In this online chat, award winning actress, director, producer and writer Aria Mckenna talks from her north Florida home on building bridges between climate scientists, policy makers and the media. She talks of efforts to get positive climate and nature narratives inside TV and films, and how to go beyond the tendency to think drama can only be created around apocalypses. “Climate disinformation,” she says, “is so successful, we’re at a breaking point.” The annual Climate Summit in Hollywood brings together a wide variety of writers, actors, producers, all personally concerned about the climate crisis. This is already moving the sense of what is possible.

She says, “I see a lot of movement in Hollywood.” Using the power of storytelling is a way to “put the medicine in the candy” – to wrap the bad inside a compelling story that leads to the good. She says, use words like pollution instead of carbon emissions. Pollution is clear to everyone as a bad; carbon emissions are an abstract term that needs explanation.

Aria founded Global Cooling Productions (media for planet earth), Saving Planet Us, and helped found the Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC).

Aria is proud of her daughter and her generation. Her hero is Erin Brokovich, subject and title of a popular film, and mapper of environmental illnesses across the US. Aria recommends the book “Drawdown” by Paul Hawken – who says we need to heal not steal the Earth. Aria says, “advocate for political change, so that we can achieve systemic change.”

See HPAC at https://healthyplanetaction.org/

The Hollywood Climate Summit: https://www.hollywoodclimatesummit.com/

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027 by Unbreaking/5m. It’s called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformation and Story for Climate and Nature Recovery."

In his wildlife-friendly garden in East Sussex, I’m chatting with author and scientist Dave Goulson about insects, and especially bees. “They’re clinging on in little fragments of habitat.” Across the world, there are one million species of insect, and perhaps another 4 million awaiting identification. But they’re in severe decline. The land has become hostile to insects, particularly from the use of insecticides and herbicides by farmers, gardeners and urban authorities. “It mystifies me,” he says, “why we allow the sale of poisons for our gardens.” We talk of the dreaded neonics – and how the poison spreads from fields into wild plants and thence to insects. Dave observes, “The system of pesticide regulation is fatally-flawed.”

He also talks of nearby Knepp estate, the great wilding transformation, and how it’s become fabulous for nightingales and purple emperor butterflies. Surprises happen, when nature becomes abundant.

Dave is proud of having established the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, and of the role his research group played in getting neonics banned.

He has written many books. The most recent is “Eat the Planet Well.” Others include “Silent Earth”, “Insectarium” and “The Garden Jungle.”

He says, “There are simple things that people can do in their gardens, a gentle steer, don’t be over-tidy.”

Dave’s fine “ramblings on the wonderful, vital world of insects” are on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@davegoulson6831.

His science website is at https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p126217-dave-goulson.

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027 by Unbreaking/5m. It’s called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformation and Story for Climate and Nature Recovery."

I’m sitting with the award-winning oral storyteller and author, Danyah Miller, in her West Sussex garden to hear about “swimming in the sea of story.” Danyah tells of vision and method – how story works best and what we might do to create story. She’s the first person to sing on the podcast, showing how young children can come to see how beautiful is the world. “Sharing stories in the seasons opens up a connection with the natural environment.” Personification is key too: speak of Mother Earth, Grandmother Moon, Brother Wind, Friend Robin, the Standing People. Story works slantwise to create inner courage and new paths. Danyah says, “I have no idea where each seed of story will go.”

Danyah also says, “I go to a place when time stops, when I’m telling a story.”

Danyah recent book is “Seven Secrets of Spontaneous Storytelling” (Hawthorn Press).

Her hero is local suffragette Madge (Ethel Margartet) Turner: “I can’t get her out of my mind.”

She recommends the book, “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911): “a challenging book, yet it’s also how nature can inspire us.”

Her action: share a story with children. Then repeat. “You can’t water the rose only once.”

Danyah’s YouTube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/@danyahmillerthestoryteller.

Danya’s website is at: https://danyahmillerstoryteller.co.uk/

My new book will be supporting this podcast, and will be published in March 2027 by Unbreaking/5m. It’s called "Bamboo and Butterfly: Transformation and Story for Climate and Nature Recovery."