Listen to the Earth: The Gone West Show

How did we end up wasting 1.3 billion tonnes of food while facing food insecurity in some of the wealthiest countries on earth? Irene, a passionate food waste activist blending activism and academia, delves deep into the heart of this issue in our latest episode.

Join us as we explore the dysfunctional food and economic systems that lead to unfair income distribution and widespread inequality, with alarming consequences for public and environmental health. Irene's expertise as a dumpster diver, urban forager, community builder, and PhD candidate in "Sustainable Food Systems" at the University of Tasmania creates an action-packed, theory-heavy discussion you won't want to miss!

Discover the historical and political lock-ins that perpetuate wasteful food systems and gain insights into how we can revolutionize the way we deal with food waste.

If you're passionate about food waste activism, climate grief, and the concept of degrowth, this episode is a must-listen!

“Knowledge is power.”

Today we have two interviewees: Isabella Ostovary in the office of Books for Trees in Europe and Evans on the ground at their project Badilisha on Rusinga Island in Kenya. 

Books for Trees organizes resources that Kenyans use to plant trees, operate sustainable businesses and pass on these experiences to future generations.

Rusinga Island is suffering from poverty and natural degradation. By involving local communities in all decision-making with this project, they are shifting the trend. We talk about the importance of education and its critical role in the fight against climate change.

“The biggest challenge is the disconnection between humans and nature.”

Marga is a green influencer and activist. Her brand name ‘Margreen’ seeks to find and share solutions and methods to help make our everyday more eco-friendly.

In this captivating conversation, Marga fearlessly tackles the negativity surrounding environmental news and the overwhelming attention given to pessimistic content on social media. Discover how she's determined to break this cycle and create a positive shift by sharing practical solutions that prove it's not all gloom and doom.

But that's not all! Marga's journey takes us beyond her inspiring words, as she reveals her privileged collaborations with remarkable individuals and groundbreaking start-ups at the forefront of combating climate change. Be prepared to be amazed by their innovative solutions that are shaping a sustainable future.

Tune in now and join the movement with Marga on Gone West's podcast!

”We spend a lot of resources, energy and water on producing food that, in the end, is not even the healthiest food. We need to produce on a local level, using permaculture techniques instead.”

Rui is the founder and director of Live with Earth, a Non-Profit Organization for Global Sustainable Development & Circular Economy based in Portugal. 

We talk about community and the main pillars of eco villages. We break down the principles of circular economy, which means that there doesn’t exist any waste, and everything is transformed into different forms of energy. We also speak about food production and the possibilities that can change the way we produce our food in a more sustainable way.

“I wish climate education was embedded into all the different lessons you get taught at school. Climate change is a problem that involves every sector and every discipline it’s perhaps the most interdisciplinary topic that there is and the most challenging dilemma that we currently face.”

Hannah is a recent Cambridge graduate and now works in providing climate education for schools in Cambridge and around the UK.

She has previously co-led the Sustainable Development Working Group at Generation Climate Europe, working on topics including the UN SDGs, EU RRPs and sustainable finance. She was also the Publications Coordinator at ClimaTalk, where she was involved in the team’s coverage of COP26. At COP27, Hannah represented the interests of the UK's young people with the Future Leaders Network.

We are talking about the impact the youth voices are making and also about the passion and community around them. We also touch upon an important topic about the link between the climate crisis and youth mental health.

“The environmental destruction is not caused by Africans, and it’s not caused for the benefit of Africans.”

Cedric Dzelu is a Global Climate Change Ambassador and Development Finance Specialist from Ghana. His aim is to support and educate young people and governments within his work with organizations such as YMCA and the African Youth Commission, amongst others.

In this episode, we talk about the value of education, climate finance, mobilising voices for change and the reality of pollution in Cedric’s home continent, Africa. The reality is that many of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries have done little to cause climate change. We touch on unequal wealth distribution and what needs to happen to change that.

Johanna is a 4th generation cacao farmer from the Dominican Republic. After travelling through Europe and studying with some of the best chocolatiers in the world, Johanna decided to return to her homeland in an effort to protect/preserve her family's ancestral cacao plantations, support local job opportunities for women and share her healing through cacao therapies and ceremonies.

