🎙️ What did we learn from an entire season of climate conversations? In this special Season 3 Recap episode of Tangelic Talks, co-hosts Victoria Cornelio and Andres Tamez reflect on the defining themes, powerful stories, and urgent lessons that shaped one of our most impactful seasons yet.
Season 3 brought together voices from energy, climate justice, policy, journalism, tourism, technology, and grassroots movements — all centered on what people-first climate action truly looks like.
From water and food security to climate anxiety, youth leadership, storytelling, and community resilience, this episode revisits the conversations that challenged assumptions and offered real pathways forward.
🌍 Key Themes & Takeaways:
🌱 Why climate justice and equity anchored Season 3
💧 Water, food systems & the climate–livelihood nexus
🎧 How storytelling humanizes climate data and policy
🧠 Climate anxiety, burnout & emotional resilience
👥 Youth leadership and grassroots power
🏛️ Policy gaps — and why local action often leads the way
🤖 Technology, AI & innovation in climate solutions
💰 Climate finance, investment & who truly benefits
🌿 Responsible tourism beyond “eco” buzzwords
🌍 Community-driven solutions rooted in lived experience
🔮 A preview of Season 4: climate finance through human stories
🔹 About This Episode: This recap distills the most impactful ideas from Season 3 of Tangelic Talks, highlighting how climate, energy, and equity intersect in everyday lives. It also offers behind-the-scenes reflections from the hosts and sets the tone for the next chapter of the podcast.
💬 Join the Conversation: Which Season 3 discussion stayed with you the most? What topics should we explore next? Share your thoughts in the comments.
✅ Like, comment, and share to help amplify conversations on energy, equity, and empowerment.
🌱 Support Our Mission: If you believe in the power of storytelling, clean energy access, and climate justice, support our work at TangelicLife.org.
🔖 #TangelicTalks #ClimateJustice #CommunityPower #ClimateStorytelling #EnergyJustice #YouthClimateLeadership #ClimateResilience #ClimateEquity #JustTransition #GlobalSouthVoices #ClimateFinance #GrassrootsMovements #ResponsibleTourism #ClimatePodcast #Tangelic
Season 3 brought together voices from energy, climate justice, policy, journalism, tourism, technology, and grassroots movements — all centered on what people-first climate action truly looks like.
From water and food security to climate anxiety, youth leadership, storytelling, and community resilience, this episode revisits the conversations that challenged assumptions and offered real pathways forward.
🌍 Key Themes & Takeaways:
🌱 Why climate justice and equity anchored Season 3
💧 Water, food systems & the climate–livelihood nexus
🎧 How storytelling humanizes climate data and policy
🧠 Climate anxiety, burnout & emotional resilience
👥 Youth leadership and grassroots power
🏛️ Policy gaps — and why local action often leads the way
🤖 Technology, AI & innovation in climate solutions
💰 Climate finance, investment & who truly benefits
🌿 Responsible tourism beyond “eco” buzzwords
🌍 Community-driven solutions rooted in lived experience
🔮 A preview of Season 4: climate finance through human stories
🔹 About This Episode: This recap distills the most impactful ideas from Season 3 of Tangelic Talks, highlighting how climate, energy, and equity intersect in everyday lives. It also offers behind-the-scenes reflections from the hosts and sets the tone for the next chapter of the podcast.
💬 Join the Conversation: Which Season 3 discussion stayed with you the most? What topics should we explore next? Share your thoughts in the comments.
✅ Like, comment, and share to help amplify conversations on energy, equity, and empowerment.
🌱 Support Our Mission: If you believe in the power of storytelling, clean energy access, and climate justice, support our work at TangelicLife.org.
🔖 #TangelicTalks #ClimateJustice #CommunityPower #ClimateStorytelling #EnergyJustice #YouthClimateLeadership #ClimateResilience #ClimateEquity #JustTransition #GlobalSouthVoices #ClimateFinance #GrassrootsMovements #ResponsibleTourism #ClimatePodcast #Tangelic
Category
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LearningTranscript
00:00it is our season three recap that was quick it feels yeah it feels i felt like it went
00:06it went by super fast i think it was a cool season i really enjoyed it i think we had a bit of
00:15everything i had a lot of challenging moments which is exactly why we do this you know to think
00:21we don't have all the answers that's why we bring in guests if everybody hold on to your horses
00:26don't be scared season four it's going to be about climate finance i know but we're breaking
00:35down a very complex misunderstood world through human stories because as we keep saying facts are
00:42just facts certainly creating a warm and engaging mechanism for your podcast consider great tell me
00:49as a suggestion that combines an upbeat and abiding spirit without any background music
00:53welcome to tangelic talks your go-to podcast from tangelic where we dive into the vibrant world of
01:00clean energy development sustainability and climate change in africa we bring you inspiring stories
01:06insightful discussions and groundbreaking innovations from the continent making waves in the global
01:11community tune in and join the conversation toward a brighter greener future let's get started
01:17welcome to tangelic talks a podcast at the intersection of energy equity and empowerment
01:25with your co-hosts victoria cornelio and andres thomas hello it is our season three recap that was quick
01:34it feels uh yeah it feels i felt like it went it went by super fast it's so exciting and basically in
01:41these episodes we just give you a bit of a look into what we talked about this season what the themes were
01:48a bit of behind the scenes as well so you know what's happening over on our side and just tease a
01:52little bit of season four so you can get ready with us we're gonna take a little break after this episode
01:59and we'll be back in about a month with season four and we'll tell you more about that later but first i want to
02:05throw it over to andres this is your first season of tangelic talks how was it it was great it was
02:10absolutely fantastic i had a i had a great i had a great time like it was amazing to get to talk with all these
02:17like really smart really informed um professionals in their field and uh learn like a learn a lot about um
02:25just sustainability i guess and then the the the different challenges that people are facing right now
02:32yeah definitely and i think this season we wanted a theme around the pillars of our
02:38project sunrise spectrum which we can you can read more about at angelic life.org
02:43but i think we touched on all of them you know there was a lot of climate justice a lot of climate
