Transcript: I can be your hero, baby – how we smash the climate activist hero stereotype
TEDxLondon Climate Curious
Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS | Android
Heroes, assemble! We need to humanise our climate heroes, says Mauricio Porras, co-founder of HERO | herocircle.app. And we do that by paying them a fair wage. Mauricio joins Climate Curious co-hosts Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst to chat through why young activists are expected to shoulder so much responsibility, how we are stronger if we work together as a global community, and how the Herocircle.app enables you to support climate activists securing our future for the price of one fancy London coffee (about £6).
Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS | Android
TRANSCRIPT
Mauricio Porras 0:08
We wanted to start with humanising heroes. So it’s not the hero you’ll see in a movie. It’s actually mapping and showcasing and storytelling about the everyday heroes that are already doing.
Ben Hurst 0:21
This is climate curious, the podcast for people who are bored, scared or confused by climate change.
Maryam Pasha 0:28
I’m Maryam Pasha, the director and curator at TEDxLondon and the co-host of this podcast, alongside the amazing Ben.
Ben Hurst 0:34
Hi, I’m Ben Hurst activist and advocate exploring what positive masculinity is can look like and self confessed climate Normie.
Maryam Pasha 0:46
Hey, Ben, Hey, I have a very important question for you. Okay. Am I ready? Am I ready for a very important question. Today, if you had to choose between Enrique Iglesias and Mariah Carey, who would it be?
Ben Hurst 1:02
Maryam? This is what this is literally an impossible question to answer. Why would you even answer the question?
I’m gonna
conflicted. I’m gonna go with Mariah. Oh.
Maryam Pasha 1:20
So now that you’ve chosen well, you are going to this is by the way listeners This is related to this episode. We have not gone totally off script.
Ben Hurst 1:31
But I want you to, I want you to serenade our, our, our listeners, please just start this episode.
Are you sure that they’re ready? I don’t think they are. But let’s do man, a hero comes along with the strength to carry.
And then you cast your fees aside. And you know, you’re
not being asked to serenade the audience. They’d be stopped. So where are you fit? No, that’s fine.
Maryam Pasha 2:01
I think that’s enough. I think. So now we know that at least the people who were left listening really want to hear that
Ben Hurst 2:07
to my Patreon,
Maryam Pasha 2:10
which is a good segue.
A good segue because we are well, we are talking to, I would say both a hero and a hero enabler today.
Ben Hurst 2:18
Oh, yes.
Maryam Pasha 2:20
Personally, right. And this is a really exciting conversation because I think it is one that I’ve wanted to have since I first found out about, well, the platform and this individual because it pretty, pretty cool. So today, we’re joined by Mauricio Porras, who is the founder and chief mobilisation Officer of hero app. Now,
you are going to hear how awesome Mauricio is. But let me tell you a little bit more about his background, because
I think it’s quite important to understand, in order to understand the awesomeness that he’s created, he has a background in political strategy and social mobilisation. And this is very cool. He was head of digital political strategy for one of Costa Rica’s presidential candidate, which is pretty cool, because he is from Costa Rica.
If you follow climate, Costa Rica is one of the Climate Leaders. And so it’s kind of unsurprising to me, and yet awesome to have Mauricio with us here today to talk about his work with Hiro app supporting climate campaigners all around the world. So let’s just jump into it. Because we have a lot to talk about. Yeah. So we’ve had some pretty awesome activists on this podcast over the last year and a half years. And I think many of them young activists, and each of them has talked in their own way about the difficulties of, of doing this work, both psychologically, financially, personally, the barriers that they face, all of the different kinds of things. And one thing that has struck me in all of those conversations is that, you know, these young people, when or older people who are activists very much, this is their life’s path. They have had to make decisions, to not do other things that maybe they were interested in or love to do this work, which is why I’m super excited that we get to have this conversation with you.
Ben Hurst 4:09
So I mean, this conversation feels timely, because everybody is broke. Yeah, it’s a it’s a cost of living. The streets are cold. No one’s making any money.
Maryam Pasha 4:20
Yeah, you should all know that. Ben is dressed in head to toe pearls.
Ben Hurst 4:25
But yes, well,
we’ll talk about that another time. Another episode.
