Episode #125: James Murray on Climate Change, Tipping Points & Practicing Optimism
Release Date: 01/25/2026
Episode #125: James Murray on Climate Change, Tipping Points & Practicing Optimism
The Discomfort Practice
In this expansive and clear-eyed conversation, host Betsy Reed is joined by journalist and leading sustainability commentator James Murray, founding Editor-in-Chief of BusinessGreen. Together, they explore what it means to stay awake, human and oriented in the face of accelerating climate risk, AI and systemic uncertainty. Recorded at a moment when climate tipping points are no longer abstract projections but lived realities, their dialogue flows between science, politics, technology and psychology. Betsy and James examine how climate change has become a kind of “theory of everything”,...
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Episode #124: Betsy by Herself - A Love Letter to Anyone Doing Anything Alone
The Discomfort Practice
In this intimate solo episode, Betsy records from the threshold: posting unscripted, later than planned and exactly when it needed to be shared. Recorded in January 2026, after what she calls the personal “meat-grinder” year of 2025, this episode is a love letter to anyone doing something alone: building, healing, choosing integrity, setting boundaries or standing between versions of themselves in a quiet, liminal space. This is not a pep talk. It’s a nervous system-level offering for those moments when life goes quiet and the stories about aloneness get loud. In this episode, Betsy...
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Episode #123: Betsy by Herself on Navigating Your Own Threshold Moments in a Time of Monsters
The Discomfort Practice
In this powerful solo episode, Betsy explores what it means to live, lead, and stay human in what philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously called “the time of monsters” - the in-between space where the old world is dying and the new world is still struggling to be born. Recorded at the close of 2025, this episode is an invitation for anyone standing at a threshold: the end of a year, a relationship, a job, an identity, or an old way of being. Betsy reframes overwhelm, grief, and exhaustion not as personal failure, but as signs of initiation - evidence that you are awake, feeling, and...
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Episode #122: From the Archives - Pilar Garrido on Leading a Country With Love During a Pandemic
The Discomfort Practice
This is a good one from the archives - back in January 2023, when memories of the COVID-19 pandemic (and the trauma) was still fresh. Betsy interviewed Pilar Garrido, who was Minister for Economic Development in Costa Rica during the pandemic and went to work every day determined to 'lead from love.' This is posted toward the end of 2025, a year in which many of us have witnessed leadership and counter reactions that come from fear or ego, not love. It's a particularly poignant, beautiful episode to remind us that it IS possible to lead from love, and that each of us can choose to...
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Episode #121: Betsy By Herself on Boundary-Setting as a Pleasure Practice
The Discomfort Practice
In this very personal 20-minute solo, Betsy steps into the uncomfortable, liberating terrain of boundaries as a pleasure practice - a theme that emerged from her 2025 words of the year: alignment and precision. This episode is a transmission on sovereignty, somatic truth, and what it means to teach the choreography of your life through your energy, not your explanations. She reflects on a year of deep pruning of relationships, dynamics, and energetic leaks, and how that pruning has become sensual, sovereign, and delicious. She shares what it has meant to listen to her body’s YES and NO, to...
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Episode #120: Betsy By Herself on Launching a Personal Sanctuary for Her Edges
The Discomfort Practice
In this very personal 20-minute solo episode, Betsy steps into her own edge. She announces the launch of a new offering: Voice Notes from the Edge, her Substack home for the people who want deeper access to her world, her thoughts, her voice. This episode is a transmission - an intimate reflection on sovereignty, devotion, and the kind of people who choose to walk with you not because they “follow” you, but because they recognise themselves in your voice and work. She shares why she’s creating a paid sanctuary, because she's ready to be witnessed more deeply in order to help others...
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Episode #119: Isa Noyola Returns to Talk About Joy, Justice and Survival When Walking the Edge
The Discomfort Practice
In this deeply moving conversation, host Betsy Reed welcomes back longtime friend and activist Isa Noyola, Director of the Border Butterflies Project at the Transgender Law Center, to explore what it means to live, love, and lead on the frontlines of collective liberation. Recorded in October 2025, their conversation travels from shared memories of queer resistance and joy in the American South to the stark realities of immigrant detention and the rising tide of authoritarianism. Through it all, Isa reminds us that trans joy, softness, and connection are radical acts of resistance, and that...