02:48finance how do we talk about scaling up ideas and making projects sustainable whether that is from a
02:54responsible responsible business side or sustainable as in giving it to the community to run it without
03:01need of the third party and sharing knowledge so i think i think that was really fun it's a
03:06very timely discussion as well i think um a month after cop um if you've been following cop
03:13you know and if you don't know uh cop the conference of the parties tends to be a time of the year where
03:21everyone is just touching base on how we're doing on climate and it's always bad so
03:27it's good to have these discussions so we can figure out other ways of pushing forward the
03:34solutions that we're focused on energy justice community power empowering people in general
03:40so i think we'll dive in into our incredible guests and our episodes
03:45yes yes yes we kicked off the season talking about water climate and agriculture with professor
03:52and pandeli the water food nexus is something that is not just a buzzword but everything's interconnected
04:02i think something he had this really powerful quote where he said if we cannot secure water we cannot
04:07secure food if we cannot secure food we cannot secure livelihoods you know i think that really
04:12set the tone of how holistic everything has to be when we talk about climate solutions energy
04:19projects and all these kinds of things that sometimes sound like buzzwords but if we're not
04:24taking them into account we're not going to get very far and going i'm going to like what you're
04:29mentioning with comp right like if you if you look at things from the comp perspective right there
04:35they're at the highest level and they're trying to secure different types of funding and they're
04:40trying to do if you look at the ground you see that people are working really hard and i think
04:44this is a great example of it and people are doing things because um especially especially with our
04:51with this discussion on on the agriculture specifically right like the strategies that
04:56they're taking to make sure that you can actually harvest food in in a more and more unstable climate
05:04every every single time right um it's very impressive it's it and it's it's it's real it's happening
05:12um so you know we we can we can look at the the highest levels and like the the what would you say
05:19the the buzz buzz wordy stuff or we can also uh choose to acknowledge that there are people on the
05:26ground doing really good work um instituting policies and strategies that'll help us keep on
05:33being able to harvest and keep on being able to have a livelihood i think that that was a big takeaway
05:39that that episode definitely and i think it's something a lot of our guests brought to this
05:44season of even if things in the macro seem a bit uh dicey we are doing the work down here and that's
05:52really important you know in climate it can feel so overwhelming so having those success stories here
05:57and there are really grounding for sure right right yeah we then had lisa talking about seasonal
06:04cooking and sustainability empowering home cooks but also just something i loved about lisa she was
06:11talking about food as more than fuel it was like a story it was a community thing you know we all sit
06:18around the table and eat that was really nice but also the way that she sources the ingredients for
06:24that food so uh one story she told that really impacted me she was talking about how i don't need
06:30certifications to know that i trust my neighbor's tomatoes because we're our community so i trust
06:35them like these kinds of things of using food as a sharing thing to bring people together but also
06:41when you're sourcing ingredients you trust the people that grew them because they literally grew
06:45them down the road and everyone shares in these ingredients and everyone is part of this community
06:50thing i think that was so cool because we get bugged down by certifications and things like that
06:57when we're trying to be sustainable and she kind of presented this thing of if you have community
07:02you don't need these things because you can trust the people in your community and that that's i think
07:07that like goes double for for the u.s right specifically where food is so is strangely regulated like a
07:15mafia where where everything everything needs to go through everything needs to go through these like
07:23weird institutions that tell you that something that is okay is okay um and it usually is a way to to
07:32um i'm not gonna say you know screw over but screw over smaller farmers or independent farmers and i
07:39really like i really like how she she brought to the table the idea that you know that a lot of people
07:46more and more seem to think that food spawns at the grocery store it's like no your food your food
07:53is is uh is sourced from somewhere yeah um and and there are people actively working to to make sure
08:02that you can that you can secure that food and i i really liked uh i really liked her take on like
08:09cooking as like uh as like uh how would you say like almost like a not spiritual but like uh yeah
08:17like a meditation almost yeah yeah um and to really respect where your food is from coming from i feel
08:23that that's a practice that we've always had but we've sort of lost yeah recently to respect your food
08:29to respect where it comes from so that that was that was a nice meditation yeah no i really liked it and
08:38we ended up with what we were going to have for summer dish and everything it was so unexpected
08:44and so fun i absolutely loved it and then we got talk we got to talk with elizabeth door from grief to
08:50greatness about navigating climate anxiety and building resilience what did you think of that one
08:56oof okay well well that was that was an interesting one for me because it gave me a really new perspective
09:01because i as i've said before on the podcast like i the climate anxiety that i feel is actually
09:07um very different from the one that victoria feels right and so i i really don't i don't i just feel
09:14like we should be doing what's right and i don't really feel that sort of climate anxiety so seeing
09:19yours and her perspective when it came to it was actually the more the biggest takeaway for me um and
09:27how like you guys navigate it and how like um how it affects you how it affects you deeply and i think
09:33that's really that's something really cool and really respectable i feel like i have that same
09:37thing but with like uh policy like i have policy anxiety yeah i don't really have that that climate
09:43anxiety yeah that's fair and it does come different and something i really value from elizabeth is she's
09:49channeled her anxiety into cramming and she has a newsletter called cramming for the apocalypse
