5 Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Johanna Kinnock and Maria Jencel find out what it actually takes to be the change they want to see in the world. Tag along for the ride - you might just end up thinking differently.
It might look unassuming, but the humble starfish is a species with the power to keep entire marine ecosystems in balance.
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Human activity is hurting the ecosystems that support life on Earth. But there’s a way to fix them. It’s called rewilding, and it’s about giving nature the space to restore itself.
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Since becoming mayor of Paris in 2014, Anne Hidalgo has been on a mission to reinvent the city as a green metropolis. As she celebrates winning her second six-year term, all signs suggest she’s about to shift up a gear.
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Tropical rainfall is unpredictable, making life hard for farmers. Until now. 5 spoke to Liisa Smits, CEO of a Swedish startup that has developed a new way to predict rain, and deliver tailored forecasts by text message.
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There’s treasure in the ocean. Hidden beneath the waves is a sustainable source of food, fuel, fertiliser and even biodegradable plastics. In the battle against climate change and environmental damage, could seaweed be our greatest untapped resource?
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Clean toilets are a game changer in the slums of Nairobi – and they also provide the raw material for products that boost farm yields. 5 meets the founder of the organisation making it happen.
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The pandemic has revealed just how important a role nature plays in all our lives. In this curated piece, Joanna Benn of The Nature Conservancy takes stock of what we’ve learned – and considers what we need to do about it in the crucial years ahead.
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The wild may not be as far away as you think. Safaris in Europe offer the chance to meet nature close up, and support projects that make the continent wilder.
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Anyone can code, says Betelhem Dessie. And she’s going to prove it. Meet the self-taught programmer who’s determined to unleash the potential of the country’s young people.
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Illegal deforestation is a huge problem – but by the time you know it’s happening, it’s usually too late. Now, the trees have ears.
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Brewing a cup of coffee takes less than one per cent of what’s in the beans. What if we could use the rest to create healthy products, reduce carbon emissions and support farmers in the global south? These three young entrepreneurs are doing just that.
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In the 5 Podcast, Thomas Loudon investigates issues and solutions that create a more sustainable world one step at the time.
Just because we don’t hear much when we stick our heads in the water, doesn’t mean that there isn't sound there. In fact, sound is everywhere in the ocean – and it’s vital to marine life. It’s how sea creatures navigate, how they communicate, how they find mates and how they get to their next meal. And after millions of years of evolution, it used to be perfect. Then humans came along and added the sound of engines, airguns, sonar and more to the soundscape. In this episode we speak to a marine biologist Nathalie Houtman, marine ecologist Serena Rivero and Michel André, the director of the Laboratory of Applied Bioacoustics in Barcelona, about the effects of our noise on life in the ocean – and even life on land. Frans Hendrik Lafeber tells us how the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) is making ships quieter. But we start with a man who had a close encounter with killer whales, and wonders whether noise played a role.
Here's what you can do if you want to know more:
- Listen to the sounds of the ocean at the Discovery of Sound in the Sea site
- Take a deep and very visual dive into the topic with the amazing documentary Sonic Sea
- Check out the work of the Embassy of the North Sea here
- Listen to the deep in real time here
- Discover what WWF is doing to protect the oceans here
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Johanna Kinnock & Maria Jencel find out what it actually takes to be the change they want to see in the world.
What comes in all shapes, sizes and colours, is a vital life source, and ends up in the bin one third of the time? You guessed it: food. In this episode of the 5 Podcast we’re talking about food waste. Johanna and Maria ask how big a problem it is for the planet, how we can waste less, and how we got so casual about wasting food in the first place. We're joined by Tristram Stuart, a campaigner who wants us all to throw less away, and Mette Toftegaard Rasmussen of eSmiley, which makes software to help businesses get food waste under control. Plus, Maria comes face to face with the amount of food she actually wastes in a year.
