Transcript: Climate Curious: Introducing Season 5
TEDxLondon Climate Curious
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Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | RSS | Android
TRANSCRIPT
Ben Hurst 0:01
This is climate curious, the podcast for people who are bored, scared or confused by climate change.
Maryam Pasha 0:08
I’m Erin Pichette, the director and curator at TEDx London and the co host of this podcast, alongside the amazing Ben. Hi,
Ben Hurst 0:14
I’m Ben hearse activist and advocate exploring what positive masculinities can look like, and self confessed climate Normie.
Maryam Pasha 0:27
So we are starting the season in New York City. Yeah, we are, we are back again,
Ben Hurst 0:33
the Big Apple,
Maryam Pasha 0:35
the big food,
Ben Hurst 0:37
the humongous Apple, the most humongous Apple maybe in the history of mankind.
Maryam Pasha 0:42
I really won’t know why it’s called that. But that is a whole other podcast. Yeah,
Ben Hurst 0:44
we’ll come back. circle back round. So
Maryam Pasha 0:47
we’re here, Ben, why we’re here.
Ben Hurst 0:48
We’re here for climate week.
Maryam Pasha 0:50
And climate week is a week where basically people from all over the world come to New York to talk about Skynet. Do climate, they do climate things? To get exhausted? Yep. Back to back to back. No, but seriously, because there’s a lot of like, hate about travelling for climate, which I totally understand. But there’s something really special about being able to be together in community with each other from around the world. You know, we have been to many, many events this week, we’ve taken part in panels, we’ve taken part in dinners, all this kind of stuff. And the thing that’s kind of incredible is when you have, you know, people working, whether it’s like in business, or indigenous rights, or in Youth Activism, who are normally in their communities on the ground, some corner of the world, but they get to like, come here and be with their peers, and learn and share and support and have solidarity. So it’s a great space. Yeah. So
Ben Hurst 1:51
important as well, everybody who works from home knows that you are so much more productive when you’re just in the same places that people you work with. I mean, so I think it’s so
Maryam Pasha 1:59
important to share the intensity to really like further things. Yeah,
Ben Hurst 2:03
you can absolutely bang stuff out. I think. And I think that’s what you see a lot, right is that people connecting with people that will be so difficult for them to connect with other ways. And usually those connections will only be like an hour long zoom meeting where actually, when you’re all here for a week, you can have like, three, four hours in the same room and actually just do the things that you need to do.
Maryam Pasha 2:22
Yeah. And I think also, like, have difficult conversations. Yeah, it’s hard to have difficult conversations, especially when you can’t feel someone Yeah, yeah. And so anyway, that’s our defence. We’re here. Yeah.
Ben Hurst 2:33
The justification.
Maryam Pasha 2:37
We’ve gotten to speak to some really awesome, awesome people. I mean, we’ve wanted to speak to for years actually, that we’ve we would have been waiting to be able to get in person. Yeah.
Ben Hurst 2:47
And difficult, difficult people to track down and this is what I’m saying. That’s why you have to be here.
Maryam Pasha 2:54
We’ve eaten some delicious food caught been caught in some killer traffic. rain
Ben Hurst 2:59
storms, storms,
they call them storms here. They’re actually storms, aren’t they? I thought they just been rain. But no, it’s pretty torrential, yeah, torrential torrential potential. And I think,
Maryam Pasha 3:14
what is my reflection? What’s your reflection after being here from us? Oh,
Ben Hurst 3:16
my reflection, I think is we’ve been doing this for about three years now. Three and a half years maybe. And I’ve heard so many people talk about indigenous rights. I’ve heard so many people talk about involving indigenous communities and learning and sharing information. And then the indigenous communities having the solutions and not having seats at the table. And I think this is probably for me been the first time that I’ve actually seen what that that can look like when people are really involved. And interestingly, it’s really uncomfortable for you if you’re not indigenous, because you actually have to hold space for people. But it’s I think, yeah, see in that model would like what actually looks like to be in spaces, and to allow other people to have control over them and to teach to actually teach and to learn in the way that they like to teach is like a been a really immersive experience for me. I think that’s pretty powerful. And I had to drink that cacao.
Maryam Pasha 4:17
Yeah. Ben and I took part in our ceremony yesterday.
Ben Hurst 4:21
To say the least Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Not delicious, but very significant. Yeah. Very grounded. You
Maryam Pasha 4:27
found the taste difficult. I found the physicality of it difficult. Yeah.
Ben Hurst 4:30
Yeah. Which goes to say neither of us are comfortable. But it was. It was like really, really spiritual. Yeah.
