Outrage + Optimism

Face the climate crisis head on, but understand that we have the power to solve this. From former UN Chief Christiana Figueres and the team who brought you the Paris Agreement, this podcast about issues and politics will inform you, inspire you and help you realize that this is the most exciting time in history to be alive.

241. 40 Seconds to Save The World! with Paul Goodenough 04/18/2024

241. 40 Seconds to Save The World! with Paul Goodenough This week, the hosts discuss the much celebrated ruling last week at the European Court of Human Rights when over 2000 women aged 64 and up, took the Swiss Government to court for failing to protect them from the growing effects of climate change which proved detrimental to their health. The court in Strasbourg ruled in favour of the women, opening up a pathway for other similar cases to now be heard. The hosts briefly discuss the ruling as well as the backlash experienced among some MPs in the UK and Switzerland and why their accusations of infringement upon country sovereignty is false. We are then joined by the incredible Paul Goodenough, an award-winning, purpose-driven storyteller and entrepreneur, working in the environmental, charity, peace-building and entertainment sectors. In 2019, Paul co-founded Rewriting Earth (formerly Rewriting Extinction), a global collaboration of 300+ of the most influential storytellers creating non-political, non-judgemental content to reach mainstream audiences not typically engaged with environmental issues. It was a brilliant, fun and inspiring interview - make sure to listen to hear how Paul G describes how he hopes the stories he helps bring to life ‘throw an arm around people’ and welcome them into the climate space. The more the merrier we say! NOTES AND RESOURCES GUEST Paul Goodenough, an award-winning, purpose-driven storyteller and entrepreneur, working in the environmental, charity, peace-building and entertainment sectors | | | Rewriting Earth | | | Rewriting Earth’s book, The Most Important Comic Book on Earth: Stories to Save the World, launched in the UK in 2021 and is available at . The book is launching in Germany next week and is available at . To listen to our recent mini-series, Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection visit the dedicated , which includes unedited versions of interviews with our wonderful guests. Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/30873283

Presenting: ‘How To Academy Podcast with Christiana Figueres - Facing the Climate Crisis Live In Conversation with Paul Polman’ 04/16/2024

240. Two Years to Save The World? With Simon Stiell 04/12/2024

239. Krista Tippett: Her Story of Nature 04/04/2024

238. Impatient for Change with Hannah Ritchie 03/28/2024

237. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Over to You! 03/21/2024

236. SOTU: Unpacking Biden's Vision and The IRA 03/14/2024

235. Female Leadership Can Unlock Systemic Change (International Women's Day 2024) 03/07/2024

234. Farmer Protests 02/29/2024

233. The Thorny Issue of 1.5C 02/22/2024

232. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part Three - Living AS Nature 02/15/2024

232. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part Three - Living AS Nature This week, and her guest co-host introduce the third and final episode in their mini-series, Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection. In this episode, Living As Nature, co-hosts and a stellar cast of guests use the pandemic as their jumping off point to unpack how a moment of physical separation, from each other and the natural world, became a strange chrysalis to stronger and deeper interconnections. Contributors from across many religious and spiritual traditions, including , public intellectual, and ,Zen Buddhist monastic teacher join Christiana and Isabel to discuss how developing a sense of reverence and responsibility for the Earth leads to both personal and systemic transformation. They ask: how can our unprecedented ecological and social crises become an opportunity for the foundation of a new way of relating to each other and to nature? How can we move away from living from nature to living as nature, so that we can grow and flourish? This episode is part of a series that shines a new light on humanity’s fundamental relationship with the rest of nature as key to responding to the climate crisis and to transitioning into a regenerative future. Please don’t forget to let us know what you think , and / or by contacting us on our social media channels or via the website. NOTES AND RESOURCES GUESTS Xiye Bastida, Co-Founder Re-Earth Initiative, Indigenous Wisdom, TIME100Next, UN HLC Ambassador, TED Speaker | | | | Janine Benyus, Co-Founder Biomimicry 3.8 and Biomimicry Institute | | Dr. Lyla June Johnston, Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages | | | Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, Public Intellectual, Author, Professor and Chief Curator, The Emergence Network | | | Sister True Dedication, Zen Buddhist monastic teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Community | Plum Village | | | Krista Tippett, award-winning journalist, author and host of On Being podcast | | | , Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Wolf Martinez, Diné, Lakota, & Spanish. Two Spirit. Speaker, Ceremonialist and practitioner of Ancient Healing Arts. Therapist. Lover. Human Being. | | Kate Raworth, Author of Doughnut Economics and Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab | Dr. Gunhild Anker Stordalen, Founder and Executive Chair of EAT Foundation | Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/29958993

231. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part Two - Living WITH Nature 02/13/2024

231. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part Two - Living WITH Nature This week, and her guest co-host introduce the second episode in their mini-series, Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection. In this episode, Living With Nature, the hosts share a series of conversations with experts from the worlds of food, the economy, energy and design to illuminate how our man-made systems are rooted in a separation from the natural world. You’ll hear insight and fresh ideas from author , Founder and Executive Chair, EAT , energy strategist at Rocky Mountain Institute , author of the Earth Transformed: An Untold History, and co-founder of Biomimicry, . With appropriate outrage, Christiana and guests will explore how the climate crisis, the energy crisis, the inequality crisis and the food crisis all share the same deep root: extractivism based on extrinsic principles. They argue that this extractivism not only depletes the planet—the very soil of the Earth itself—it also depletes our human soul. With characteristic and bold optimism, Christiana, Isabel and guests will argue that if we can overthrow the tyranny of GDP, invest in harvesting rather than in extraction, and if we design our world mimicking nature’s genius, we might yet create a future where humans and nature thrive in balance. This episode is part of a series that shines a new light on humanity’s fundamental relationship with the rest of nature as key to responding to the climate crisis and to transitioning into a regenerative future. Do not miss the third and final episode, Living As Nature, in which Christiana and Isabel invite listeners to contemplate what it will take for each of us to fully awaken to our interconnectedness as, perhaps, the starting point - the foundational stone - without which no new home can be built for a truly regenerative future. Please don’t forget to let us know what you think , and / or by contacting us on our social media channels or via the website. NOTES AND RESOURCES GUESTS , Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Kate Raworth, Author of Doughnut Economics and Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab | Krista Tippett, award-winning journalist, author and host of On Being podcast | | | Dr. Gunhild Anker Stordalen, Founder and Executive Chair of EAT Foundation | Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist at RMI | Janine Benyus, Co-Founder Biomimicry 3.8 and Biomimicry Institute | | Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/29919053

230. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part One - Living FROM Nature 02/08/2024

230. Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection - Part One - Living FROM Nature This week, introduces a new mini-series, Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection. Over three episodes, Christiana and guests will shine a light on our relationship with the rest of nature. Does transforming our connection with the natural world hold the key to transforming our response to the multiple environmental, political and social crises we face? Christiana’s accompanied on this journey by co-host . Isabel is a former negotiator for Colombia and co-founder of Mundo Comun. In Episode 1, Living From Nature, Christiana, Isabel and guests delve deep into the roots of humanity’s separation from nature. They explore moments where cracks may have appeared and widened, including the advent of farming and a particular interpretation of the Book of Genesis. How have certain ideas shaped different cultures’ relationships with the natural world, and what are their consequences? Is our distance from nature related to other forms of separation, like colonialism? How can we nurture and narrate new stories of our relationship with nature to address 21st Century problems? The best and brightest minds from around the globe contribute to Our Story of Nature, including author of the Earth Transformed: An Untold History; , co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8; , indigenous musician and community organiser; , award-winning journalist and author , former adjunct Secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development ; , Traditional Medicine Person, Guardian and Keeper of the old indigenous ways; Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and the co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative. Once listeners have heard about the roots of our rupture from nature, tune in for the second episode of the series - Living With Nature. A stellar cast of experts will join Christiana to explore how our current systems - food, economy, energy, design - have been built on a mindset of extraction and separation. With characteristic optimism, they will give us a glimpse into how these systems, in many places, are planting the seeds for a more regenerative future. The third and final episode, Living as Nature, is where the science of awe meets spirituality. Christiana and Isabel invite listeners to contemplate what it will take for each of us to fully awaken to our interconnectedness as the starting point - the foundational stone - without which no new home can be built for a truly regenerative future. Please don’t forget to let us know what you think , and / or by contacting us on our social media channels or via the website. NOTES AND RESOURCES GUESTS Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University | | Janine Benyus, Co-Founder Biomimicry 3.8 and Biomimicry Institute | | Krista Tippett, award-winning journalist, author and host of On Being podcast | | | Reverend Doctor Augusto Zampini Davies | | | | | , Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Xiye Bastida, Co-Founder Re-Earth Initiative, Indigenous Wisdom, TIME100Next, UN HLC Ambassador, TED Speaker | | | | Dr. Lyla June Johnston, Indigenous musician, author, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages | | | Wolf Martinez, Diné, Lakota, & Spanish. Two Spirit. Speaker, Ceremonialist and practitioner of Ancient Healing Arts. Therapist. Lover. Human Being. | | Sister True Dedication, Zen Buddhist monastic teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Community | Plum Village | | | Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, Public Intellectual, Author, Professor and Chief Curator, The Emergence Network | | | Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/29846118

