Out of Hours: The Podcast

Share

DuPont's Worst Nightmare: Building a legal case that would change history, with Rob Bilott

Season 4, Ep. 5

If you enjoy this episode, consider buying me a coffee to show your support! ☕️ We currently make a loss on the show and your support means the world!


How does one West Virginian farmer, suspecting foul play and seeking justice, win against one of the largest chemical companies in the world?


With the help of someone called Robert Bilott.


Today on the show, we have Rob Bilott, described by the New York Times as 'DuPont's worst nightmare' - the lawyer whose story was turned into a Hollywood turned into the film starring Mark Rufalo and Anne Hathaway.


Rob is a corporate defence lawyer, who started this case as a small side project - a favour to a farmer from his local area. What he ended up uncovering was one of the biggest cover ups in America. He found that DuPont had been knowingly dumping toxic chemicals into our water, chemicals which are now found in 99% of all living creatures on this earth - and are linked to 6 diseases and birth defects.


To read more on Rob's story:

Watch the trailer for Dark Waters here

Watch The Devil We Now here

Read Exposure here


P.S. If you want to start your own side project - sign up to the Sprint here!

More Episodes

3/2/2023

Allbirds: Building a sustainable shoe brand, with Tim Brown.

Season 4, Ep. 5
If you enjoy this episode, please buy me a coffee to show your support! ☕️Today on the podcast we have Tim Brown, co-founder of Allbirds.  Today Allbirds is a public company, with an IPO in 2021, and almost one thousand employees. But it didn’t start that way. In fact for many years, Allbirds was just an idea, a side project for Tim Brown - who was a professional footballer for the first part of his career, even playing in the world cup. Tim was bored of the branded shoes he had to wear as a footballer, and started to wonder if a better shoe could be made. For years, he experimented. Tim is a New Zealander, which is the home of merino wool, and he started experimenting with creating a new shoe material with his homegrown merino wool. After he had a prototype shoe, he launched a kickstarter - which proved the idea was popular with others. In 2016 - Tim officially co-founded Allbirds with his cofounder Joey Zwillinger - who helped shape the sustainability focus for the company. They are now a carbon neutral company, and were termed the ‘world’s most comfortable shoe’ by time magazine.We talk about tall poppy syndrome, why he thinks a sense of humour matters in entrepreneurship, and why he thinks the 85% rule of effort is so important. I hope you enjoy.  Join the Out of Hours newsletter here! If you enjoy this episode, consider buying me a coffee to show your support! ☕️ Your support shows me it's worth continuing!