Introducing... Outrage + Optimism

Seasons greetings listeners, and what a festive treat Tom and Sam have for you this episode. This week we welcome Lucy Siegle back to the studio, before listening to Brother Spirit and Brother Embrace, Zen Monks from Plum Village, as they impart wisdom on how we can reconnect with nature at this pivotal moment. They tell us stories of leading meditation circles with key negotiators at COP26 and how connecting our heads and hearts can help the climate movement. We also hear from this season's previous guests on what they want for the planet this Christmas and how we can help them achieve it. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong https://twitter.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions https://www.instagram.com/picturezero Podmonkey: https://www.instagram.com/wearepodmonkey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tzeporah Berman started her climate career cooking for activists at a camp protesting anti-felling in British Columbia. A year later she was arrested in the same place, microphone in hand, as one of the movements' leading climate defenders. Since then Tzeporah has become one of Canada's most prominent environmentalists, with a mission to inspire the next generation of activists. Sam and Tom managed to sit down with Tzeporah at COP26 to discuss her career, from negotiating the Great Bear Rainforest agreement, to co-directing Greenpeace's Global Climate and Energy Program, and now chairing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong https://twitter.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions https://www.instagram.com/picturezero Podmonkey: https://www.instagram.com/wearepodmonkey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It isn't often you meet a General, but this week retired four star US army General Stanley McChrystal shares his wisdom after a lifetime of military service. Sam and Tom sat down to ask hard hitting questions about the military and it's responsibility to the climate movement. Exploring the role the military plays within the climate crisis and how it's focus has shifted as environmental needs have gained attention and urgency, Tom and Sam listen to stories of climate wars of the past and how we can learn from them. Now an advocate for National Service, and a Leadership tutor at Yale, Stan explains what the environmental leaders of tomorrow need to mediate risk, and combat the environmental crisis in our age of misinformation. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong https://twitter.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions https://www.instagram.com/picturezero Podmonkey: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Tom and Sam are joined by Shirley Djukurna Krenak, member of the Brazilian Krenak community, and a leading activist for Indigenous voices within the climate movement. Recorded at COP26, Shirley has travelled across the world  to increase awareness of the environmental impacts on small indigenous communities like her own. In 2015, the Krenak people were directly affected by Brazil's worst ever environmental disaster when a dam collapsed, unleashing tonnes of mining waste into their sacred Doce River, affecting the ecosystem for hundreds of kilometers. Shirley tells Sam and Tom about the effect it's had on her homeland, finding her voice, and the power of healing ourselves and nature. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong https://twitter.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions https://www.instagram.com/picturezero Podmonkey: https://www.instagram.com/wearepodmonkey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Farhana Yamin is one of the most influential environmental lawyers and climate policy experts in Britain. This week she chats to Tom and Sam to talk through the past 30 years in the climate world, from convincing world leaders the climate crisis was real, to presenting the notion of zero emissions and campaigning with Extinction Rebellion. We discuss her time in UN boardrooms making etiquette faux pas, representing small islands against international powers, as well as her emotional experience of burnout and depression which has taken her back to nature, and reconnected her to her roots. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong https://twitter.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions https://www.instagram.com/picturezero Podmonkey: https://www.instagram.com/wearepodmonkey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back! Listeners, welcome to Series 2, and boy do we have a series in store for you. This week Tom, Lucy and brand new host Sam are going to transport you to COP26. You've seen it all over the news but what actually goes on at COP? And what was it like to be there? Well, the team have been running around the streets of Glasgow to answer just that. From the blue zone to the green zone and out into the marches, we talk to Belgian bikers, climate lawyers and the children protesting for their futures, Tom door-steps (well, march-steps) Ed Miliband... and somehow Sam is taking song requests from John Kerry? All in pursuit of bringing you the most powerful climate stories from the conference. Socials: So Hot Right Now www.instagram.com/sohotpod Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Lucy Siegle: https://twitter.com/lucysiegle https://www.instagram.com/theseagull Sam Lee: https://www.instagram.com/samleesong Picture Zero Productions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Socials: Lucy Siegle: https://twitter.com/lucysiegle https://www.instagram.com/theseagull Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We have reached the finale of season one! Thank you so much for joining us on the journey so far. To celebrate, Lucy and Tom do something a bit different - they pass the mic to the next generation of nature and climate storytellers, photographers, reporters and filmmakers. We speak to young storytellers in a time of climate change and ecological catastrophe about how they feel, what they hope for and what they need. Starting with the talented and passionate students of Falmouth University, and then passing the mic abroad to young climate communicators across the world, with excerpts from the brilliant new book out this week; Together We Are Unstoppable. And if all that wasn't enough, there's room for a swim as well! Socials: Lucy Siegle: https://twitter.com/lucysiegle https://www.instagram.com/theseagull Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We speak to two innovators who have taken unappealing subjects that nobody wants to talk about – sewage and bugs, respectively  - and made them compelling! Hugo Tagholm is the CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, the Cornish NGO that has morphed from single-issue crusty surfers’ organisation into a slick global outfit, responsible for changing the law on toxic waste, sewage treatment and plastic pollution. Driven by his fierce passion for the ocean and environmental justice, Hugo tells us how to choose the right tool for the job; be that an inflatable turd, or carefully drafted framework on banning single use plastics. Then we catch up with Tim Cockerill, the zoologist, broadcaster, flea circus impresario and insect wrangler for many flagship nature shows. The fact that insect populations are declining dramatically should worry us all. But many people don’t notice because they don’t like them. However Tim is on a mission to give insects an image makeover. He will stop at nothing to get them in the spotlight…and we mean nothing. Warning do no listen to this episode while eating.  Socials: Lucy Siegle: https://twitter.com/lucysiegle https://www.instagram.com/theseagull Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Guest: Bill McKibben: Author, Educator, Environmentalist & Founder of 350.org For years we have been told that the way we do things is set in stone. That we cannot change the system. But that is not true, and the system is collapsing. New stories are emerging: Green New Deals, Divestment from Fossil Fuels, global political movements like XR and Fridays For Future. We dig into how Stories and storytelling are at the heart of these changes with the man who has been dismantling old stories and building new ones to replace them, and focussing on his most impressive achievement to date: one hastening the demise of fossil fuels: the Divestment movement. Socials: Lucy Siegle: https://twitter.com/lucysiegle https://www.instagram.com/theseagull Tom Mustill: https://www.instagram.com/tommustill https://twitter.com/tommustill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices