November 11, 2025 • 18 mins
A lot of the episodes this year looked at processes we’re supposed to put our faith in – the things that are supposed to make our lives more sustainable or our impact on the planet a bit less terrible.
Stuff like supposed “green” solutions, chocolate that’s marketed as ethical, or the wellness industry promising to save your life.
And yes, we all know some of this is a scam, but I don’t think we really appreciate just how much of a scam it actually is.
So, to wrap up season three, instead of a brand-new episode, you get a recap of the most interesting episodes – the ones that made me frustrated, fascinated, and occasionally hopeful. Three years of consistently inconsistent podcasting later, here we are. You’re welcome.
The past few weeks have been… a lot. Popcorn, my horse, has been trying to die. University exams happened. Incrediballs 2.0 is launching soon. And yes, I might be a little burnt out. But, like a grown-up, I’ll push ahead and see how ignoring that goes.
In this episode, let’s go through:
- How much of a scam the things we’re supposed to trust really are
- The invention of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and why it matters for the planet (and our food)
- The environmental and human cost of cocoa farming and lawn culture
- Disinformation and the totally unregulated wellness industry
- How to even begin talking to the climate confused
- Some fun and surprising science (yes, really) from fire, to 5G and plane toilets
Thanks for joining me on this episode of Because Why?!
Mā te wā - see you in 2026!
You can get involved with the podcast online in the meantime, of course.
Find our full podcast via the website here: https://www.nowthatwhatsicall.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becausewhypod/
You can follow me on socials on the below accounts.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briannemwest/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briannemwest
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briannemwest/
For our latest big project, find out more about Incrediballs here: https://incrediballs.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today is day 2 of COP 30, which is of course the conference that
has thus far failed to really move the needle in any way when
it comes to climate change. And yes, OK, fine, we should
celebrate little wins that it has had.
But should we? Because they haven't really
actually achieved much, especially when for this year's
conference, they quite literally, and I honest to God,
(00:21):
I'm not making this up, they're literally bulldozed a road
through a part of the ancient Amazonian rainforest.
They hired cruise ships and private jets just to get people
to the place that they're hosting this conference rather
than, you know, having it almostanywhere else where they didn't
need to damage the very thing that they are apparently trying
to save. Somebody make it make sense.
(00:45):
Please save us from politicians.So you haven't heard from me for
a few weeks. You know, as usual, consistently
inconsistent. That's me.
I meant to record this season finale for a while.
It sounds a bit flashy, doesn't it?
It's just an amateur podcast countdown.
But because I suffer from it's called optimism bias, which we
actually all suffer from. More on that on another day.
(01:06):
I had far too much to do in the last few weeks and absolutely no
mental capacity for it. Popcorn has been trying to die,
which has been super horrendous.Popcorn is my horse if you've
never heard me talk about it before.
It's also been the end of semester at university, so exam
time. But also, I like to leave all my
assignments to the very last minute because my brain simply
will not do anything beforehand,which is really inconvenient.
(01:29):
As a result, I'm way too frightened to look at my e-mail
box. And Incredibles launches in
three months time for, you know,Launch 2.0, which hopefully goes
better than Launch 1.0. All in all, I've been Mia on
social media and and everywhere else to the point where people
have been sending me messages asking if everything is all
right, which might actually say something about my social media
(01:49):
habits. Anyway, all of that has led to
what I assume is some kind of mild version of burnout.
I don't know. I refuse to acknowledge it
because that is the grown up wayto handle things.
So today, the very last episode of season 3.
Yep, Season 3. I've actually stuck to this for
three whole years. You don't actually get an
episode. You get a recap of all of the
interesting bits of the past season.
(02:12):
You're welcome. A lot of the episodes this year
talked about processes that we are supposed to put our faith
in, things that will supposedly make our lives more sustainable
and our impact on the planet a bit less.
Like recycling, which I know objectively so many people know
is of course an enormous scam. But I don't think people know
how much of an enormous scam it really is.
(02:34):
You've probably heard the statistic that less than 9% of
all plastic produced since the 1950s has ever been recycled,
and that every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still
on earth in some shape or form. You may not know that around 50%
of all plastic waste that is seen for recycling is
contaminated or actually technically unrecyclable.
And that's despite those little cute numbers and the little cute
(02:55):
arrows at the bottom. Because they are not actually
telling you if it can be recycled.
They are just categorising the type of plastic.
Nothing to do with recycling at all.