Maryam Pasha 4:30
Let’s let’s get into it, because I want welcome Rusu thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Or, if you can just tell people a bit about hero and what it is in case people haven’t heard about it. Because I’d like to start start with with that work.
Mauricio Porras 4:47
Sure. So hero is a first climate platform powered by citizens. It allows you to fund the top climate campaigners upcoming campaigners doing what we call the most simple To jump over time, and it allows you to fund them directly, just like other platforms, for example, like Patreon, where you fund artists, this is your platform to fund the top campaigners in the world to enact policy change from the ground up. So good.
Maryam Pasha 5:16
I have to tell you, I remember the first time this popped up on my I think was on my Instagram feed. And I was just like, Oh, my God, how has someone not? It was one of those ideas where you’re like, surely someone has done this before. Because this is brilliant. Because I
want because, you know, I think I think there’s just something amazing about directly being able to support causes not having to go through intermediaries not knowing if those intermediaries or organisations are going to support the kinds of work or even the individuals who you know, do great work. And you want to kind of make sure they continue doing it. So for those who haven’t come across this on their feed yet, tell us how it works.
Mauricio Porras 5:56
Yeah, so you know that there’s 1000s of climate campaigners, there’s a whole new generation that wants to take action for their future and our future. And the way we work is that we have bet at the most promising upcoming climate campaigners through an independent board. So we’ve worked a lot on the governance of hero to strive for transparency. So we have an independent board. Campaigners apply all over the world to hero to be in the platform. And they’re bedded. And the main aspect that we take a look at is the fact that they have a track record of nonviolent advocacy. They’re focused on policy change, we really want to push you know, the bar up in terms of policy change, where where we see that is where we can have the biggest impact, important policy changes not It’s not cool, isn’t it?
Ben Hurst 6:50
Doesn’t feel like the coolest thing of all time.
Maryam Pasha 6:53
Yeah. I mean, what’s really, for me, what’s interesting is, it’s just not, it’s not just you and your mates, like you have vetted these people, you have a way that people get onto your platform. That feels very thorough. But I do think what you’re saying veteran policy change is interesting, because I’ve worked in policy change for a bit. I mean, it is cool, but what I mean is that it was it’s hard, complex, it’s complex, but actually, one of the things I found was that it’s hard to get funding for it, right, because people want to fund things where they can see where they can see the change right away. They want to fund like a shelter or a thing, you know, like a thing, they don’t necessarily understand how to fund policy change,
Mauricio Porras 7:34
ya know, and it hasn’t been a challenge, because we really, we’ve wanted to disrupt the way that you approach climate action. So hero has like several components that make it very unique. For example, I was having a conversation the other day, say like, what I love about hero is that when you think of climate action, you think about saving, I don’t know, tigers, or planting trees, or coral reefs. But with hero, you can actually support humans, like you can have a direct connection with those and support their journey from the ground up. So that’s one of the unique pieces of hero. The second one is that we’re striving, we’re moving from the donations model to a subscription. So that’s important because we’re approaching this as a climate tech startup. And it’s basically pioneering a new purpose economy. You said it at the beginning, this generation wants to live out of this work, because it’s crucial. Yeah. So we are seeing it like trying to transition from this is a volunteer job that I do on the site to this is actually my profession being a climate campaigner, right. And we believe that, you know, citizens can power that change and power those stories,
Ben Hurst 8:47
because that’s a difficult, it’s a difficult thing, right? Like, immediately when you started talking about this, I was thinking, so is this a way for climate activists to get a salary? Because I feel like the thing that stops the big barrier is that people are often working for months or years at a time with no real income stream, which ends up looking like a lot of sacrifice. And I think that’s probably one of the things that we don’t really talk about. It’s just this expectation that people will do this work for free because they believe it’s important, or because they care about it, because they’re good people, but actually, like the practicalities of that are, in lots of cases unbearable. I imagine that’s a reason why loads of people start and a supercilious when they’re young, and then realise that they start having families or want to move houses or want to be able to look after themselves or have dependents or need to provide for people and then that game over. You have to switch and get a corporate job, where your job is just to tell people in corporates that they should care about this stuff rather than doing the actual work in lots of cases. So that’s a cool way of doing it
Mauricio Porras 9:50
and then you lose all that amazing people. We were seen five years ahead. Yeah. And thinking like okay, this 21 year old, 22 year old campaigners, they’re all in today. But we still live in a capitalistic system. So as you said, you need to pay the rent, you need to pay the bills you need to make a living out of your career. So how do we engage or keep them engaged in the long run? Because we have seven years to bring down global temperature to 1.5. I’m not afford to lose them, Brian two years, who then secures those policies?
