Climate Curious

A grassroots people powered movement has transformed how electricity is made in the US, away from the most carbon intensive fossil fuel, coal, toward renewable energy, shares this week’s Climate Curious expert, Mary Anne Hitt, Senior Director at Climate Imperative. Tune in with co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst to hear Mary Anne’s story of extraordinary grit and tenacious dedication to help buil...

A just transition means a fair transition. But when the Global North has benefitted from 150 years of fossil fuels, is it fair to deny the Global South the same opportunities? To share a vision of how developing countries can leap frog to a prosperous carbon-free energy system is this week’s Quickie expert, Akil Callender, a youth specialist at Sustainable Energy For All. Live from TED Countdown,...

A storm-proof megawatt solar farm is helping communities hit by hurricanes get back on their feet more quickly – thanks to reliable energy supply. And with Hurricane Fiona hitting Puerto Rico five years to the day after the devastating Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused the longest power blackout in US history, we know we need to build resilience to these increasingly inc...

Not your everyday office job – climate journos are out in the field, asking awkward questions and coming up against some of the most powerful voices in the world. To share a snapshot of a ‘day in the life of a climate reporter’, we’re joined by this week’s Quickie expert, Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME magazine covering climate change. Live from TED Countdown, tune in to learn what...

Find your joy to save the planet, says Dominique Palmer, a 22-year-old climate activist, storyteller, model and organiser of Climate Live, and member of Fridays for Future and the Bad Activist Collective. Why joy? Joy is key to making the climate movement more sustainable. Because joy in itself IS sustainable! In conversation with Climate Curious co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst, Dominique shar...

Nuclear energy gets a bad rap, but is it deserved? To clear up the confusion we’re joined by this week’s Quickie expert, Mark Dyson, a Managing Director with the Carbon-Free Electricity Program at RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute). Live from Climate Week NYC, tune in to understand how nuclear stacks up against oil, gas, coal, wind, and solar power as an energy source, and whether it’s part o...

How do we measure the success of climate action if we don’t have timely data? That’s the question Lekha Sridhar, Senior Policy Analyst and Climate TRACE set out to answer. Building a satellite and AI-powered dataset to help identify where precisely emissions are coming from, it’s helping countries, governments and companies to then reduce them. On the latest Climate Curious by TEDxLondon, tune in...

We’re all partial to a bit of Netflix and chill, but what if maxing and relaxing could also save the world? To share some hot off the press green Netflix recommendations is this week’s Quickie expert, Emma Stewart, Netflix’s Sustainability Officer. Live from Climate Week NYC, tune in to understand why climate content isn’t just about polar bears, and how Netflix is working with creators to bring e...

You know what they say about greenwashing: “you know it when you see it”. But how do we move beyond it? We speak to the CEO cracking the climate whip by building influential networks and holding organisations accountable – Helen Clarkson from Climate Group. She shares how big business can be at the forefront of climate action – but only if they up their pace, scale and urgency. Tune in to Climate...

The world’s youngest policy maker Scarlett Westbrook joins us for this week’s Climate Quickie to share the story behind how she built the Climate Education Bill. Tune in to hear the awe-inspiring student demanding for schools to teach climate ABCs. How it all started? A self-taught A-Level course in government politics.  Grab your tickets for TEDxLondon , October 2nd. Check out Scarlett’s initiati...

Defunding big oil is our best shot at forcing change, says Mark Campanale, the founder of non-profit think tank, Carbon Tracker Initiative. Tune in to Climate Curious live from The Conduit in London with co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Clover Hogan to connect the dots between finance and climate change, why investors and banks own climate change because they own the fossil fuel system, and how you can u...

Care about the world, but find the climate conversation, well, a bit, meh? You’re not alone. Your brain isn’t optimised to process the climate crisis, but finding a personal connection with it can make it easier, says neuroscientist Dr Kris De Meyer. Tune in to this week’s Climate Quickie to understand the psychology of climate change and unleash your inner activist. Enjoyed this quickie? Listen t...

Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels can solve the cost of living crisis, says Tessa Khan, a lawyer, campaigner, strategist and founder and director of Uplift. Tune in to Climate Curious live from The Conduit in London with our special guest co-host Clover Hogan and our fave Maryam Pasha to join the dots between the climate crisis and the fuel poverty crisis, understand the context of what’s le...

