GoodGeist

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Episodes

115

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

EN-GB

About the show

A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.

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60 recent

June 3, 2026Episode 1825 min

A Gardener as a Cultural Actor, with Jacques Soignon

Send us Fan MailA greener city is not just about planting more trees. It is about making nature easy to reach, hard to ignore, and emotionally meaningful in everyday life. In this episode we chat to ecologist and horticulturalist Jacques Sognon, former director of Green Spaces and Environment for the City of Nantes and vice president of France’s Conservatoire for Special Plant Collections.We explore how Nantes evolved from “a city of a hundred gardens” into “the city in the garden”, building a connected network of parks and routes through a major green master plan. Jacques shares why continuity, patient delivery, and opening up connections between green spaces can shift a whole city’s identity, and how public participation grows when green infrastructure feels like a shared cultural project.We also get practical with the biophilic cities 3-30-300 rule, tree canopy cover targets, and the case for cutting back unnecessary hard surfaces. From heatwaves to the hidden lessons a snowfall can reveal, we talk climate adaptation, urban biodiversity, and nature-based solutions that improve health, comfort, and everyday movement.Listen in to our story of the city in the garden! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

May 26, 2026Episode 1729 min

Nature Is Growth, with Anusha Shah

Send us Fan MailNature is infrastructure, and we keep paying the price for forgetting it. In this episode we’re joined by Professor Anusha Shah of Plan for Earth, as she launches the Nature Is Growth campaign, a rallying cry for the built environment, to stop treating nature as a constraint and start treating it as an engine of climate resilience, public health and long-term prosperity.We get practical about what changes minds: measurement, money and proof. Why do we fund highways without debate, yet hesitate to fund wetlands, trees and healthy catchments that reduce flood risk and cool cities? We talk natural capital accounting, biodiversity net gain and the Dasgupta Review, plus the need for economic models that go beyond GDP and take ecological tipping points seriously. Just as importantly, we explore how evidence and stories must travel together if policymakers, investors and industry leaders are going to act at speed.Then Anusha helps us tour the places already showing what nature-positive infrastructure looks like at scale: Singapore’s shift to a “city in nature”, Rotterdam’s climate-adaptive water squares, Scandinavian parks designed for extreme rainfall, and the UK’s Eden Project as proof that regeneration can drive jobs and tourism. It's a world tour exploring how #NatureIsGrowth so please do have a listen! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

May 13, 2026Episode 1626 min

Telling the Transition Story, with Gamze Çelikyılmaz

Send us Fan MailIn this episode we're chatting to Gamze Çelikyılmaz, Vice Chair of Climate Academy Global and a long-time climate change policy specialist, to make sense of where the global energy transition actually stands and why the picture is so uneven across regions. With Gamze we go from the big global picture to the local human reality of a just transition. For communities built around coal mines, power plants, oil and gas, the challenge is not only replacing jobs but also protecting health, preserving dignity, and rebuilding tax bases, institutions and social networks. Gamze explains why there is no such thing as a 100% just transition, yet also why delaying change is not fair either, and how practical measures like reskilling, upskilling, worker protections and long-term governance can keep the process as just as possible. Along the way we dig into examples that show what works in practice: Germany’s Ruhr region and Spain’s Bilbao, plus reflections on the UK’s own history and the emerging energy transition zone in Aberdeen. A recurring theme is storytelling, because successful transitions create a new identity that people can own, not just a list of projects on a spreadsheet. So if you care about climate action, climate policy, fossil fuel phase-out, clean energy jobs and what a fair transition really means for real places, listen in!Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

May 6, 2026Episode 1528 min

The Climate Barometer, with Susie Wang

Send us Fan MailHas the public has “moved on” from climate change as some commentators might like us to believe? The data tells a different story. We sit down with Dr Susie Wang, climate and environmental psychologist and co-founder of Climate Barometer, to unpack what UK voters and MPs actually think about net zero, renewable energy, and climate action, when you track attitudes over time instead of chasing one-off headlines.Susie tells us that at worst climate concern is plateauing, not plummeting and that there exists a major perception gap, with both the public and politicians underestimating how much backing exists for net zero and for local clean energy projects like onshore wind and solar, plus the grid upgrades needed to make them work.We also explore why “NIMBYism” is often overstated, what eco-populism can look like in Green politics, and how a focus on fairness, trust, and everyday local issues can strengthen climate communication without constantly shouting about climate targets. Well worth a listen if you want to tune into where people's heads are at on climate! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

April 29, 2026Episode 1427 min

A Garden in the Sky, with Jason Williams

Send us Fan MailIs your balcony the most overlooked piece of green space in your life? It might also be the easiest place to start changing how you feel, day to day. We sit down with Manchester garden designer Jason Williams, known online as The Cloud Gardener, who lives in an 18th floor apartment and turned a glass-fronted, south-facing balcony into an oasis that’s part pantry, part wildlife stopover and part mental health reset. Jason shares the learning curve of balcony gardening and container growing: why “normal” gardening tips often fail in high-rise microclimates, how heat build-up can push temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above street level, and how choosing plants for your space stops the cycle of disappointment. We get into what he grows, how flowers affect yield, why flies can be underrated pollinators, and how small ecosystem thinking, right down to balcony ponds and organic feeding, makes a big difference. We also explore the National Trust's Sky Gardening Challenge, now open across the UK, including the One Pot Power category that helps complete beginners start with a single container and build confidence. Jason explains why simple, positive communication matters when climate headlines feel bleak, and how balcony gardens become deeply personal spaces where people reconnect with nature at home. Listen in, and picture yourself in Jason's balcony oasis! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

