Tipping Points

In this episode, host Pete Knapp speaks to two members of Just Stop Oil who have both faced criminal charges following their actions to raise awareness about the climate crisis. Anna Holland, who hit the headlines when she threw tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflower painting at the National Gallery, and Louis McKechnie, who was speaking from Peterborough Prison and whose actions include tying himself to a goalpost during a Premier League football game and invading the track during Formula One's British Grand Prix, share their stories so far, how they cope with eco-anxiety, and what motivates them to take this type of high-risk direct action.

In this episode, host Pete Knapp speaks to the Campbell family - 3-year-old Marlow, 7-year-old Drake, 13-year-old Wren, and their mother, Hester - who are members of XR Families, a branch of Extinction Rebellion. They discuss the different role of adults and young people in tackling the climate crisis, how they feel about climate anxiety, and motherhood in a rapidly changing world. 

In this episode, host Pete Knapp is joined by Caroline Hickman, psychotherapist and leading researcher into eco-anxiety and climate psychology, and Elouise Mayall, a youth activist and member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, who both conducted the famous ‘10,000 children’ study on children and young people’s emotional distress from 10 different countries in the face of the climate and ecological crises. They draw on their own experiences and discuss how adults and children can navigate eco-anxiety.

In the second part of a two-part interview, we hear from Phoebe Plummer, an activist made famous for throwing soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers. She discusses speaking with the media, her feeling of responsibility, having her own family, the role of schools and how she sees young people making the biggest difference.

Phoebe Plummer, a young activist from Just Stop Oil, became famous after throwing soup at Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London. Her phrase, "What's worth more, art of life?", echoed around the world's newspapers and helped to make the conversation around the climate crisis develop. But at the age of 21, she's sacrificed plenty to achieve this. In the first part of a 2-part interview, Phoebe discusses her experience in prison, why young people would work for oil companies, and how her family dynamics have been strained by her activism.

Dr Shauna Golden, who is an A&E doctor in Scotland and is studying for a Masters in global health, and Dr Patrick Hart, a GP in Bristol who has been arrested for his climate activism, discuss how the climate and ecological crisis is a health crisis, how the world might cope with the next pandemic, and why doctors may feel like they can save lives through activism. 

Alexis Gauthier, a multi-award-winning French chef and successful London restaurateur who turned vegan in 2016, and Dr Alice Brough, a former livestock vet who has become a climate, animal and human rights activist, discuss veganism, why taste is so important to make people change their diets, the meat and dairy industry, and the risks of industrial animal farming.

Lucy Hogarth, an astrophysicist and climate activist, discusses why you don't need to be an ecologist or climate scientist to engage with climate activism, and how her late autism diagnosis has helped her to process the climate crisis and understand why others might find it hard to do so.

Zoë Blackler, investigative journalist and co-ordinator of whistleblowing platform TruthTeller, and Steve Tooze, a former tabloid journalist and climate activist, consider how much the media shapes the way we think, how coverage of the climate crisis has changed over the years, the challenges facing journalists at the beginning of their careers, and what drove them to become activists.

Paul Stephens, a retired Metropolitan Police Detective Sergeant and climate crisis campaigner, discusses how policing is changing, his involvement with Extinction Rebellion as police liaison, and why protesting is a vital part of survival and our civilisation.