary Annaïse Heglar. Strolling through a New York City forest, they share good and bad experiences being of colour in nature, but have a chance encounter that helps them connect back to the land…
Oct 21, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Extractive capitalism has caused so much destruction to our planet. So with all we've learnt this season, how can we rethink the value of natural resources, and the people who work hard to bring them from the land to our homes? And how does it contribute to our new visions and value systems for a regenerative future? Could 'climate justice for all' in fact be in our reach? In this episode we talk to Bina Agarwal in Delhi & Omar Freilla in the South Bronx about the power of going local....
Oct 14, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Keep having climate chats with your family that end in eye rolls, clenched or lost teeth? Well in this week's minisode, Maeve & Thimali talk to two youth activists from The CLEO Institute in Florida, our friends Gabi Rodriguez & Nicole Gazo. They're on a mission to awaken our parents’ inner climate warrior. From deflecting confrontation and forging connection, to active listening and using stats the right way, we learn how to bridge the generational gap, and transform bickering into brai...
Oct 07, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast We sometimes forget that the most sophisticated carbon sequestration infrastructures in the world are thousands of years old! Reforestation may reduce fossil fuel emissions, but replanting monocultures won’t solve the problem. Our ecosystems are ancient, complex and not easily replaced. What are some of the oldest and newest techniques around for protecting and regenerating our planet’s biodiversity? Mary, Maeve & Thimali talk to Mina Susana Setra and Jane Zelikova in this week’s episode!...
Sep 30, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Taking your government to court over their climate impact is a fast-growing phenomenon that’s seeing powerful change. Individuals and organisations all over the world are setting new precedents and holding governments to account. But it’s not exactly a walk in the park! So how do you get it done? Well luckily Tessa Khan, human rights lawyer, co-founder of the Climate Litigation Network and Season 1 Mother of Invention, is on hand to explain to Maeve Higgins how it’s done! Archive: Our Children's...
Sep 23, 2020•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast We learned in our last episode that food insecurity will cause huge swathes of climate migration by the end of the century. So are there ways large-scale farms could nurture our soil? What could small-scale farming do to bring justice to marginalized communities? This week, Mary, Maeve & Thimali meet Zoraida Calle in Colombia, and Vivien Sansour in Palestine as they learn how to breathe new life into dead land, and bring hope back to damaged communities.
Sep 16, 2020•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Do you do a sad face when you see a big grey space in the town centre where a tall green tree should be? Well this episode is for you. Maeve is on (another) mission - this time to green up her home, and not just for cleaner air but for climate and racial justice too. But how easy is that in New York City? And what can all of us do, no matter where we are, to make it happen? Maeve attempts to plant her very own tree on the street and Thimali meets the amazing urban gardener Ena K. McPherson....
Sep 09, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast This late into the climate crisis, it’s now time for us to embrace adaptation as a solution, as communities reconsider the fight for their ancestral homes. We welcome Mary’s friend, Ursula Rakova, executive director of Tulele Peisa on the Carteret Islands, who is helping almost its entire population migrate to safe land. And Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, Colette Pichon-Battle of Louisiana, USA who unpacks her work amongst local communities in the Bayou....
Sep 02, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yearning for good news? Hungry to get involved in IRL change? Well we could all learn a lot from our friend Tara Houska who has been smacking climate justice victories out of the park this summer. Frankly, it’s kind of hard to keep up. From big banks and big pipelines to big league football teams it’s clear that Tara really knows how to get things done. Maeve called her up to find out how we can learn from her summer of success....
Aug 26, 2020•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast The IPCC uses the Industrial Revolution as the keystone for human-induced climate change, but there is a different marker for black, brown and indigenous peoples who have also been measuring climate change. How can the colonial impact on their homes be quantified, argued and repaid? Archaeologist Kristina Douglass talks about colonization and climate in Madagascar. And Lidy Nacpil, of the Asian People’s Movement on Debt & Development shares her fight for reparations on the global stage....
Aug 19, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ever wanted to write a letter or email to rage and complain to the Powers That Be, but found yourself lost after “Hey. You.”? Yeah, us too. But take a deep breath and join Maeve and Thimali as they figure out how to put pen to paper for the climate crisis. From who to write to and how to build your argument, to which edible treats to include - we’ve got you covered. And there’s some top advice from our very own Mary Robinson. Now - quills at the ready you bards of beauty, it’s letter time....
Aug 12, 2020•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast We moved heaven, Earth and Covid, and we are back! But with too many emergencies stacking up, and no way to press pause on the climate crisis, how do we cope? How do we visualize what happens next? Daiara Tukano is from a Northern Amazon indigenous community in Brazil. She describes her Covid experience and identifies the opportunities to review global health. And co-executive director of the Green New Deal UK, Fatima-Zahra Ibrahim tells us more about her new project, Build Back Better....
Aug 05, 2020•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s mad, sad, exhausting and unfair. So what do we fight for and how do we get there? Climate justice is racial justice is gender justice . That’s how. Mothers of Invention is back! And this year, Mary, Maeve & Thimali are (kinda) reunited for a season to remember. From their home studios in Dublin & New York, Season 3 unfolds an unparalleled line-up of Mothers from every continent on the globe. This season, Mothers of Invention explores the most critical climate issues of our time - re...
