Finding Nature

Alexander Pui returns to the show today to chat all things climate science, climate risks and climate impacts. Alex is an old colleague who’s made an indelible mark on my career and it’s a pleasure to have him back while he’s in town escaping Tokyo’s suffering heat. Alex has worked across academia, reinsurance, insurance, banking, consulting and technology, is an adjunct fellow at the university o...

Daniel Principe is today’s guest, and this is a conversation I’ve been wanting to have for the entire year, so I’m very pleased to be bringing him onto the show and into your earbuds. I can’t overstate just how important and serious the work that Dan does visiting schools day in day out to engage mostly boys on topics of masculinity, responsibility, pornography, identity and countering the onslaug...

Today’s guest is Emily M Bender. She was recently in Sydney from Seattle to talk about her new book that she wrote with her co-author Alex Hanna called The AI Con; How to fight big tech’s hype and create the future we want . She’s a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington and received her PhD from Stanford, Time Magazine included her as one of the 100 most influential people in ar...

Today’s show is with Hugh White, one of Australia’s most prominent figures on strategic and defence policy, whose career has spanned government and academia. Hugh was a senior advisor to Kim Beazley and Bob Hawke through the 80s and 90s in what was a period of substantial changes for this nation and the way we saw ourselves in the world, before becoming Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligen...

Alex Hillman joins the show today. With the approval of the Woodside North West Shelf approval in recent weeks and the metaphorical fires that’s flamed, Alex’s visit to Sydney was serendipitous to say the least. He’s got 15 years working in the oil and gas sector, including nine in Woodside as their climate change advisor. Now though he the lead oil and gas analyst for the Australasian Centre for...

Sam Jones is today’s guest, he’s the President and Co-founder of the Heartland Initiative and was recently in town from Atlanta in the US. His work at Heartland Initiative focuses on helping investors understand and address human rights issues and related risks within their investment portfolios. He develops methods, tools, and guidance to assist investors in preventing and reducing harm to human...

Catherine Fitzpatrick is on the show today, and what an impressive career she’s already had, all while her scope of influence continues to grow and the evidence of what she’s affecting is increasingly visible and demonstrable. Catherine has 30 years of experience as a journalist, corporate executive and now an entrepreneur, she’s an author and researcher and advisor to the NSW and Australian gover...

Marco Lambertini is on the show today, and where to start with describing one of the most iconic and visionary leaders of the environmental movement of the last 50 years. From eight years spent as the Global General Director of WWF, to being a current sitting member on the China Council, he was the CEO of Birdlife International too amid many other appointments. Marco forged a career in local and r...

Ben Rennie is on the show today. A jack of many trades, from life as a prodigious rising star of Australian cricket during one of it most remarkable periods of success, to Dolce and Gabana red carpet events in Milan with Brazilian Ronaldo to starting and re-starting business endeavours to becoming the Chair of Design Declares Australia, attempting to quick describe Ben and his life is no easy feat...

Bec Blurton is on the show today. A Noonga woman who has built a substantive career at the intersection of First Nations rights, climate action, justice, gender, policy and finance. Speaking with Bec was a pleasure and offered me many lessons. Understanding the experiences and perspectives of those who come from different backgrounds and circumstances, but where I find commonality in experience an...

Today’s guest is Professor Carl Rhodes. It’s new book season at the moment and Carl’s latest offering is titled Stinking Rich - The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire. This is his latest work, coming after previous titles such as Woke Capitalism; How Corporate Morality is Sabotaging Democracy and CEO Society: The Corporate Takeover of Everyday Life. Carl is also the Dean of the Business School at...

Dean Spaccavento is on the show today. And if there is someone who embodies the mind, body and spirit of the enormity we as attempted change makers more than Dean does, then I haven’t met them. In a week where we’ve seen nuclear energy and the Liberal party totally poleaxed by the electorate - and what a surprise that is - the race to decarbonise the Australian and global energy systems is absolut...

