We Need to Act

El buen vivir no es una utopía. Es una forma de vida que lleva miles de años en práctica. En este episodio de We Need to Act , Sara Rego conversa con Norma Sactic, activista Maya Poqomam de Palín, Guatemala, que lleva más de 35 años defendiendo los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas. Vivimos en un sistema que mide el éxito en términos económicos, que antepone lo individual a lo colectivo...

Fashion is broken. Can beauty fix it? In this episode of We Need to Act, Sara Rego speaks with Claudia Pievani, founder of Miomojo — an upper premium, cruelty-free Italian accessories brand and certified B Corp. Fashion is one of the most polluting industries on the planet. It exploits animals, underpays workers, floods developing nations with waste, and keeps selling us things we don’t need at pr...

The ocean is dying. Do we have the answers? In this episode of We Need to Act, Sara Rego speaks with Bodhi Patil, ocean guardian, founder of Inner Light and co-founder of Ocean Uprise. The ocean produces roughly half the oxygen we breathe and absorbs nearly a third of the CO2 we emit. And yet it remains one of the least understood and least protected systems on the planet. The people who have alwa...

Tuvalu is living the climate crisis now. In this episode of We Need to Act , Sara Rego speaks with Dr. Tapugao Falefou , Tuvalu’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador to the United States and the Republic of Cuba. For Tuvalu, climate change is not a distant threat. Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and the loss of land are already affecting communitie...

¿Qué pasa cuando el agua que necesitas para vivir ya tiene dueño? Jorge Morales Trincado lleva 14 años defendiendo el agua y el territorio en el Valle del Aconcagua, una de las cuencas más fértiles de Chile — y una de las más amenazadas. Antiguo ejecutivo de multinacionales como Volvo y Mercedes-Benz, Jorge tomó una decisión radical a los 42 años: renunció, volvió a su tierra y dedicó su vida a pr...

What happens to your sense of self when the lands that define you are taken away? Dr. Jessica Hernandez is an Indigenous environmental scientist, author, and founder of Earth Daughters — an Indigenous-led collective supporting indigenous women and youth through mutual aid and climate justice initiatives. Of Binnizá and Ch'orti' Maya heritage, displaced from her ancestral homelands in Oaxac...

What does your wardrobe have to do with a beach in Ghana covered in discarded clothing? Yayra Agbofah grew up trading secondhand garments at Kantamanto Market in Accra — one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in Africa, where millions of garments arrive every single week. He saw firsthand what happens to the ones that don't sell: they end up in rivers, in landfills, on beaches. He also saw...

What happens to environmental law when the federal government turns its back on climate action? Dan Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law at UC Berkeley and one of the most respected voices in US environmental and constitutional law. A former law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the US Supreme Court, he has spent decades at the intersection of environmental policy, democracy, and justice. I...

What does it mean to watch the river that shaped your entire life fall silent? Áslat Holmberg is a former member of the Sámi Parliament of Finland and former President of the Saami Council — a salmon fisher, teacher, and holder of a master's degree in indigenous studies whose work expertise includes human rights, culture, indigenous knowledge, and environmental policy. He grew up in Njuorggán, the...

What if the climate narrative itself is the problem? Paul Hawken is one of the world's most influential environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and authors. Founder of Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration, and New York Times bestselling author of nine books — including The Ecology of Commerce , Drawdown , Regeneration , and his latest, Carbon: The Book of Life (2025) — he has spent over 50 years wo...

Aquí está: ¿Sabías que las abejas meliponas polinizan hasta el 80% de la flora amazónica — y que la mayoría de la gente ni sabe que existen? Ornella Muñoz creció en Dos de Mayo, a orillas del río Ucayali, en la Amazonía peruana. Desde pequeña se preguntaba de dónde venía el aire fresco, cómo los árboles hacían posible la vida y por qué su comunidad dependía tanto de la naturaleza. Esa curiosidad s...

What if whales are not just animals — but ancestors? Dr. Mere Takoko is a Māori Ocean and Climate conservationist from Aotearoa New Zealand and one of the leading voices behind the movement to grant whales legal personhood across the Pacific. A descendant of Māui and Paikea — the ancestor who arrived in New Zealand on the back of a whale — Mere holds what she describes not as a job, but an inherit...

