Climate Curious

When Nicholas Cage’s Malibu home nearly got swallowed by a sinkhole last month, we knew climate change had hit the rich. And after a summer of deadly heatwaves sweeping Europe and North America, governments and businesses were forced to sit up a little straighter and start clocking the climate crisis. Sociologist, professor, and Apocalyptic Optimist Dana R Fisher joins Climate Curious’ Ben Hurst i...

Climate communicators are quite frankly, terrible at talking to each other. Or that’s what new research just published by the Talking Climate Collaborative shows. Climate Curious invited the study’s lead researcher, sociologist and professor Dana R. Fisher to jump on the podcast during New York Climate Week to break down the results, and chat all things communication, democracy, and climate. In co...

“It seems quite counterintuitive to wade in with our chainsaws, but we are replicating a natural process that we're missing,” says National Trust woodland advisor and author, Luke Barley. Whilst one side of the battle for our world's forests involves protecting trees from destructive deforestation, Luke shares that British woodlands are actually suffering from the opposite problem, being l...

A solar panel in Shanghai and a wind turbine in Brasília might sound worlds apart, but the people installing renewables around the globe are breaking similar barriers and achieving the same wins: cheaper bills, cleaner energy, and better jobs! After last week's trip to Oxfordshire's Westmill Solar and Wind Farm, TEDxLondon's Deesha Chandra sits down with three global renewable energy leaders to co...

Fancy making over a million quid for your community and beyond from shared renewable energy resources? Climate Curious spent a day in sunny Oxfordshire with the fine folks at Westmill Energy to hear how they took clean shared renewable energy generation into their own hands! 17 years, 3,000 members, and a flock of sheep later; discover how this pioneering energy co-operative got off the ground, an...

“ AI can do a lot of good things, but I'd like to see it out-drink a room of 30 people” jokes the founder of Small99 and People Planet Pint, Adam Bastock. From sleepless heatwaves to un-lit candles melting, Adam joins Climate Curious’s Ben Hurst to share  how saying cheers to the climate has helped galvanise thousands of people at hundreds of pub meetups to get involved with local climate act...

"I literally took out my notes app, and I wrote an amendment," says 21-year-old climate activist and Director of the Federal Climate Amendment Institute, Lake Liao. Tune in to Climate Curious to hear how an AOC video he watched on a bus ride home changed everything, why court wins in Montana and Hawaii show what's possible locally when Washington won't move, and what's next for the student-led gra...

“The private sector entering the Amazon is most often flanked by soldiers, allowing the extractive companies to come in,” says impact investor Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter. But many of the Amazon’s new threats are also being driven by an illicit private sector, particularly illegal mining. Tune in for how private-sector tactics and market incentives make conserving the Amazon more profitable than ex...

"When you ask a young indigenous man to give up all of his land for $20,000, he'll say no way, because what grows in there is gold, cacao is gold!" Michelle Arévalo-Carpenter tells Climate Curious, breaking down how investing in the companies that bring Amazon-grown products to market is key to protecting the rich biodiversity of the Andean Amazon. Michelle explains why current public sector strat...

“Games can go into spaces where sometimes it's hard to have these conversations,” say game designers Nathan Harrison and Mel Frances, as they unpack how gaming and scenario roleplay can help us reveal our inner climate priorities! Nathan and Mel break down key moments of their ‘Future for Beginners’ game with Climate Curious host, and game participant, Maryam Pasha. From high stakes Prisoners Dile...

If global shipping was a country, it would be the world's sixth largest greenhouse gas emitter. But help is on its way. Joojin Kim tells Climate Curious we can sink shipping's dirty old habits by following the money. "It's common sense. The alternatives are all there. It's just the policy, regulations and finance," he tells TEDxLondon's Deesha Chandra at TED2026. Hear how the CEO of Solutions for...

Africa is solar rich. But what happens when the panels stop working? Vincent Egoro – a former architecture student who once studied by candlelight and now founder of Energy Transition Africa – is betting on training over throwaway tech. His mission: teach local workers to maintain and fix solar panels, so clean energy doesn't quietly break down two years after installation: unnoticed and unfixed....

"Unless we come together, we can't build it. So yeah, I'm chill," says Jennifer Kitt on the Climate Curious podcast. If new money is moving into climate, this philanthropy aficionado knows about it. And asking people for billions to solve the crisis? Doesn't daunt her one bit. On why raising money for the world's best climate solutions is her idea of a dream day at the office – here's the Presiden...

