Episode 261: Calum Macintyre - Ski Fossil Free

Welcome to the final episode of my three-part Winter Olympics series, in which we’re tackling one of the biggest controversies surrounding the recent Winter Olympics: fossil fuel sponsorship.This episode focuses on the Ski Fossil Free campaign, initiated by activists Calum McIntyre and Nikolai Schirmer, which seeks to end fossil fuel partnerships across IOC and FIS events. This incredibly effective feat of climate campaigning saw Nikolai deliver a petition - signed by over 20,000 people - to the IOC on the eve of the Games, an act which garnered much publicity and pushed the issue into the spotlight at a critical moment. A week or so later, in an attempt to understand more about the campaign and its goals, I hosted an online panel featuring voices from across sport, activism and the outdoor industry, including campaign organiser Calum, Greenpeace, Creatives for Climate and Greenlandic Olympian Uqaaleq Slettemark.We discussed the campaign, the role of athletes and brands in driving change, the challenges of effective climate activism — and the accusations of hypocrisy that inevitably follow. It’s a conversation about where responsibility really sits when it comes to the future of outdoor sports, and as such is a fitting end to this short Olympic series. --This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2026 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Welcome to the second of three post–Winter Olympics episodes in which I am examining the recent Winter Olympics from a variety of different perspectives.In this second episode, I’m joined by Lesley McKenna, one of snowboarding’s great original thinkers.A pro skier, snowboarder, coach and team manager, she is herself a three-time Olympian, and helped run GB Park & Pipe in the years when Jenny Jones and Billy Morgan won their medals.She has spent the last few years working on a Phd that analyses the tension that exists between a traditional sporting structure as epitomised by the Olympics, and a none-conventional action sports culture such as snowboarding. She’s has called it the Risk Aesthetic Framework, and it is fascinating stuff.Why does this matter? Because while snowboarding now looks fully integrated into the Winter Olympics, its relationship with the Games has always been complex — and at times uneasy. In this conversation, we dig into judging controversies, cultural friction, performance vs. progression, and ask whether something essential is gained — or lost — when snowboard culture enters the Olympic machine.As ever with Lesley, this is a mind-bending conversation: endlessly intellectually-stimulating, and full of the ideas and provocations that mark her work out as so original. If you care about snowboarding and its culture, don’t miss this one. --This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2026 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Welcome to the first of three post–Winter Olympics episodes in which we’ll examine the recent Games from a number of different perspectives.As a lifelong snowboarder, I’ve always had a complicated relationship with the Olympics. The performances and spectacle are incredible. But beyond the hype, there are bigger cultural conversations worth having. That’s what this short series is about.In this first episode, I’m joined by BBC Olympic commentators Tim Warwood and Ed Leigh — lifelong snowboarders and much-loved voices of Olympic action sports on the BBC.In this riotous chat, we discuss their experience at the Games, their breakout moment this year, the cultural tensions between core snowboarding and the Olympic machine, the controversies, the progression — and what these Games really mean for the activities and cultures we love.--This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Alice Sainsbury is a designer, writer and speaker who in 2015 was diagnosed with an acute neurological condition called transverse myelitis.Since then, she’s been on a mission to break down the barriers that stop people with disabilities participating in the outdoor sports and activities that so many of us take for granted.In this episode, we explore the reality of life for a disabled person in 2026, and the systemic, societal difficulties disabled people face when it comes to participating in outdoor sports and activities.We also discuss Alice’s own story, as well as her latest initiative UN[PARA]LD, which launches at the Milano-Cortina Paralympics with the aim exposing a hidden barrier in elite sport: the incredible fact that many Paralympic athletes are still required to adapt, alter, or retrofit their own outdoor and alpine clothing in order to train and compete.This is one of the most illuminating and intellectually-stimulating conversations I can remember hosting on the podcast. I learned a lot, and I think you will too.To find out more about Alice’s work, and the UN[PARA]LD initiative, click here.--This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Oscar-winner, snowboarder, and one of the most influential documentary filmmakers working today, Orlando von Einsiedel makes his return to the show, nearly eight years after his first appearance.In that time, films such as Virunga, The White Helmets and The Lost Children have set a new standard in gripping, immersive documentary story-telling.Recorded live at the 2025 Kendal Mountain Festival in front of a sold out audience, this wide-ranging conversation centres on Orlando’s latest film The Cycle of Love, which is currently cleaning up on the festival circuit.It also a rare, honest insight into the reality of life at the sharp end of documentary filmmaking, even when you appear to have achieved the success everybody craves.We dig into Orlando’s creative process, the state of the documentary landscape, and the somewhat dire financial realities of getting ambitious projects off the ground, even for an artist of Orlando’s calibre.If you enjoyed my recent episode with Lucy Walker, or are interested in the real, often precarious mechanics of a creative career, this one’s for you.--This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