What does the godfather of the global sustainability movement think is coming next? John Elkington has been working at the intersection of business, environment, and society for over 50 years. He coined the Triple Bottom Line. He wrote the Green Consumer Guide. He conceived the Green Swan. He has advised governments, corporations, and movements across the world. And after all of that — after five...

What does it take to stop a coal plant from being built in your community — when you're young, when the government is pushing it, and when the promises of jobs and opportunity are pulling people the other way? For Portia, the answer was relationships, strategy, and an unshakeable belief that there is always an alternative. A grassroots climate advocate, royal native of Asuom in Ghana's Eas...

What if the environmental crisis is really a crisis of worldview? In this episode, Sara sits down with Professor Carl Mika — Professor of Māori and Indigenous Philosophies, and Head of School of Aotahi: School of Māori and Indigenous Studies, University of Canterbury — for a conversation that goes straight to the roots of how we see ourselves in relation to everything else. Carl challenges some of...

What does it actually take to make someone fall in love with nature? Not lecture them, not overwhelm them with data, but genuinely make them fall in love? That’s the question driving everything Natalie Kyriacou does. Environmentalist, author, storyteller, and founder of My Green World, Natalie has spent over a decade building games, education programs, and now a sweeping new book - Nature’s Last D...

Yuvelis Morales tiene 25 años, creció pescando en el Río Magdalena y hoy es la voz más joven y potente de la lucha antifracking en Colombia. Ganadora del Premio Goldman de Medio Ambiente 2026, el reconocimiento más importante del activismo ambiental en el mundo, Juve nos habla desde el corazón del Valle Medio colombiano. En este episodio descubrirás: → Qué significa ser "gente del río" y por qué e...

What does it mean to truly belong - not as an individual seeking acceptance, but as part of an interconnected whole? In this episode, Sara Rego speaks with Lana Jelenjev, a Filipina facilitator and systems thinker based in the Netherlands, whose work sits at the intersection of nervous system literacy, belonging, and organizational transformation. Lana introduces us to kapwa - the Filipino value o...

In this episode of We Need to Act , Sara Rego speaks with Cynthia Tina, intentional community expert, author of Intentional Community , and founder of CommunityFinders and Ecovillage Tours, about how intentional communities and ecovillages are reshaping housing, health, and happiness. With experience visiting 200+ intentional communities worldwide and living in a Vermont ecovillage, Cynthia explor...

En este episodio conversamos con Carolina Castro Jorquera, artista e investigadora chilena, sobre el arte como una forma de vida, de conocimiento y de conexión profunda con la naturaleza. Desde el Valle del Aconcagua, Carolina nos invita a repensar el arte más allá de los objetos, como una práctica que cultiva la atención, el cuidado y la sensibilidad. Exploramos cómo el arte puede abrir espacios...

Most climate communication has failed to inspire the urgent climate action we need. What if the key to environmental change is not just science but how we talk, connect, and resonate emotionally with each other? In this episode, we explore how effective climate communication can motivate real behavior change and strengthen community engagement. Our guest, George Marshall , a leading climate commun...

In this special episode of We Need to Act , Sara joins Podcasthon , the world’s largest podcast charity initiative, to spotlight a cause that affects us all: protecting our oceans. Today’s guest is Fynn Hedrich, entrepreneur and founder of Ocean Pulse . After building a successful career in the meat industry, Fynn made a life-changing decision to step away and pursue more purpose-driven work. His...

In this powerful conversation, Osprey Orielle Lake —founder of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) —shares her personal journey into climate activism and the deeper values that guide her work. Drawing from decades of advocacy and her latest book, The Story is in Our Bones , Lake explores how the climate crisis is not only an environmental issue but also a reflection of deeper syst...

In this episode of the We Need to Act podcast, we welcome John Pabon , greenwashing expert, author of The Great Greenwashing, consultant, and speaker. John unpacks how greenwashing evolved from fossil fuel misinformation into a sophisticated global system of climate deception involving corporations, governments, NGOs, and even billionaires. We discuss the difference between accidental and delibera...

En este episodio conversamos con Diego Isabel La Moneda , cofundador y director de la Fundación Foro NESI , sobre la urgencia de transformar el modelo económico para que vuelva a estar al servicio de las personas y del planeta. Desde una vocación temprana marcada por la idea de dejar el mundo mejor de como lo encontramos , Diego reflexiona sobre los límites del sistema actual, el falso dilema entr...