On Friday the 11th October 2019, from 5-9pm in Trafalgar Square (London), Extinction Rebellion will be launching Writers Rebel, an initiative to encourage writers to address the climate emergency in their work.

In this episode we first speak to Writers Rebel organisers and novelists, James Miller (who wrote Lost Boys and Sunshine State), Monique Roffrey (whose novel Archipelago won the OCM Bocas Award for Caribbean Literature), and Chloe Aridjis, (who wrote Book of Clouds, was guest curator at Tate Liverpool, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship).

We then speak to feminist, academic and psychologist Susie Orbach, discussing what kind of stories suit our troubled times, and Pultizer Prize finalist Jonathan Franzen, around the fallout from his recent New Yorker piece.

On Friday, readers will include Ali Smith, Romesh Gunesekera, Robert Macfarlane, Naomi Alderman, Polly Stenhem, Simon Schama, A.L. Kennedy, Paul Farley, and Daljit Nagra.

Extinction Rebellion has three demands.

1) Tell the Truth - Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

2) Act Now - Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

3) Beyond Politics - Government must create and be led by the decision of a Citizens' Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

Producers - Jessica Townsend, Lucy Evans

Editors - Dave Stitch, Lucy Evans

Presenter - Jessica Townsend

Social Media Producer - Barney Weston