What we read and watched
Tristram Stewart: the global food waste scandal, ted talk
Selina Juul: Stop Wasting food, ted talk
Food waste is an ethical scandal, the UN
Finding 5
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Johanna Kinnock and Maria Jencel try to find out what it actually takes to be the change they want to see in the world. “Greenwashing” is the scary trend of companies' trying to appear far more sustainable than they actually are. In the corporate race to sound and look as green as possible, how can consumers keep up? How do we know what's for real? We speak to greenwashing expert Andreas Rasche about whether intention matters when it comes to sustainability and Gordon Renouf, co-founder of popular brand transparency app Good On You about how everyone has the right to know where their clothes came from. We also throw ourselves in the green end by trying to go a day without consuming anything un-sustainable (to dubious success).
Here are links to what we've been reading about greenwashing.
The troubling evolution of greenwashing, The Guardian
Good On You, transparent fashion app
This app tells you how ethical fashion brands really are, DAZED
Johanna Kinnock and Maria Jencel try to find out what it actually takes to be the change they want to see in the world. Do you ever get the sense that your phone knows a bit too much about you? For this episode of the 5 Podcast, we take a deep dive into our own data and investigate whether Mark Zuckerberg truly knows "who our next partner will be”. We ask digitisation expert Christiane Vejlø (Elektronista) about what exactly he meant by that, and whether a moral compass is on its way to Silicon Valley anytime soon. Finally, we talk to the founder of an ethical search engine, who proves that there are people in the tech world who are at least as concerned about our right to privacy as they are about making money.
Here are some of the things that inspired us when making the podcast.
The Social Dilemma, Netflix. Watch it here.
Givero.com, the moral search engine. Use it here.
“How Evil is tech?”, The New York Times opinion. Read it here.
Elektronista, a (danish) platform for thinking about tech and humankind. Check it out here.
Finding Five
Website
Johanna Kinnock and Maria Jencel ask big questions about the world around them and get an eclectic mix of guests to help find the answers. What didn’t you learn in school that you wish you had? What skills do you hope the class of 2020 is graduating with? The education system is like a super tanker that hasn’t changed direction much ever since attending school first became mandatory around the year 1800. But at 5 we think that with all the brand new challenges looming on the horizon, it’s time for schools to break out of their tired old ways. For this episode of the 5 Podcast, the 5 Media editorial staff invent our perfect school, “the new school”, and we speak to some of the fiery teachers trying to get coding, sex ed and climate to the top of the curriculum.
Here's where to go if you want to learn more:
Raising a digitally literate generation - Lis Zacho Tedx Talk
From what if to what next - Rob Hopkins podcast with Karen MacLean from the Green Free School
Why are Finland’s schools so successful? - Smithsonian Magazine
Finding 5
Johanna Kinnock and Maria Jencel ask big questions about the world around them and get an eclectic mix of guests to help find the answers. 2020 has been a year we will always remember, with Corona, BLM and a historical election coming up. As the news has run amok, the internet has tried to keep up, which has led to an explosion of satirical, hysterical and downright absurd memes. Today the 5 Podcast examines memes as a cultural phenomena of our time. We dive deep into the meme world and ask - why are they so popular? What do they do, if anything? And why is humour so powerful when the world looks like it’s burning? We also take on the daunting challenge of making our own meme, and get some help from a meme expert and a meme maker along the way.
As always, here are some links to stuff we talked about in the podcast:
What exactly is a 'Karen' and where did the meme come from? - The BBC
The Memes! They're Everywhere! - An Xiao Mina for the Atlantic
Coronavirus Remix - YouTube
Maya Tekeli on Instagram
Finding 5 (and our memes)
Chants, toppling statues, signs and singing fill the streets worldwide in response to the death of George Floyd and 100s of other African Americans at the hands of the American Police. This is the third and final episode in the mini-series “After the protest”, where Johanna Kinnock and Maria Brus Pedersen dive into some of the big questions raised by the current demonstrations with some of the leading experts and changemakers on the issue.
For this episode they speak to people who imagine different futures for the police: David Kennedy, a criminologist who believes that before we can move forward the American Police needs to engage in a reconciliation process with the people. They speak to former police officer Melvin Russel who believes that the police have the potential to do good but needs to be reformed. And they speak to lawyer and activist Derecka Purnell who believes that we need to abolish the police completely and collectively imagine a different future.