Maryam Pasha 10:25
There’s something here as well about who gets to do this. Yeah, that’s so so fundamental here, when you talk about it for me is, so often you only get to do this work, if you have a degree of privilege, if you can live at home. Or if someone can, you know what I mean, then I feel like what you’re trying to do is undermine in a positive way, those entrenched kind of class or economic divides,
Mauricio Porras 10:50
yeah, we want to empower people to empower this campaigners from the ground up, where they’re working in their local communities. And then they go to the global stage, we’ve seen various examples of this, at least with Watty. For example, in Africa, she started in her local community, now she’s negotiating a cop, you know, the loss and damage agreement, for example, I will eat, you know, organising in Belgium, and now she’s literally, you know, holding politicians accountable at the EU level. So these are the stories that we want to multiply by the 1000s, we actually have a goal in the next five years, with the help of citizens to fund the next generation of 10,000. Climate campaigners. So just imagine what the world could look like, if we had 10,000 graders 10,000 lives with two T’s and so on, it will look totally different.
Ben Hurst 11:45
Yeah, how did how did you arrive here? Like, how did how did something? How do you wake up one day and be like, This is what I’m gonna do? I’ve decided that this is an important cause?
Mauricio Porras 11:54
Yeah, I think it comes well, my purpose, and I’m talking personally has always been to empower people to use their talents at the service of others, I think that when you put your talents there, it’s where you really connect with that spark. So I’ve always been intrigued in finding ways of just amplifying that. And I think the second step was, like, hyper focus, like, I’ve been trying to disrupt, you know, the social and environmental sector, by finding new approaches and new ways of of doing this. And by being so focused on it, I started noticing, okay, so there’s a problem here with funding, there’s a problem here with how the climate topic is being communicated. So we have a funding issue, we have a communications issue, a storytelling issue. So how can we make this you know, an opportunity kind of story instead of, we’re all gonna, you know, do anything about it. So I, I found two amazing people that think just like me, so Silvana, Mohammed. And they had the same hyper focus and passion for the topic. And that mix of all the perspective. So I’m from Costa Rica, Silvana is from France. Mohammed is from Tunisia. So three people from three different continents approaching this with their own perspectives, and the ones of the people around us. I think it’s what makes the hero’s story unique,
Ben Hurst 13:30
such an important example of like, what innovation can look like. Because I think that’s another big part of this is that we see, activism at particularly climate activism is a very specific set of actions that people have to take, that’s quite limited. But this is like a, I would never have, like you said, who thinks of that? Or why would you think of that? I would never have thought of that as, which is why you’re sitting over there.
Maryam Pasha 13:57
wondering if you could give us some examples of like, where activists that you’re working with on this app, or from the kinds of work that they’re doing?
Mauricio Porras 14:05
Yeah, so right now we have campaigners from 16 different countries. So that’s really cool. We and we just started last year. So that gives you a perspective of how many people are still there. That could be part of this if more citizens join us support, but basically we have like a regional circle. So circles are the groups of campaigners, which is also a unique aspect of hero is that you don’t fund them individually. You fund them as a group. Oh, wow. So it’s a collective
Maryam Pasha 14:38
as well fill out.
Ben Hurst 14:41
How do you just pick all your favourites and leave everybody else? That’s a good way of doing it. Yeah.
Mauricio Porras 14:46
So we we really want to move from the eye to the Wii, and we really want to change that within the movement and also, you know, on the citizen level, so in LATAM, we have a circle that has been very sick. successful at advocating for the Escazu agreement, which is a regional treaty that secures the defenders rights, more transparency in governmental decisions on climate. We have the indigenous rights circle, which is working to protect the Amazon with indigenous peoples to protect, you know, their lands and their rights and involve them in climate negotiations.
