Outrage + Optimism Podcast Episodes
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373: China, COP31 and Chagos: What’s happening behind the headlines?
In the nine hours after the Los Angeles wildfires, before the climate movement could get its shoes on, the narrative was being written. Through social media, podcasts and talking heads on cable news, the truth was buried behind a deliberate strategy of disinformation. In the twenty-one months since China's emissions have flatlined, everyone is asking whether this is a blip or a trend. And across 640,000 square kilometres of protected ocean, nobody is quite certain what happens next. You have probably seen these stories reported. But what is actually going on out there?
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Season 12 Culture + Climate
372: Rosebank, Cambo, and the Conversation Christiana Never Got to Have
16 July 2026
Five years ago, a 21-year-old activist stood on a TED stage next to the CEO of Shell and accused him of making ‘evil decisions’ wreaking ‘devastation on communities around the world’. And then walked off. Christiana was moderating. She went into that panel believing dialogue itself could be the mechanism for change - that an honest conversation could move a company like Shell. What she didn't know is that the activist, Lauren MacDonald, had a different plan. It wasn't a quiet moment to be talking about oil and gas.
Season 12 Justice + Climate
371: Whose Side Is the Law On? How the Courts Became a Climate Battleground
09 July 2026
"Even if you are small in this society, there is something you can do." Those are the words of Trixy Elle, a mother and a fisherwoman from the Philippines, and one of the claimants from the Odette case, named for the super typhoon she lived through. She may never win in court, but she says that isn’t the point. She is one of more than 100 claimants suing the energy giant Shell, demanding justice and accountability for the losses she has experienced as a result of climate change. This week, Christiana Figueres sits down with Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham, two of the authors of the ninth annual Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation report from the Grantham Research Institute at LSE and the Sabin Center at Columbia Law School. And what they find is complex.
Season 12 Culture + Climate
370: Is It Over? A Direct Answer to Climate Despair
02 July 2026
Is it already too late? If you follow the climate crisis closely, despair is a reasonable and rational response to what you're looking at.
Past Episodes
Season 12
369: London Cooking: A Climate Action Week, a Resigning PM, and the Future of Climate Diplomacy
Season 12
368: From SpaceX to City Streets: Who Pays for the AI Data Centre Boom?
Season 12
367: Extreme Heat Breaks: The hidden climate story behind the World Cup
Season 12
366: The Agency Crisis: Heatwaves, Tony Blair and the Politics of Powerlessness
Season 12
365: Can $30k Change the World? The Power of Climate Giving
Season 12
364: Can the rules keep up?: Lawsuits, LLMs and the looming oil recession
Season 12
363: The Jet Fuel Crisis: What’s next for aviation?
Season 12
362: David Attenborough at 100
Season 12
361: “This is civilisation changing stuff”: Is AMOC the hardest climate story to tell?
