This episode features a conversation with Ingmar Rentzhog, founder and CEO of We Don’t Have Time, the world’s largest media platform dedicated to climate action. It was recorded in March 2025.

Ingmar is a serial entrepreneur in finance and communication, as well as a climate changemaker who’s been recognized internationally for his impact. He’s a European Climate Pact Ambassador and a member of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and through his work at We Don't Have Time, he’s mobilising millions to hold businesses, leaders, and governments accountable and drive genuine progress.

With a mission to democratize knowledge about climate solutions and mobilize global action toward a prosperous and fossil-free future, We Don’t Have Time boasts a community of more than 120,000 climate professionals and influencers spanning 180 countries, as well as partnerships with more than 450 companies, governments, and civil society organizations. We Don’t Have Time reaches 200 million people each month on social media!

Amongst other things, Ingmar and I discussed the ways that technological infrastructures like media platforms and social networks can support grassroots action, the importance of both sticks and carrots in engaging companies, governments, and other actors on climate issues, and how understanding financial flows can help us propel our much needed societal transformation forward.

Additional links:

Check out We Don’t Have Time and join the community!

Find out more about the Make Science Great Again campaign

This episode features a conversation with writer, editor and strategic communications consultant, Chinelo Onwualu. It was recorded in March 2025.

Chinelo is co-founder of Omenana, a magazine dedicated to African speculative fiction, and is the former chief spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society. She’s also one of the reviewers of entries for Grist’s Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest.

Her writing has been featured in several anthologies and magazines, including Uncanny magazine, Strange Horizons, The Kalahari Review, and Brittle Paper.

It has also earned her many merits including a nomination for the British Science Fiction Awards, as well as for the Nommo Awards for African Speculative Fiction, and also the Short Story Day Africa Award.

With a background in journalism, Chinelo previously worked as a reporter and online editor in Nigeria and the United States, including as a senior editor for Cassava Republic Press, one of the leading independent publishers in all of Africa.

In her consultancy work, Chinelo has spent more than a decade supporting multi-national non-profits across the world with their strategic communications, including WE Charity International, ActionAid Nigeria, The BBC World Trust, and the University of Sussex's Institute for Development Studies.

Amongst other things, Chinelo and I discussed the importance of stories in shaping our societies, how fiction can help us make changes in our real lives, and what Western storytellers might learn from those whose cultures have already faced apocalyptic scenarios.

Additional links:

Visit Chinelo’s website

Grist's Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest

Check out Omenana

Peruse Rosarium Publishing and Flame Tree Press

Explore Roy Okupe’s comics

Discover Nightmare magazine and Uncanny magazine

Read more about Chinese author Cixin Liu

This episode features a conversation with film director, Joshua Oppenheimer. It was recorded in March 2025.

Joshua gained notoriety through his documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, which, amongst their many accolades, gained him Academy Award and BAFTA nominations.

In fact, back in 2012, it was his extraordinarily beautiful and bizarre film, The Act of Killing, which follows former Indonesian death-squad leaders in reenacting their mass-killings through cinematic set pieces and lavish musical numbers, that put Joshua on my radar. The Guardian called it “The most compelling thing you’ll ever see.” I tend to agree.

His latest film, entitled The End, hit cinemas in the UK and Germany last week.

The End stars Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, and George MacKay, as a wealthy family living isolated lives in a luxurious bunker, two decades after an environmental catastrophe renders Earth's surface uninhabitable. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill, seen-it-before disaster take, The End is a genre-bending tale that urges us to reconsider the illusions we hold about the fate of our planet and, perhaps crucially, our role in shaping that fate.

Amongst other things, Joshua and I discussed The End, why we often find living in lies a more comforting situation than facing reality, and the need to challenge the silence and the self-deception that is all around us when it comes to climate.

Additional links:

The End is out now in Germany and the UK. Get tickets to cinemas near you here.

Find out where to stream The End in your location by going here.

Watch the trailer for The End.

Get a sense of Joshua’s inspiration from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Check out the trailers for The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence.

Here’s the panel discussion I mentioned, discussing silence around fossil fuels in Norway.

Creatives for Climate is the largest and most diverse network of change-agents using creativity to drive climate action.

