Mothers of Invention

Happy Earth Day!

Today marks the countdown to Earth Day’s 50th anniversary in 2020. Mary invites Susan Bass of the Earth Day Network onto the show, who takes us back to the very first Earth Day in 1970, and how it bears a stark resemblance to where we are at today.

Mary & Susan look at the circumstances that led to a huge, nationwide effort by American workers, mothers and students, and how it encouraged President Richard Nixon to establish the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Today, Earth Day is a global event of political action and civic participation. Let us know how you’re celebrating Earth Day with your community, by tagging @mothersinvent and @earthdaynetwork on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We’ll give a shout out to our favorite submission on the next episode!

Executive Producers -Jess Search & Beadie Finzi Series Producer - Thimali Kodikara Audio Producer & Mixer - Anne Pope Story Researcher & Co-ordinator - Jaad Asante Project Co-ordinator - Aisha Younis

This week we loan out Mary to International Rescue Committee’s podcast, Displaced, for a chat with Ravi Gurumurthy & Grant Gordon. If you came for Maeve but don’t know about Mary, this week’s specialsode is a chance to hear the story of her venture into climate justice from the very beginning.

Mary & Ravi discuss how people all over the world are being forced into displacement by climate change. We hear who her heroes are, and why none of us should stop believing that we can still do something about climate change.

This week Maeve & Thimali play The Climate Name Game! Environmental activist George Monbiot published a compelling list of alternate climate vocabulary. His list encourages us to take another look at the way we describe the climate crisis, and remind ourselves that the environment is not destroying itself... we are. Listen in as Maeve hilariously invents some compelling terms of her own!

As we imagine new ideas for our natural resources, a new green economy presents us with a second chance at making good with both the earth and our communities. What will it take to transition to renewable energy, and what can we learn from both indigenous peoples and new technology? Navajo climate activist, Wahleah Johns, joins Mary & Maeve in the studio this week to share how she’s been getting it done.

The ocean has absorbed 90% of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases, and 40% of our carbon dioxide. We take a trip to Malé in the The Maldives to meet former president Mohamed Nasheed and discover what he sees in the future of the archipelago nation as it battles with threatening sea level rises. Ayana introduces us to Jill Pegnataro from Greenwave, a 3D seaweed farming model making bold changes off the coast of Connecticut in the United States.

This week’s episode is co-hosted by Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the lead policy writers of the Green New Deal. She joins Mary & Maeve in the studio to discuss public opinion on climate change in the United States, where it’s crucial that citizens and politicians take a role in environmental action. In a moment in history when its politics are so polarized, will climate justice be the great unifier?

In our first minisode, Maeve and our new series producer, Thimali, have a sit in the park to stalk cutie pie dogs and contemplate meat alternatives to pet food for Maeve’s pal, Shadow.

According to a recent study, pet owners have been ‘humanizing’ their pet food choices with top range meats because we only want the best for our fuzzy friends. However, our pets dietary needs aren’t the same as our own, and the impact of meat production on the environment is extremely high. As meat becomes more expensive, all parts of the animal are in greater demand by humans around the world. So are pet owners thinking about it? If so, what are the alternate options they’re looking into today?

Listen in as Maeve and Thimali go rogue on the streets of Manhattan, and discover the outcome of Shadow‘s taste test on our Instagram at @mothersinvent.

Series Producer - Thimali Kodikara

Audio Producer - Anne Pope

Story Researcher - Jaad Asante

Social Media Experts - Aisha Younis & Shahmir Sanni

In our first episode back, Mary & Maeve recap the groundbreaking climate events of 2018. They meet our youngest mother yet, 13 year old activist and organizer, Alexandria Villasenor, on why she’s spending every Friday in a sleeping bag at the gates of the UN. Professor Pauline Dube talks to us about co-authoring the IPCC Special Report 1.5, and how she’s countering its rejection at COP24. Mbororo indigenous leader Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim speaks from the World Economic Forum in Davos on how the best way to rebalance our relationship with nature is not artificial intelligence, but indigenous intelligence.

This episode comes to you direct from New York City where Maeve lives and Mary was attending Climate Week. Governments, diplomates, business leaders and climate change gathered to assess progress and push for solutions to avert the climate crisis and deliver on the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Mary and Maeve set up in a Manhattan studio, for a special dispatch from the week joined by a flurry of Mothers of Invention. Kumi Naidoo, the new Director General of Amnesty International, passes by the studio at the start of the week, to share his perspective on environmental justice and human rights. Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres and President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands also dropped by early one morning to report back on their weeks, which countries have committed what, and where we still need more action.