Almost 50% of all plastic ever made is actually packaging.
So it is used once and then throw it away about 47%.
And plastic production has doubled since 2000 and is
expected to triple by 2060, despite the fact that of course
(03:17):
microplastics are ubiquitous andfound everywhere.
But I'll get to that bit in a minute.
And the worst bit when I did theresearch for that episode was
finding out how oil companies, which are plastic companies by
and large, they all knew that recycling would never work.
They knew it would never be financially viable.
And they also knew that it wouldnever really work practically
because there's so many different types of plastic and
coatings and colourings and contamination options.
(03:40):
There's just too many variables.But they, you know, they do what
they do best, which is of coursemislead the public and lie to
people and convince you that theplastic pollution crisis is your
fault, not theirs. One of my favorite interviews
this year was with Doctor Olga Pentos, who was a microplastics
researcher at PHF Science, formerly known as ESR.
(04:00):
She told me a lot of alarming stuff like microplastics, of
course, been found in everythingthat we've looked at, from the
very, very bottom of the deepest, darkest abyss of our
oceans where barely many humans have been, all the way to your
brain, to your lungs, to placentas and everything in
between. I read a study just last week
that said that microplastics make up almost 50% of a clogged
(04:22):
artery, so that's fun. We had a good chat about where
microplastics come from, and it turns out about a third of all
the microplastics in the ocean actually come from synthetic
textiles. Right now you are probably
wearing plastic, polyester, lycra.
Whatever version of plastic, you're almost certainly wearing
some and every time you wash something that contains some of
those synthetic materials, it releases 700,000 pieces of
(04:45):
microplastic. Now, there is a claim out there
that people are still spreading that has no real basis in fact,
and the research behind it has been debunked.
The one that says you consume about 5 grams of microplastics
per week, or an entire credit card's worth.
You don't, thankfully, because the stuff that absorbs two
microplastics in the environment, that is probably
the scarier bit because of course, plastics are treated
(05:06):
with all kinds of chemicals to make them do the things that we
want them to do. But they also absorb all the
stuff that's polluting the environment, which you might
think makes it helpful. You know, they're clearing up
dioxanes out of the ocean. Not helpful because
unfortunately, they almost always end up inside a
biological being. And of course therefore so does
(05:26):
that contaminant. Scary stuff.
Well, with us into the episode, be prepared to be a little bit
depressed talking about environmental contaminants.
This was probably one of my favourite episodes because it
was based off one of my favourite books ever called The
Alchemy of Air. A Jewish genius, a doomed
tycoon, and the scientific discovery that fed the world but
fueled the rise of Hitler. Which is 1 hell of a book title
(05:48):
by Thomas Hagar. It's all about how they created
synthetic nitrogen, now obviously synthetic fertilizer.
We all feel that it's a bad thing, but ultimately it's
really the only reason most of us still exist.
Because back in the early 1900s it was almost a certainty that
there would be mass famine because our soils were not able
to cope with the amount of cropswe were trying to produce.
(06:10):
The episode talks about the Haber Bosch process and how that
leads to synthetic fuel, synthetic rubber bombs, and
extended World War 2 by several years.
Because nitrogen may make up 71%of our ear, but that doesn't
mean it gets into the soil or plants very easily.
Fascinating story about people who work themselves with a bone
to save lives and you've probably never even heard of
(06:31):
them. About 50% of the protein you eat
every day comes from acidic nitrogen, because of course
nitrogen makes up protein. But of course, on the flip side,
nitrogen fertilizer accounts forabout 2% of global greenhouse
gas emissions, and excess fertilizer runoff causes
eutrophication, which has thus far created over about 400 dead
(06:51):
zones in the world's oceans. It's one of the reasons that SA
is going through a horrific biodiversity crisis as thousands
and thousands of animals are dying in the algae bloom just
off S Australian shores. Global fertiliser use has
increased 8 times since 1960 andyet half of the nitrogen that is
applied to the soil never reaches the crops.
(07:13):
It actually just washes off. It feels very inefficient to me.
And one of those crops is of course chocolate or cocoa. 70%
of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa and in this episode
I had a look at just how horrendous cocoa farming is for
people and planet. And horrendous is the world.
Less than 50% of all cocoa produced is certified under any
(07:34):
kind of ethical or sustainable standards, and a lot of those
standards are pretty piss poor even than they are. 1.5 million
children work in cocoa production.
There is child labour. There is indentured labour.