Maryam Pasha 15:23
Before we move on, for people who haven’t heard that phrase, what is the term will you tell us
Mauricio Porras 15:28
Latin America? And what’s defenders rights? Defenders rights? So you have this campaigners at the frontlines of action? And Latin America is one of the most dangerous places to be a campaigner, right? So currently, before the escrow agreement, actually, there were no constitutional rights or illegal binding agreements that protects them. So if you’re advocating for an indigenous community, and you get killed, which has to be consequences today, and that happens more often than we would like to, to share, but now with this treaty, now, that’s changing, because it’s going to have consequences, legally binding consequences, and it protects and puts environmental defenders at the centre of those agree. That’s an example of how policy can really, you know, start to create the system
Ben Hurst 16:23
and save lives.
Maryam Pasha 16:25
Because people feel like people don’t have to, you know, I always think, why do we have to just say something about why do you have to put your life on the line, you know, and I think we romanticise it actually in society. Yeah. And it shouldn’t be necessary that you shouldn’t have to die. I think Kumi Naidoo said this to us. Do you remember in an interview, he said, someone asked him when he was leaving South Africa, and about what he wanted to do in his life. And he said, I want to give my life for the cause. And the person he was talking to said, no. You want to live your life for the cause? Yeah. And there’s a big difference. I remember being like, oh, yeah, like, okay.
Ben Hurst 17:13
Because we really make martyrs out of you, especially our young people. Yeah, we expect them to sacrifice their whole lives, when actually a big part of this is just normalising the fact that all of us are part of it. And like, everybody’s got responsibility to do something. But this is nice, because it provides people with a direct route, to take on that responsibility for themselves without necessarily feeling like they have to be in the streets and doing stuff, even though they should also be doing those things. But a nice way to give people a route to making change. How do you decide who’s in the circles?
Mauricio Porras 17:46
Yeah, so they apply to hero and they choose the focus of the policy that they will be working on. So then they join circles that are focused on those those policy so you find other people working on those topics. And also the global aspect is, then you get to share best practices, for example, the using the same Escazu agreement example. It’s the first treaty of its kind, right? So that could easily be replicated in Europe, why not? And all the expertise that now the campaigners in Latin America have around that treaty can be passed on to people in the same circle working on similar topics to protect those. So there’s something around Hiro about sharing knowledge around accelerating change. Through that collective effort.
Maryam Pasha 18:39
I always think that one of the biggest learnings for me in this kind of work was understanding that there is a there is a reason why we keep trying to keep people so why don’t we but like the system tries to keep people separate. Because actually, it’s very powerful to be able to share learnings across huge distances that would not have been able to happen, like 20 years ago, five years ago, or whatever. And I think there’s something very powerful about it, because actually, it’s like using the, like some of the tactics and the tools that let’s say, certain kinds of companies that dig certain things out of the ground. them, you allegedly time, right, they will, they will absolutely take a strategy that’s worked if to, let’s say, lobby against a policy in one part of the world and replicate that strategy and other parts of the world, or a strategy to suppress activists in one part of the world and replicate it somewhere else. And if we can take our knowledge of combating that successfully and replicate it, and you know what, kind of fighting them in their own game, which I think is quite cool.
Mauricio Porras 19:45
Yeah. And I mean, that’s a perfect example because the way hero has been built is from the inside out of the system. Instead of tackling the system from the outside, we decided to build it from the inside out. And then you have the perspective of a startup of a subscription of thinking of this campaigners as, instead of volunteers, as professionals that are doing the job, and citizens support allows them to be independent, that that’s super important as well. Because then you’re if citizens are funding you, then you don’t have like a specific agenda that you are, you know, maybe you get fund or a grant. And maybe they they’re going to push for a specific topic, which is totally fine, right. But this gives a lot of freedom to that campaigners to actually advocate more freely for the specific causes and issues that they see in their, in their countries.
