Planet: Critical

Bruno Skvorc is a blockchain expert committed to save Web 3.0 from privatisation. He joins me to discuss how the blockchain can liberate individuals from reliance on private and state-owned systems, why the NFT space is currently going mad, how we can expect to be advertised to in the future, and the alternatives he and his community are building on to save this phenomenal technology from the grips of the market. He also reveals which states pose the most threat to revolutionary tech—the answer may surprise you.

Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify. Enjoy!

Follow Bruno on Twitter.

Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis. Subscribe to get interviews like this delivered to your inbox every week.

Monocultures of corn and soybeans carpet 75% of the U.S. Midwest, leading to soil erosion, water pollution, and massive greenhouse gas emissions.

However, a new wave of farmers is breaking the monocrop monotony by growing these annuals between long rows of perennial shrubs like American hazelnuts, which keep soils intact while harboring beneficial bugs and sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere.

Hazelnuts are a huge market internationally and have big potential in the U.S. either as a snack or an oilseed, since the fatty acid profile is very similar to olive oil.

Listen to an April 2021 report published at Mongabay.com about this news via this episode of Mongabay Reports, which shares evergreen articles from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo.

This episode features the popular article, "Nuts about agroforestry in the U.S. Midwest: Can hazelnuts transform farming?"

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Episode artwork: Hazelnuts. Photo by George Hodan, CC0 Public Domain

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Reverend Billy is the world-famous secular preacher singing out against climate change, corporate greed and consumerism. Billy has been pounding the streets of New York for decades, preaching against Disney, against mindless consumption, and against the corporations putting our planet in danger. Together with his choir, The Church of Stop Shopping, Reverend Billy uses song and arrest as a form of protest, trespassing into banks, labs and private land to sing about the dangers of the sixth extinction event—and what we can do to stop it.

Billy joins me to discuss his journey to secular preaching and the faith in humanity that drives the particular and beautiful protests of The Church of Stop Shopping.

This is preaching like you’ve never heard it before. Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify. Enjoy!

Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis. Subscribe to get interviews like this delivered to your inbox every week.

The scientific evidence for what kinds of nature conservation programs actually work is always changing, and the use of such evidence should be standard practice when creating new programs, our two guests on this episode argue.

Hiromi Yamashita & Andrew Bladon with the Conservation Evidence Group join us to discuss their massive new “What Works In Conservation 2021” report, which evaluates scientific evidence for the success of conservation initiatives.

Yamashita shares her work on how traditional and local knowledge benefit conservation initiatives--especially around coastal conservation projects--while Bladon provides a broad overview and details about the newest sections added to their latest report, like the evidence for mammal conservation project successes or failures:

• What Works in Conservation, 2021

Also discussed is Mongabay’s Conservation Effectiveness series, which looks at the scientific evidence for a number of strategies, from forest certification to marine protected areas and payments for ecosystem services:

• Mongabay/Conservation Effectiveness series

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Platform is for people who are pissed off with capitalism. Subscribe to get episodes like this delivered to your inbox every week.

On this week’s episode is Dan Leibsohn, a long-time problem solver in the alternative economy space. Dan set up an alternative community cash checking which provides loans and cash at a much lower rate than the predatorial financial schemes who exist purely to scam those in poverty out of even more money.

Dan explains how the banking system traps people in poverty, and explains how some counter-intuitive approaches—like providing pay-day loans—have really helped members of his community lift themselves out of poverty.

Dan is a real proactive expert in this field with a wealth of knowledge to learn from. Listen to the episode here or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Discover Community Check Cashing here!

This week I’m joined by James Dyke, a senior lecturer in Global Systems at the University of Exeter. James reveals why net-zero targets for carbon emissions do nothing but provide an excuse to continue business as usual, posing an existential threat to humanity. He goes into great detail about the interplay of politics, economies, culture and the industrialisation connecting us all, explaining that while there is no one quick fix to the climate crisis, decarbonisation is possible—if we get rid of fossil fuels.

There’s a lot to learn in what James has to say. Listen here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.

Follow James on Twitter and get a copy of his book, Fire, Storm & Flood.

Planet: Critical is a resource for a world in crisis. Subscribe to get interviews like this delivered to your inbox every week.

There’s a growing refusal by some to acknowledge the ongoing global extinction crisis being driven by human actions, conservation scientists say.

These views are pushed by many of the same people who also downplay the impacts of climate change, and go against the actual evidence of widespread species population declines and recent extinctions.

Listen to a September 2020 report published at Mongabay.com about this news via this episode of Mongabay Reports, which shares evergreen articles from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo.

This episode features the popular article, "Biologists warn 'exctinction denial' is the latest anti-science conspiracy theory."

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

This week I’m joined by David Anderson, a “helper of helpers” who works in the non-profit/alternative currency space. David joined me to discuss one of his main projects, Simbi, an online marketplace which promotes “volunteership, mutual aid, education and community development.”

The idea is people can seek or offer aid to other users but, importantly, earn and pay in simbi credits, the non-profit’s own cryptocurrency. The aim is to relieve the pressure of having to use fiat money ($,€,£) for everything because, as David brilliantly articulates, that kind of money is becoming increasingly scarce for many people.

I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion. David points out that, contrary to a lot of crypto theory out there, alternative currencies can play a very important role within existing economies. David doesn’t think simbi credits should ever replace the dollar—rather, giving people more options to earn credits for the things they need, in markets built around community, provides immediate relief and resources to populations experiencing increasing precarity.

I’m sure you’ll love it. Listen directly here or catch it on Apple or Spotify.

Learn more about Simbi and sign up to be a user!

Platform is for people who are pissed off with capitalism. Subscribe to get episodes like this delivered to your inbox every week.

Environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett joins this episode to discuss her fascinating new book, "The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans," about the many ways humans have prized seashells for millennia, using them as money, jewelry, and art, plus how seashells help us examine the challenges marine environments are facing today.

We’re also joined by Mongabay's Philippines-based staff writer Leilani Chavez, who describes the incredible marine biodiversity found in the Philippines' waters (among the best in the world) and why there’s a movement to expand conservation efforts beyond the extensive coral reef systems.

View Leilani's recent report about Philippines’ MPAs and links to related coverage, here:

• With growing pressures, can the Philippines sustain its marine reserves?”

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Top conservation photographer Ami Vitale rejoins the show to discuss the work of an Indigenous-owned elephant sanctuary in Kenya, where she has shot a wonderful, new, heart-melting film called Shaba. We discuss the Samburu people's inspiring and 'stubborn optimism' for the species, what they are acheiving at Reteti Sanctuary, and new things they're learning about this intriguing, super intelligent, and endangered species.

Then, for this World Elephant Day special, we speak with Duke University researcher John Poulsen about forest elephants of Central/West Africa: why this species is special, how they're key to the health of its rainforest home, and what his research team is learning about their conservation.

Want more? Listen to episode 85 (January 2020) to hear Ami discuss how meeting and photographing the last northern white rhino changed her life, and episode 95 (May 2020) features amazing recordings of forest elephant communication, shared by Elephant Listening Project researcher Ana Verahrami. This episode is our most popular one to date, download-wise.

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.