EPISODE NOTES:

This week’s Mothers of Invention are:

Kumi Naidoo - South African activist now based in London

Lifelong activist, anti-apartheid campaigner, former head of Greenpeace and now Director General of Amnesty International.

https://www.amnesty.org/

Christiana Figueres - Costa Rican diplomat now based in Washington DC

International diplomat working on policy and multilateral negotiations. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in July 2010, six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen.

http://christianafigueres.com

President Hilda Heine  - Marshall Islands

Hilda Heine is a Marshallese educator and politician, currently serving as the eighth President of the Marshall Islands.  She announced the Marshall Islands’ progressive zero emissions target at the start of this year’s Climate Week.

This episode serves up an all-you-can-eat investigation into food and its connection to climate. We meet Mothers of Invention in India, Nigeria and the US who are revolutionising the way we understand, protect, grow, and cook food around the world.

Mary and Maeve learn that cows must not be given their own nation, discuss their good intentions to go vegetarian but also hear that this is an opportunity for the world to scale back from industrial farming for the good of all.

This week’s Mothers of Invention are:

Dr Vandana Shiva - Delhi, India

World-renowned author, activist, pioneer, scientific advisor, food sovereignty advocate and seed saver. Eco-feminist. Blew our minds.

Learning more about Dr Shiva’s work and agroecology at http://www.navdanya.org/site/

Dr. Katharine Wilkinson - Atlanta, USA

Lead writer of the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming (no big deal)

Bestselling author, speaker and strategist, now working to spread the book’s message as Vice President of Communication & Engagement at Project Drawdown,

https://www.drawdown.org/

Blessing Ekanem - Ayo, Nigeria

Blessing Ekanem is a Business Development Associate working with Solar SIster in Nigeria, where she works with local women in Akwa Ebom to bring clean energy solutions and the opportunity to mitigate climate change, to the communities most affected.

https://www.solarsister.org

Neha Mistra - Delhi, India

Neha Misra is the Co-Founder of Solar Sister, a social enterprise connecting the dots between energy justice, climate justice and women’s rights. The organization is currently supporting women in communities across Nigeria and Tanzania to deliver trusted clean energy access to their doorsteps.

https://www.solarsister.org

Mary Robinson sits on a park bench with Gina McCarthy, ex-head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US under President Obama. They watch the ducks and talk turkey about how America’s environmental protections can survive the Trump administration. Overheard by Elliot Stoller.

Mary and Maeve learn how all of our access to the very basics - clean air, clean water, livable temperatures - are at risk as well as the mental health implications of the destruction of the natural world. We meet a Black Lives Matter activist who believes that black neighbourhoods would be safer with less police and more trees. We speak to Siwatu Salama-Ra, a prolific environmental justice campaigner currently incarcerated in Detroit, Michigan and we spend time with a Traditional Custodian of the Fitzroy river in western Australia, currently at risk from fracking and industrial developments to consider our spiritual connection with nature.

This week’s mothers of Invention are:

Stella Hartinger - Lima, Peru

Doctor and researcher exploring the global health impacts of climate change and fossil fuel pollution. Contributor to the Lancet Countdown report.

lancetcountdown.org/the-report/

Sarra Tekola - Phoenix, Arizona

Black Lives Matter activist, scientist and academic working on a PhD in Sustainability at Arizona State University. Co-founder of Women of Color Speak Out.

@wocspeakout

Siwatu Salama-Ra - Detroit, Michigan

Climate justice activist. Co-Director of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, building community power through environmental justice education, youth development, and collaborative relationship building. Learn about the campaign to free her from prison at  freesiwatu.org

Anne Poehlina - Kimberley, Western Australia

Nyikina Warrwa Traditional Custodian and academic working to promote new economy opportunities and green collar jobs for Indigenous people.

http://majala.com.au

News clip from Democracy Now! Amy Goodman: On This Earth Day, Demand Freedom for Siwatu-Salama Ra

Radio news clip, story from Sarah Cwiek on Michigan Radio (NPR)

Taking into account Uber and Lyft there's now around 60,000 cabs in New York City — but Maeve thinks she's found the very best of them who's on a mission to effect change while on the move...

This week Mary and Maeve turn up the volume on the women who are helping us consciously-uncouple from our toxic relationship with single-use plastic, a material created to be used for mere minutes but designed to last for thousands of years.

This week’s mothers of invention are

Judi Wakhungu and Alice Kaudia - Kenyan politicians who created global headlines when they unleashed a $38,000 USD fine on anyone found using, making or distributing plastic bags.