Ben Hurst 20:46
And that really is a tool that’s used, isn’t it? Like, the more you can keep people reinventing the wheel is like, the less that the less time do they have to actually do things? Yeah,
Maryam Pasha 20:56
I think there is. Yeah, just I mean, just to follow up on that, in terms of funding, particularly Yeah, the more time you can keep, like, the more time people have to waste writing applications reporting on things for like, a tiny grant for one year, I just, every time I hear about it, it boggles my mind. And we know that if you’re a person of colour, if you’re a woman, you know, if you’re come from a certain community, you get even smaller pots of funding with even more strings attached. And so you can’t do this kind of unrestricted, agile, responsive work that’s necessary.
Mauricio Porras 21:29
Yeah. And we are, you know, we’re moving into the basic income concepts that are, you know, discussed across the world, as a as a way to also, you know,
distribute wealth and support each other. So there’s a lot of components that actually, I mean, obviously, I love what we’re doing so, but also make it complex to tell the story as well. So this is something very new, and people have a lot of questions like, Why should I fund them? How do they work? You know, why do they need money to do this work? I love the idea of storytelling as well, right? Because it feels it feels like this is all very intentional. Like I feel like that even just the branding of it, right? Like calling it hero, like, where does that come from? What’s What’s the story behind how you’re selling this to people? Yeah. So we wanted to start with humanising heroes. So it’s not the hero, you’ll see in a movie, it’s actually mapping and showcasing and storytelling about the everyday heroes that are already doing the work. And for us, a hero is someone that moves from idea to action. And within that, you could have citizens as heroes, so or the campaigners themselves on the front line. So for us, it’s about doing something about not settling for the problem. And so if you decide to fund, then you’re already doing something you moved from, there’s a problem, too, there’s an opportunity. And the same for the campaigner. So everyone for us that moves into action is actually a hero.
Maryam Pasha 23:09
Oh, I have the look of Ben’s face. I wonder, I have a question. Do you find that part of what you need to do when you’re communicating this concept is get over or help people get over the mental blocks or barriers they have? Because I wonder, I wonder if we think that activists have to be doing it for free. Like whether there’s something when people like well, if they get paid somehow they’re, they’re not? Pure? You know, I just wonder if is it? Do you get any of that? Or do you think people come up against that? Because it feels to me that we do have this way of thinking about sacrifice?
Mauricio Porras 23:53
Yeah, I mean, we’re talking about disrupting a system that has worked like this for I don’t know how many years, to be honest. You know, pushing for everything that’s non profit goes in one bucket, right? And then we make the business. So we’re trying to really, you know, bring, as you said, the best practices, we should have the best storytelling available, the best tech, the best business models to build this from the ground up. So we have seen a lot of questions. And, you know, people are curious about why this and how does it work? And I think the biggest challenge we have is to burst the climate bubble or the climate space. Because obviously within the space, there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of people that are supporting, but we cannot forget that there’s people outside those spaces that even listening or hearing about climate change is very overwhelming. And then it’s just like a show stopper. So this is too complex for me. Where we’re trying is to human As the cost humanise the work and try to power journeys of people from the ground up that are relatable.
Maryam Pasha 25:09
How much do people it does a subscription cost? Like? What are we really talking about here? Yeah,
Mauricio Porras 25:14
it starts at six euros, so to our fees.
Maryam Pasha 25:20
In London, that’s one coffee.
Ben Hurst 25:22
That’s a half a coffee.
Mauricio Porras 25:27
Yeah, but but when you put it in perspective, so what we’re trying to do, because generally how this works is you get, you know, big chunks of funding. And you find, and it’s a process that you just described, you have all these applications and all this sort of bureaucracy, and it doesn’t reach everyone with this, you know, it’s six euros. But if we get 10,000 people to put six euros, 20 1000s and so on, then it becomes an interesting amount to provide a stable income to all this. Do you have use? I know you said 10,000. So campaigners in circles, right? Is that is that I understood that that’s the goal. That’s the goal right now. Yeah, that’s no, that’s like the
Maryam Pasha 26:12
that’s the five. That’s the five year plan. What do you also have a vision on where you want to get to in terms of how much you’re able to bring in for those people? Like, do
Ben Hurst 26:24
you how many citizens are involved? Yeah.