Maryam Pasha 4:39
That was definitely something I’m going to remember. You know, for me, actually, as someone you can get very, I guess, you could just get really polarised like, and get really stuck in my point of view. I think it really like these are the bad guys. These are the good guys. Like you all have that kind of very divisive rhetoric. I I was reminded this week, how we, when we say we have to bring everyone along, it means we have to really bring everyone along. It doesn’t mean that like, we have to sit in a room and listen to fossil fuel executives justify their existence. Right? Don’t get me Don’t get me twisted. What I mean is, if people are genuinely committed to the solution, they may not look like or come from a background that you think. And for those of us who think who are activists and progressive, when we say that we’re always talking about like marginalised communities or indigenous communities, or, you know, people who’ve been outside, but I think sometimes you also have to let in the business people and the billionaires and controversial. Yeah, and the people who are filled with who want to be more moderate. And actually, it used to be a really broad, broad group of people. It doesn’t mean you have to like, you know, it reminds me of this speaker we worked with for TEDx London. Last year. It was this reverend. And
Ben Hurst 6:02
one guy, Keith legend icon,
Maryam Pasha 6:06
he talks about he really like, he has this phrase listening for connection rather than conversion. Yeah, yeah. And I have to repeat it to myself, because sometimes you feel like this. thought that if you even listen to people you disagree with, you’re somehow validating or
Ben Hurst 6:23
giving, giving, loving and given the space to them. Yeah, giving
Maryam Pasha 6:27
them the kind of agreement that you like, and actually, you can listen to just connect with someone and understand what motivates them. And so that has really been, for me a bit of that, that kind of stepping back and understanding all the different actors, because there’s a truly transfermate it I know, we talk about it lightly, and we talk about system change, and all that kind of stuff. But it is we truly having to everything that we have built to this point, all the good in the bad, right? All the progress or the destruction, all of it has to change in 30 years. Yeah. Literally, every one o’clock. Yeah. And in order to, to only have a, like a percentage of people die, that somehow we’ve accepted as being that’s fine. Don’t worry about it, you know, but like, you know, to, to start off, like to not go over these tipping points that they talk about where we don’t actually know what happens when we go over them. We have a boundary. And so it’s like, I don’t know, 3000 years, 4000 years, in the case of indigenous communities, 60,000 years worth of like, lives and people we have 30 years to change. Yeah. And that’s like, nice, everyone. Yeah, it
Ben Hurst 7:46
is. It is like a real moment of being forced to reimagine what revolution looks like. Yeah, I mean, like, it’s LACOB out, because I think in my mind, I think I said this in one of the episodes actually, that, in my mind, it feels like what I have perceived this to be is like beating the bad guys, right? Rather than transforming all of us into a space where we’re into a way of being where we’re not literally destroying the planet that we live on. But for that to happen. Everybody has to be involved. Yeah. Which I think is yeah, it’s an interesting shift, isn’t it? Absolutely.
Maryam Pasha 8:22
I mean, I think everything about the interviews we’ve done this week, the things that really I think I will take into my every day, in the way I think about this is to centre love. Way more. Yeah. And not to think of that as some kind of fuzzy. Yeah, wishy washy. sense. But how do you use like the greatest motivator? That’s one, the other one is like, around this creativity, and not just in like this traditional sense of like, Creative Industries, which also humour and all of that I’ll be taking, but also like, you know, in the conversation we have in the call, from canopy around this idea of like, looking at the things we have around us and thinking creatively, how can we use those in a way that actually benefits the world? Like, how do we bring that new perspective? So I think for me, it’s like love and creativity are the two messages I take away from this.
Ben Hurst 9:25
I think a big one for me, also, John was talking about in our interview, like talking about pollution and not talking about climate change, right, right. Or talking about forest fires or talking about hurricanes, we’re talking about floods rather than just talking about climate change. And really naming and labelling like, what the thing is that the what the impact of the thing is that we’re talking about, which I think for me, really shifted something in my brain because climate change sounds maybe intentionally, like so nebulous. It sounds like such a like airy fairy idea. Whereas what we’re talking about now I always like real term. Yeah,
Maryam Pasha 10:02
I think we should actually. So bring back an old guest to talk to us more about this. So, remember Melinda janky? Yeah, yeah, she’s been talking a lot more about this as well, like, obviously, coming in from a legal perspective and the usefulness of it. She basically told me that if you talk about pollution, there’s an actor. Yeah. Climate change doesn’t have an actor.
Ben Hurst 10:23
It’s just the climate climate is just changing. Us. Yeah. pollution has
Maryam Pasha 10:28
a polluter. Yeah. And that’s very powerful. So I think we should have her back to tell us a bit more about that and how she’s using it in her work.
Ben Hurst 10:34
Linda, that’s your official invitation to find your way back to come home. We miss you.
Maryam Pasha 10:46
I think we’ve also got some really, so you’re gonna hear some really exciting stuff.
Ben Hurst 10:50
Oh, my gosh, some good stuff. Yeah.
Maryam Pasha 10:53
I have to say that I actually had to try not to cry, like, in at least 80% of the episode. Yeah.
Ben Hurst 10:59
Yeah. So you were lit up a couple of times. Really, really emotional
Maryam Pasha 11:03
about this stuff. And, and why not? Right. Like, I mean, not that you hold me to sit there. Listen to me cry. But I know that bad thing. Sometimes. It’s like a reminder that like, Oh, yeah. This is serious, real life, real life. And I think we’ve got some incredible young voices from all over literally
Ben Hurst 11:24
all over all over. How crazy is that?
Maryam Pasha 11:29
And some stories that I think we blew my mind. Like really unexpected stories that I think will stay with you. Yeah. should stay with you. Yeah. So and I guess, ultimately, I feel even more curious. Yeah.
Ben Hurst 11:51
Isn’t it funny that this podcast doesn’t actually alleviate any of the curiosity just makes you ask better questions read? Yeah, I was
Maryam Pasha 11:58
thinking about that. Like, it’s, it’s like you, for those of you who I guess played old school video games, like you’re in a room you explore and pick up all the oh my gosh, finally open the door. You think you’re done? And then there’s like, even bigger room? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it feels like each season. We like, open the door. And we’re like, oh, this is more. We’ll
Ben Hurst 12:17
put the key in the socket. Go through the door. Crawl through the hole. Yeah, there’s a bigger room with more puzzles. Yeah. Yeah, like a never ending escape room. But it’s fun. It’s fun.
Maryam Pasha 12:30
So we hope you enjoy it. And remember,
Ben Hurst 12:32
stay curious. Thanks for listening to this quickie.
Maryam Pasha 12:37
This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDx London. Until next time, stay curious.
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