Climate Curious

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:...

This Earth Day, take a step back from the noise and check-in with yourself. As climate change becomes more of a living reality, more and more of us are experiencing eco-anxiety, says 22-year-old activist Clover Hogan. In this week’s Climate Quickie we revisit a clip where she shares advice of how she catalysed her own eco-anxiety to step-up, not shut down in the face of climate change. If you enjo...

Climate justice cannot happen without racial justice, says Member of Parliament for Tottenham and Foreign Shadow Secretary David Lammy on this week’s Climate Quickie. We’re revisiting Lammy’s episode where he explains why it’s vital for us to connect the dots between climate and racial justice, referring back to industrialisation’s exploitative past, and policies today which see black and brown pe...

It turns out there are big health issues sitting in your kitchen: in your gas stove. Nobody would burn coal in their kitchen without a chimney, so why are we burning gas in our homes without one? In this Climate Quickie we catch up with Executive Directive at Climate Imperative, Bruce Nilles, about the everyday household gas appliances that are damaging our health. Enjoyed this quickie? Listen to...

Ever feel totally overwhelmed by the climate crisis, and like it’s too complicated an issue to solve? That’s because it’s a wicked problem. An interdependent problem that can feel impossible to solve. We catch up with neuroscientist specialising in polarisation, Dr. Kris De Mejer, about what a wicked problem is, and how it can make you feel like you can’t drive change. Enjoyed this quickie? Listen...

Dry science, boring monologues, scary stats? Think again. In this week’s Climate Quickie, we get the low-down from Ben and Maryam on what really goes down at a climate conference. Tune in for a quick behind-the-scenes tour of TED Countdown 2021; the week which introduced Climate Curious to so many new amazing people, inspiring ideas, and fuelled our most intersectional season to date. Read the sum...

Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha take a look back on their favourite moments of Climate Curious Season 3 by TEDxLondon. This episode provides a handy overview of some of the most powerful insights and conversations from the series recorded at TED Countdown. Get up to speed on what you missed, or refresh your memory on some of the most jaw-dropping moments yet. Read the summary blog: https://tedxlondon.c...

The end of polluting exhaust pipes is within sight, but it all depends on the actions we take together, says clean transportation expert, Anthony Eggert. Arguably one of the climate movement’s biggest success stories, electric vehicles, and the industrial sized batteries that power them, are fast-tracking us to a cleaner, quieter, healthier future. Tune in with co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst...

The fossil fuel industry wants you to think climate change is a lifestyle issue, says anti-fossil fuel environmental campaigner, Tzeporah Berman, in our latest Climate Quickie. Tune in to learn why oil companies want us to sit home, blame ourselves and focus on plastic straws. Enjoyed this quickie? Listen to our full-length chat with Tzeporah on why fossil fuels are the weapons of mass destruction...

"Cutting methane is the single fastest, most effective opportunity to reduce climate change risks in the near term," says atmospheric scientist Ilissa Ocko on the latest Climate Curious by TEDxLondon. That’s because methane doesn’t hang around like other greenhouse gases – but it does pack a powerful punch – so reducing it means we could slow down the rate of warming by as much as 30 percent, befo...

A greenhouse-in-a-box is helping small-scale farmers yield more dependable and successful crops in India, thanks to TED Fellow and green farming innovator, Sathya Raghu Mokkapati. A story of equity and climate justice in action, this week’s uplifting Climate Curious by TEDxLondon is a celebration of how an easy-to-build, low-cost structure is helping farmers earn an extra $100 per month in profits...

Why the blame game won’t work in climate and what to say instead, with atmospheric scientist, author, TED speaker and one of TIME’s 100 most influential people, Katharine Hayhoe. Enjoyed this quickie? Listen to our full-length chat with Katharine on why talking is the most important thing you can do to fight climate change: https://tedxlondon.com/podcast/climate-curious-why-talking-is-the-most-imp...