There is slavery. Cocoa farming has destroyed
massive portions of Ivory Coast and Ghana's forests.
Did you ever think that? Did you ever think that the most
(07:56):
delicious food in the world could be linked to human rights
abuses and environmental devastation on that kind of
scale? Well, unfortunately I did.
I've talked about this every year, usually around ETA for
obvious reasons, and honestly, nothing's changed.
The only thing that has changed in recent memory is climate
change really, really damaged crops last year, and as a result
coca prices spiked. Chocolate prices have gone up
(08:19):
accordingly, and none of that has gone to the farmers.
Please, please, please go and look for fair trade chocolate.
There is absolutely no reason that these chocolate companies,
who know these practices occur, do not pay a living wage.
Cocoa is often grown in a monoculture.
That's why it destroys forests. But you know what else is a
problematic monoculture? It's the crop that uses more
(08:40):
water in the United States than any other crop, and more
herbicides per acre than anything else.
It's lawn. Lawn, the least productive, most
unhelpful crop on earth, is incredibly resource and water
intensive. Now, lawns are massive
monocultures. They don't support much in the
way of an insect life, they thought.
They don't support birds or lizards or really anything other
(09:01):
than your habit of playing backyard cricket, which is of
course the world's most boring sport.
And I do not understand any of the rules.
If you've ever seen any of my videos about my lifestyle block,
I have dug up as much of my lawnas possible and replaced it with
things like insect islands or wildflower meadows which are
just so much prettier. Way less maintenance and
honestly the bird and butterflies and unfortunately
(09:23):
therefore the spiders because they come along with
biodiversity increase I guess, which I'm trying to be fine
about. But the life increase on this
place in just 3 1/2 years has been amazing.
Worth every blister from diggingfreaking holes all the freaking
time. Habitat loss is a huge
contributor to the insect apocalypse, which is kind of
terrifying. Even though you might think it's
(09:43):
great that they're not flying around too much.
I promise you it is not. But planting urban gardens or
native plants in your backyard can increase local biodiversity
by up to 70%, and that is not tobe sneezed at.
Other episodes touched on thingslike cycling, which is the
solution to so many of our problems that you don't even
know, like transport problems, emission problems, health and
(10:05):
mental health problems. Just get on your bike and cycle
more. All your problems will just fade
away. I mean, not all of them, but
some of them. I talked about the Wellness
industry and how it's really bizarre to me that conspiracy
theorists point fingers at the Pharmaceutical industry, which
is fair. You know what?
None of us think that they are in it to make people.
Well, sure, but why do they therefore assume that the
(10:28):
Wellness industry is? The Wellness industry is 4 times
the larger. It's worth over $5 trillion and
it has sought all oversight, unlike the Pharmaceutical
industry which is massively regulated and has to prove its
products work, whereas supplements they don't have to.
They are sending more and more people to the emergency room
every single year as people overuse supplements, as
(10:49):
supplements are contaminated with things like lead.
And yet people constantly shriekon social media how this
supplement will save your life, how seed oils are killing you
slowly, how scientists are really part of a big cabal of
super scammers who are secretly trying to steal your life.
I don't know. I I don't know what they think.
(11:11):
One of my papers this semester was all about the science of
scams and conspiracy theories and the philosophy of science if
you like. And it explained how people fall
into these rabbit holes and how bad as 99% of us are a truly
critical thinking or even logical thinking.
Because it's a lot more complicated than you think and
(11:33):
we are manipulated a lot more than you think.
Obviously I'm biased, but I do think the Wellness episode is
really worth listening to because it all seems as around
the idea of disinformation and what the media pedals.
So I did a few episodes around that because I think it's really
important that as we enter or continue down, I suppose the
track towards life after facts or whatever it's called, when
(11:56):
people can just say anything they like online and a whole
group of people will believe it.We need to be able to figure out
how to separate nonsense online from reality.
So here's a few tips. If a story out there makes you
feel something really strong, whether it's rage or even
whether it's joy or feeling smug, stop.
In fact, she gets before sharingbecause things that elicit
(12:18):
really strong emotions are oftena little manipulated.
Science, by its very definition,doesn't tend to be very
inflammatory. Scientists are keen to talk to
you about what they've studied, but they're usually pretty
reticent about making big claims.
The media, however, are not. So before you share something,
open another tab. Check who published it.
Read the study. And that in itself is a bit of
(12:40):
an art. But at least it's a start.
See if others have verified it. Follow the money.
