Nature in urban spaces: a human right? with Ellen Miles, Activist and Author of “Get Guerrilla Gardening”

01/17/24 • 41 min

In today’s episode I’m speaking with Ellen Miles, guerrilla gardener, activist and author. I found out about guerrilla gardening when I first met her a few months ago - in case you haven’t heard of it yet, it means planting flowers and plants in public spaces in your neighbourhood, both to support biodiversity but also to reclaim those spaces and connect with your local community. I asked her a ton of questions about it so if you’re curious and want to learn more about guerilla gardening, you’re in the right place!

She also recently wrote an entire book about it which I’ll link in the show notes in case you’d like to dig even deeper (pun completely intended). The other book she wrote is called ‘Nature is a Human Right’, another movement she started to advocate for more access to nature in our increasingly urbanised world. So we also spoke about this a little bit and how regular contact with nature is absolutely crucial for our health.

Want to dig deeper?

Read ‘Get Guerrilla Gardening’ - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/ellen-miles/get-guerrilla-gardening/9780241593349
Read ‘Nature is a Human Right’ - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/ellen-miles/nature-is-a-human-right/9780241531358
Ellen’s organisation, Dream Green - https://www.dreamgreen.earth/
Vital Seeds - https://vitalseeds.co.uk/

Come say hi!

Ellen on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/octaviachill
Why We Care on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whywecarepodcast/
Tiphaine on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tiphainemarie_/

If you enjoyed the episode and want to help the podcast, I would be super grateful if you could leave a little review or share it with a friend who might like it. Thank you so much for caring and sending you lots of love!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Want to dig deeper?

Read ‘Get Guerrilla Gardening’ - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/ellen-miles/get-guerrilla-gardening/9780241593349
Read ‘Nature is a Human Right’ - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/ellen-miles/nature-is-a-human-right/9780241531358
Ellen’s organisation, Dream Green - https://www.dreamgreen.earth/
Vital Seeds - https://vitalseeds.co.uk/

Come say hi!

Ellen on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/octaviachill
Why We Care on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whywecarepodcast/
Tiphaine on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tiphainemarie_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Using AI to understand and communicate with whales with Tom Mustill, Nature filmmaker and author

In today’s episode I’m speaking with Tom Mustill, a nature filmmaker and the author of ‘How to Speak Whale’. We recorded this a few weeks ago but since then I actually had the chance to travel to COP28, the climate conference, and see Tom and his friend Vahakn perform a whale song bath on the beach, which was absolutely magical. He was in Dubai to help give whales a voice with Whale and Dolphin Conservation, an organisation he’s an ambassador for. Tom is really great at telling the story of why whales matter and how crucial it is for us not only to try to protect them but also to allocate more resources and focus towards the technologies that could allow us to understand them and maybe even one day, communicate with them.

So we spoke about the anthropocentric approach we’ve taken to define language, and how both museums and zoos (the places most of us can easily go to to observe other species) are failing to capture behaviour and communication. We also discussed the philosophical idea of alignment within Ai (in other words, how do we teach new forms of computer intelligence to have value systems and a moral compass so they can operate within a framework that values human life and how the rest of the living world fits in.

Want to dive deeper?

Buy ‘How to speak whale’ - https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/tom-mustill/how-to-speak-whale/9780008363420

Come say hi!

Tom on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tommustill
Why We Care on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whywecarepodcast/
Tiphaine on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tiphainemarie_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Restoring the ocean, one coral at a time with Titouan Bernicot, Founder and CEO of Coral Gardeners

In today’s episode I’m speaking with Titouan Bernicot, the founder & CEO of Coral Gardeners. He grew up on a pearl farm in French Polynesia, in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Whenever I’m on a call with him I’m convinced he’s using one of those fake beach backgrounds but then remember it’s actually a real backdrop. We even got interrupted by dolphins swimming past the Coral Gardeners headquarters while recording this conversation...

Titouan says that coral reefs gave him everything in his life, from the waves he surfs to the food he eats and the oxygen he breathes. So in 2017, at only 18 years old, he started Coral Gardeners to restore the reefs and plant corals. Together with his team he has already planted over 100,000 corals in French Polynesia and they have set the goal for themselves to plant one MILLION corals by 2025, all around the world.

I met him at the World Oceans Day event in New York last year and was so impressed by his positive energy and contagious hope. He knows what’s at stake but rather than letting the state of the world get him down, he turns this into meaningful action, getting people and organisations such as Rolex, Prada, Warner Bros and many more from all around the globe to join the movement and help restore healthy ocean ecosystems.

Want to dive deeper?