
Sustainababble
A funny podcast about the environment, sustainability, and all the total guff people talk in the name of saving the planet.
Episodes
276 episodes
#274: The End.
Well, this is it. Yer last ever Babble. Thank you - seriously, thank you - if you've lent us your attention over the years. It's been a pleasure.Herewith a valedictory episode in which we reveal the real reason we're binning the babble, Ol sere...
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1:13:06

#273: Chris Packham meets Sustainababble, again
For our final interview, we're joined for a second time by the majestic Chris Packham, our first 'proper' guest all the way back in 2015.We discuss all that has changed in those seven and a half years, not least some pretty hardcore stuff for Chri...
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1:01:32

#272: Twitter
If there wasn't twitter, would we have solved climate change by now? Might we at least have got round to thinking about solving climate change? Would Ol have had more sleep?Sure, loads of important eco connections and organising and other useful s...
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1:02:48

#271: Onshore Wind
Bat-chomping bird-slicing eco-crucifixes* are making a comeback! A mere eight years after some Tories effectively banned anyone from erecting wind turbines in England, some other Tories now look poised to overturn that ban. Which sort of tells you...
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47:23

#270: Heat Pumps
Look, we're quitting, so if there ever was a leash we are now firmly off it. Problem is, while unleashed Dave might follow his nose into the bushes of podcasting misadventure, unleashed Ol... well, he's not that interesting is he? So having cas...
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53:24

#269: Just Stop, Ol
Now then, we have Some News about the babble. Listen to the show to find out precisely what (don't worry, we haven't been bad), but suffice to say this year's Sustainabauble will be particularly valedictory.But before we get too festive and emotio...
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55:14

#268: David Roberts meets Sustainababble
Chances are you’ll have read David Roberts’ superlative writing on climate – at Vox or more recently Volts – and thought ‘coo, that’s sensible and right and interesting’. We certainly have, so we’re delighted to finally have him on the show.David ...
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1:13:16

#267: Eels
If we said "name the weirdest, most mystical & inexplicable creature on earth" you would rightly say "80s English footballer Peter Beardsley". But pause for a moment to consider instead the 'umble eel, a fish(ish) so unknown and unknowable that no...
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50:58

#266: Poo
Loathe though we are to be scatological, it's time to face faecal facts: the astonishing amount of human excrement on the planet presents a honking environmental challenge.When you think about it, with nearly eight billion of us crimping one out m...
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49:40

#265: Rainforests of Britain
Britain has lost a lot of things lately: international standing; economic credibility; its collective shit. But we've also mislaid something more fragile, dank and extraordinary than even Liz Truss's premiership: our precious and hitherto largely ...
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47:57

#264: Coke at COP
Who knew climate conferences had corporate sponsors? 183,295 people, that's who, for they have signed a petition telling the UN suits to ditch the sponsor of this year's jamboree in Egypt which is... Coca-Cola.That's Coca "oh hi! we're the biggest...
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40:16

#263: Sorry
Mistakes have been made, lessons learned. Yet again, us being away for a few weeks coincided with the ass falling out of everything that is good.In fact Blighty's new "Government" has done so many dastardly things that even usually mild-mannered b...
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49:59

#262: Liz Truss
What, or who, is a Liz Truss and why does anyone care? Well buckle up because approximately 17 old white men from the rich bits of England have just made her boss of Blighty and there are, we fear, going to be some changes around here.Or, er, are ...
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45:28

#261: Leah Thomas meets Sustainababble
'Intersectional environmentalism' is a) a lot of syllables, b) a brilliant concept explained simply and powerfully by writer and environmentalist Leah Thomas, and c) coincidentally also the title of Leah's new book.Part activist toolkit, part theo...
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53:38

#260: Rupert Read meets Sustainababble
Rupert Read is an author, philosopher, and activist, perhaps best known for his prominent role in Extinction Rebellion. He's written more than a dozen books and his most recent - Why Climate Breakdown Matters - is, well, full on. Full on in that i...
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45:08

#259: The High Seas
If you ever encounter a Sloane's Viperfish, you're in for a treat. The charming creature has a bite so ferocious that its first vertebra has to act as a shock absorber. When it chomps, it unhinges its skull, opens its jaw 90 degrees, and expands i...
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43:32

#258: Roads
"WHY HAVEN'T YOU BABBLED ABOUT EVIL EVIL POO-BUM ROADS?!?!" yells twitter. Well, your bellowed word is our grudging command.But while we're delighted to go truffling for babble in tarmac territory, there is no way on god's earth we are picking sid...
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55:25

#257: Bird Flu
Fans of our feathered friends, look away now...If you've been to the coast recently there's every chance you'll have seen, how can we put this delicately, an exceptionally dead bird washed up on the shore. Or, more likely, dozens of the bastards.B...
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49:06

#256: 40 Degrees
Famously soggy, predictably chilly. Well, not any more, cos Blighty has joined the global combustability club after turning in a world-beating and very much oven-ready 40.3 degrees C of scorchiosity in its latest heatwave.So how freaked out should...
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38:29

#255: Green Capitalism?
How much, precisely, is one whale worth? Half an elephant? Three dozen gibbons?"Don't be silly, Ol and Dave, you can't put a price on nature" we hear you cry. Well tell it to the IMF, because they say our blubbery friends retail for $2m, a big fig...
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49:29

#254: Luke Turner Meets Sustainababble
Epping Forest, or "Effing Forest" as it's known to the locals, is at the heart of Luke Turner's wonderful 2019 book about sexuality, trauma, god and personal recovery.The forest, Luke says, hums with an energy of people both enjoying the place but...
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53:00

#253: Badverts
The babble, it must be said, has a problem with authority. Probably cos of our upbringing or something. But this week, The Authority – specifically the Advertising Standards Authority – shot up in our estimation after it said NO, PURVEYORS OF SH*T...
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53:19

#252: Business
If you were until recently, say, sustainability overlord at IKEA, should you be viewed as a suit who slapped green respectability onto a company that flooded living rooms with unnecessary tat? Or, perhaps, as a radical, transforming one of the wor...
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49:18