“We need to find local ways of solving global problems.”

David is the founder of carbon credit company the 2030 HUB and a creative, big picture connector and communicator with experience across international responsible business boundaries.

He has worked with leading businesses around the world on CSR / sustainability plans, created the award-winning charity for Everton Football Club and is also a +SocialGood Advisor for the UN Foundation.

We chat about how businesses can have more accountability and how they can work to be more inclusive, transparent and conscious of their profitability. Why is it important to work with local communities and so much more.

Subject: We have to acknowledge the crisis we are living in in order to make a change in the first place.

The indigenous story tells that the forest is on fire, and all the animals are fleeing to safety. All except the hummingbird. She is flying towards the fire with a drop of water in her beak. “Silly little bird,” shouts the eagle, looking down at her. “Don’t you see that you’ll never put out the fire all by yourself?”

“You’re right,” says the hummingbird. “I’ll never put it out all by myself. But I’m doing my part.”

This is what Iracambi is about. Iracambi is a community of people around the world whose vision is to see the beautiful Brazilian Atlantic Forest restored, with prosperous communities living in a flourishing landscape.

We talked to Binka, who is an inspiring woman who stands behind this beautiful organization. Co-founder of Iracambi, Binka was trained in classical music and languages. After raising her family on five continents, Binka and her husband headed to Brazil to found a forest farm and see for themselves whether sustainability was real or even possible. One thing led to another, and today they work at the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center, along with their bright young team, focusing on environmental restoration, research, education and public policy.

We speak about her journey from the US all the way to the Brazilian rainforest, the challenges the rainforest and the environment in Brazil are facing on a daily basis and the importance of diversity both in people, opinions and nature.

"Sustainability indicates that we want keep doing what we have now. But we don’t, we want to make it better."

Helen is international permaculture, agroforestry and land regeneration practitioner based in southern Portugal.

Born in the UK, Helen has travelled extensively and has lived and worked in a number of countries scattered around the world, including Finland, India, Papua New Guinea, the US, Mexico, Cuba and Peru.

She has been a paleoclimate research scientist, conservationist, rural agriculture extension officer, marine conservation programme director, and since 2010, more broadly, a permaculturist.

We speak about the principles of agroforestry and syntropic agriculture. But also about belonging and understanding the physical landscape where we belong and how we should see ourselves as part of nature and its processes. We are debating human influence on the environment and how catastrophic it is or is not. And what does sustainability actually mean?

Grian is a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Spain and organized the People's Climate March in Edinburgh in 2014. He is a Doctor in Educational Sciences from the University of Granada and he received a degree in Psychology from the University of Valencia. He is also a founder of the Avalon Project and The Earth Stories Collection. The first global bank of myths, legends and traditional stories from around the world.

We discuss the concept of deep ecology, the interconnection between spirituality and activism and how what is needed for system change is a worldview change. Is environmental and social activism our only hope for the future?

Today we have with us One Tree Planted’s UK and European Forest Manager, Karl McGrory. One Tree Planted is a not for profit organisation whose focus is on global reforestation and who have partnered with Gone West. We caught up with Karl about the work that One Tree Planted does, planting trees across the world, as well as more philosophically the social and environmental impact of such work and what we can be doing in our one personal lives.

'To create a healthy ecological ecosystem, you need a social ecosystem.'

Restore Nature Foundation focuses on restoring nature through rewilding landscapes and planting trees. We talk about how we can work with the Earth rather than just on it.

How to connect people back to the landscape and the cycle of nature? Did we lose our moral compass? How can we improve our relationship with nature? These are the questions Mattie is trying to answer through his work and this Foundation.

"We only have one chance in life to be honest with each other."

In this first episode of our brand new podcast, we sat down with James, our managing director. The man who started it all. We talked about his vision and motivation, how important social justice is in our fight against climate change, why we need to work together to achieve great things, and why we need to make other people’s lives better in order to be able to do something about climate change.