Have a look at who's founded theoutlet or the study or the
organization. And always look for the primary
source, not just summaries or media reports.
Because as wonderful as journalists are, they aren't
scientists and they are not equipped with skills to learn
how to read papers. Your base position on social
(13:00):
media should now be scepticism. Because it's not just AI
generated content, but it's everything is designed for
sharing and engagement. Right?
Which means unfortunately an awful lot of creators are
leaning into misinformation and click bait because that's what
spreads. In another episode where I
talked about the spread of disinformation, misinformation
and propaganda, all which are slightly different variations
along the same theme, we processemotionally charged
(13:25):
misinformation 6 times faster than more casual, neutral facts.
Because people remember emotionsmore than we remember facts.
That's just how our brains work.Which is just super helpful.
And because fake news tends to be more emotional, it tends to
spread 70% more on social media than verified stories.
Again, fabulous news. And because of something called
(13:48):
confirmation bias, which is where we are more likely to seek
out and then share information that aligns with our
pre-existing beliefs, whether ornot that information is true.
We create little echo chambers of our own beliefs and very few
people examine what they believeas to whether it actually has
any basis in reality. And that's how conspiracy
theories grow. And after doing this paper, man,
(14:09):
do I need to do a whole episode on conspiracy theories and
belief systems? Because brains are absolutely
wild. Fascinating stuff, but that
deserves a whole episode of its own.
But if you can figure out how tobe a little bit more media
literate, if you can be more sceptical, try and be more
logical, you're going to become a lot more immune to
disinformation, misinformation and propaganda.
(14:31):
Even though, of course, none of us are truly immune.
And that, of course, brings me to the final highlight, which is
about talking to climate change deniers.
Or, as I've decided to affectionately and hopefully
condescendingly call them, the Climate Confused. 99% of
scientists agree that climate change is driven by human
activity. That is consensus.
It was consensus at 97%. The 99% is a more recent number
(14:53):
that's just been released after a meteor analysis of all of the
work done over recent decades onclimate change.
Just have a think. Can you think of any topic that
99% of your friends and family would agree on?
99% agreement on anything is nigh on impossible.
To have that level of scientificconsensus should be
fundamentally shocking to us all.
(15:14):
And yet you've still got idiots in the comments talking about Oh
no, scientists don't really agree.
They do, they have done for decades.
And you're spreading misinformation because you don't
really want to believe in climate change.
Climate denial is really strongly correlated with
political ideology, self identity, and it's got
absolutely nothing to do with scientific literacy because for
some reason it has become a political football.
(15:35):
Even though in surveys the right, if you want to put that
binary political play, the rightsay they don't believe in
climate change and yet when you take away their political
leanings, they actually do. The left just talk about it
more. When over 30% of social media
posts which are talking about climate change contain
misinformation or disinformationand you've got online bots who
(15:56):
are just amplifying anti climatenarratives by up to 50% during
major policy events during COP, it will not be a surprise if we
see more and more anti climate change messaging.
And in fact, I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but I
certainly have the last couple of days now.
I always used to think arguing with them and refusing their
claims in a calm way would mean that anybody reading those
comments got the correct information.
(16:18):
Turns out that's not what happens.
Engaging deniers in your commentsection publicly reinforces
misinformation through repetition.
It's called the illusory truth effect.
The more you see something, the more you believe it to be true,
whether it's true or not. So the absolute best thing you
can do for climate change deniers or people who are trying
to refute any kind of science inyour comment section?
Block, delete, do not waste yourtime.
(16:39):
They don't really care about thetruth and all they're doing is
making things worse. They're also quite possibly not
real. Fossil fuel companies have known
about climate change since the 1970s.
That is a proven fact. And they've used the last 50
years to see doubt by paying PR companies and influences, lots
and lots of money just to throw a little bit of doubt on the
conversation. And well, it's worked because
(17:01):
look where we are today. I think in something that
happened. I've made the podcast sound kind
of depressing, honestly. I like to think it's fun.
We also did an episode with Laurie Winkless who was a
physicist and heaps of fun. We talked about how glass is not
a very slow moving liquid and fire is in fact not a thing,
it's a process. Or how 5G is not causing COVID
or controlling your brain. And now if you flush the toilet
(17:22):
on a plane, well you will probably not be disemboweled.
So I mean, who even needs university when you hit this
podcast? But that's it for the season.