229. 2024: The Year Of Democracy (Or Not) 02/01/2024

228. Climate Conversations: A Holiday Survival Guide [December Mailbag] 12/18/2023

227. COP28 Panel: Turning Sustainability Values into Action 12/15/2023

226. COP28: The Outcome Is A Signal 12/14/2023

225. COP28: The Snapshot vs The Movie 12/11/2023

224. COP28: Later Is Too Late 12/08/2023

223. COP28: Will The Word ‘Out’ Be In? 12/04/2023

222. Moments of Truth 11/29/2023

221. TIME100 Climate: Stories of Leadership 11/23/2023

Presenting: ‘On Being with Krista Tippett’ 11/17/2023

220. Inequality Is At The Root! 11/09/2023

219. Ice Down the Spine and Courage in the Heart 11/02/2023

219. Ice Down the Spine and Courage in the Heart This week, the team talk positive tipping points, grapple with the comms coming out of the pre-COP meets and send our tributes to dearly loved colleagues who have recently passed. With pre COP 28 meetings currently taking place, the host team discuss the mixed messaging that is currently making headlines and anticipate what this might mean for how the future of fossil fuels will appear in the final text at COP 28. Tim Lenton, the founding Director of the at the University of Exeter and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science is our guest this week, and with Tom unable to make the interview, our brilliant colleague from Global Optimism, Freya Newman, joins Christiana and Paul to interview her former professor. With negative tipping points racing along their own ‘S curve’, the team ask Tim Lenton whether there are signs that the positive tipping points can win this race and avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis (pssst, the answer is it looks very, very possible). Music this week comes from Jemima Coulter with their beautiful song ‘[flowers]’. NOTES AND RESOURCES GUEST Professor Tim Lenton, Founding Director of the at the University of Exeter and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science | is the website on Global Tipping points where you can find resources and info on all that Tim and the team discuss. Spread the word! FREYA NEWMAN PETE BETTS We are all very saddened by the news of the death of Pete Betts, a former guest on Outrage + Optimism and an all round incredible human being. Please check out the episode , to hear the man himself and his lifetime dedication to working for a better, fairer sustainable future. DAVID ATTENBOROUGH As mentioned by Tom is one of the first O+O episodes recorded and it is one worth revisiting to hear the exchange between Christiana and David as they talk about the Garden of Eden and Garden of Intention. Truly worth a revisit. MUSICAL GUEST Jemima Coulter | | | | | | Go buy/stream PLUM VILLAGE Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/28491500

218. October Mailbag 10/26/2023

217. Greening Shipping 10/19/2023

217. Greening Shipping Ahoy! With Christiana at the helm this week we’re raising our anchor and charting a course into the fascinating and complex world of greening shipping. The shipping industry can feel removed from our daily lives. With images of huge cargo ships criss-crossing the oceans, distant foreign ports and international regulatory bodies with unfamiliar acronyms like the IMO or the GMF, you might even ask yourself: why should I care? We’ll hear how 90% of what we consume, wear and use in our homes comes to us via a ship. And how the predominant use of dirty fossil fuels means that the shipping industry currently contributes around 3% of the world’s global CO2 - that’s the same as the whole of Germany or Japan’s emissions. But not any more! Christiana and her crew of shipping experts take you on a journey to explore how the shipping industry is at the forefront of an exciting transition to Net Zero, and will explain how greening the maritime sector could help us address the climate emergency. Christiana has been a long and passionate advocate for reform in the shipping industry. With the help of guests such as AP Moller-Maersk’s Senior Vice President, Morten Christiansen; Alejandra Teran from Costa Rica’s Sailcargo; Eric Leveridge, Campaign Lead at Ship it Zero; Ambassador Albon Ishoda, Royal Marshall Islands Presidential Special Envoy for Maritime Decarbonisation, Dr Lucy Gilliam, Seas at Risk, Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO, MaerskMcKinney Moller Centre, Cleo Bierneza, Third Officer at Swire Shipping and many more, this deep dive episode will hope to leave no doubt in our listeners’ minds as to why shipping’s path to Net Zero is integral to our current and future life on the planet. How these ships are fuelled now and in the future, why the recent International Maritime Organisation decision was history in the making, how the people working on these ships are treated to ensure a just transition as well as the role that we, the consumers, can play, are all questions that Christiana and her guests tackle during this special episode. Do let us know what you think! NOTES AND RESOURCES GUESTS Alejandra Terán, Chief Purpose Marketing Officer at | | Ambassador Albon Ishoda, Royal Marshall Islands Presidential Special Envoy for Maritime Decarbonisation | Bo Cerup-Simonsen, Chief Executive Officer of | for Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping Christine Loh, Cleo Bierneza, Third Officer at Eric Leveridge, Campaign Lead at Ingrid Irigoyen, Associate Director, Ocean and Climate, & President and CEO, | Dr Lucy Gilliam, | Seas At Risk | | Morten Bo Christiansen, Senior Vice President, Head of Energy Transition at Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/28360382

