Who are you and what’s your podcast about?

Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey captures the highs and lows of a green startup – from sharp learning curves to unlikely breakthroughs. Listen in as Tom (that’s me) digs deep into the realities and complexities of setting up a carbon removal project, and gets to grips with the science, the money, and everything it takes to build an environmentally (and financially) sustainable business. Will he make it work?

Tom Previte and the 200-acre farm near Liskeard, Cornwall where he’s launching his startup

What’s the first podcast you ever listened to?

This is a throwback but it was a BBC Radio 4 number – In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg back in 2012/2013. I enjoyed his no BS hosting. He just gets stuck into the meat of the episode, no niceties.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

There are a bunch of podcasts out there that make sustainability and specifically the carbon removal landscape more comprehensible. However, I realised that there just wasn’t a playbook out there taking you step-by-step through what it takes to launch your own business in the space. It’s all cloak and daggers. This podcast wants to lift the lid by providing deep (sometimes raw) insights into a founder’s experience. I like to think we are democratising this knowledge and clearing the way for others who may follow.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

So many! I loved Gimlet’s Startup. We drew a lot of inspiration from telling the founder’s journey with this show. I’ve also got to shout out The Carbon Removal Show, another podcast I work on which is so excellent at taking a really complex subject and breaking it down into lay terms.

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

We’d love to interview a version of ourselves 5 years into the future to see whether we succeed with the business! Failing that, Yvon Chouinard.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

If you believe in what you’re putting out there, others will too. And, you may not know the exact reason why you’re making the thing to begin with but making the thing will definitely help you figure it out.

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

‘Episode 1: Scr*w it, let’s do it’ – it’s got it all – a bit of education, creative storytelling, a lot of emotion, cameos from my dad (anyone starting a business who has sought advice from their dad will know…). All this in under 30 mins!

Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

You can find us via our website – https://www.restord.earth/ or check out our Linktree.

Listen to Grounded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast apps >>

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Each episode is narrated by Elsie (15 yrs) and hosted by three different young people. Together, they discuss three big questions and listen to suggestions and advice sent in from across the UK. Each host picks one suggestion to try out in their everyday lives, and records their progress in audio diaries that they share throughout the series.

We caught up Elsie, as well as Junior Producer Christy Callaway-Gale,  and Producer Ryan Nile from Mags Creative, to get some behind-the-scenes insight on how this show came to be…

Can you tell us a bit about your show and yourself?

Elsie: The podcast, Navigating Now, is made by young people, for young people, and aims to answer our big questions on life. The questions that we discuss are ones that I personally have had – and, even though I’m 15 and I still have use for a lot of this advice, I just wish I had it sooner. So, I love the fact that the podcast is giving people access to the advice I wish I had. Opportunities with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) really interest me, and I found this opportunity to get involved in a podcast especially exciting – it’s cool to be able to talk about literally anything with people.

I like music, languages, and listening to speeches, and I did public speaking and debating for my Skills section for both my Bronze and Silver DofE Awards, so that’s also why I love listening to podcasts and wanted to be involved in making one. When I hear a language or find out about a country, I’ll push myself to learn the language. At the moment, I’m learning Spanish, French, German, and Japanese! I love Spanish the most because it just rolls off your tongue.

I’ve now achieved both my Bronze and Silver DofE Awards. I found doing my Silver DofE really challenging, so I’m still thinking about doing my Gold DofE. My friends and I keep saying that now we’ve achieved our Silver Award, we should probably go all the way to achieving our Gold!

Ryan Nile: I’ve been an avid listener of podcasts for about a decade, and a creator both in front and behind the mic within this space for about 5 years. The podcasts that really made me fall in love with the potential of the medium was season one of Gimlet’s ‘Startup’ and of course ‘Serial’ – what a moment in time!

Christy Callaway-Gale: I owe my love of podcasts to my brilliant friend and podcaster Kira Allmann – the parallel world where I didn’t make it to her audio workshop is not a world I want to know!

Elsie, the narrator of Navigating Now. PHOTOGRAPHER’S CREDIT Dan Homer

Why podcasting? What is it about the format that appeals to you?

Elsie: The idea of being able to receive information in a hands-free way is so appealing to me as someone who loves to listen to things – so the format of a podcast just made sense. I tend to listen to podcasts when I’m around other people and don’t want to pay attention to my surroundings, because I want to be in my own world. It feels natural to be listening to other people speaking on podcasts rather than the loud noise around me, like on a bus or in a park. Sometimes I’m listening to a podcast in the kitchen and just burst out laughing – I hope no one sees me doing that!

The podcasts I listen to are usually quite funny, so I’m constantly laughing or have a smile on my face. Podcasts make me feel like I’m reflecting on myself. And it was so fun when we were recording Navigating Now and Ryan, a Producer at Mags Creative, always made me laugh in the studio. It was also quite funny considering all the advice from the podcast that I wish I had heard before I narrated it!

My friend who originally got me into podcasts has suggested that we make a podcast together now that I’ve narrated Navigating Now. We are thinking about talking about living and growing up in South London.