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Episode #118: Betsy By Herself on Post-Capitalist Prosperity - Redefining Abundance, Enoughness and Trust
The Discomfort Practice
In this solo episode of The Discomfort Practice, Betsy reflects on what it means to live and prosper beyond capitalism’s conditioning. She’s been recently moving through a deep personal detox and life transition and explores how WildFit, a nutritional and emotional reset, has become a catalyst for examining - well, everything. Her relationship with productivity, prosperity, and self-worth as well as with why and what she eats. Betsy talks about how capitalist systems teach us to see ourselves and others as “human resources,” valued only for what we produce, and how unlearning...
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Episode #117: Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on how to stay human in the age of AI
The Discomfort Practice
What does it mean to stay human in the age of AI? In this episode ,BetsyI welcomse back Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic - psychologist, author, and provocateur - to explore how technology is reshaping not just what we do, but who we are becoming as humans. From dating-app algorithms to digital narcissism, Tomas explains how AI mirrors our worst tendencies—bias, impatience, distraction—and why true curiosity always involves discomfort. Together they look at how efficiency can be inhumane, what “realistic optimism” about AI sounds like, and how we can reclaim what makes us unique: connection,...
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Episode #116: Relaunching Season 5 after a year off
The Discomfort Practice
In this episode, Betsy reflects on the question she’s been pondering deeply: “The world is changing fast. Are you changing with it? Are you being the change you want to see in the world?” She explores how we can shift from being stuck in the narratives of fear and decline to consciously creating our own story and living a life that reflects joy, love, and curiosity. Betsy shares her own experiences with metaphysical study and coaching, offering both inspiration and relief for anyone struggling with the idea of “purpose.” Instead of worrying about finding your one purpose, she...
info_outlineIn this expansive and clear-eyed conversation, host Betsy Reed is joined by journalist and leading sustainability commentator James Murray, founding Editor-in-Chief of BusinessGreen. Together, they explore what it means to stay awake, human and oriented in the face of accelerating climate risk, AI and systemic uncertainty.
Recorded at a moment when climate tipping points are no longer abstract projections but lived realities, their dialogue flows between science, politics, technology and psychology. Betsy and James examine how climate change has become a kind of “theory of everything”, shaping economics, geopolitics, migration and everyday life, and what it takes to remain informed without tipping into paralysis, denial or performative optimism.
With honesty and nuance, they discuss the real risks in the future, the breakthroughs already underway, and the inner work required to hold the tension of either a potentially catastrophic or a potentially bright future. Because, right now, we don't know which we are heading for.
This is a conversation about choosing informed optimism as a practice not a posture, and about learning how to stay in relationship with complexity rather than turning away from it.
In this episode:
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What climate tipping points really are and why they matter now
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Why climate change has become a “theory of everything” for modern life
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The emotional and psychological impact of watching seasons, systems and certainties shift within a single lifetime
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Where real hope lives: clean tech, adoption curves and the pace of innovation
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Carbon removal, regenerative approaches and what comes next
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The tension between democratic processes and the urgency of climate action
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Navigating the information Wild West without losing discernment
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What it means to practise informed optimism in dark and uncertain times
About James Murray
James Murray is the founding editor-in-chief of BusinessGreen, the UK’s leading publication covering the green economy, net-zero transition and sustainable business. He launched BusinessGreen in 2007 and has spent nearly two decades reporting on, analysing and challenging the evolution of climate policy, clean technology and corporate responsibility. In 2020, he was named Digital Editor of the Year at the AOP Awards. His work is widely read by policymakers, business leaders and sustainability practitioners navigating the transition to a low-carbon economy.
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Read James’ piece The Climate Theory of Everything
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Check out the Business Green website
Connect with Betsy
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Instagram: @thebetsyreed
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Like, subscribe and leave a 5-star review wherever you listen to podcasts to help more people discover The Discomfort Practice
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Check out Betsy's new, more personal Substack, (Voice) Notes From the Edge, to get her 'hot takes,' deeper reflections and behind-the-scenes insights