If you ask me, this week’s guest Axel Pauporte is one of the most influential snowboarders of the 1990s and 2000s.Even if you don’t know his name, you’re living in a snowboarding culture that he helped shape. Especially if you’re a European snowboarder. To qualify this rather bold claim, it helps to remember how singular an outlier Axel truly was. Back in the early 90s, professional snowboarders from mainland Europe were a genuine rarity. Professional snowboarders from flat Northern European countries such as the Netherlands, the UK or Belgium, where Axel was brought up? Legitimate trailblazing pioneers.All of which makes Axel’s career path especially legendary. Here was a rider who started snowboarding late - and on dry slope to boot.And who, by the end of a storied twenty-year career, was universally regarded as one of snowboarding’s greatest ever freeriders, and had demonstrated that European riders could lead the way in a proving ground like Alaska alongside peers such as Travis Rice, Jonaven Moore and Jeremy Jones. And the story of how Axel made this happen is as unlikely as it is instructive. This isn’t your standard pro snowboarder origin story. Here we have an outsider, both literally and figuratively, who was driven by a potent emotional combination: his own insecurities, a Stakhanovite work ethic, and a ferocious desire to use snowboarding a way of finding a sense of belonging. In Axel’s case, that ultimately led him to AK, and the pursuit of risks that today make him pause and wonder, as we discussed. As you might be gathering, this is a very honest conversation that covers belonging, identity, and the psychology and selfishness of risk; as well as the reckoning that comes to us all once the body and mind begins to fade, and other priorities take precedence.Big thanks to Axel and my friend Dave Mailman for the help with this one. --This week’s codes to use for some big old savings: LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

It’s December 24th. Which must means it’s time for my much-loved Festive Special with close friends-of-the-show Tim Warwood and Adam Gendle!This might well be the conversation I look forward to the most each year. If you’re new to the show, some background: I go back thirty years with these boys, who I first met through the very close British snowboarding community we’re so lucky to be an integral part of.Eight years ago, we got together at Christmas to record the first Looking Sideways special, and it’s since become a tradition during which we get together to catch up, and generally glory in the closeness that comes when you’ve been friends for as long as the three of us have.And this is a lesson I’ve especially learned this year: that as you get older, the fundamental element of trust that exists between you and your oldest pals provides a level of increasingly-needed comfort.It’s one of the best parts of getting old. Especially as it’s so difficult to see the people you love. So as the years pass, this episode becomes ever more important and cathartic to me.As ever, it’s a freewheeling catch up that saw us cover our usual topics - our annual Yuletide review, our highlights of 2025, our hopes for 2026, and the now traditional quiz of the year (spoiler alert: I won!).As ever, wherever you’re listening to this, grab a festive drink and a mince pie, don the Santa hat, and join us as we wax festive for a couple of hours.I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy another brilliant Looking Sideways year, so huge thanks for listening and supporting what I do. I’ll be back refreshed, rested and ready to go once again in 2026 - in the meantime, have a brilliant break 🎄--Some links to use below - merry Christmas!LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for HUGE savings on ski and snowboard hire with Intersport this winter.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off any order from Finisterre LOOKINGSIDEWAYSXDB for 15% off anything from DbLOOKINGSIDEWAYS2025 for 15% off any Albion purchaseLOOKINGSIDEWAYS for a whopping 20% off anything from Goodrays.LOOKINGSIDEWAYS for 15% off any Stance order--To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Use LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off anything from Finisterre--Adam Skolnick is a journalist, none-fiction writer, famed Roll On podcaster, and the author behind the brilliant new novel - his first! - American Tiger.American Tiger (a work that has been gestating for years) is a milestone for Adam in more ways than one.As his first published novel it is, of course, the latest stage in his evolution as an artist.But it is also confirmation of the way that personal philosophies inevitably seep into the work we produce. Because while the book is ostensibly about a young girl called Bell spotting a tiger in suburban California, it’s really about much more.Like all the best works of art, American Tiger brings together the preoccupations that have underpinned Adam’s career up to now into one artistically coherent and page-turning whole. It’s an LA novel, a coming-of-age novel, and a novel about the way that Adam sees nature as a partner, not a resource.And the story of how Skolnick brought this thing into the world is itself an instructive tale for anybody attempting to get their own creative vision off the ground: part creative psychology, part survival guide to the modern writer’s life, part sheer bloody-minded entrepreneurialism in an era of shrinking outlets and collapsing budgets.I loved this conversation, and I think you will too. Find it via my website, the link in bio, or the usual platform.My thanks to Adam for the brilliant chat, and to April for all the help. Looking forward to meeting you both in person soon! To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

