In Over My Head

Michael is off to St. John's Newfoundland to connect with the ocean and learn about why small-scale fisheries and governance matter to conservation and sustainability.

In Over My Head will take a short break until November to allow time to work on a big upcoming season. Listen to Michael’s message for a sneak peek of what’s coming. 

Michael chats with the University of Geneva’s Marlyne Sahakian about rethinking growth and the good life. They focus the conversation around the book Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits and discuss why setting upper and lower consumption limits is so important. Marlyne explains the difference between human desires, needs and satisfiers. They touch on the normalizati...

Michael chats with the University of Florida's Susan Paulson about the human side of rethinking growth. They discuss the problem of exploitation and inequality and how to make our system more equitable. Susan touches on the benefit of the commons including worker-run cooperatives and time-banks. They cover alternatives to GDP for measuring well-being such as the National Happiness Index. Susan str...

Michael chats with Yale-NUS College’s Michael Maniates about the role of higher education in rethinking growth. They talk about the connection between economic growth and post-secondary, and what a genuinely sustainable campus should prioritize. Professor Maniates highlights the importance of a university's adaptive function in a post-growth world and the power of research to advance human prosper...

Michael chats with Erasmus University Rotterdam's Julien-Francois Gerber about how debt impacts our ability to rethink growth. They discuss the relationship between credit and growth, and how debt affects the environment and us as people. Julien gives us a history lesson on why we traditionally borrowed money and brings to life past monetary alternatives like decaying money, social credit, and pro...

Michael chats with Concordia University’s Bengi Akbulut about the future of work in a world rethinking growth. They start by discussing Bengi’s Turkish heritage and critics of economic growth in the context of Turkey. Bengi talks about feminist engagement with degrowth including unpaid care labour and the gender distribution of work. They cover Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Servies' r...

Michael chats with the University of Vigo’s Mario Pansera about innovation's role in rethinking growth. They discuss his Post-Growth Innovation Lab's work, including their Prospera project. Mario talks about the myth of neutral technology and our social organization around technology. He also touches on ownership, class structure, the commons, and justice dimensions. Lastly, he offers advice on wh...

Growth - especially the green kind - is always good, right? But to actually solve the climate crisis perhaps we need to rethink our reverence for the gospel of growth. Starting Friday, May 5, over six weeks Michael explores degrowth and post-growth with experts from around the world. What do our work, education, money and life look like when we prioritize people and the planet over endless growth?...

In this new segment, Michael explores the little everyday choices we make to lower our environmental impact. He talks to the University of Michigan's Shelie Miller about reusable kitchenware including straws, cutlery, coffee cups and sandwich bags to see if they're always more environmentally friendly than the single-use versions.   

In this special edition of Planet-saving superstar, Michael takes a road trip to New Myrnam School east of Edmonton Alberta to see the sustainable building projects they have been working on over the last 6 years. From solar-powered golf carts to an off-grid Tiny House bus conversion, New Myrnam School is preparing their youth to be leaders in our low-carbon future. Michael chatted with staff, stu...

Michael briefly sat down with Kathleen Sheppard from Environment Lethbridge to reminisce about the inaugural episode, and chat about what Environment Lethbridge is up to now. Kathleen also offers advice on how to start talking about climate change with friends or family. In Over My Head Website Climate Cafe

Michael speaks with the University of Oxford’s Sacha Altay all about misinformation and mistrust. Sacha covers why miscommunication happens, the challenge of conveying scientific information, and the importance of trust. He touches on the role of media, the challenge of changing our own opinions, and irrationality. They discuss online versus offline communication, beliefs, and what you can do to h...

Michael speaks with the University of Groningen’s Linda Steg all about emotions. They discuss the connection between emotion and pro-environmental behaviour. She covers the role of identity and groups in predicting emotional reactions. Linda highlights how our biases factor in, and the influence of media. She stresses the importance of values and exposes some of our misperceptions about environmen...

Michael speaks with the University of Victoria’s Robert Gifford to discuss the Dragons of Inaction. Robert explains what these psychological dragons are and how his work started. They make their way through the lair, exploring the seven genera of dragons including limited cognition, social comparison, sunk cost, and ideology. Robert offers solutions to slay your dragons and what you can do to have...

Michael speaks with the College of Wooster’s Susan Clayton all about our mental health and climate change. They discuss climate anxiety, including who is most affected, its connection to inaction, and the role of media. Susan touches on climate change denial and the importance of identity and attachment to place. She highlights the connection to nature and well-being, as well as the value of socia...

Michael speaks with Chris Bryant all about changing the culture when it comes to cultured meat. Chris covers what cultured meat is, and how people feel about it. They discuss the social barriers to accepting meat alternatives. Chris breaks down the psychological barriers as well, examining the diffusion of innovations, status quo, habit, cognitive dissonance, framing and more. They also tackle the...

Michael talks with the University of Colorado Boulder’s Beth Osnes about how comedy motivates climate action. Beth describes her art and gets into the history of comedy in theatre through the ages. She takes us to her climate communication class, sharing her students' experiences doing stand-up and sketch comedy. Beth highlights effective types of comedy to convey climate information, including go...

Michael talks with experts from around the world about environmental psychology. From confirmation bias to cognitive dissonance, they'll be thinking deeply about all the ways our cognition hinders or helps climate change.

Michael chats with Alison Gu, who at the age of 24 became a Councillor for the city of Burnaby British Columbia. Alison talks about her journey into politics, and some of the important climate-related work she is doing. She also offers advice for anyone considering a political career.   

Michael speaks with Steven Gonzalez about the human side of The Cloud. They cover the environmental impact of The Cloud and why it is so energy-hungry. Steven takes us on a journey to places like Printer's Row in Chicago, or Chandler, Arizona where the noise or water pollution from data centres is affecting these communities. He puts us in the shoes of the people running our data centres, and the...

Michael speaks with Henrik Saetra about the role of Artificial Intelligence as it relates to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They discuss how AI can influence climate action, the double-edged nature of AI, Big Tech, and social inequality. Henrik touches on AI and the shifting of power, data colonialism, privacy as a public good, and AI ethics. They discuss the role of human imperfection...

Michael speaks with Tilman Santarius about making our world greener through digitalization. They focus on his latest book Smart Green World? Making Digitalization Work for Sustainability. Tilman explains the problem of add-on consumption of digitalization, rebound effects, radical digitalization and digital sufficiency. Michael and Tilman discuss the importance of getting sustainable apps out of t...

Michael speaks with Ugo Vallauri, co-founder of The Restart Project, a UK-based charity that inspires and supports people to repair their digital devices. Ugo talks about what it's like to attend one of their restart parties and the exciting growth of the organization over the last decade. They discuss the environmental impact of the smartphone, and the importance of extending the life of our devi...

Michael speaks with Dr. Kelly Widdicks all about video streaming and our demand for data. She explains the findings of her study looking at household data demand in the UK and discusses media-multitasking, digital sufficiency, and streaming music through YouTube. She stresses the importance of putting pressure on data providers and explains the larger impact of ICT. They discuss efficiency and con...