April 22, 2026Episode 1332 min

Wildflowering the World, with Richard Scott and Polly Moseley

Send us Fan MailWildflowers can feel like a “nice extra” until you see what they do to a street, a skyline, and the way strangers talk to each other. In this episode we’re joined by Polly Moseley and Richard Scott from Scouse Flowerhouse, to explore how Liverpool’s wildflower gateways and brownfield meadows create real, measurable change: more biodiversity, stronger pollinator corridors, and a renewed sense of pride in places once written off as derelict.We unpack the Northern Flowerhouse vision for the North of England, rooted in collaboration between community groups, gardeners, artists, academics, and land practitioners. Along the way we share the principles that keep this work human and repeatable: create curiosity, deal in beauty, bring science and arts into unlikely places, and treat gatherings as moments of celebration rather than meetings to endure. It’s sustainability communication in the most direct form, because people protect what they help make.AND we find out about their plans for a Northern Flowerhouse Assembly, due to land in Liverpool on 18 June 2026. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

April 15, 2026Episode 1225 min

Celebrating a World Connected, with Mohamed Mezghani

Send us Fan MailA new global day is being launched for something no city or region could function without: public transport. We sit down with Mohammed Mezgani, Secretary General of UITP, to unpack the story behind World Public Transport Day on 17 April 2026 and why a simple celebration can become a serious lever for sustainable transport and better urban mobility.Mohammed takes us from his childhood in Tunisia, where the bus to school meant friendship and freedom, to decades of public transport advocacy across more than 70 countries. Along the way, we get practical about what drives real modal shift. It is not about blaming people for choosing cars or taxis. It is about political will, investment, and systems that feel effortless: dense networks, frequent and reliable service, integrated modes, and a user experience that works for occasional riders as well as daily commuters. And above all, it's about connecting people to each other, and to the places that give them joy. A world, of public transport. So if you care about sustainable cities, public transport policy, and how to make everyday travel happier and cleaner, this positive and progressive conversation is for you. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave us a review. Thanks! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

April 8, 2026Episode 1127 min

The Real Cost of Nuclear Energy, with Pınar Demircan

Send us Fan MailNuclear power: the sensible, grown-up answer to the climate crisis? Once you look past the slogan of 'carbon-free', the story becomes harder to sell and impossible to keep local. We sit down with Pinar Demircan, coordinator of nuclearfree.org, to unpack the risks and reality behind the nuclear industry's pitch that promises so much but that could cost the Earth. We follow Pinar’s route into anti-nuclear activism, from the emotional weight of Hiroshima in Turkish poetry to the lived reality of Chernobyl’s regional impact and the shock of Fukushima. From there, we dig into why nuclear is being pushed again right now: COP messaging, plans to expand capacity, the energy hunger of AI data centres, and the financial and geopolitical currents that make big nuclear projects attractive to states and industry.Pinar also describes first hand Fukushima’s landscape of contaminated soil, constant monitoring, and deep public mistrust, then connects that reality to today’s security claims. We ask what “national energy security” can mean when reactors depend on cooling water in a warming climate, and when nuclear sites can become targets in conflict. Share with a friend who still thinks nuclear is “clean”, and leave us a review with your take: is nuclear a climate solution or a long-term liability?Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

April 1, 2026Episode 1030 min

Plastocene Talks, with Sedat Gündogdu

Send us Fan MailPlastic waste is not just something we step over on the street or on a beach. It is a material that has quietly rewritten ecosystems, economics, and even human biology and once you notice that, it becomes impossible to treat something like “marine litter” as a simple tidy-up job.We sit down with Sedat Gündogdu, a marine biologist and environmental researcher whose work focuses on plastic and microplastic pollution, plastic waste trade, and the social and political forces that keep plastic production growing. Together we unpack the idea of the Plastocene, a grounded way to understand the Anthropocene through the one material that has become a permanent global signature. We follow the thread back through industrial growth and wartime scale-up, then forward into daily life where plastic shows up in far more than bags and bottles.We talk about why plastic recycling so often functions as greenwashing, how it shifts responsibility from producers to consumers, and why that comforting story still works. Sedat also breaks down the main routes of exposure to microplastics and chemical additives through food, drinking water, air, and even medical settings and why systemic regulation matters more than perfect personal habits.Listen in, and share with someone who still trusts the recycling myth.Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

March 25, 2026Episode 928 min

A Mediated Reality on Net Zero, with Becca Massey-Chase

Send us Fan MailIf you're feeling a bit beaten up by the relentless negative news coverage on net zero and climate action, guess what? The data tells a more complicated and more hopeful truth. We sit down with Becca Massey-Chase, Head of Citizen Engagement at IPPR, to unpack their new research on public opinion, media narratives and the real risks to climate progress. If you care about climate action, democracy and what happens next for UK climate policy, this conversation sharpens the picture fast. We look into the perception gap: why politicians can believe voters have soured on ambitious decarbonisation even when the public remains broadly supportive. Becca explains how right-wing populism and partisan media try to reframe net zero as ideology, and why many of those attacks do not “land” unless they tap into something deeper: distrust in institutions and low confidence that government can deliver. We also talk about what climate communication can learn from this, including why messages around energy security and energy independence resonate. And is if all of that wasn't enough, we the switch to transport decarbonisation, where the same dynamics show up in miniature. Low traffic neighbourhoods, ULEZ, active travel and electric vehicles get dragged into culture war narratives, even as most people just want safe, reliable ways to get around. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

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