09:55and the whole thing with cramming with her is i have all this anxiety and i need to be able to do
10:01something about it so she's just like you cram for a test even though we're not ready for climate
10:07disruption we must start learning skills and building resilience now so what do what can i do now what can
10:12i start preparing now what can i start reading all this stuff just to feel a bit more more ready because
10:19we don't know what it's gonna get we know it's gonna get bad we just don't know how how about
10:23another takeaway from from that episode is like uh which i which i really enjoyed is i i you know
10:29there's this uh and i think we talked about it in the episode there's like the stigma against
10:33preppers and like people prepping and it's just like well it just makes you feel safe like why
10:39wouldn't you do something that makes you feel safe and that makes you feel like you have a couple
10:45months supply yeah and this and that like and she she she went through her logic about it and i think
10:51her logic was sound yeah um and i think it's also the not scary of the world is coming to an end type
10:59prepper but more in a yes i want to be able to be resilient in the world or in the way that the world is
11:05turning out and i think it's a very different approach when you're not doing it out of necessarily a
11:11fear but more about i want to be ready and resilient for whatever happens with climate change
11:17a lot of what's going to happen are natural disasters for example how do i make my house
11:21safer during a hurricane how do i make sure that i have enough food during a dry season all these things
11:28that ensure survival right yeah that that was really cool and then we got to talk to leone which
11:34was so cool and such an unexpected conversation at least on my end where we're talking about pollution
11:39power and storytelling um leone's a climate journalist and she's on the road in a van with her cat
11:47capturing all these stories of people in the front lines of one being affected by climate change but
11:53also trying to fight climate change and that is with her it was a lot of on the ground stories like
11:59it wasn't like that much of a yeah it wasn't that much of ideas it was it was just her talking about
12:04her experiences yeah talking to people yeah and what's covered which is very very cool yeah my
12:10biggest takeaway was just the active listening you know respecting the dignity of the people that she's
12:15talking to and it's something that because we're all so quick we're in a crisis and in a crisis it's
12:22very hard to sit down and listen everyone has ideas of how they're going to fix it and everyone has solutions
12:27and everything's very heated and that moment to just active listen and just you know take a second
12:34i really appreciate that yeah i know she was awesome absolutely awesome and then we got to do our news
12:42what's happening right now i talked about the the um the weird happenings in the gulf of panama where
12:51um where it was it was about the it was about the spawn rates of of different fish and how how it's
13:00gonna it this year broke a really really long established pattern of um of the i believe it had
13:08to do with the ocean temperature and when spit when when and how many fish spawned yeah and if that keeps
13:15up for the next coming years we don't know if this is just like a random this year it didn't happen but
13:19next year it will but if it keeps up if the pattern continues and we know that that the changing
13:26temperature affects this um if the pattern continues then it's going to affect well
13:32livelihood it's going to be one of those things going back to what we were talking about earlier
13:36right of uh securing securing food can we do it because fish huge huge source of food and huge huge
13:47ecological risk as well it was it was an intersection of everything yeah exactly and i remember you talked
13:55about the the new the new um the ability to sue for what what would you say ecological damages um climate
14:07damages and has that gone anywhere has there been like has it okay yeah so that icj ruling passed back in
14:17in july and then it was reaffirmed in september and it was used during cop actually so for all my
14:25gripes with cop the icj ruling some of the pacific island youth delegates were saying that with this
14:31ruling they could get a bit more uh you know put their foot down a bit more on what has to be done um it was also brought up to set benchmarks for
14:43discussions on finance and ambition and global stock states so a lot of it it was a really good tool and
14:49it was something we talked about on the episode we are both worried about how it's going to be used and
14:54how it's going to be enacted and how it can even be but using it as a benchmark to say hey since you've
15:01committed to doing this if you don't do it it's like you're breaking a contract keep to it yeah which is the
15:08thing that we were missing with the paris agreement where it was more about we really wish we could do
15:13this and we're going to say we're going to do it but we'll see whereas now it's like no it's like you're
15:18entering a verbal contract and now there's actually a mechanism to kind of you know not just say sorry
15:26and wipe your hands off it at least morally enforce it in a way exactly so yeah let me take a close eye on it
15:34i hope it goes i hope it's a new tool that we don't get too greedy about right right and on the
15:43topic of taking a minute we then talked to a clown which i think it was going to be with a clown
15:54but leslie joy quilty we talked to her about saying yes to life from soil to soul ecological harmony and
16:02bringing back playfulness into our adult lives which we tend that's one of my favorite episodes
16:08it was so fun and what really stuck with me is she was talking about the clown archetypes
16:14and she was saying mistakes are gifts vulnerability is truth-telling we're making it up as we go
16:21and something that a lot of climate activists get wrapped up in is i have to be the perfect activist
16:26and i have to know everything and yes no you don't you know mistakes are gifts vulnerability is
16:34truth-telling talking about your climate anxiety is good it was a very grounding episode she she was
16:39very calming she was she was absolutely calming i i i loved every i i loved every second talking to her
16:46it was very it was very very interesting and i think i think she's right i think you know we we've sort of
16:54evolved um i don't know how to explain it i feel like admitting mistakes is so looked down upon yeah
17:03and admitting faults of your own is so looked down upon and that's actually something you should do
17:09you know it's a it's it's part of growing and it doesn't matter if it like yeah like and and you'll