I am absolutely shattered. I'm off to the UK in a couple of
days to go and build Incrediblesand then every Christmas, and
I'm not going to think about writing any articles or research
papers for at least a week. Thank you for sticking around
(17:42):
for my consistent inconsistentness.
I will try to do better, but I mean, I wouldn't hold your
breath. I hope you learned something
new. I hope you questioned something
old and found a bit of new perspective on the way.
Next year will be a biggie and Ido have to make very exciting
interviews with some pretty amazing people around the world.
But before then, I'd really loveyour feedback.
What do you want more of? What do you want less of?
(18:03):
Which made you hate me a little?Which episodes did you love?
Please give me feedback. But be nice.
I am a delicate little flower. In the meantime, have a
wonderful holiday if you celebrate.
Enjoy summer if you're in the southern hemisphere, and good
luck with winter if you're not. So ma Tewa and see you next
time.
Today is day 2 of COP 30, which is of course the conference that
has thus far failed to really move the needle in any way when
it comes to climate change. And yes, OK, fine, we should
celebrate little wins that it has had.
But should we? Because they haven't really
actually achieved much, especially when for this year's
conference, they quite literally, and I honest to God,
(00:21):
I'm not making this up, they're literally bulldozed a road
through a part of the ancient Amazonian rainforest.
They hired cruise ships and private jets just to get people
to the place that they're hosting this conference rather
than, you know, having it almostanywhere else where they didn't
need to damage the very thing that they are apparently trying
to save. Somebody make it make sense.
(00:45):
Please save us from politicians.So you haven't heard from me for
a few weeks. You know, as usual, consistently
inconsistent. That's me.
I meant to record this season finale for a while.
It sounds a bit flashy, doesn't it?
It's just an amateur podcast countdown.
But because I suffer from it's called optimism bias, which we
actually all suffer from. More on that on another day.
(01:06):
I had far too much to do in the last few weeks and absolutely no
mental capacity for it. Popcorn has been trying to die,
which has been super horrendous.Popcorn is my horse if you've
never heard me talk about it before.
It's also been the end of semester at university, so exam
time. But also, I like to leave all my
assignments to the very last minute because my brain simply
will not do anything beforehand,which is really inconvenient.
(01:29):
As a result, I'm way too frightened to look at my e-mail
box. And Incredibles launches in
three months time for, you know,Launch 2.0, which hopefully goes
better than Launch 1.0. All in all, I've been Mia on
social media and and everywhere else to the point where people
have been sending me messages asking if everything is all
right, which might actually say something about my social media
(01:49):
habits. Anyway, all of that has led to
what I assume is some kind of mild version of burnout.
I don't know. I refuse to acknowledge it
because that is the grown up wayto handle things.
So today, the very last episode of season 3.
Yep, Season 3. I've actually stuck to this for
three whole years. You don't actually get an
episode. You get a recap of all of the
interesting bits of the past season.
(02:12):
You're welcome. A lot of the episodes this year
talked about processes that we are supposed to put our faith
in, things that will supposedly make our lives more sustainable
and our impact on the planet a bit less.
Like recycling, which I know objectively so many people know
is of course an enormous scam. But I don't think people know
how much of an enormous scam it really is.
(02:34):
You've probably heard the statistic that less than 9% of
all plastic produced since the 1950s has ever been recycled,
and that every piece of plastic that has ever been made is still
on earth in some shape or form. You may not know that around 50%
of all plastic waste that is seen for recycling is
contaminated or actually technically unrecyclable.
And that's despite those little cute numbers and the little cute
(02:55):
arrows at the bottom. Because they are not actually
telling you if it can be recycled.
They are just categorising the type of plastic.
Nothing to do with recycling at all.
Almost 50% of all plastic ever made is actually packaging.
So it is used once and then throw it away about 47%.
And plastic production has doubled since 2000 and is
expected to triple by 2060, despite the fact that of course
(03:17):
microplastics are ubiquitous andfound everywhere.
But I'll get to that bit in a minute.
And the worst bit when I did theresearch for that episode was
finding out how oil companies, which are plastic companies by
and large, they all knew that recycling would never work.
They knew it would never be financially viable.
And they also knew that it wouldnever really work practically
because there's so many different types of plastic and
coatings and colourings and contamination options.
(03:40):
There's just too many variables.But they, you know, they do what
they do best, which is of coursemislead the public and lie to
people and convince you that theplastic pollution crisis is your
fault, not theirs. One of my favorite interviews
this year was with Doctor Olga Pentos, who was a microplastics
researcher at PHF Science, formerly known as ESR.
