Making things better and making better things

Finian Makepeace had a dream. It was more of a nightmare and it changed what he did. Finian spent the next seven year developing a film, an education program and a campaign to change the way that we farm. He started Kiss the Ground with his friend Ryland Engelhart and they have produced one of the most impactful films about agriculture, ever. Along with Dan Barber's book The Third Plate it has brought regenerative agriculture to the fore. Finian grew up rooted in activism and surround by...

Pete Davies and I sat down over Zoom to discuss our Christmas playlists. Here is our discussion with short snippets of the songs we discussed. We have a PRS licence for music in podcasts. You can listen to the podcast on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0WY1JFk40SD4LaFE0K0wMv?si=IYS33J2mS4GCxIMSWLl9Vg

Ashtin Berry is incredibly articulate. With her words and with flavours. She's a bartender, one of the best. but more than that, an entrepreneur, a campaigner, and a leader. This is an unbelievably powerful conversation. We talk about flavours in the deep South, her family, the Great Migration, levels of racism, fairness, activism and equity. We talk about the racism inherent in financial systems, red-lining, wealth accumulation, and legislation. This is one of the most powerful and...

Naomi is a self-taught chef. She is a teacher and chef at River Cottage. She grew up in a commune. She grew up in a collective. She grew strong as a result. Ity takes a village to raise a child - literally. This is a lovely conversation that travels from the edges of society to the centre and back again. She is an author and has written about gut health and gluten free baking, amongst other things. RECORDED OVER ZOOM SO THERE ARE A NUMBER OF PAUSES AND GLITCHES - APOLOGIES.

Simon talks us through his journey, from poverty trap to strategist. Simon's childhood was free-range. Climbing trees and riding bikes. He helps people up trees (metaphorically) and occasionally gets stuck up them (metaphorically and physically). Simon's life changed with a diagnosis of lung cancer. In his own words, this, and the birth of his daughter, turned him into a nice man. Such a gentle, lovely and wide-ranging conversation. We talk about music, the darkside of pop songs, the '70s,...

Marie is a chef. She uses food to create soul, to bring people together, and she gave away a part of her to someone else. A kidney. This is one of the most beautiful and moving conversations I've had. It oscillates from adidas pop-up trousers, to Caribbean fruits, to dancing. Marie is one half of the Island Social Club a pop-up food and drink club that fills the void left by the erosion of London's Caribbean culture. Before that she ran a supper club called Pop's Kitchen that healed wounds...

Libby glows. She shines with possibility and hope. She is an aspiring pilot, a wannabe international DJ, and is considering midwifery.Growing-up in Connecticut it took a spell in Ireland and the smell of a horse stable as a teenager for her to become comfortable with herself. A truly remarkable woman who has embraced not quite fitting in.

Grace has an amazing story. She left a silicon valley tech start-up to reimagine the high-street curry house. Not a fancy curry house, but the curry house remembered from her youth, but healthier. This is a charming conversation about growing-up, music, testing ideas fast and being brave. Watch this space, she's going places.

I first heard Mike Garry on his beautiful ode to Anthony H Wilson. You know the one - Saint Anthony. It made Number 1 in the charts. It featured Manchester's finest, it features strings, it was beautiful. At that point I didn't know Mike. I met him a year or two later at one of the best festivals I've been to, The Good Life Experience. I stood and watched as Mike wove emotions and images with words. He started a poem about his son and the tears started with me. I won't tell you why, suffice...

Alex Lawrence is a bartender, a drinks brand owner, a rebel, a funny and inspiring man, and he shines so brightly. This conversation swings from his time in a band, rebelling in private school, living in Aberdeen and being a young "trash-bag", moving to work in the World's best bar, mental health and bartending, and ultimately becoming the World's best bartender. He was born in Scotland, raised in Scotland and is totally from London. He talks so beautifully about anger, art and music, his...

This is a belter of a podcast. Sadly marred by poor sound: acoustics, differential volumes of interviewer and interviewee, and some weird distortion. But the conversation is too good not to go out. Lucy is a truly great artist and one of the kindest people i've spent time with. We cover some creative ground and we cover some crunchy ground. Her strength shines through and what she sees in others is beyond the ordinary. Trigger warning: in the middle of the conversation Lucy mentions...

The second part of my conversation with the visionary Jonathan Smales. We pick-up as he left Greenpeace and hatched a plan to build the Earth Centre on an old coalfield in South Yorkshire. Not too far from where Jonathan grew-up.

Jonathon is a leader in sustainability and always has been. One of the heavyweights of sustainability and was there from the start. We met nearly three decades ago and he continues to inspire me and everyone he has contact with. we talk music, fashion, sustainability and so much more. We travel from coal to an old open-cast coal mine in South Yorkshire. Part one of a two-parter.

I love that Gil Scott Heron track “Running”. The one that says “I always feel like running, never away because there’s no such place”. All the way through this talk with Matt of Seven feet apart that track was running through my head. This is a lovely conversation about shoes, making stuff to last, and the benefits of running. Never away, but towards enoughness.

Mills set up Ustwo with his best mate. It's boomed. Mills is a beautiful man. The way he expresses himself, the way he talks, the love that shines from him is unique. This conversation oscillates from weight-loss and strength, to hyperactivity, to yoga, to dyslexia, to shame, to identity, to extremes. This is a lovely conversation that ebbs and flows from subject to subject. It is very honest, from both of us. I hope you enjoy it. Any comments please get in touch.

Sophie Thomas is a designer with a business brain or a business person with a designer's brain - i'm not sure which but it really doesn't matter. She pioneered thinking on circular economy and how designers are the solution to so many things. We also talked about what defines us, how school can lift us or bury us, and how good will always float to the top.

I met Jonathon 20 years ago this year. At about this time. At an incredible building in Austria where the Sound of Music was filmed. Jonathon has lead on sustainability from the beginning. From when the first roots of the "green" movement began to poke through. This shows extraordinary foresight and bravery. He has both. This bravery was supremely evident when he went on anachronistic buffoon Jeremy Clarkson's TV chat show and not only held his own but destroyed Clarkson's arguments. A joy...

I went to school with Graham (or Wiggy as we called him). He was two years younger than me but we usually played in the same rugby team. We both played county rugby and both got trials for Leicester Tigers youth team. One of us got in and the other is me. 12 years on from those trials I played a game of Rugby League for Yorkshire Water against Yorkshire Electricity. My opposite number was the Featherstone Rovers first team centre. I got marmalised. I split my lip in a friendly "cuffing"...

How do you know when to clap? Rob Ryan is an artist, a poet, a Northern Soul aficionado, and a totally human being. He's also one of my best mates. I loved this conversation that lists and lurches from why punk was dead before it was dead, getting late night buses to Wigan for soul all-nighters, why scarcity isn't a good thing, why the thing that keeps him going is the thought that there is something else out there that he hasn't seen or heard yet. This appetite and drive is about curiosity....

Recording this podcast was an absolute joy. James is one of my mentors, a great friend and a massive inspiration to me. I utterly loved this conversation. James is an artist, a teacher, an author, a fighter, a lover. He teaches you how to think for yourselves and how to find who you are. This conversation starts in Wales, rushes through the 70s, praises solitude and loneliness, reflects on the use of the word "creative" as a criticism, and ultimately what sets us apart from other. A rich and...