Mauricio Porras 26:27
Yeah, I mean, millions, millions of citizens, I think, I mean, when you look at the numbers of citizens in the world, our goal is to reach out to everyone, I think everyone has the power to do something. And what we’re striving for is to make it as easy, seamless as possible for people to just say, Okay, I care about climate. Sometimes I don’t have the time I have most of my career, which I love. Yeah, and it’s totally fine. But this is a very simple way to just with your phone, literally six euros a month, have very outsized impact.
Ben Hurst 27:04
This is so interesting. I feel like a proper venture capitalist in here. This is so good,
Maryam Pasha 27:10
right? This is actually a bit about your own self interest, right? If you were smart, you will be I want to have a future. Can I want you know, just like you invest in your pension, or you invest in other kinds of things, maybe it’s like people go to the gym to invest in their bodies so that they have a body when they get old. I have not invested enough in my knees. Me. But is that mindset shift? I think that was really actually a super cool. Yeah. Because I do think that part of what I think the passiveness that people might feel when they give, I feel it. Like I’m someone who’s super passionate about causes. And sometimes I feel like I just lose my energy when I’m just giving to something. And then it’s like, Oh, I’ve done. It’s just, it’s like given and it’s gone. Yeah, it but when I feel like I’m investing in something, I feel like I’m engaging in something I have such a different energy about it. And then, in a way, I guess there’s like the secondary benefit that if people are engaged, they might be even more engaged. And they have you have all these knock on effects. You’re smiling, like don’t tell them?
Mauricio Porras 28:18
Oh, no, no, actually, you’re hitting the right spot. Because I think that’s what this is all about, like, you know, we we have put a lot of minds and thoughts into how to put this in the, you know, this power to give this powerful tool and put it in the hands of everyday citizens. Like we want this tool to be a tool for people, for people and by people. Right. So it’s it’s not about just you know, getting, you know, the certain funds, you know, to just scale this and and get the funding, it’s actually about involving the citizens in the whole journey. Because when they’re supporting this campaigners, they’re not just giving, they’re actually, as you said, investing, they become part of the journey. So, you know, you can fund an upcoming climate campaigner that you haven’t heard about in the news yet. And then seeing their progress in the next two years when they have the tools, the funding and seeing them at the global stage. That was because of you. And the third thing is that we are working really hard to get those your name in those victories. So when a policies passed, you were part of it. So you have a share of that of that action. And we’re building towards that collective.
Ben Hurst 29:38
And honestly, there is nothing I like more than knowing about things before other people know, I feel like this is like I downloaded this today. Just so I could say in five years. I knew about that.
Maryam Pasha 29:50
You know? So I know some of the activists on the platform. So and that was cool, right? Because I was like yeah, these people do great work. Yeah. and you don’t want to be like, Hey, friend, can I give you some money? Because that’s.
But if I’m like, hey friend, can I enable you to make sure that like, I have a future, I’m up for it. But then also, it allowed me to go and look at like the other activists in their circle, and be like, Oh, I haven’t heard about this person who’s doing this, like cool stuff that I care about and didn’t know, know, I cared about. It didn’t care about I didn’t know the person doing the work on it. And so then I was able to like, discover. So I think this is just to say that I’m where I was a big fan. I know you are.
Ben Hurst 30:32
I’m a big fan. Yeah, I’m a big fan of this. I feel. And I feel like that the number one question that we get asked, right is always what do I do? Like, what what do I act? What can I actually do to change the tide? It feels too big, feels scary. It feels intimidating. I definitely care. But I feel powerless. And I feel like this is a really easy way is if you’ve got the money button it out really, really easy way. Like I love what you said about like streamline and refining the process and making it simpler for people as well. Because it does feel like it’s literally a couple of clicks away. That difference between me doing nothing and me having a massive impact. And I feel a feeling of agency. Yeah, feeling like you are able to do something like you’re making choices and decisions that are benefiting the world. Right. And
Mauricio Porras 31:19
I think I heard it from you or read it in a post about that story that great storytelling was about practice, right? So just think about it in the same way. The more time, the more resources this campaigners can have to do better to learn more to share to professionalise more their new careers on climate, the better they’re going to get. And that’s, you know, that’s what we need to do. Like it’s it’s the same for any other career wise climate campaigning not occur a professional career, and that’s what we want to change.