Today’s episode is with Jane Rawson - an author, novelist and essayist whose new book Human/Nature On Life in A Wild World is just out and she’s on the show to chat about it. Jane has a diverse and brilliant background where she’s worked extensively as an independent writer, within governments supporting citizen communication initiatives and was also the Environment and Energy Editor for The Conve...

Jocelyn King is on the show today. Joc is a Bundjalung woman who over the course of her life and career has worked to develop her own understanding of and connection to traditional knowledge systems. She’s worked in and around finance for more than a decade, where today she is the Chair of First Australians Capital. At the same time, she’s building a farm in NSW’s Hunter Valley that reprises First...

Today’s show is with James Bradley - renowned Australian author who is returning to the show a year after releasing what was one of my favourite books of 2024 - Deep Water, Life in the Ocean . James’ books have been nominated and awarded prizes all over the country, and in 2021 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for "service to literature as a writer’. He’s written for the Gua...

Hello out there, this is the Finding Nature podcast and my name is Nathan Robertson-Ball. I started this show with the intent of creating the types of conversations that I knew I needed but also thought people that work in the broad tent of sustainability wanted to hear too - combining discussions on the issues and problems our civilisation and planet face with the optimism of what has and could b...

I’m very pleased to bringing you a chat with Victoria Whitaker. I was really excited to chat with Vic - she’s another of the originals of the Sydney and Australian sustainability crew like Lee Stewart and Nicolette Boele I’ve had the chance to chat with on this show. I did some work with Vic the best part of a decade ago when she was at The Ethics Centre, and it was immediately evident how thought...

Brian Schmidt is absolutely one of these extraordinary people - a normal person who’s lived an entirely abnormal life. Besides being awarded a Nobel Prize, Brian was also the Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University for eight years, including during the Covid pandemic. He’s a physicist, astrologist and astrophysicist by training, receiving his undergrad from the University of Arizona...

Today’s guest is someone I’ve wanted to bring on the show for a little while - Kaylene Langford. The reason why I wanted to have Kaylene on is because her job is all about helping people take their hare brained schemes or half concocted ideas and turn them into businesses. This matters to me - both because I’ve done it and experienced a remarkable transformation in how I understand and can exercis...

Today’s guest is a larger than life personification of that change - Kal Glanznig. Kal is a force - animated, enthusiastic, humble, curious and as a youth climate leader he’s entirely committed to doing all he can to avert a climate catastrophe. Kal’s successes to date are plenty.- from activating a school solar installation to launching a community anti-plastic platform, to scaling and changing a...

Today’s guest though is someone I was very excited to spend some time with - Digby Hall. Digby is a renowned architect who for more than three decades has played a leading role in shaping and delivering versions of sustainability and resilient projects. More than that though, his thinking, influence and understanding of complex dynamic systems and being able to make sense and create practical acti...

Emma Bacon is the Executive Director of Sweltering Cities and she’s on the show this week to talk about and share more on the terrifying reality of what she describes as the personal tragedies of a hotter everywhere world. My name is Nathan Robertson-Ball and welcome to the Finding Nature podcast. I started this show nearly a year ago and the broader endeavour that is Finding Nature as a response...

Today’s guest is a really fun one - Bel Chellingworth - none other than the Garbologist - joins to chat all things waste, packaging, circularity, business models, structural change and individual agency. Bel's career to date spans government, corporate and is now Director and Principal Consultant of BC Consulting, continuing to help business and community reduce waste and make circular econom...

Today’s guest is Zack Schofield - one of the lead organisers and who Murdoch media describe as a prominent member of the climate action and activist group Rising Tide. Now I know protest and civil disobedience isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I suspect just about everybody listening to this show has joined one at some point - whether the school strike for climate, one seeking justice regarding Ind...

Today I’m launching and introducing to you the listener and the reader over on the Finding Nature Substack a project titled The Encroaching Apocalypse or A Glorious New View. Like all things Finding Nature I feel compelled to examine and imagine what could be possible, but I want to know more about the barriers and the blockers of the present moment. I’ve spent the past few years working almost ex...