The Making Good Podcast

I'm delighted to be joined this week by Henri Brocklebank, Director of Conservation Policy & Evidence at Sussex Wildlife Trust. In an episode recorded in early February 2021, I talked with Henri about kelp as a climax habitat and the new bylaw (just) passed which will restrict trawling off the Sussex coast in the Channel to 4km offshore. We talked about how the bylaw will help restore the 200km2 forest lost to human activity- why kelp is such a big deal for not just inshore waters but the local culture and economy and the livelihoods of the fishing fleet- How the English channel formed and how its shallowness has influenced its biodiversity - including the mammoth tusks dredged by the trawlers which have done so much damage - offshore wind and how to do marine actively sensitivelyWe also talked about how to value nature, and why marine environments have been slower to be included in investable models of habitat restoration like peat, mangrove and trees.LINKSNature Table - https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/discover/woods-mill-at-50/nature-table Tiny Recorder: https://www.facebook.com/TinyRecorder/

Harini Nagendra is Professor of Sustainability at Azim Premji University in Karnataka, India. Her work explores the evolving relationship between people and nature in Indian cities, with publications including Nature in the City, Bengalaru in the Past, Present and Future (2016) and Cities and Canopies: Trees in Indian Cities(2019). We explored the way that ancient and more recent human activity helped shape the region's ecology and in particular the way that Bangalore's development has been informed by the need to manage scarce water resources - but also how the particularities of indigenous culture have lent a deeper everyday connection with and understanding of nature - and what (and how) we can learn from the way these challenges are being met.Talking points- the role nature in rapidly urbanising countries/densifying cities- animism and the spiritual connection with nature- how to engage with indigenous approaches to ecology, and how they improve upon colonial attitudes - ecological memory and forgetting in indian cities- how resource (water) scarcity and human activity to compensate for it has shaped Karnataka’s ecology and the regions’ priorities for modern GI interventions- medicine, food and scent as drivers of our experience of nature in the city- why citizen restoration movements rather than municipalities are the key drivers of ecological enhancement - how the pandemic story is unfolding in India, and the implications for social urban developmentLINKSProf Harini Nagendra - @HariniNagendraRobin Hobbs - Farseer Trilogy via bookshop.orgThe Nature of Cities

This week’s guest is Araceli Camargo (@aracelicamargo_), cognitive neuroscientist with @TheCentricLab in London. Araceli joined me to talk about the emerging role of neuroscience in explaining how built environments can create pathologies in the people that live in them and what that means for the people affected. We talked about how every planner, architect, consultant and developer working in ways that shape the built environment are also - whether they know it or not - healthcare practitioners, and how this can and will increasingly shape the way we design and build the places that we live. Talking points:What exactly is neuroscience, and how does it help us understand how people experience their (built) environment What is biological inequality, how has it arisen and what are strategies for tackling it?Why health isnt only (or even mainly) the absence of illnessWhy construction phase is as critical as post-occupancyBlame and self-esteem: what the pandemic has revealed about the role of authority and infrastructure in health outcomes, and what that suggests about personal responsibility for health outcomesLinksThe Centric LabRed Nation podcast and Twitter @The_Red_NationIbram X Kendi - How to be an Antiracist via bookshop.org