(04:00):
She told me a lot of alarming stuff like microplastics, of
course, been found in everythingthat we've looked at, from the
very, very bottom of the deepest, darkest abyss of our
oceans where barely many humans have been, all the way to your
brain, to your lungs, to placentas and everything in
between. I read a study just last week
that said that microplastics make up almost 50% of a clogged
(04:22):
artery, so that's fun. We had a good chat about where
microplastics come from, and it turns out about a third of all
the microplastics in the ocean actually come from synthetic
textiles. Right now you are probably
wearing plastic, polyester, lycra.
Whatever version of plastic, you're almost certainly wearing
some and every time you wash something that contains some of
those synthetic materials, it releases 700,000 pieces of
(04:45):
microplastic. Now, there is a claim out there
that people are still spreading that has no real basis in fact,
and the research behind it has been debunked.
The one that says you consume about 5 grams of microplastics
per week, or an entire credit card's worth.
You don't, thankfully, because the stuff that absorbs two
microplastics in the environment, that is probably
the scarier bit because of course, plastics are treated
(05:06):
with all kinds of chemicals to make them do the things that we
want them to do. But they also absorb all the
stuff that's polluting the environment, which you might
think makes it helpful. You know, they're clearing up
dioxanes out of the ocean. Not helpful because
unfortunately, they almost always end up inside a
biological being. And of course therefore so does
(05:26):
that contaminant. Scary stuff.
Well, with us into the episode, be prepared to be a little bit
depressed talking about environmental contaminants.
This was probably one of my favourite episodes because it
was based off one of my favourite books ever called The
Alchemy of Air. A Jewish genius, a doomed
tycoon, and the scientific discovery that fed the world but
fueled the rise of Hitler. Which is 1 hell of a book title
(05:48):
by Thomas Hagar. It's all about how they created
synthetic nitrogen, now obviously synthetic fertilizer.
We all feel that it's a bad thing, but ultimately it's
really the only reason most of us still exist.
Because back in the early 1900s it was almost a certainty that
there would be mass famine because our soils were not able
to cope with the amount of cropswe were trying to produce.
(06:10):
The episode talks about the Haber Bosch process and how that
leads to synthetic fuel, synthetic rubber bombs, and
extended World War 2 by several years.
Because nitrogen may make up 71%of our ear, but that doesn't
mean it gets into the soil or plants very easily.
Fascinating story about people who work themselves with a bone
to save lives and you've probably never even heard of
(06:31):
them. About 50% of the protein you eat
every day comes from acidic nitrogen, because of course
nitrogen makes up protein. But of course, on the flip side,
nitrogen fertilizer accounts forabout 2% of global greenhouse
gas emissions, and excess fertilizer runoff causes
eutrophication, which has thus far created over about 400 dead
(06:51):
zones in the world's oceans. It's one of the reasons that SA
is going through a horrific biodiversity crisis as thousands
and thousands of animals are dying in the algae bloom just
off S Australian shores. Global fertiliser use has
increased 8 times since 1960 andyet half of the nitrogen that is
applied to the soil never reaches the crops.
(07:13):
It actually just washes off. It feels very inefficient to me.
And one of those crops is of course chocolate or cocoa. 70%
of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa and in this episode
I had a look at just how horrendous cocoa farming is for
people and planet. And horrendous is the world.
Less than 50% of all cocoa produced is certified under any
(07:34):
kind of ethical or sustainable standards, and a lot of those
standards are pretty piss poor even than they are. 1.5 million
children work in cocoa production.
There is child labour. There is indentured labour.
There is slavery. Cocoa farming has destroyed
massive portions of Ivory Coast and Ghana's forests.
Did you ever think that? Did you ever think that the most
(07:56):
delicious food in the world could be linked to human rights
abuses and environmental devastation on that kind of
scale? Well, unfortunately I did.
I've talked about this every year, usually around ETA for
obvious reasons, and honestly, nothing's changed.
The only thing that has changed in recent memory is climate
change really, really damaged crops last year, and as a result
coca prices spiked. Chocolate prices have gone up
(08:19):
accordingly, and none of that has gone to the farmers.
Please, please, please go and look for fair trade chocolate.
There is absolutely no reason that these chocolate companies,
who know these practices occur, do not pay a living wage.
Cocoa is often grown in a monoculture.