17:15see like that how that like when it comes to activists and politicians they they do stuff wrong
17:20all the time they can never admit it i think like it's not respectable it's respectable to be able to
17:26say guys this is i i'm learning from this right um yeah and it's it's especially important in a world
17:33where we don't have all the information we don't really know 100 of what's what's happening right so
17:38why do we need to act as if we do exactly yeah and i think that's something that ties nicely into
17:46our episode with professor narnia on building strong institutions because her basic i was really
17:52interested and we have come up with all these institutions how do we make sure that they're
17:57ethical that they're actually doing what they need to do you know like we hear about all these big
18:04international bodies that are supposed to regulate things and even they get it wrong you know and they
18:09they they're the experts and she talked about like ethics go beyond compliance and institutional
18:16codes it's literally the people is a way of life in a manner that avoids harm champions fairness contributes
18:23to the common good and if you have people like that in your institution then you have a strong
18:27institution because the values are rooted in the people representing and working there i was like yes
18:33exactly you know it doesn't have to be that complicated right well i remember uh during our
18:40conversation with her right it was it was it was interesting to me because i'm you know i'm very
18:45anti-institutionalist but i i think she was 100 right if you're going to need an institution for something
18:51it should actually function it shouldn't just be made up of bureaucrats with no values right it should
18:56be made up of passionate people that want to get something done and that the institution needs to be
19:01strong otherwise it's just a waste of resources yeah that's what we get um a lot of institutions
19:07that are sort of a waste of resources because they have no strength they have no will yeah no it was
19:13very powerful i i loved it and she's so interesting as well you know her trajectory has been so interesting
19:22so she's not talking just from like oh i have this good wish but she's seen institutions work
19:28and yeah i believe her you know i'm sure she's right i really want to hear your thoughts on
19:34diana's episode we talked about climate passion to climate tech equity and carbon removal in africa
19:40we touched on carbon credits on that conversation as well which i was will say a big skeptic on
19:48so it was really nice i didn't know anything about at that point so that that's i think that's the
19:53episode where i learned the most about carbon credits and how they worked i'm um i've always
19:58been skeptical on the carval carbon removal tech like i've always felt that it did that it is just
20:04sort of uh it's just sort of a dream like a pipe dream and no apparently from like what what she was
20:10telling us like it's it's it's it's starting to really be deployed on the ground and it could change
20:18everything yeah um ideally it could be a new it could remove carbon from the atmosphere and be a
20:23new fuel source right so that that was a really interesting part of the conversation for me learning
20:30what carpets credits are and how they function and i mean they kind of make sense now like that they're
20:36called carbon credits because they're literally sort of like a currency in a way yeah um that you're
20:41rewarded for uh mitigating or or reducing carbon emissions i think that that episode sort of got
20:52me a little bit less less skeptical on the whole thing as a whole i know the same thing happened for
20:57you yeah yeah definitely and i think something i really enjoyed as she was saying if we're going to
21:04she had a very realist view of things which i think was quite um eye-opening for me because
21:10again i'm not the most optimistic person ever but i do struggle with when we come up with new tech
21:18what we're basically saying is no we are not going to reduce our emissions we're just going to figure
21:23out a way to continue our emissions but make them less harmful which in essence isn't a bad idea and
21:31what her and octavia are doing is exactly that they're saying no we don't have to slow down because
21:37we can do this but they're not just showing the solution they're training people you know and
21:43something she says is that profit and social impact must go hand in hand so their revenue means
21:49her company's actively working to implement it right it's not just an idea right exactly and i
21:54really like that because it's like right okay if this is how we have to do it i think this is the best
22:00way to do it there's a lot of there's a lot of puritan puritanism right like and i think you felt
22:04it i think you felt i did it's challenging right through yeah like the puritanism of no we should
22:11stop emissions it's like we and then you remember right who is that going to affect the most vulnerable
22:18it's going to be more expensive for the most vulnerable it's going to involve it's going to
22:22involve taxing the most vulnerable it's so if we can mitigate it through newer technologies then maybe
22:29maybe that's not such a bad thing yeah exactly which is a conversation we kind of went into
22:34on our deep dive so stay tuned for our thoughts post yes yes yes yes and then we got to talk to our
22:42very own theo about translating vision into action and how systems thinking and purposeful leadership
22:50drive africa's energy future my very dumb take is that because theo has been working in this space for
22:58so long the fact that he couldn't call someone to tell them hey the rows are closed absolutely blew
23:05my mind but it also just like showed not every project goes according to plan which sounds like
23:13a dumb thing to say like i said it is a dumb take but it's just in this space everyone is so confident
23:19when they have a project that this is going to turn out fine and we're going to do it
23:24and then distance weather access major barriers policy everything comes together and then like
23:31you were saying earlier it affects the most vulnerable so something theo is saying is like
23:36rural sides can cause up to 30 percent more to build but they are the people that need the thing you're
23:42building the most yes so how do we know the the whiplash of like going from for example you know i live in
23:51mexico and the infrastructure is pretty great and then like if i were to go on this adventure theo
23:56went in and just like try to impassionately go and then realize that the infrastructure just isn't
24:03there and it's going to be a lot more complicated than i thought um in in certain places right for in
24:09in his case it was uh um in africa but like it could be anywhere that is that is far away and