Ryan: Storytelling is the main pull for me. I believe podcasting is the most honest and intimate form of media we have, and its ability to deliver a message is second to none, whether that’s in an interview format or a narrative. On a technical level, it’s a blank canvas that can be used in near infinite ways. It’s media that can be enjoyed passively whilst commuting, driving, walking or washing up and the content can make you laugh, cry and learn something new. I love that it fosters connection and community, and platforms voices and stories that would otherwise be overlooked.

Christy: I love how podcasts can be upfront and honest about not having all the answers – they’re a space where you can explore ambiguity and nuance, and then arrive at the end and say “I still don’t know”. Going on that journey with a host across a series can sometimes feel more special than getting the answers you’d hoped for.

Did you take inspiration from any podcasts in particular?

Ryan & Christy: The way we went about developing this podcast was totally different to anything we’d done before . Young people (14-25 years) were at the heart of the process and our touchpoints for inspiration at all times. From surveys to interactive workshops with current and recent Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants, we asked – if they could make a podcast for young people, what would it be like? The answer we came up with together is what you hear in Navigating Now.

Elsie: I generally like podcasts that are really chill, funny and just have a lesson to learn from them, so I really wanted to recreate that with my narration. I like the ‘Court Of Public Opinion’ podcast. It’s more of a comedic podcast and the narrators are really chill and make you feel like you’re in a room with friends. The ‘Pressed’ podcast is also good – that’s a really raw but funny podcast. I think that comedy podcasts really appeal to my generation because we love to have a laugh about things. The two podcasts I just mentioned are the ones you’d see people laughing about on TikTok. Listening to podcasts is also a bit of a relief from exams and stress.

Is there an episode of the podcast means the most to you?

Elsie: Episode five on ‘Navigating… Passions and Careers’ meant the most to me. My future career has always been something that I think about, so just hearing all that great advice was really encouraging and helpful.

That episode has made me think about other careers I want to do – I no longer have a tunnel vision on my dream job and I’m looking into other career options. I was set on doing engineering, but now I’m branching out to think about doing architecture – I love how creative architecture is, but it’s scary to think about committing to a single career for my whole life!

Also, I’m doing my GCSE exams next year, so that episode has made me think about the next steps beyond that, like what I want to do in Sixth Form.

Ryan: The whole series means a lot to me so I’m going to cheat and say: listen to the whole series so that you can get to episode 8 ‘Navigating… Now’. It means a lot, as we hear from all of the voices from across the series reflect on the topics, contributions and the process of making this podcast series overall. It’s very touching personally to see and hear this group of super impressive young people reflect on the journey that started out with a survey and ended with a full series that hopefully is helping other young listeners who are navigating now!

Christy: Navigating… The Environment encouraged me to make small but important changes that I’d been talking about for a while. More broadly, the series made me reflect on what it means to try new things – cue me joining a beginners’ trapeze class even though I’m scared of heights!

Do you have a podcast story you haven’t told yet but would love to?

Ryan & Christy: One thing was clear throughout the making of this podcast: there are lots of topics that are important to young people. It made narrowing the episode themes down a challenge! We hope to support more young people to tell the stories that matter to them, in the future. Young people’s stories should be heard more and they should be the voices to share them. Podcasting is the right format to allow the space to delve deep into the nuance of stories and topics that matter.

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Elsie: I remember the moment I found out I was going to be the narrator of Navigating Now. I was just leaving school and read the email telling me that I’d been selected. I showed the email to my friends, and we all started screaming and running up and down the playground. My mum also received the email, and she was very excited – she phoned me at the same time and asked whether I’d seen the email!

And on the last day before the end of term, my Head of Year called me up to the front of assembly and told everyone that I was going to be the narrator of the DofE podcast. She said it was a great achievement and showed the ‘congratulations’ email to everyone in my year.

When I came back from my Silver DofE Expedition, one of the boys in my construction class went on the DofE website and saw me on the homepage. He played the podcast’s trailer to my whole class, and it was so surreal having everyone listening to my voice like that.

Follow the show on TikTok @NavigatingNowPod. Listen to Navigating Now… From The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award on Apple Podcast, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

Main image credit Dan Horner.

The post Navigating Now: Young people navigating – and narrating – their big questions appeared first on POD BIBLE.

So when I recently discovered that David Oakes – an actor best know as Godwin from the Netflix series Vikings: Vallhala – has a podcast in my favourite genre, that’s been running for several years, is independently produced, and has a penchant for puns, it was refreshing.

Trees A Crowd celebrates nature and the stories of those who care deeply for it, and David’s own passion for environmentalism is apparent. As well as talk-and-walk conversations that place us outside with artists, scientists, creatives and environmentalists, his narrations and miniseries are a great use of his actor-skills. Plus the music (by folk musician Bella Hardy) is a fun little nod to trees he is so connected to.

I of course reached to David to ask him more about the show…

Tell us about Trees A Crowd – how did the podcast come about?