“80 of the most urgent [climate solutions] could take $5 billion tomorrow,” says Jennifer Kitt on Climate Curious. Recorded live in London with Climate Curious co-hosts Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha, the Climate Lead President shares a 101 on how climate philanthropy actually works, why inviting people to dream bigger leads to bolder action, and why many of the world's leading philanthropic families...

“We walked out of his office, to the first bar, had a couple shots of tequila, and then got to work”, says environmental lawyer Bruce Nilles on stage as our guest at ‘Climate Curious Live: Climate Impossible?’ in London, June 2026. In conversation with co-hosts Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha, Bruce shares the surreal situation he found himself in when shutting down coal plants with the ex-mayor of New...

"I love doing it and I'll be doing it for a while, 'cause we ain't done yet," says the legendary lawyer who spurred a global campaign that led to the closing of 390 U.S. coal plants, forever: Bruce Nilles. Live on stage at Climate Curious Live 'Climate Impossible?', he shares the story of an epic climate win — combining grassroots grandmas, courtroom clashes, and a $50 million philanthropic gift —...

Could you protect your city through an extreme weather event? ‘The Future For Beginners’ is a game exploring climate risk and decision-making under uncertainty. Working together over 80 minutes, 30 players negotiate challenges and make decisions to create an unforgettable cultural event in the face of catastrophe. Having just played the simulation, Climate Curious’s Maryam Pasha sits down with the...

Break the system, don’t just tweak it. That’s what sociologist and professor Dana R. Fisher says on this week’s Climate Curious. Tune in with co-host Maryam Pasha to learn about incrementalists: people who think cleaning up a broken system leads to a sanitised version of the status quo – not real systemic change. From how institutions have used and jaded the youth movement for optics, whilst...

“The deal is, we're gonna get the revolution we deserve,” says sociologist, author, and apocalyptic optimist, Dana R. Fisher. Having spent 26 years studying and documenting activism, Climate Curious host Maryam Pasha hears what it takes to forge unstoppable solidarity in the collective climate movement. We look at how turning to big tech’s quick fixes is not the answer, how the youth movement has...

“A glacier is full of one single snowflake holding hands with the next snowflake,” says glaciologist and Nat Geo explorer, Dr. M Jackson. “Billions and trillions of snowflakes become the most powerful force on this planet, shaping the landscapes, lives, and futures of almost every person on this planet.” In conversation with Climate Curious co-host Maryam Pasha, M explains what these moving rivers...

“The solution is right at our fingertips,” says doctor and disease detective Dr. Neil Vora, talking about why ebola and hantavirus are also climate warnings on the Climate Curious podcast. From halting deforestation, to safeguarding animal farms, and cracking down on commercial wildlife trafficking, Neil shares the solutions we already have that could help us halt these devastating diseases. Read...

Speculative fiction – the latest tool for imagining what’s possible on climate? Author of ‘Hum’ and winner of the 2026 Climate Fiction Prize, Helen Phillips, joins Climate Curious to share the personal trigger that got her started in writing climate fiction, breaks down the genre of ‘speculative fiction’ and how it can be used to process eco-distress, and why the AI robots at the centre of th...

Our glaciers are starving, but there’s a solution! Says glaciologist, National Geographic Explorer and TED Fellow Dr. M Jackson on the Climate Curious podcast. In conversation with Maryam Pasha, M breaks down why our glaciers are currently starving and how they have the remarkable ability to grow back, if we give them the right conditions! From the “isostatic rebound” of the springing Earth, to 40...

“The river heals, the river's free, the salmon are free, and so are the people,” says Yurok Tribe attorney and devoted advocate for Indigenous rights and environmental restoration Amy Bowers Cordalis on the Climate Curious podcast. In conversation with Maryam Pasha, Amy breaks down how exactly she won the right to release the Klamath River and restore salmon populations from the brink of extinctio...

“My colleague looks at me [on my birthday] and is like, do you wanna blow up a dam!?” Native Yurok attorney and Indigenous advocate Amy Bowers Cordalis campaigned with her community for 20 years before getting the go ahead to remove the dams that had blocked the Klamath River and infamously killed 70,000+ salmon in 2002. Amy speaks with Climate Curious co-host Maryam Pasha to share the remarkable...