24:18is remote yeah and you you you sort of oh man it's such a it's such a weird like uh the people that
24:27need it the most are the furthest away from the thing that you need to give them yeah it's
24:31exactly it's a it's a hard it's sad but he was very positive about it yeah he was like this is
24:38an opportunity right and so that was that was a really cool thing about talking to him like i
24:43really like his his unstoppable force energy yeah no theo is a force of nature and i think that's
24:50something when we've talked about sunrise spectrum which again you can check out at angelicalife.org our
24:55flagship program we are working with rural communities off-grid communities and theo
25:01is helping on that and he's very much just like it's fine we're gonna get there nothing's gonna
25:07stop us and we're like okay let's go nice and and for him it's not like it's not baseless optimism
25:14it's it's in a chance to to to do something new innovate and uh it's problem solved and i think that's
25:21that's a really good way to look through it like it's not baseless just confidence it's it's like i got
25:26this yeah exactly yeah which is where the systems thinking comes in you know he's thought of
25:31everything before we've been asked the questions that's awesome and then we got to talk to a fellow
25:38podcaster yes on storytelling shaping the energy transition olu has his own podcast which again
25:46we have linked that on the blog at angeliclife.org go give it a listen the energy talk besides being
25:53really excited about talking to another podcaster i think something i loved is that he was talking about
25:59storytelling as a catalyst for change like facts rarely move people stories do and there's a big
26:06thing uh he gave an example of he works also in business development in uh clean tech and energy
26:13and he was saying it's easier for me to help a barber make their barber shop more sustainable
26:20because then the businesses around them are going to want to work with me because the barber is going to
26:24tell them how good what we did was and you know that word of mouth and stuff stories you know you
26:30just need the story to spread within the community and then everyone's on board i i i really thought
26:38that because i remember going into that episode and i like we were sort of we were sort of i don't know
26:44where this episode's gonna go i don't know this direction this episode's gonna go even though like we
26:50we knew about him and we knew like the sort of things he talked about but like we we just like
26:55didn't know how this was gonna move and it it reminded me a lot of the the on the political side
27:01one of the things that we that people on the political side always talk about is is policy
27:07doesn't move people people move people the the things people do are those stories right and yeah how
27:13important it is and and we we it's talked about this in previous episodes as well right like how important it
27:19is to to ground to ground what you want what you want to accomplish in in something that people can
27:29actually relate to and these stories and it's it's it's it's often like one of the reasons why we love it
27:37when people give examples because when people give examples when we talk to them on this podcast
27:43and talk about people on the ground and how things are going for them and how things changed for them
27:49because of these uh because of these projects that they have that they undertake then it clicks
27:57yeah it's like in our primal brain we like stories of people right you know data data is too abstract
28:04we need we need to connect yeah that i i think i think it really solidified that especially in a sector
28:13that is so data driven right like there's a lot of things we know climate change is you know intense
28:22but if you look at the data and you don't know what it means you don't really understand how intense
28:30it is and then you hear a story of a family hit by a hurricane and you're like right okay this is what
28:38this is what that data means i think stories really ground things yes and that was something i really
28:44appreciated about olu because that's what he does on his podcast as well but he also works on the
28:50business side of things of trying to sell the idea that hey if we want to improve people's lives this
28:59is what we have to do this is the story we're telling because this is the stories of the people
29:04we have already helped and i really i really appreciate that especially working in the charity
29:10yeah yeah and it went to show how like his experience in business really gave him a different
29:16a different approach and an approach that that is more pragmatic yeah i feel and that that that
29:25works if it works if it works we need all sorts of approaches actually like we can't be too pure
29:30isn't like yeah exactly and i think there's something i noticed um we had a lot of engineers
29:35on on the podcast this season and i think um i've always had the stereotype that engineers just are
29:43more pragmatic because stem people have the data and the stuff and blah blah blah and i think this
29:50season really challenged me on that because it's like yeah they are straight to the point they
29:53are pragmatic but not without the soul and it's always been hard for me to bring those two together
29:59it's like the quantitative with the quality qualitative and making them one that's something
30:04really appreciated of our guests this season they were able to bring that together really nicely
30:09yeah with them it's about okay i have the data what am i going to do with it with uh with us it can
30:14it can be i have the data oh my gosh yeah oh my gosh that sounds bad
30:20and talk about things that sound bad um ai
30:24and the true costs of clean energy and ai there have been like so many extra things i would have
30:32wanted to add to that to that episode like about like like uh because we talked about who suffers
30:38most right and who pays who really pays and i we even forgot to to mention like that um if you're
30:46especially if you're an american citizen you're literally paying like these companies that are making
30:51millions are also receiving millions from the government uh from your like taxpayer money and
30:58they're doing it to win a an esoteric race
31:03yeah it was it was a hard one very hard i think one of the main things that i wanted from the episode
31:10is clean energy and ai are both really cool technologies for different reasons but they are both very
31:18very demanding you know whether that's resource demanding energy demanding to an extent labor
31:27demanding you know we need a lot to make them happen and where do we find that balance
31:35and i'm really sad to say this but as an ai hater it pains me to say that i see the pros
