Rob Hopkins

This new episode, one of my favourite so far, comes with a challenge. Can you listen to it and not reimagine your own relationship with flying or, as one of our guests puts it, being "twanged around in an aluminium sausage"? I stopped flying in 2006. I travel to the far reaches of Europe on the train, travelling to Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Italy, Mallorca, as the extent of my reach. I long one day to take the Trans-Siberian express. Yes, there are now places in the world I probably will never reach, but that’s OK. I can honestly say that not flying has not diminished my quality of life at all. I travel slower, I see more. As we reach a time where airlines and travel companies are falling over themselves to tempt you back onto airplanes to head off on holiday, we are taking a pause, a breath, to ask a question that once felt heretical, but which now feels rather exciting... “what if we all stopped flying?” This show features two amazing guests. Anna Hughes is an author and flight-free adventurer, and hasn’t been on a plane for more than a decade. She is the director of Flight Free UK, a campaign that asks people to give up flying for a year in order to break a habit and try different ways of travelling. With a background in sustainable transport campaigning and behaviour change, Anna is passionate about how our individual choices can change the world. Ed Gillespie describes himself as a ‘recovering sustainability consultant’ . He is a Director of Greenpeace UK, a facilitator at the Forward Institute on responsible leadership and is an investor/mentor of numerous ethical environmental start-ups. You may also be enjoying him on the ‘Jon Richardson and the Futurenauts’ podcasts, or even have seen him compering the wonderful Imaginarium tent at the equally wonderful, but sadly postponed, for this year, Shambhala Festival. I hope you really love this episode. If nothing else, you now know what a 'recombobulation zone'. Do let us know what you think...

In which, with the help of specially-composed music by Ben Addicott and Rosie Issitt, we take a step into the 2030 that could result from our doing everything we could possibly do. Join Kwame Boateng, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Brian Eno, Scilla Elworthy, Robert Philips, Zach Norris, Andrea J. Ritchie Roman Krznaric, Jane Davidson, Hilary Powell, Dan Edelstyn, Sophie Leguil, Ash Perrin, Ben Tawil, Jane Perrone, Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu’ Kwasset), Josina Calliste, Chris Smaje, Tyson Yunkaporta, Lusi Alderslowe and Matt Willer as they step though time.

Welcome to Episode 23 of our journey together into the imagination and into the powers of What If. Today we are looking at street art. Street art has stood alongside the fight for climate justice, the Black Lives Matter revolution, and pretty much every mass uprising for change through history. But is it just decoration? Or does it have the power to deeply shift a culture? To fire the collective imagination? And what if it was everywhere? I am joined today by two incredible, insightful, passionate masters of this particular artform. Ghanaian-born artist Tijay Mohammed combines his work as an artist, with numerous accolades and residencies, as well as working with the diverse communities he surrounds himself with. He lives in the Bronx, New York, and was one of the artists who created the huge Black Lives Matter mural in that city. He also maintains a studio in Ghana which serves as a sanctuary for visiting artists to interact with local residents, promoting multicultural dialogue through story circles and art workshops, a source of motivation for him in both his studio and teaching practice. Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and social justice activist based in Oakland, California. Her art and praxis address migration, gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and sexual freedom. Her practice boldly reshapes the myths, stories, and cultural practices of the present, while healing from the wounds of the past. Her work serves as a record of her human experiences as a woman of color embracing joy, sexual pleasure and personal transformation through psychedelics as an antidote to the life-long impacts of systemic racism. She is the co-founder and president of The Center for Cultural Power, a national organization igniting change at the intersection of art, culture and social justice. Both are phenomenal, and I am so grateful they were able to find the time to join me. I hope you love this discussion. Do please let me know what you thought of it, using the comments box below. My thanks to you for supporting this podcast, to my guests, and to Ben Addicott for production and theme music. Join me next week when Favianna and Tijay join me in the Ministry of Imagination....

Welcome to this, the first ever episode of 'From What If to What Next'. In this first episode, we meet singer, curator, event creator and lover of birdsong Sam Lee, speaking to us direct from a birdsong-filled forest, and Mya-Rose Craig, also known as 'Birdgirl', who is doing amazing work promoting birdwatching among young people and promoting BME engagement with the natural world. Subscribe to this podcast at www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext and get it a full two weeks before everyone else, PLUS a subscribers-only podcast called 'The Ministry of Imagination', PLUS other treats such as my recent conversation with permaculture co-founder David Holmgren AND the opportunity to ask the What If questions that shape these episodes. All for just £3 a month.

Ruth Ben-Tovim explains what visitors will find in the Data Information Room at the Atmos Totnes Hub.