Sian Sutherland -  British co-founder of A Plastic Planet and creator of the world’s first fully-functioning plastic-free supermarket aisle in Amsterdam.

Chelsea Briganti - American self-taught materials engineer and entrepreneur about to unleash 55bn edible straws onto the world

Rachelle Strauss - British founder of #ZeroWasteWeek - a global online campaign against household waste born from one family kitchen.

Katharine K. Wilkinson - lead writer for the New York Times bestseller Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever proposed to Reverse Global Warming —the #1 environmental book of 2017.

The Graduate clip from The Graduate/ Mike Nichols- Lawrence Turman Productions/ Embassy Pictures/ United Artists

Shark Tank clip from Shark Tank/ Mark Burnett Productions/ABC/Disney

True to her word, Maeve has decided to divest her own personal savings. Here’s the phone call when she lets her bank know...

Mary and Maeve are talking about money, money.   Fighting climate change might be a moral necessity but women are learning to hit vested interests where it hurts the most, in the pocket. They hear from South Africa where the anti-apartheid movement demonstrated the power of the boycott in the 80s before flipping the same tactics to the climate fight.  In the US, a wave of organised student campaigning on campuses is helping popularise the divestment movement but it was Standing Rock when indigenous women’s leadership took divestment into the big time, with billions of dollars now moving out of fossil fuels.

This week’s Mothers of Invention are:

Yvette Abrahams (South Africa)

Yvette Abrahams has worked across climate justice, gender rights, food security, economics, indigenous plant research. Her activism began in the anti-apartheid struggle in her native South Africa.

May Boeve  (US)

May Boeve is the Executive Director of 350.org, an international movement using online campaigns, grassroots organising and mass public actions to oppose fossil fuel projects, and build 100% clean energy solutions that work for all.

Tara Houska  (First Nation, US)

Tara Houska, Ojibwe from Couchiching First Nation, is an attorney and National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth

More at mothersofinvention.online

Follow the series on all social media using @mothersinvent to find out more, support the women in the series and get your hands on bonus material throughout the season.

Mary and Maeve are laying down the law. Three years ago, 886 ordinary Dutch citizens sued their government over climate change... and won. Tessa Khan, a Bangladeshi-Australian lawyer is in the studio to talk new legal strategies for climate action. Her organisation is currently helping to sue not one, but six governments around the world for failing to protect their citizens and across the US, it’s the next generation who are rising to take Trump to court.

This week’s Mothers of Invention are:

Tessa Khan (Australia)

International human rights lawyer helping citizens take their governments to court over climate change.

Marjan Minnesma  (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Director of Urgenda, Driving force behind the world's first climate liability lawsuit, and its historic victory.

Our Children’s Trust Plaintiffs  (USA, India and across the world)

Kelsey Juliana, Victoria Barrett and Ridhima Pandey: young people suing their governments to protect their future.

More at mothersofinvention.online

Follow the series on all social media using @mothersinvent to find out more, support the women in the series and get your hands on bonus material throughout the season.

Before Maeve and Mary’s new podcast series can truly begin, Maeve’s got a confession to make; she doesn’t really, properly, understand what the Paris Climate Agreement actually is.   Luckily her co-host, the former Irish President, is more than happy to take her to school.   Let Maeve’s pain be your gain in this punchy Paris primer...

Subscribe at mothersofinvention.online and follow the series on all social media using @mothersinvent to find out more, support the women in the series and get your hands on bonus material throughout the season.

Climate change is a man-made problem with a feminist solution! Join former Irish President Mary Robinson and comedian Maeve Higgins in this uplifting and fascinating new podcast, and meet a host of game-changing women fighting to save all our lives. 

Launching on Monday 23rd July, across six entertaining and inspiring episodes released every other Monday to start your week, this Summer Mary and Maeve will chew over the big issues of climate change, giving us the inside track on the corridors of power AND introducing us to amazing women all over the world - our Mothers of Invention. They are scientists in Africa, they are farmers in Asia, politicians in Brussels, they are indigenous community leaders in America, they are lawyers, they are activists and they are solving climate problems every. Single. Day.

Whether you’re a man, woman, vegetable or mineral, subscribe now wherever you listen to your podcasts and share this entertaining new series which is a must-listen for anyone who believes that climate change is real and wants to to find a more fun way into the climate challenge ahead of all of us.

Follow the series on all social media using @mothersinvent to find out more, support the women in the series and get your hands on bonus material throughout the season.