31:42but systems and policies have to keep up and i don't trust that they will because policy is slow
31:53so it's going to come down to again telling the stories that we need to so us people can do it
32:00ourselves which i don't have high hopes for but again i hope i hope it was a hard one it was a hard
32:10episode i must say yeah yeah and like we didn't even uh get into like the e-way stuff uh within a
32:15couple of years time like if if like these companies to be at the top of ai they need to be on the
32:21cutting edge and so every single like all of their hardware like gpu hardware it's going to be to need
32:27to be replaced like what a year two years yeah that's all going to landfill baby well i'm just waiting
32:33in for the headlines that say that we've been able to send uh space to the moon um trash to the moon
32:39or something like wasn't there like a a thing like uh server farms on the dark side of the yeah exactly
32:48yeah it's gonna get mad before it gets better but i don't know again i've said this many times on this
32:54podcast we come up with really cool tools it's about how we use them and right now i'm not sure how we're
33:02gonna use that but it's all part of the just transition and but chad gpt is my friend
33:11you think you're funny
33:16but it's all about the time i say thank you i waste so so many liters of water i know right
33:24my little act of rebellion is if i ever use chad gpt i say hello thank you and thank you please
33:32and if you don't know why the ultimate has to come out and be like please stop doing that it's
33:37disgusting i'm bleeding millions
33:42but talking about that ai and clean energy are two things that could help in the just transition
33:49so we talked to deborah about it he talked about climate justice equitable finance and youth leadership
33:55and my favorite part about her episode is that she's already prepping the new generation
34:02you know we've known about climate change since the 1970s everyone has grown up with the thing of
34:09whether it's the ozone layer or carbon or that global warming all these things right she's done
34:16children's books that are now on nigeria's national curriculum and it's basically helping the next
34:22generation understand sustainability from an early age so don't be scared that the world is earned
34:27that the world is burning that this is happening that this is us is very related to what elizabeth
34:32was talking about with building resilience this is what's happening and this is what you can do about
34:37it and starting at an early age love it that that was my favorite i love it because that's how we
34:44ensure i'd forgotten that it was now part of the national curriculum that's a huge win i know it's
34:50huge huge win it's so cool and that's how we do a just transition you know you educate people
34:58in this case as early as possible so the next generation has it better and the next has it
35:03better and the next and slowly but surely you do that transition and the idea the idea of climate
35:09justice is uh is is interesting because um like like we've talked about with uh with cop and with
35:17like the this these new policies that let you sort of sue kind of um like it's hard to it's hard to
35:24pinpoint blame right yeah and and it's hard to pinpoint who benefited and sometimes it's a little bit
35:33easier to pinpoint who suffered but um yeah yeah that one's not that hard but it but it but it's an
35:43it's a it's something that you have to you have to approach with a lot of care i feel the the the next
35:50guest is also a lot about youth right emphasis on youth i mean for context shibese is the man that
35:57stopped the coal plant in ghana so it's pretty huge the hero the hero narrative behind him yep yep yep
36:07hero story yeah honestly and the main thing that i think was really interesting is that
36:14again when we're in crisis we want to answer right away and he was very much like no we need to plan
36:20we need to take a beat we need to talk to people and this is something i struggle with i
36:26look at things and i'm like well here's the solution obviously and sometimes your solution
36:31might be good for you but you don't know what people actually need especially when i work
36:37in with communities you need to be able to talk to them and i do a lot of community engagement
36:41because of that because i i may have a good idea but it might just have to be adapted it might be
36:47perfect but i don't know that unless i talk to people and something he was saying is before we
36:51could start protesting the coal plant we had to understand if other people were mad about it
36:57why and what did it mean for the community to not have it because that's another thing
37:02the coal plant was meant to be a solution to a lack of energy in the area but now the solution is
37:08actually worse is that true and that's what he needed to establish right like by talking to actual
37:15the actual people that are going to be affected by it like and that's that's that was his big
37:20argument right that's how he won he won by not being reactionary he first spoke to the people
37:26that it is has started affecting right because they had sort of started the project yeah and when he
37:34gathered all of the information on how it's going to affect them he he went to the park to through the
37:39proper proper channels and stopped it somehow like it's it's kind of a crazy story because you're like
37:46like no we can't do anything yeah no i'm waiting for a documentary someday yeah that'll be fun that'll
37:52be awesome yeah and it's it's a hard one i really um admire his ability to be patient with these things
38:01because with the work he does now as well he is very patient with understanding things before you
38:06campaign before you advocate for policy changes preparing the youth on how to do it as well you know
38:12there's the stereotype and it's a stereotype for a reason young people are very impatient myself very
38:18much included so learning that patience and how to navigate spaces without losing your cool is half
38:26of the battle won and i think that's that's a really important skill that not many people learn because
38:33it's not something that is taught it's something that you learn with practice and with experience and he's
38:39taking all of that and preparing people to be able to pass it forward take the torch so to speak and i
38:46really value that that was really inspiring next up i think um which is you know more on more on climate
38:54resilience so the the next episode was a forest uh forest communities and climate resilience inside of
39:01ghana's land restoration movement um with kwame and i don't know what you i don't like i i i
39:09felt like it was just really interesting how there was sort of a a reverse engineering to the way that
39:17we sort of see we see like forest restoration here in the west where it just starts the project uh me