We’ve all heard of meatless meats, but what exactly are they and how are they made? To put the patty in the bun is this week’s Quickie expert, Sonalie Figueiras, founder and editor-in-chief of Green Queen Media. Tune in to understand the three ways alternative proteins are created, and how such innovative methods can ensure a healthier, safer and more sustainable approach to food. Without compromi...

On September 7th 2022, TEDxLondon launches its fourth season of Climate Curious. Seeking to unpick the complexity of climate change, week-by-week, co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst take a solutions focussed approach to explore the big systemic and intersectional ways that climate change affects the world. How? By chatting with world-leading experts dedicated to breaking down the inaccessible ven...

A circular plastics system is helping people make low carbon choices on the daily, thanks to ‘the plastics man’ Peter Goult, a Programme Director at SYSTEMIQ. A story of climate innovation, pragmatism and optimism in action, this week’s freshly wrapped (biodegradable obvs) Climate Curious by TEDxLondon is a celebration of how life could be better in plastic, if we remake the system. Tune in with c...

Love, duty and care are climate’s secret weapon, says Daze Aghaji, a 22-year-old climate justice activist and artist on the Climate Curious podcast by TEDxLondon. We’ve all seen the ‘soft life’ trend on TikTok this summer, but to what extent can you apply that self-care thinking to your relationship with the planet? Daze suggests: all of it! Tune in with co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst from Ne...

Creativity can help us demand clean air, says founder of creative industry alliance COPI Humphrey Milles on the latest episode of Climate Curious by TEDxLondon. Its most effective campaign to date? A postcode checker alerting people to levels of pollution at any UK address, hitting property owners where it hurts most – their wallets! Tune in with co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst live from The C...

An invisible killer; air pollution is a hard topic to drive action around. But 19-year old co-founder of Choked Up Destiny Boka Batesa found a way. Launching a hard-hitting air pollution campaign, they made national news, sparking a UK-wide conversation about how inequality affects the air we breathe. And they’re not stopping there – now, they're pushing for laws to enshrine our right to clean air...

The category is: climate realness. As part of a Pride Climate Curious series featuring guest co-host, Jamie Windust, we hear from the co-founders of PermaQueer Guy Ritani and Toad about the systemic resilience that their queer, permaculture community has built, and what this approach can teach the mainstream climate movement. As Guy tells us, “queerness is the growing vital edge of regeneration, l...

“I created Queer Brown Vegan because my queerness has been something that I really have often hidden away in environmental research”, says Isaias Hernandez, an environmental educator, explaining how male, pale and stale climate spaces gatekeep the climate movement – but now – thanks to Isaias and others like them – that’s changing. Tune in to hear their experiences of reshaping the professional an...

This Pride, we're revisiting a Quickie with iconic environmental and intersectional drag queen, Pattie Gonia. They give us a quick introduction to queer ecology – we're talking gender shifting fish, intersex birds, and even how trees can impregnate themselves. Yep – queerness is natural! Tune in to discover why queer ecology is so much more than "gay dolphins in the ocean". Instead, "queerness is...

“You need to understand you are much, much more powerful than the head of any big organisation that does not know how to sing and dance properly,” says Kumi Naidoo, a South African human rights and environmental activist, explaining how we can use our creative talents to drive climate action. Artivism in a nutshell? Don’t project your consciousness on the people that you’re trying to organise, Kum...

“It's not a story that gets told very often… about former colonial peoples standing up against the oil industry,” says Melinda Janki, the environmental lawyer taking on Exxon Mobil in one of South America’s most beautiful nature spots, Guyana. In this Climate Quickie, we learn about what’s going on in Guyana, and why deep sea oil drilling a carbon sink (i.e. a country which removes more carbon tha...

Hear about how you take on a government and win in this week’s Climate Quickie with legal powerhouse and founding CEO of ClientEarth, James Thornton. We revisit the clip where he shares his story about shutting down coal fired power stations in Poland, one lawsuit at a time. Pretty inspiring stuff! Enjoyed this quickie? Listen to our full-length chat with James on why the law can save the planet:...