Listen to the previous episodes in the mini-series here:
After the protests #1: From slave patrols to police brutality - a history of race and the American Police - here After the protests #2: So you want to be an ally? - here
Here’s what to read if you want to learn more:
An interview with the Mayor of Minneapolis - The Daily. Listen here
What a world without cops would look like - Mother Jones. Read here
Angela Davis: ‘There is an unbroken line of police violence in the US that takes us all the way back to the days of slavery’ - The Guardian. Read here
Why the policing problem isn’t about “a few bad apples” - Vox. Read here
Chants, toppling statues, signs and singing fill the streets worldwide in response to the death of George Floyd and 100s of other African Americans at the hands of the American Police. This is the second episode of 5 Podcast's mini-series “After the protest”. Johanna Kinnock and Maria Brus Pedersen dive into some of the big questions raised by the current demonstrations with some of the leading experts and change-makers on the issue. For this episode they speak to Danish debater and activist Prince Henry, about what “allyship” is all about and why white people need to step their anti-racism game up.
Here are a few further ressources to learn more about race and allyship:
- Why I'm no longer talking to white people about race, Reni Eddo-Lodge (excerpt)
- This is how to support black British people right now, and how not to, Timi Sotire in the Huffington Post
- Ibram X. Kendi (author of 'how to be an anti-racist) in conversation with Rachel Martin on NPR
- Munroe Bergdorf, repost of Giselle Buchanan's 'I want to be an ally but I don't know what to do' on Instagram
- 'Reading is fundamental' post, The Face
Finding 5
- Website
Chants, toppling statues, signs and singing fill the streets worldwide in response to the death of George Floyd and dozens of other African Americans at the hands of the American Police. Over the next few weeks, the 5 Podcast will be releasing the mini-series “After the protest”. Johanna Kinnock and Maria Brus Pedersen dive into some of the big questions raised by the current demonstrations with some of the leading experts and change-makers on the issue. For this episode they speak to Wendell Adjetey, assistant professor at McGill University, who helps them uncover the historic roots of police brutality towards black people in America.
Here’s what to read if you want to learn more:
- The condition of black life is one of mourning, The New York Times
- The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (Book)
- “Do not resist” and the crisis of police militarisation
- 10 experts on how the George Floyd protests fit into American History, Time
- “Racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed”, Will Smith on the Late Show
Finding 5
- Website
Johanna Kinnock and Maria Brus Pedersen invite an eclectic mix of guests to help them navigate the ins and outs of the big questions of our time. For this episode, they investigate the potential of being truly, utterly bored. Maria gives Johanna a really boring task to unlock her creative potential. They talk to Dutch journalist Olga Mecking, who has written a book on Niksen, the Dutch concept of doing nothing, and they get a hold of a really busy boredom professor, Sandi Mann.
Once you've listened, what to read:
- The case for doing nothing, The New York Times
- How artist Edward Hopper became the poster boy of quarantine culture, Dazed
- Coronavirus lockdown: bored yet? Good you’re on the verge of a creative explosion, The Times
- Being bored can be good for you, Time
Finding 5
- Website
Johanna Kinnock and Maria Brus Pedersen invite an eclectic mix of guests to help them navigate the ins and outs of the big questions of our time. Having been stuck at home during lock-down, lethargic and uninspired, they started to wonder why their sense of worth was so tied up in productivity. For this episode they are joined by Danish activist Emma Holten and explore the question: “in light of Corona, how do we re-value productivity?"
As always, here are the links for the stuff we talked about on the podcast.
- 5 people who were amazingly productive in quarantine, Mentalfloss
- Why time management is ruining our lives, the Guardian
- Animals are pointless and we should be too, Current Affairs
- This is why you should only work 15 hours a week, Zetland (Danish)
- Jia Tolentino on how social media offers false promises, Youtube
Finding 5
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