39:25getting funds and starting planting trees randomly no right like this this approach was more of a
39:32community approach yeah um and seeing how deforestation is affecting communities first right
39:38it was it was very much focused on well who is deforestation affecting yeah it unlike it like here
39:48here in here in america right we see a lot of and i imagine in europe it's the same thing
39:54we see a lot of people being oh my god this forestation has happened i'm gonna start a project
39:58to just plant more trees right and it's like what does that mean yeah what does that mean how does
40:04that affect people how is how is the how is how has the deforestation affected people right and um and
40:13the answer um in this episode was well first we need to know yeah first we need to talk to the
40:20communities that are affected first we need to uh inform them of how to how to practice um
40:27sustainable i have to have sustainable practice when it comes to uh wood cutting and stuff like
40:31that yeah so that was that was i think my my main takeaway from that one definitely this uh different
40:38approach to yeah reforestation which follows the thread of this season you know a lot of people we
40:44talk to either talk to the communities they're helping are part of the community that is being helped
40:50and kind of understand the ins and outs and i think it was something it's similar to what you just
40:55said about policy doesn't move people people move people you know uh land restoration movement isn't
41:02happening because this policy is really good and we got a lot of funding to plant trees it's happening
41:07because the people in the area are passionate about preserving the landscape or preserving
41:12the land in general and they are involved and invested in this restoration movement happening
41:18and i think that's really cool because it kind of brings back agency to people and kind of yes i don't
41:26know when you become steward of the land you kind of understand it in a different way and it's something
41:32that we've kind of lost especially people like me who live in urban settings unless you have a lot of
41:39green around you you kind of lose that connection to oh actually this park is my responsibility this is
41:46why you don't litter this is why you walk on the pavement not on the grass but all these kinds of
41:52things you know um it starts with people and then that behavior change pushes everything else and i think
41:58that's why kwame has been so successful in his land restoration and ghana um movement it's it's
42:04incredible absolutely incredible it goes to another theme this season which is like how people view
42:09themselves as separate to nature right and people need to remember that they're they're part of it and
42:16just like if you live in a city or even if you live somewhere where there's green you forget how
42:22this green actually serves as an ecosystem yeah um and it it sustains life for you and for for for
42:31the things that are within it yeah yeah i think it's it's something that's really important that we
42:36need to keep in mind yeah it's all interconnected and then we got to talk to svetlana about dealing
42:42with eco-anxiety so there was a lot of talk this season about eco-anxiety from different different
42:48places i think something she was really good at is the mental toll that climate journalism can take on
42:54you to something that leone kind of touched on and we got to explore more with svetlana you know
43:00climate journalism you are compiling the stories the sad stories most times of people affected by
43:09terrible effects of climate change that we still don't know how to manage in some places
43:15yeah and it it can be a lot and that's how she deals with it you know she deals with it being
43:23able to collect those stories and svetlana also contributed to the first african youth position
43:28paper on climate change and health and she serves as a director and uh cop working group member of the
43:34uk youth climate coalition so it's really cool because she's in in the rooms where things are happening
43:40she's in there and i think she said something on the episode of like being told to your face that
43:46you don't know what you're talking about when you have these accolades it's never enough and that's why
43:52the stories have to come through that's why the climate journalism is such a big cornerstone because
43:56if i can tell these stories it doesn't matter what my title is i've i've been able to tell the story and
44:03that's how she deals with her eco anxiety these stories are the facts in a in a way right yeah
44:09and and they speak they speak louder than any possibly could definitely especially in a room
44:15where everyone's an expert you know we all know the facts and and and and what are you doing
44:24yeah what are you gonna do more and then usually the answer is you know we're gonna we're gonna
44:31discuss it yeah yeah yeah just put it on the desk yeah and then we got to talk to amber about climate
44:40action burnout but also decolonizing the climate movement she touched on something that most of
44:45our guests have talked about in like around maybe not named um we got into the conversation of
44:52intersectionality and climate justice having to be intersectional and therefore climate action
44:57having to be that way and that's a lot of times why it leads to burnout so as a refresher intersectionality
45:03means that you take everything into account so climate change doesn't only affect uh doesn't only affect
45:10me a woman because i'm a woman but also because i'm a migrant in the uk because i am a young person
45:18because i'm in a certain um income level all these things from a person will mean that the way they
45:25experience climate change will be different and i think that's something that was really interesting
45:30because amber takes this decolonial approach and it comes together by talking to everyone she does a lot
45:37of art around climate change and art workshops to help people deal with it come up with solutions talk
45:46and this is something that i've heard a lot in this space of we're losing the plot we can't be talking
45:51about minutiae you know we're losing the plot and it's it's interesting how we balance that yeah and i i
45:58think uh another another ongoing thing which is really reinforced here is just like this how the
46:04decentralized approach right to to this makes you more one empathetic right um because there's this idea
46:13that like problem you need to move and that's a huge issue top down because the people top down
46:21usually don't don't listen to the people at the at the bottom right exactly and so they they rush in
46:28they do changes they institute policies and these policies are going to make the lives harder for the