Jul 29, 2020•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast The fashion industry constitutes 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions today, and is reported to be the fifth-largest polluting sector in the world. But with a growing ambition to both revisit ancient practices and develop futuristic technologies, can fast fashion quickly adapt and reverse its reputation into one of positive change? Eco-fashion designer, Thao Vu of Kilomet109 guest hosts this week’s episode from Hanoi, Vietnam, as she, Mary and Maeve discuss what it would take for big business ...
Aug 21, 2019•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Arctic and it’s melting glaciers are the first images to mind when we think about climate change. But what do we know about the millions of indigenous peoples, who are fighting back against not only shifts in climate, but invasions for mineral extraction, shipping and fishing in their territories? Dalee Sambo Dorough, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, guest hosts this week episode with Mary & Maeve, from Anchorage, Alaska....
May 23, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast City resident and co-founder of Help Delhi Breathe, Reecha Upadhyay, tells us how she rallied tens of thousands of voters to pass legislation that will help cap air pollution killing millions every year. She discusses biomimcry with Clare Miflin, who shares her epiphany that nature doesn’t create any waste and that perhaps our misuse of materials is a design flaw. We hear how Clare took her thought to the NYC’s Department of Sanitation and developed the Zero Waste Design Guidelines. And we take ...
May 07, 2019•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Earth Day! Today marks the countdown to Earth Day’s 50th anniversary in 2020. Mary invites Susan Bass of the Earth Day Network onto the show, who takes us back to the very first Earth Day in 1970, and how it bears a stark resemblance to where we are at today. Mary & Susan look at the circumstances that led to a huge, nationwide effort by American workers, mothers and students, and how it encouraged President Richard Nixon to establish the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Env...
Apr 21, 2019•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we loan out Mary to International Rescue Committee ’s podcast, Displaced , for a chat with Ravi Gurumurthy & Grant Gordon. If you came for Maeve but don’t know about Mary, this week’s specialsode is a chance to hear the story of her venture into climate justice from the very beginning. Mary & Ravi discuss how people all over the world are being forced into displacement by climate change. We hear who her heroes are, and why none of us should stop believing that we can still do s...
Apr 15, 2019•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week Maeve & Thimali play The Climate Name Game ! Environmental activist George Monbiot published a compelling list of alternate climate vocabulary. His list encourages us to take another look at the way we describe the climate crisis, and remind ourselves that the environment is not destroying itself... we are . Listen in as Maeve hilariously invents some compelling terms of her own!
Apr 08, 2019•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast As we imagine new ideas for our natural resources, a new green economy presents us with a second chance at making good with both the earth and our communities. What will it take to transition to renewable energy, and what can we learn from both indigenous peoples and new technology? Navajo climate activist, Wahleah Johns, joins Mary & Maeve in the studio this week to share how she’s been getting it done.
Apr 01, 2019•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast The ocean has absorbed 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, and 40% of our carbon dioxide. We take a trip to Malé in the The Maldives to meet former president Mohamed Nasheed and discover what he sees in the future of the archipelago nation as it battles with threatening sea level rises. Ayana introduces us to Jill Pegnataro from Greenwave, a 3D seaweed farming model making bold changes off the coast of Connecticut in the United States....
Mar 18, 2019•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s episode is co-hosted by Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the lead policy writers of the Green New Deal. She joins Mary & Maeve in the studio to discuss public opinion on climate change in the United States, where it’s crucial that citizens and politicians take a role in environmental action. In a moment in history when its politics are so polarized, will climate justice be the great unifier?
Mar 05, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In our first minisode, Maeve and our new series producer, Thimali, have a sit in the park to stalk cutie pie dogs and contemplate meat alternatives to pet food for Maeve’s pal, Shadow. According to a recent study, pet owners have been ‘humanizing’ their pet food choices with top range meats because we only want the best for our fuzzy friends. However, our pets dietary needs aren’t the same as our own, and the impact of meat production on the environment is extremely high. As meat becomes more ex...
Feb 26, 2019•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast In our first episode back, Mary & Maeve recap the groundbreaking climate events of 2018. They meet our youngest mother yet, 13 year old activist and organizer, Alexandria Villasenor, on why she’s spending every Friday in a sleeping bag at the gates of the UN. Professor Pauline Dube talks to us about co-authoring the IPCC Special Report 1.5, and how she’s countering its rejection at COP24. Mbororo indigenous leader Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim speaks from the World Economic Forum in Davos on how th...
Feb 19, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode comes to you direct from New York City where Maeve lives and Mary was attending Climate Week. Governments, diplomates, business leaders and climate change gathered to assess progress and push for solutions to avert the climate crisis and deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement. Mary and Maeve set up in a Manhattan studio, for a special dispatch from the week joined by a flurry of Mothers of Invention. Kumi Naidoo, the new Director General of Amnesty International, passes by the ...
Sep 30, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode serves up an all-you-can-eat investigation into food and its connection to climate. We meet Mothers of Invention in India, Nigeria and the US who are revolutionising the way we understand, protect, grow, and cook food around the world. Mary and Maeve learn that cows must not be given their own nation, discuss their good intentions to go vegetarian but also hear that this is an opportunity for the world to scale back from industrial farming for the good of all. This week’s Mothers of...
Sep 17, 2018•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