That's why it destroys forests. But you know what else is a
problematic monoculture? It's the crop that uses more
(08:40):
water in the United States than any other crop, and more
herbicides per acre than anything else.
It's lawn. Lawn, the least productive, most
unhelpful crop on earth, is incredibly resource and water
intensive. Now, lawns are massive
monocultures. They don't support much in the
way of an insect life, they thought.
They don't support birds or lizards or really anything other
(09:01):
than your habit of playing backyard cricket, which is of
course the world's most boring sport.
And I do not understand any of the rules.
If you've ever seen any of my videos about my lifestyle block,
I have dug up as much of my lawnas possible and replaced it with
things like insect islands or wildflower meadows which are
just so much prettier. Way less maintenance and
honestly the bird and butterflies and unfortunately
(09:23):
therefore the spiders because they come along with
biodiversity increase I guess, which I'm trying to be fine
about. But the life increase on this
place in just 3 1/2 years has been amazing.
Worth every blister from diggingfreaking holes all the freaking
time. Habitat loss is a huge
contributor to the insect apocalypse, which is kind of
terrifying. Even though you might think it's
(09:43):
great that they're not flying around too much.
I promise you it is not. But planting urban gardens or
native plants in your backyard can increase local biodiversity
by up to 70%, and that is not tobe sneezed at.
Other episodes touched on thingslike cycling, which is the
solution to so many of our problems that you don't even
know, like transport problems, emission problems, health and
(10:05):
mental health problems. Just get on your bike and cycle
more. All your problems will just fade
away. I mean, not all of them, but
some of them. I talked about the Wellness
industry and how it's really bizarre to me that conspiracy
theorists point fingers at the Pharmaceutical industry, which
is fair. You know what?
None of us think that they are in it to make people.
Well, sure, but why do they therefore assume that the
(10:28):
Wellness industry is? The Wellness industry is 4 times
the larger. It's worth over $5 trillion and
it has sought all oversight, unlike the Pharmaceutical
industry which is massively regulated and has to prove its
products work, whereas supplements they don't have to.
They are sending more and more people to the emergency room
every single year as people overuse supplements, as
(10:49):
supplements are contaminated with things like lead.
And yet people constantly shriekon social media how this
supplement will save your life, how seed oils are killing you
slowly, how scientists are really part of a big cabal of
super scammers who are secretly trying to steal your life.
I don't know. I I don't know what they think.
(11:11):
One of my papers this semester was all about the science of
scams and conspiracy theories and the philosophy of science if
you like. And it explained how people fall
into these rabbit holes and how bad as 99% of us are a truly
critical thinking or even logical thinking.
Because it's a lot more complicated than you think and
(11:33):
we are manipulated a lot more than you think.
Obviously I'm biased, but I do think the Wellness episode is
really worth listening to because it all seems as around
the idea of disinformation and what the media pedals.
So I did a few episodes around that because I think it's really
important that as we enter or continue down, I suppose the
track towards life after facts or whatever it's called, when
(11:56):
people can just say anything they like online and a whole
group of people will believe it.We need to be able to figure out
how to separate nonsense online from reality.
So here's a few tips. If a story out there makes you
feel something really strong, whether it's rage or even
whether it's joy or feeling smug, stop.
In fact, she gets before sharingbecause things that elicit
(12:18):
really strong emotions are oftena little manipulated.
Science, by its very definition,doesn't tend to be very
inflammatory. Scientists are keen to talk to
you about what they've studied, but they're usually pretty
reticent about making big claims.
The media, however, are not. So before you share something,
open another tab. Check who published it.
Read the study. And that in itself is a bit of
(12:40):
an art. But at least it's a start.
See if others have verified it. Follow the money.
Have a look at who's founded theoutlet or the study or the
organization. And always look for the primary
source, not just summaries or media reports.
Because as wonderful as journalists are, they aren't
scientists and they are not equipped with skills to learn
how to read papers. Your base position on social
(13:00):
media should now be scepticism. Because it's not just AI
generated content, but it's everything is designed for
sharing and engagement. Right?
Which means unfortunately an awful lot of creators are
leaning into misinformation and click bait because that's what
spreads. In another episode where I
talked about the spread of disinformation, misinformation
and propaganda, all which are slightly different variations
along the same theme, we processemotionally charged
(13:25):
misinformation 6 times faster than more casual, neutral facts.
Because people remember emotionsmore than we remember facts.
That's just how our brains work.Which is just super helpful.
And because fake news tends to be more emotional, it tends to
spread 70% more on social media than verified stories.