Read George Lakoff’s book, Don’t Think of An Elephant.

This episode features a conversation with Boaz Paldi, Chief Creative Officer at the United Nations Development Programme. It was recorded in February 2025.

In this role, Boaz oversees UNDP’s advocacy, campaigns, events, and activations. For example, back in 2021, he launched the now iconic #DontChooseExtinction campaign, featuring a dinosaur gatecrashing the UN General Assembly, highlighting research that revealed that for every dollar pledged to tackle the climate crisis, four dollars are spent on fossil fuel subsidies that keep that same crisis alive. Last year, Boaz delivered the award-winning #WeatherKids campaign, which used children to deliver weather reports from the future, spotlighting the catastrophic consequences of global inaction on climate change and its impact on the next generations.

Through these, and other, activations at the UN, Boaz continues to push the envelope on the kinds of communication we see when it comes to climate, more broadly, as well as shifting what’s expected, and see as acceptable, when it comes to the messaging coming out of the most significant organization on the planet.

Prior to joining UNDP, Boaz worked as a TV journalist for almost two decades, covering conflicts, natural disasters, and human-interest stories across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, first for the BBC, then for Reuters, where he worked as Executive Producer for TV News.

Amongst other things, Boaz and I discussed the essential components of great climate campaigns, what happens behind the scenes to bring groundbreaking activations to life, and how the element of surprise can help us break through the noise.

Additional links:

Watch the #Don’tChooseExtinction campaign film

Find out more about #WeatherKids

Watch Weather Kids on YouTube

Check out Activista Agency

See more from the Framestore Production House

Explore work from climate writer Casey Rand

Discover Anzu in-game advertising

See more work from The Artery

See Oli Frost annoy fossil fuel financiers

Check out the documentary film, The Game Changers

This episode features a conversation with Natalia Vega-Tracy, founder of centralised communications hub, New Zero World, and multi-sector coalition, EPIC, the Earth Public Information Collaborative. It was recorded in July 2024.

Natalia is a leader in global advocacy and social impact, with more than 25 years of experience leading campaigns and content designed to influence culture and drive positive change in the world.

She’s been the driving force behind collaborations with international partners across all sectors, from progressive brands and corporations to humanitarian non-profits and both governmental and intergovernmental organizations, where her work has earned nominations and awards from many of the most renowned international festivals in the advertising world.

Natalia has been widely recognized for her work creating innovative strategies, campaigns, films and experiential events in support of the United Nations, and was named one of the “Top 10 most influential media and communications executives" for her work supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2022, she founded New Zero World to shift public opinion and promote behavioural change by building new climate narratives and positively reimagining our visions of the future. New Zero World’s flagship report entitled, “A New Era In Climate Communications” gathers world-leading research and insights from the best minds in science communications, creativity, and cultural influence. The resource is a must-read for anyone working in and around climate communication, with chapters dedicated to practically every facet of the craft.

In 2024, together with the Global Commons Alliance, New Zero World launched EPIC, the Earth Public Information Collaborative, with the vision to bring together businesses, media platforms, ad agencies, creators, philanthropy and, of course, science, to reposition climate change across every community on earth.

Acting as a campaign in itself, the process is designed to not only engage agencies, industry and media, but also the public. It’s described as a campaign for all of us, involving all of us – taking a whole earth approach.

Amongst other things, Natalia and I discussed the power of using creativity for good, the need to fill an imagination gap about the future we’re heading towards, and how the sausage is made when it comes to large, multi-stakeholder coalitions.

Additional links:

Check out whitepaper, A New Era in Climate Communications

Visit the New Zero World website

Explore the Earth Public Information Collaborative website

Howard Bloom’s book, Global Brain

Watch the trailer for the film, 2040

This episode features a conversation with Kris De Meyer, Director of the UCL Climate Action Unit. It was recorded in July 2024.

Kris is a neuroscientist, a science communicator and a science-policy co-production expert, bringing insights from neuroscience and psychology to the domain of climate change. He specialises in how people become entrenched in their beliefs, how this leads to polarisation in society, and how to overcome these conditions.