46:34people uh for the people that are actually doing the work that are people people that are on the ground
46:39the people trying to farm the people trying to just live live these changing things that are affecting
46:46them most exactly and you need to listen to them you need to interact with them and you need to build
46:54your policy around it and around them if you don't then all you're doing is is now now now we have a climate
47:03crisis and we're being regulated into the dirt so now you're just like coming at them from both
47:08directions yeah you're not making better exactly i think something she prompted me to think about is
47:15how do we balance urgency with taking our time and i think that's something that is really hard to strike
47:23because urgency can lead to injustice right you could think that this is the best solution and we're
47:29going to do it right now and everyone's going to love it and actually you didn't take into account
47:33all the other things but then how much time do we actually have to take into account all the other
47:38things if we have to act now because we're supposedly in a climate crisis and i think it's a really hard
47:43balance to find and it's something i kept coming back to after the episode of like but how do we do that
47:49and it kind of it's something we kind of touched on with our other guests where it's like whether
47:55community engagement takes a while therefore a solution might take a while or we know what's
48:01best here you go and we will deal with it later which is hard yeah it's a it's a it's hard to make
48:09especially for people that really really care um but if you really care you have to care about the oh
48:17you have to care about the people right you can't just care exactly uh you can't just care about the
48:22environment you have to care about the people that are most affected by it as well exactly sort of
48:28the point yeah sometimes you would think yeah wow revolutionary podcasters say we should care
48:38and then our last episode was all about ecotourism and something i really liked responsible tourism
48:46instead of eco so jennifer was talking to us about if you're responsible you're doing exactly what
48:53amber was saying you're taking everything into account including the environment and the ecological
48:58side of things it's not just about ecotourism as oh for every area we pollute we'll plant trees
49:08it's we won't even pollute this area because we have done it within the bounds of what's allowed and the
49:14resources that are here and all this stuff i think it's also something anytime i hear ecotourism i think
49:20about like outdoor activities yeah sure like oh ecotourism is like bird watching or hiking or this and that
49:28and it's like no actually it's it's more holistic than that but you talked about how uh tourism like
49:37responsible tourism as a more enriching experience right because like uh if you not only do you have the
49:44do you do you have the experience of seeing the nature when you when you go you also are enriched
49:50because you're actually involving the the local communities into the tourism in a way where where
49:57they're not going to be um sort of uh exploited by by either you or the tourists right you make sure
50:04that there's a that there's a symbiotic relationship between between locals and and uh the industry which is
50:11which is a smart it was very smart and it really goes another thing that this this we we would
50:17sometimes ask stuff right from our perspective and they they would give us like i you know like almost
50:23like they they that's not even a consideration for them because from the very beginning they were
50:28focused on having things be at taking the only the important things into consideration
50:37right and we and we sometimes come at them with like a very like uh top down or very very abstract
50:45way of looking at it and they're like they're like no no this is how it is on the ground this is how
50:49we're gonna do stuff and we're like okay yeah exactly no it was so cool i think it was a cool season
51:00i really enjoyed it i think we had a bit of everything i had a lot of challenging moments which
51:06is exactly why we do this you know to think we don't have all the answers that's why we bring in
51:12guests if you have something to teach us let us know please yes we love to be challenged we love to
51:18learn look forward to season four it's gonna be it's gonna be a learning season i think for us
51:24definitely so yeah everybody hold on to your horses don't be scared season four it's gonna be about
51:33climate finance i know but we're breaking down a very complex misunderstood world through human
51:41stories because as we keep saying facts are just facts we need stories why this topic matters for
51:48communities for entrepreneurs for activists what does it mean to have equitable finance which is
51:53something we touched on a little bit here what does it mean to be able to have a sustainable project
51:59what kind of financing mechanism that exists now after cop 30 what are we going to do with the
52:04adaptation fund how much money do we need to rebuild the world a lot of questions a lot of learning for
52:12me because i'm not a numbers gal so looking forward to having a meltdown here and there
52:18what are you excited for on season four i am excited to just understand uh like i understand a little
52:30bit more now about the the finance of of sustainability but i kinda i i it still seems like the way that money
52:40moves is very strange to me in this space and it seems like a lot of our guests focus on that um from
52:47from what i've seen from what i've been spoiled um they they they they really understand it and
52:55i want i want to know i want to know because it seems it seems very there's a there's we're trying
53:01to marry like um doing doing good with with industry right and hopefully hopefully we will figure out if
53:11that's actually a good thing that if that's there's actual good here if it's just more more more people
53:18trying to uh trying to get in on a new industry of a sustainable industry exactly let's see how much
53:27of it is buzzwords and how much is actual action so we invite you to come on this journey with us on
53:34season four which will be coming out in at the end of january we're going to take a bit of a break
53:40for those who celebrate merry christmas to those who don't happy holidays and we'll catch you guys
53:46on the next one thank you bye-bye bye-bye
53:51let's talk power let's talk change for rural lights to brighter days equity rising voices strong
54:08we're building tomorrow where we all belong tangela talks energy equity pride in power in the world
54:17side by side a spark becomes a fire a vision that's true together we rise it starts with you
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