Presenting: 'Uncertainty and Possibility - Meeting the Climate Future' 10/12/2023

Presenting: 'Uncertainty and Possibility - Meeting the Climate Future' What happens when three wise women get together? Just an incredible series of new, mind-blowing conversations, that’s all. In this week’s episode we are THRILLED to bring you an edited version of the AMAZING ten-part video series featuring Buddhist teacher, Roshi Joan Halifax; writer/activist Rebecca Solnit and of course, our own remarkable Christiana Figueres. Recorded by our friends at Upaya Zen Centre earlier this year while the three women were together in person, please do be sure to check out the full series in its entirety! During the course of these discussions, Roshi Joan, Rebecca and Christiana go deep on topics ranging from personal reflections on climate grief, to how to be present to the current climate reality, to how we can rewrite the current narrative of the anthropocene. We guarantee you will leave this conversations with a deepened understanding of the transformation, both personal and systemic, required to meet the challenges of the climate crisis. Huge thanks goes to the team at Upaya who recorded these interviews and kindly allowed us use of their audio, and to Roshi Joan Halifax, Rebecca Solnit and Christiana for the rich conversation. If the episode leaves you wanting to hear more from these wonderful women, you can download the previous Outrage + Optimisms episodes where and feature as guests. Please remember to send in your questions for the Listener mailbag episode we are doing at the end of October. Either submit through our social media channels or email: NOTES AND RESOURCES Upaya Zen Centre | | Ten-part Video Series GUESTS Roshi Joan Halifax | | | Rebecca Solnit | Rebecca’s organisation Not Too Late co-founded with Thelma Young Lutunatabua. Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/28291118

216. Drilled, Baby, Drilled! 10/05/2023

215. Hungry For Alternatives 09/28/2023

215. Hungry For Alternatives This week on O+O: UK Net Zero rollbacks, the rise of global populism and why we should all be hungry for (protein) alternatives. Pull up a chair to the table and tuck in to this week's episode. With the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s recent announcement that he plans to ‘roll back’ Net Zero commitments, coupled with the disturbing rise of global populist politicians choosing to hack the climate crisis conversation, our hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson, ask: why, and why now, are these leaders choosing to act against the scientific consensus and hit the brakes on progress? Tune in this week to hear the hosts’ lively and insightful analysis on this worrying trend in global politics. Alternative proteins is the topic of this week’s guest interview. Bruce Friedrich from the Good Food Institute is interviewed by the unflappable Andy Jarvis from theBezos Earth Fund, using his expertise in this area to dig into this incredibly important and hugely influential issue. Bruce, Andy and the hosts unpacked the outsized positive impact that alternative proteins can have not only on tackling the climate crisis, but also our health, animal well-being and nature restoration. He also issued a stark warning with regards to the huge quantities of antibiotics we feed our animals and the current and future on human health: “The UK government said the threat to the human race from antimicrobial resistance is more certain than the threat from climate change. It's already killing 1.3 million people per year. It's predicted to be killing 10 million people per year by 2050, according to an article in The Lancet last year. Seventy percent of medically relevant antibiotics are being fed to farm animals. Now, former head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, has said the end of working antibiotics is the end of modern medicine.” * Yikes. Music this week comes from Colombian Psychedelic band ‘BALTHVS’ and their track ‘Eclipse Solar’. NOTES AND RESOURCES * Bruce quotes an article published in Jan 2022 by The Lancet: . This article in turn quotes the UK’s AMR review’s final paper: (2016) which is the original source of the figures Bruce uses in the quote above. PLUM VILLAGE Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet course. Sign up and make sure to check out their scholarships on offer if support is needed. GUESTS Bruce Friedrich, President and Founder of | The Good Food Institute | Andy Jarvis, Director of Future of Food at | | MUSIC BALTHVS | | Learn more about the . It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - ! Check out more podcasts from Please follow us on social media! | | /episode/index/show/outrageandoptimism/id/28157792

Outrage + Optimism

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