The Swinging Palm Trees Podcast

On today's episode, I chat with Farmer, educator and musician Krishna Mckenzie.  Krishna shares with us his journey from childhood in England including his time at The Jiddu Krishnamurti School,  to The Auroville Farms and setting up Solitude Farm in Tamil Nadu, South India. Krishna talks about the importance of Permaculture, understanding local foods including the importance of food, culture...

 On today's episode, documentary filmmaker Valérie Osouf talks about her role as co-curator on 'Tigritudes'- a Pan-African cycle of 128 films from 42 countries produced between 1956 and 2023. Valérie discusses the relevance of Tigritudes, the lack of respect and knowledge towards Pan-African cinema. We discuss issues surrounding heritage, the legacy of colonialism, including France&...

*Trigger warning*: Due to the nature of Christiana's job as a lawyer, sensitive issues come up in the conversation that some listeners may find disturbing. In today's episode, I talk with lawyer and entrepreneur Christiana Ajilore.  Christiana discusses why she took up the profession of law and the field she specialises in.  She shares the challenges and rewards that come from her career...

On today's episode, I chat with Consumer Rights champion Helen Dewdney, otherwise known as 'The Complaining Cow'.  Helen talks about the importance of understanding your rights as a consumer especially within the UK, topical consumer issues and why it's important for companies to invest in customer services.  Helen discusses how local council budget cuts can have a lasting impa...

In today's episode, I'm in conversation with The Sunday Times bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera.  We discuss his new book ' Empireworld ', and his other books including 'Empireland' and 'Stolen History'.  We discuss the  British Empire, it's history and the painful legacy of colonialism.  The topics of  racism,  language,  patriotism,  identity &...

"There was something about the instrument that always spoke to me (being a shy person) because it was like the most important instrument on stage, but not the instrument that anybody noticed.  You weren't as visible as the drummer. You weren't as flashy as the guitar player. And yet everything you do on the bass affects everything else.  And you're kind of steering the ship, so...

My guest on today's episode is Kate Verity Wilson, an ex-film producer who runs the anti-discrimination and workplace culture app 'Call It!'.  Kate talks about the challenges  and limited options for many creatives within the film industry, including the lack of diversity and inclusivity and harassment of genders.  We also chat about her experiences of her time working in Hollywood...

"I grew up seeing people on TV and being like, wow, that's amazing, I would love to do that! And it was also the excitement of seeing a black person on TV. I literally heard my mum be like ' Oh, I need to call my sisters. I need to make sure they're watching.  There's a black person on TV, 6pm tonight! ' And it's like...it was such an amazing feeling to feel repr...

"I can speak from a marketing perspective, and one of the things that's really helpful for us is that the author wants to be front and centre of the campaign.  It's really helpful if the author is prepared to come out and meet the audience, whether it's through Q&A's or panels, doing little video snippets for social media.  Those little things are really amazing and he...

"And what ZSL and other senior NGOs do is we do conservation by consent.  So the indigenous people, the local communities, it's their country, it's their forest,  they have those rights. So we do it by consent and actually it's a really mature way to talk about it because there's a huge amount of old knowledge within that community about how it's been managed over the...

On today's episode, I chat with Kunle Falodun, Vice President Distribution & Networks, Africa at Sony Pictures Television. Kunle shares stories about his upbringing in Nigeria including his NYSC stint and how he started his career in media.  We talk about the content creation within the visual sphere, the reality behind distribution to wider markets and investing in particular regions.  W...

"I really wanted to create a magical world that would again bring these beings to attention and bring some respect to the fact because I think like, whatever religion they have, they can appreciate the sophistication of that system, you know what I mean? Most Italians are Christian, right? But they don't denounce their old gods.  They would respect them. Whereas for us, we're taught...

*Content/Trigger Warning: This episode contains issues relating to  knife crime & violence.* " It's really important ( for young people to be intentional with what they plan to do with themselves ). A digital project I'm working on now is really geared towards doing that and empowering young people through their phones to, as you said, kind of find that purpose and sense of prid...

"Western chefs use Indian spices from different regions and they'll call it a British cuisine with these spices , but they're the clever ones but we can't be clever because we just know how to make curry?  And so, that's not true.  Why can't we do this with drinks? Why can't that stereotype change? And no, it's not a curry in a bottle; it's depth and fl...

On today's episode, my guest is broadcaster and journalist Ellen E. Jones.  Ellen talks about her new book 'Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world', and we delve into issues including how racial identity is constructed through the visual mediums of film and tv, issues surrounding representation, narratives and identity.  Ellen also talks about her mixed her...

"...so we just came together ( with Tolu Olowofoyeku & Olufikayo 'Ziki' Adeola) .  The goals were close enough where we all wanted really good African storytelling, so that's the main umbrella (for forming ' Kugali' ).  But in terms of going into the nuance of it from my point of view, I really wanted the quality to be absolutely good, because Africa has amazing s...

" ' I SEE HER ' is my first film, and it was a response to seeing the spike of cases of women and girls post-pandemic.  During the pandemic, the cases of abuse in women and girls rose to 25%-33% higher.  It was so bad that they coined the pandemic 'The Shadow Pandemic'.  Post-pandemic cases rose by 8%.  There was another pandemic going on that people were not even acknowle...

"There's tons of reasons why people lose hair, there's a lot.  There's hormonal changes, medication, illness, diet, environment, but the overall reason is genetics.   Here's how the genetic factor works: when your body breaks down the male hormone testosterone, it creates a by-product called  'DHT'.  Now, these DHTs are generally excreted through your body, but w...

'It was a hard journey because for those five years  I was earning nothing from writing, and it also feels quite a grandiose thing to suggest to your friends that "I'm going to be a writer, I want to be an author of published books!", so kept I kept it fairly on the down-low; like it wasn't a secret, but I wasn't out there publicing the fact that i had this big dream...

"People (economists)have put together a number of lost earnings, looking at the interest value of money, and it comes into the trillions; we're talking of a profound amount.  And so....it's not like anyone is expecting a country to transfer a Trillion pounds next week, but that shouldn't put you off reparations but it's getting the conversation started....imagine a Trillio...

"I think in terms of expectations, we (T A P E Collective) are  just very, very honest.  What we have found...is that there really is a disconnect between a filmmaker's idea and it reaching audiences.  I think people really don't understand how distribution, exhibition and production work...and that is something that I think we're quite good at trying to demystify." In thi...

*Content Warning: This episode contains issues relating to substance abuse, knife crime, violence & trauma.* "...I had to just walk away...It was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made because it was the only time that Carl actually had to go out and get it out of his system and work on himself, for himself." In today's episode I chat with couple Carl & Karla...

In today's episode  I chat with CTO | Technical & Creative Leader Kish Hirani.  Kish talks about how he's love for Mathematics and how that led to his start in his career within the games industry.  We delve into his time while he worked at Sony Playstation, and  what that experience has taught him.  Kish talks about his advocacy for underrepresented ethnicities, hence the creation o...

On today's episode, I chat with Antonello Mirone, a Stonemason, Fresco painter and Historian.  He shares his love of the craft and why he got into the business. Antonello also talks about the differences in stones and what his preferred material to work with is; why the stonemasonry is a dying industry, especially in Italy and why council cuts are leaving a lingering impact on Canterbury Cath...

In today's episode, I talk to filmmaker and story teller Warda Mohamed about her debut narrative short film 'Muna'. Warda also talks about her Somali heritage, language & identity and what it means to be British Somali.  We also discuss classic films from the 1980s and focus on a particular film that she would love to adapt for the stage, and whom she would cast.  And of course,...