Maryam Pasha 31:57
That’s a great I love.
Ben Hurst 31:59
I love this so much. Why is it not a professional career? How do we change it?
Maryam Pasha 32:03
i Before we move to our last extremely fun segment, I wanted to ask you if there was something on this journey that you’ve been on, that has surprised you?
Mauricio Porras 32:13
A lot of things. It’s a hard one, I think. I knew that people wanted to change the world. And I saw the passion. And that’s what drove me to like this people need to be supported. But I think it’s you know, the level of commitment. Like with or without the funding, this campaigners are going to do it. And I think that’s so impressive. Because it’s, it’s you asked me if, if this has changed something, of course, they can dedicate more time. But the passion hasn’t changed. So I’m really surprised or in a good way, that what I saw from the outside living in Costa Rica, and I will say, you know, this, European activists from far now that I meet them when I work with them, and seem like, okay, like this is for real. They’re not going to stop. And they really, they’re in for it. Yeah, I think that’s so powerful. Yeah, they’re not bullshit.
Maryam Pasha 33:21
Doing it. So very, we’re very excited on the podcast, because we’re going to be profiling various circles over the next coming months. So you will be able to hear from the here as the activists and the campaigners in these various circles around the world. And hopefully, that will inspire you all to like, sacrifice two coffees a month and a half a coffee for London, a sip of coffee.
Mauricio Porras 33:49
It’s gonna be worth it. Yeah.
Maryam Pasha 33:51
to support them, and you’ll get to know them a bit on the podcast. Yeah. Which we’re super excited to be able to do with you. Because imagine a better group of people to amplify you for
Ben Hurst 34:01
that, man.
Mauricio Porras 34:03
I think what I love about hero is the collective. Like, this is not about hero, right? Hero is just one piece of the puzzle the same way you guys are another piece of the puzzle. And if we start putting all these pieces together, when we take a look, you know, like, from from up, it’s going to look amazing.
Ben Hurst 34:24
And the scalability potential of it is so exciting as well. I know. This is a real option opportunity for us to invest it. But I do think like that. So many people are so limited in the work that we’re doing whatever sector that work is in because there’s just not accessible streams of funding. And so this is like a you I don’t know. I feel so got it. I didn’t come up with this myself. But you’ve done a good job. This is a really important
Maryam Pasha 34:53
word, right? Like, we’re so excited that you’ve come and spent this time with us. We want to do one last thing with you if that’s okay. It’s time for.
Ben Hurst 35:02
And now it’s time for our climate confessions. Let’s fess up to the bad habits we just caught kick.
Maryam Pasha 35:13
Yeah, I love them. Ruth is joined in. Right? Okay, for those of you who do not know what climbing confessions are, this is the segment of our episode where we ask each other and the guests on climate confession. And that is not to shame. Just to be clear, not to shame you it is to instead show that even though we bring really awesome people on the podcast, where it might seem like everything they do is perfect. We want to lift that veil and show that actually all of us have climate confessions. And that’s okay, we’re here to make a difference. And not be perfect, right. So
Mauricio Porras 35:54
this is the part where in the WhatsApp group Modi’s who just left Yes. Thank you for inviting me.
Maryam Pasha 36:02
So bad. Let’s start with you.
Ben Hurst 36:07
Better you bet many of many, many climate confessions. I’ve been travelling this last month. So I’ve been wherever I’ve been. I’ve been to Jamaica, and I’ve been to North Carolina. And it was really nice. I went to Jamaica and holiday had a lovely time.
Maryam Pasha 36:22
That’s where we had a lovely Did you see family that you
Ben Hurst 36:26
know, my family’s in Barbados and St. Lucia?