The Climate Action Unit works to change how scientists, policymakers, businesses, media, civil society organisations and citizens engage with each other about climate change. And Kris is responsible for the neuroscientific basis of the interventions that the unit designs and delivers.

Kris is also a Senior Research Fellow in UCL’s Department of Earth Sciences, has co-produced an award-winning documentary, called Right Between Your Ears, exploring how people views become ingrained, and co-created The Justice Syndicate, a participatory play about how we disagree.

Amongst other things, Kris and I discussed fear and agency, where the conventional wisdom gets things wrong, and why stories about actions taken in response to climate change offer the total package when it comes to stimulating meaningful responses from our audiences.

Additional links:

Visit the Climate Action Unit website

Watch Kris’ brilliant TEDx Talk

Transforming the stories we tell about climate change: from issue to action

Check out Elliot Aronson’s article Fear, Denial, and Sensible Action in the Face of Disasters

Explore the UN Climate Chief’s speech “2 years to save the world”

Read Mike Hulme’s article on “Deadline-ism”

This time, instead of chatting to a special guest, listeners just like you are joining the conversation. It’s a Call-In Show!

Over the last couple of months, all kinds of voice messages have been submitted by listeners to act as a springboard for brainstorming, problem solving, and broader discussion around a range of climate communication challenges, observations, and questions.

Through the course of this episode, we’ll dig into a number of them, exploring themes like framing, psychological distance, climate deadlines, and some fundamentals of climate communications, across formats ranging from social media posts to speeches, and more.

But we won’t just be pointing out flaws and failures. This is a show about solutions. So, I’ll be looking to a kaleidoscope of disciplines and perspectives, as well as the wisdom of previous Communicating Climate Change podcast guests, to find a path forward in each case.

If you want to leave a voice message of your own, whether to respond to a topic discussed in this episode or to raise a new one for consideration for the next call-in show, just head over to the Call-In Show page. It couldn’t be easier to get involved!

Guidance on submitting to the Call-In Show:

Step 1: Go to the Call-In Show page.

Step 2: Hit the “Start Recording” button.

Step 3: Describe your challenge, example, or observation.

Step 4: Hit the “Stop” button when you’re done.

Step 5: Enter your name and email if you want (it’s optional) and hit “Send”.

Step 6: Tune in to the Call-In Show to see if your message gets featured!

I can’t wait hear from you!

Additional links

Communicating Climate Change With Funmibi Ogunlesi

Communicating Climate Change With Josh Garrett

Communicating Climate Change With Kevin Green

Bohn and Rogge paper “The Framing of Green Innovations”

Tesla Cybertruck beats Porsche 911 while towing a 911

Adam Corner on how to reach people beyond the green bubble

Full transcript of Simon Stiell’s speech at Chatham House

My attempt at rewriting Simon Stiell’s speech

Here’s some recent research about doomerism and shareablity

Here’s the link to the Mike Hulme piece on deadline-ism

Link to the original Climate Crisis Advisory Group post on LinkedIn

This episode features a conversation with Izzy Howden, Senior Campaign Manager at Make My Money Matter, an organization working to transform the financial system. It was recorded in August 2024.

Over the past 3 years, Izzy has worked across all of Make My Money Matter’s public campaign activity, including the viral films, The Hidden Relationship, featuring Kit Harington and Rose Leslie, and Oblivian, featuring Olivia Coleman, which have racked up hundreds of millions of views, generated massive media coverage, and picked up a slew of awards.

She’s also directly engaged the financial sector to drive climate action, following Make My Money Matter’s mission to move money from the destructive, harmful investments of the past, into those that help build a future we can be proud of.

Before joining Make My Money Matter, Izzy developed strategic, creative campaigns for clients such as the Global Project for Education, the World Economic Forum, Peace One Day, and Footprint Coalition.

Amongst other things, Izzy and I discussed the task of making pensions and climate finance engaging for audiences, how working with celebrities can take things to the next level, and how embracing creativity, humour, and satire can give campaigns an edge.

Additional links:

Visit the Make My Money Matter website

Watch Oblivian with Olivia Coleman

Watch The Hidden Relationship with Kit Harington and Rose Leslie

Watch the “Saving Jane” deforestation animation