For What It’s Earth

Are wildflower lawns the best thing to do with your garden? Do rats deserve their bad rep? Can books be more sustainable, and am I still allowed to buy new ones sometimes? This week we're answering your big green listener questions, and we're introducing two new members of the For What It's Earth team!

An RHS guide to making wildflower meadows: https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/creating-wildflower-meadows

Pre-order Sophie's upcoming book, To Have or To Hold: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/to-have-or-to-hold-9781399412162/

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

Things are hotting up. As global temperatures increase, so too does extreme fire risk. Parts of LA are still burning, and this week we’re exploring all things wildfire in a changing climate. As we watch fires erupt on our TV screens, we ask: In the UK, are we really as sheltered from wildfires as we might think?

More info:

State of Wildfires Report: https://tyndall.ac.uk/news/state-of-wildfires-report-2023-2024/

Beavers and fires Fairfax stop-motion animation: https://emilyfairfaxscience.com/research/firebeavers/

Met Office’s Fire Severity Index https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/fire-severity-index/#?tab=map 

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

What's the environmental footprint of taking a cruise? Does medication you take end up in your composting toilet or the sewage system, and if so, what happens next? And can you bank in greener ways? All this and a bonus mini-q on this week's Listener Questions episode.

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

As climate change marches on, and transport is under a spotlight for significantly contributing to carbon emissions, we’re exploring electric transport. Are we ready for it, particularly in the UK when compared to other countries? What is outstanding in electrification/decarbonisation? And is it a realistic climate ambition? 

Show notes:

Hinkley Point Petition: https://win.newmode.net/hinkley-point-nuclear-power-station-fish-protection

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/02/uk-needs-to-ban-full-hybrid-cars-by-2030-or-face-net-zero-catastrophe

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/23/do-electric-cars-really-produce-fewer-carbon-emissions-than-petrol-or-diesel-vehicles 

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

This week you asked us which environmental habits and green-living changes we've managed to keep up the longest, whether things actually get recycled, and whether bleach should (or shouldn't) be our go-to household cleaning product. PLUS, Sophie beefs with her neighbour over bin etiquette, and we realise that all of our listeners are called Andrew.

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

The sale of single-use vapes is set to be banned in the UK in June, and the environmental impact of e-cigarette-style devices was a key lever in the campaign that fought for this legislation. So, we're following the lifecycle of a vape and exploring the many moments in which these electronic devices can cause planetary problems.

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

We’re seeking a talented and passionate volunteer with digital marketing and editing experience to join the FWIE team in 2025!

This year we're taking the pod to exciting places, but working full time in the environment sector AND making the podcast ourselves means we have little time to do the whole ‘digital’ thing. We need a hand making reels, cutting down clips, making graphics for carousels, nailing the algorithm (blah blah), and we hope in return you'll gain valuable science communication experience working as part of a tiny audio team, who have heads and hearts in the right places. 

So if this sounds good to you - and you would like to volunteer with us at FWIE for just a few hours a week - we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with some information on your experience and any ideas for getting the podcast 'out there' this year, at [email protected].

Thanks a million,

Emma, Sophie & Mark

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

In Listener’s Questions this week, we’re sharing who in the environment sector inspires us, chatting laundry detergent choices (and recipes…) and exploring top tips for keeping green while getting tatted!

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

Zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, and seed banks: Is keeping animals and wild creatures in captivity for entertainment ever ok? Or are zoos the conservation powerhouses and the biodiversity arks that we need as wildlife declines across the globe?

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi.

& subscribe so you never miss an episode!

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).

We're back with another episode in which we answer your burning eco-living questions. Find out whether Vinted is as good for the planet as it seems, what the climate impact of search engines may be, and what we're loving reading.

Get in touch

We're on Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter and email [email protected]. Send us your Listener Questions and weekly One Good Thing For The Planet.

Support the show:

Organic cotton FWIE tees & merch 

Help us cover our running costs with a one-off donation or sign up for monthly support through Ko-fi

Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

For What It’s Earth is hosted and produced by Emma Brisdion and Sophie Pavelle, and edited and mixed by Mark Skinner (2024).