Sustainababble
Episodes
276 episodes
#199: Is it really green?
Among today's intractable divisions, few are more bitter, more incendiary than that between the washing-up-by-hand loyalists and the using-the-dishwasher hardliners.So which *is* better for the planet? And while we're at it, what about vegan leath...
#198: Hugo Tagholm meets Sustainababble
Ever wound up in the ocean with human faeces on your head, or a used sanitary product bobbing by? Us neither, thankfully, but many UK surfers have, which is why a bunch of them campaign for cleaner seas with Surfers Against Sewage, a national mari...
#197: SustainaBAUBLE 2020
Well here we are, a festive season distinctly lacking in bantz. BUT THAT'S WHAT YER BABBLE IS FOR! So strap in for an unashamedly lol-centric and straw-clutchingly positive look back at 2020.As we learned in Sustainabaubles 1-5, there are few thin...
#196: Juliet Davenport meets Sustainababble
These days energy companies fall over themselves to tell us how good for the planet they are, with varying degrees of chutzpah. When it comes to actual goodness though, Good Energy is unquestionably, well, good: buy leccy from them and you can be ...
#195: COP 26
Had 2020 been a bit less pandemic-y, we'd be celebrating / commiserating the conclusion of another mahoosive climate shindig about now. A shindig in Glasgow no less, hosted by the UK Government. Deep-fried pizza canapés all round, etc. etc..Offens...
#194: Innovation
Luddites, us greenies. People think it's an insult to say we all want to go back to living in caves, but - lack of wifi aside - lots of biosphere-botherers wouldn't say no.But innovation - thinking up whizzy new stuff to fix shitty old problems - ...
#193: Hydrogen
Hydrogen - one of those words that prompts people in environment world to nod sagely before quickly steering the conversation onto safer territory. Because honestly, no-one really understands what it is, what it's for, or whether it's terrible or ...
#192: Democracy
The climate catastrophe isn't exactly hanging about, so do we really have time for fiddling around with democracy? Sure, giving people a say is nice, but what about when their say is, well, wrong? 70-million-people-voting-for-a-climate-denier wron...
#191: Donald Trump Schadenfreude Special
HE'S GONE! HE'S ACTUALLY GONE! THE TANGERINE TOSSPOT, THE BELLICOSE BELL-END, THE CLIMATE-DENYING CRACKPOT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN BOOTED OUT!Obviously he's not actually *gone* yet - presumably the next few months will be messy to say the least - but as...
#190: Juliet Gellatley meets Sustainababble
1 November is World Vegan Day, so what better time to meet the boss of vegan campaign group Viva!, the magnificent Juliet Gellatley.Juliet has been advocating veganism for decades. She's also been breaking into factory farms to film the horrific g...
#189: Clocks Back
Winter is coming. You'd think we'd have been let off in 2020 of all years, but no. This most cyanide-y of bitter pills is sugared by an extra hour in bed this weekend (in Blighty at least) due to the clocks going back, which reminded us of an issu...
#188: Rewilding
Who fancies dodging a wolf on the way to work? Or perhaps a lynx barging through your catflap while pelicans pinch the fish in your pond?If rewilders get their way, these animals - all once common in Blighty - will be familiar sights once more.But...
#187: What The Hell Has Been Happening?
We're back! And there's been a touch of news since we were last a-babblin'. Some of it actually not shit, too!So, this week Dave dons his Chris Tarrant mask to host the inaugral 'What The Hell Has Been Happening?' quiz. The only rule? Answers must...
#186: Talking Climate
It is just possible that yelling about wet-bulb temperature and the certain heat death of everything isn't as effective a climate communications strategy as some may think. So what is? Is there A Right Way to discuss ecological destruction? And ca...
#185: Eco-anxiety
What if a problem even greater than climate change or ecological collapse is our sense of powerlessness in the face of these crises? Is it our inability to believe we can do anything about the planet frying that is, above anything else, stopping u...
#184: Robert Llewellyn meets Sustainababble
Kryten is on the Babble! SMEGGIN' HELL!Robert Llewellyn is an actor and comedian who since 1989 has played angular faced mechanoid Kryten in cult sci-fi classic Red Dwarf. But he's equally well known for presenting the legendary Scrapheap Challeng...
#183: Gillian Burke meets Sustainababble
The BBC's Springwatch is a cultural institution in the UK, showcasing the extraordinary but often overlooked wildlife of these crumbling isles with warts 'n all realism (i.e. lots of baby Blue Tits getting munched). Biologist Gillian Burke has for...
#182: Roman Krznaric meets Sustainababble
Are you being a good ancestor? Are WE being good ancestors? What the hell is a good ancestor and do I have to buy them a present? Public philosopher Roman Krznaric thinks these are the most important questions we should ask ourselves (well, certai...
#181: Litter
The instant we were allowed out again we covered everything in rubbish: plastic and cans and humous packets and, er, cool boxes and chairs. Why? Has four months of lockdown made us all beserkers, or is this just what it's always like and we'd forg...
#180: Being Ecofriendly
"Smash capitalism" is among the least helpful answers people like Dave and Ol give when asked "So what should *I* do to help the planet?". But for most campaignery types, individual lifestyle change plays second or third fiddle to political action...
#179: Footballers
Modern footballers eh? Spoilt, obscenely rich, carbon-guzzling narcissists who couldn't spell planet, let alone save it. They're an open goal for moralising and high-handery, or at least must have seemed so to the UK Health Secretary when he pooh-...
#178: Jonathon Porritt meets Sustainababble
If you've taken so much as a passing interest in environmentalism in the UK, you'll have doubtless encountered the campaigner and writer Jonathon Porritt.Since the '70s he's been at the forefront of the wider green movement: prominent in the Ecolo...
#177: Q&A
You asked, so we filibustered, obfuscated and prevaricated. That's right, just 177 episodes in we've dared to switch from 'broadcast' to 'dialogue' with the babble army, actively soliciting questions from our band of wise and forgiving listeners.W...