Back in 2018 there weren’t many Nature podcasts – it was well before the glorious bloom of ‘naturalists with microphones’ that emerged during the pandemic – and I wanted to listen to one. The BBC had a few natural history shows, but they were mostly short interviews or sound bites – people saying “one point five degrees” over and over again, and I felt the most important climate and nature messages were getting lost through repetition and the false comfort that ultimately breeds in unhearing ears.

The cult of personality was in it’s heyday too – Global Politics rife with egos placing the climate far down the list of priorities – and I wondered whether you could use personality to push a variety of positive green messaging instead.

Put those two things together, and you have the germination of the TAC seed.

David with Leigh Morris of Manx Wildlife Trust

With a name like Oakes, is it safe to say you’ve always had an interest in trees?

My first name is Rowan too; trees everywhere! I grew up in the New Forest, my Great Aunt was a Botanist, her husband the Chief Executive of a Wildlife Trust… I think everyone in our family had little chance but to hold nature closely to their sole in one form or another.

Personally, I envy the alternate timeline where my a-levels took me towards a degree in Biology or Zoology, rather than English literature and Drama. But, as it turns out however, I seem to be able to maintain a foot in both camps – a career on stage and screen, whilst also serving as an Ambassador for both the Woodland Trust and the Wildlife Trusts.

Why podcasting? What is it about the medium that appeals to you?

People talk candidly; especially in long form interviews recorded in the wild. The microphone gets lost in the leaf litter and tongues loosen. Suddenly it’s not an interview, it’s a conversation. Wherever my day job takes me, my microphones travel with. And the opportunities the show has opened up have been genuinely life changing. Whilst the reels have spun I’ve walked the New Forest with Chris Packham, downed home brewed scrumpy with George Monbiot, bathed in the dawn chorus of Kielder Forest with David Attenborough’s preferred Sound Recordist, Chris Watson. In the name of the podcast, I’ve dived the Atolls of the Maldives with the Manta Trust and the Olive Ridley Project, been given a personal tour around the grounds of Hampton Court with the Head Gardener of Historic Royal Palaces, and sat on the banks of a river whilst two, then four, then six Hippos walked worryingly closer and closer to hear what our conversation was all about!

David with Nicole Pelletier of Manta Trust

You seem to have a lot of fun, does this podcast let you be creative in a different way?

My greatest pleasure to date was creating the third season of the show – one with an episode devoted to each of our nation’s native 56(ish) tree species. As with the interviews, my goal was to illuminate the secrets of arboreal botany and the mysteries of the palaeo-pollen record in such a way that the layman would get excited by things such as leaf pigments and the calyx of a crab-apple. “56(ish) Trees” was a f**kload of work (you have to be insane to produce a weekly podcast), but I think the end result is quite something. I had to call in oodles of favours – each species had original artwork, there was a Cherry Tree related folk song performed specially by the award-winning folk singer Martin Simpson, poetry readings by Sam West, Natalie Dormer, Katie McGrath, Francois Arnaud, friends from casts past and present – pretty much the entire ensemble of “Vikings: Valhalla” appear at some point or another pretending to be Thor or some other aspect of ancient human mythology… and the series culminates with an original composition by the Novello-winning Leisure Society. It was a true labour of love for many many people.

‘Come for the Vikings, stay for the trees!’ – what has been the reaction of listeners who might know you from something else entirely?

Surprise. I think people remain a little shocked by how much an actor can know. But what isn’t always apparent is how much research I’ve had to do. I learn a great deal each time I prepare for an interview, and then more besides when I actually sit down and press record. I have to legitimise my voice in the environmental world – there’s no need for just another face off the telly talking too much – so I make sure that I’m adding to the debate; make sure that I ask informed questions that genuinely push the guests; make sure that the collective mass of interviews, over a hundred now, highlight all the wonderful ways humans interact with the wild world.

What’s your best (or worst) tree-related pun?

I WISH I had spent more time on the title! I mean, for one, should there be an apostrophe?

And what does it even mean?! Sure, the bastardisation of ‘Three’s a crowd’ into my arboreal alternative makes sense(ish) if it’s just me and the Chief Naturalist at Sequoia National Park talking about Giant Redwoods (see Season Two); but what about when I’m talking to two guests about Bison reintroduction in Kent, or a collective noun of anti-rhino-poaching rangers in the middle of the Kuhnene Desert in Namibia??! Puns just tie you in knots.

But, if I had to choose, the episode from the tree season which focuses on our native Hawthorn species had the subtitle: “May Fairies protect your Midland bush against any Common Haws”. I hate it – it’s unbelievably puerile – but it makes perfect sense as a pun from a botanical and folkloric perspective. I’m sorry.

Lastly, aside from your own, do you have a podcast recommendation for readers?

Simple; the Beef and Dairy Network. Can’t describe it. Sometimes it terrifies me. Listen.

Listen to Trees A Crowd now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

Main photo of David Oakes by Martin Behrman

The post David Oakes talks podcasts, puns and using personality to push positive green messaging appeared first on POD BIBLE.