In this latest follow-up episode to The Announcement, I’m joined by activist, entrepreneur, engineer, and policy researcher Len Necefer for a conversation in which we discuss the tension between ideological purity and pragmatic action when it comes to genuine environmental and social change.Len, a proud member of the Navajo Nation, works at the intersection of Indigenous peoples, natural resource, and environmental policy. He is the founder of Natives Outdoors, a board member at the Honnold Foundation, and somebody whose work has become essential when it comes to the current debate around how to create meaningful impact in an imperfect system.  This, of course, was a key theme of my Announcement series proper. And it is the territory Len provocatively and articulately explores through his work and writings, in which he respectfully yet firmly challenges the comfortable assumptions around ‘purpose’ that tend to dominate the discourse in outdoor and adventure spaces.As you’ll be aware if you’ve read Len’s brilliant Substack or follow him on social media, he is not interested in letting individuals, brands, or organisations mark their own homework. Instead, he is interested in asking the only questions that truly matter: Will this have an impact? Is your work upsetting the right people? Is it calculated to drive forward the change you claim to seek? The more I explore these avenues, the more I think these are really the only honest questions worth asking, which is why I admire Len’s work and his willingness to ask these questions so outspokenly and articulately. From this challenging conversation, you'll gain insights into:- Why accountability matters more than stated intentions in purpose-driven business- How Indigenous perspectives fundamentally shift conversations around environmental policy and outdoor access- What it means to take genuinely bold approaches, rather than performative stands- Why challenging industry orthodoxy is essential to meaningful progressThis was the type of challenging and progressive conversation that Len specialises in— full of provocations, unimpeachable logic, and the moral integrity we sorely need at this time. For bonus and behind-the-scenes material, click here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe

Use LOOKINGSIDEWAYS10 for 10% off anything from Finisterre--Filmmaker, surfer, seeker and - OK, then - influencer: Seth Hughes is one of British surfing’s most thought-provoking creative presences.We’ve been friends for a few years now, and like everybody who follows him on Instagram, over the last few years I’ve been following his ‘apprenticeship to the land and sea’ with fascination and interest. I’ve also appreciated the increasingly searching and occasionally uncomfortable questions he likes to pose.How to regain a new understanding of health and wellness. How to regain our lost relationship to nature. How we escape the pernicious power of addictive technology. And how to reconcile our ‘real’ and public-facing selves, and the many masks we wear.These are Seth’s preoccupations and themes. And they were among the many topics we discussed in this meandering, insightful and hugely enjoyable exchange, recorded during my visit to Cornwall at the end of October 2025.We began this conversation on the site of the old mining slag heap that forms a backdrop to our mutual pal Chris Hines’ beautiful property, before heading inside to record this evocative conversation.I’m very grateful to Seth and Chris for the lovely afternoon. I learned a lot from our conversation, not least about my own views and behaviours.Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. --To find out more about what I do, you can sign up as a subscriber to my Substack newsletter here. There's a brilliant community and much more than just the podcasts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.wearelookingsideways.com/subscribe