Maryam Pasha 36:29
North Carolina. Oh, I
Ben Hurst 36:30
do have family in North Carolina. But no, I didn’t see that. I wasn’t there for that I was there for stuff I was on business. I was doing work. But what I’ve realised is that I have not even thought about what offset in my carbon footprint looks like I don’t know if carbon footprint as the right way of describing it. But I’ve been flying all around the place. And I actually took an extra flight back home from Jamaica, to be home for a day to then fly back to North Carolina, which is not an effective use of, of air miles or travelling. So I think that’s my climate confession that I’m just absolutely reckless. I think when we started having these conversations, I wasn’t really travelling that much. And it was during pandemic, so no one was going anywhere. And I was listening to people talk about offset. And I was like, Yeah, that’s so good. Yeah, go for it. And actually, now it’s my turn. So I’ve got to do some thinking about investing in some plots of land somewhere in Wales in mountains and trees. I don’t know. I don’t know what to do that that’s going to be
Maryam Pasha 37:31
Yeah, yeah. Okay, my so over to you for your climate confession. Feel the people really struggle with this. No, no, no.
Mauricio Porras 37:43
I mean, I think I have to confess.
Yeah, I mean, I took a flight to come here. But I had to, I had to come here and meet you guys. In person, and you’re doing other things. So you’re like doing the thing you’re told to do, which is exactly.
So it’s okay. But you still have like, Oh, I could have taken the train. But then I wouldn’t be here on time. You know, you have to make some choices. And I think the second one, it’s more around a mindset. It’s like keeping that perspective, that all of us are human, that all of us have different processes and acknowledge the climate crisis in different ways. And I think is more about having that patience, and empathy. Because when you’re so like, dipped in the topic, then you want everyone to be as passionate about it. And I think I always need to keep that perspective of, okay, I’m really passionate about this and many other people around me. But we still have like a long a long way. And we need to be empathetic, and find ways to create those connections instead of Come on do something
Maryam Pasha 38:57
getting frustrated. Nice, what’s yours? I’m not gonna go travel because they said that so many times. Oh, you know what my climate confession is? It’s so bad to so if you are a longtime listener of this podcast, you will know that many, many maybe even over a year ago, many moons and many moons ago, one of our team submitted a climate confession, which was that they get coffee delivered to their house
Ben Hurst 39:25
a lot. That’s a good idea.
Maryam Pasha 39:28
Cuz I was like, Wait, he had coffee delivered to your house. And so I haven’t been really busy. I have by the Starbucks near our house that delivers and they never spill it. Especially with iced coffee because you really it’s hard to make a good iced coffee. i That’s my climate confession is that I was inspired by someone else’s confession to to adopt that behaviour. So yeah, I do though, because I’m at home. I do recycle all the cups. Good. Good. At least I do. that, don’t just throw them in the bin
Ben Hurst 40:01
Forever Forward Movement in the right direction.
Maryam Pasha 40:06
Thank you so much for coming in speaking to us, it has been wonderful. We could talk for hours about this. I am excited to have you back in less than five years when you’ve hit that 10,000 to talk about all of those impacts and do listen to the quickies and the shorts we have with all of the circles that will be coming up. Where can people find you? Yeah, keuro
Mauricio Porras 40:26
circle.up. That’s a PP here, six euros a month. outsize impact amazing climate campaigners?
Ben Hurst 40:36
It’s a really good idea. I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna be doing.
Mauricio Porras 40:39
I mean, then you can look back and say I supported this guy’s Yeah. And then we’re talking about getting 10,000. Now they’re in the millions. Yeah.
Maryam Pasha 40:47
Be one of the early adopters so that you can be superior to other people is what you’re saying.
Ben Hurst 40:53
So that you can brag.
Mauricio Porras 40:56
Whatever, whatever drives, yeah,
Maryam Pasha 40:58
right. No judgement here. This has been really fun. Until next time,
Ben Hurst 41:05
stay curious. Thank you for joining us this week. We really hope you enjoyed this episode.
Maryam Pasha 41:12
If you did, please hit the Follow button to make sure you get next week’s release.
Ben Hurst 41:16
We are now officially crowdsourcing climate confession so please leave yours in the ratings and the review section. And we’ll shut up you next time. And shout out to our fabulous team behind the pod.
Maryam Pasha 41:29
This episode was produced by Josie Colter.
Ben Hurst 41:34
Oh work designed by Rebecca Menziesis curation by Maryam Pasha mixed and engineered by Ben Beheshty. Music also by Ben Beheshty presented by Ben Hurst and Maryam Pasha. Remember, stay curious
EPISODE ENDS
Newsletter
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Suggest a topic you’d like Climate Curious to cover.