Again, fabulous news. And because of something called
(13:48):
confirmation bias, which is where we are more likely to seek
out and then share information that aligns with our
pre-existing beliefs, whether ornot that information is true.
We create little echo chambers of our own beliefs and very few
people examine what they believeas to whether it actually has
any basis in reality. And that's how conspiracy
theories grow. And after doing this paper, man,
(14:09):
do I need to do a whole episode on conspiracy theories and
belief systems? Because brains are absolutely
wild. Fascinating stuff, but that
deserves a whole episode of its own.
But if you can figure out how tobe a little bit more media
literate, if you can be more sceptical, try and be more
logical, you're going to become a lot more immune to
disinformation, misinformation and propaganda.
(14:31):
Even though, of course, none of us are truly immune.
And that, of course, brings me to the final highlight, which is
about talking to climate change deniers.
Or, as I've decided to affectionately and hopefully
condescendingly call them, the Climate Confused. 99% of
scientists agree that climate change is driven by human
activity. That is consensus.
It was consensus at 97%. The 99% is a more recent number
(14:53):
that's just been released after a meteor analysis of all of the
work done over recent decades onclimate change.
Just have a think. Can you think of any topic that
99% of your friends and family would agree on?
99% agreement on anything is nigh on impossible.
To have that level of scientificconsensus should be
fundamentally shocking to us all.
(15:14):
And yet you've still got idiots in the comments talking about Oh
no, scientists don't really agree.
They do, they have done for decades.
And you're spreading misinformation because you don't
really want to believe in climate change.
Climate denial is really strongly correlated with
political ideology, self identity, and it's got
absolutely nothing to do with scientific literacy because for
some reason it has become a political football.
(15:35):
Even though in surveys the right, if you want to put that
binary political play, the rightsay they don't believe in
climate change and yet when you take away their political
leanings, they actually do. The left just talk about it
more. When over 30% of social media
posts which are talking about climate change contain
misinformation or disinformationand you've got online bots who
(15:56):
are just amplifying anti climatenarratives by up to 50% during
major policy events during COP, it will not be a surprise if we
see more and more anti climate change messaging.
And in fact, I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but I
certainly have the last couple of days now.
I always used to think arguing with them and refusing their
claims in a calm way would mean that anybody reading those
comments got the correct information.
(16:18):
Turns out that's not what happens.
Engaging deniers in your commentsection publicly reinforces
misinformation through repetition.
It's called the illusory truth effect.
The more you see something, the more you believe it to be true,
whether it's true or not. So the absolute best thing you
can do for climate change deniers or people who are trying
to refute any kind of science inyour comment section?
Block, delete, do not waste yourtime.
(16:39):
They don't really care about thetruth and all they're doing is
making things worse. They're also quite possibly not
real. Fossil fuel companies have known
about climate change since the 1970s.
That is a proven fact. And they've used the last 50
years to see doubt by paying PR companies and influences, lots
and lots of money just to throw a little bit of doubt on the
conversation. And well, it's worked because
(17:01):
look where we are today. I think in something that
happened. I've made the podcast sound kind
of depressing, honestly. I like to think it's fun.
We also did an episode with Laurie Winkless who was a
physicist and heaps of fun. We talked about how glass is not
a very slow moving liquid and fire is in fact not a thing,
it's a process. Or how 5G is not causing COVID
or controlling your brain. And now if you flush the toilet
(17:22):
on a plane, well you will probably not be disemboweled.
So I mean, who even needs university when you hit this
podcast? But that's it for the season.
I am absolutely shattered. I'm off to the UK in a couple of
days to go and build Incrediblesand then every Christmas, and
I'm not going to think about writing any articles or research
papers for at least a week. Thank you for sticking around
(17:42):
for my consistent inconsistentness.
I will try to do better, but I mean, I wouldn't hold your
breath. I hope you learned something
new. I hope you questioned something
old and found a bit of new perspective on the way.
Next year will be a biggie and Ido have to make very exciting
interviews with some pretty amazing people around the world.
But before then, I'd really loveyour feedback.
What do you want more of? What do you want less of?
(18:03):
Which made you hate me a little?Which episodes did you love?
Please give me feedback. But be nice.
I am a delicate little flower. In the meantime, have a
wonderful holiday if you celebrate.
Enjoy summer if you're in the southern hemisphere, and good
luck with winter if you're not. So ma Tewa and see you next
time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com