Planet: Critical

We’ve been protesting for decades. Is it time to escalate? Rowan Tilly is an elder of the British peace and environment movements. She has risked jail multiple times to raise awareness of the atrocities carried out against human beings and the planet. All of her direct action is non-violent, and she is deeply committed to an activism which provokes the public to confront the state’s violence. I am extremely grateful to Rowan for her activism and commitment over the years. I am especially grateful that she was open to recording this episode in which I challenge the current belief that non-violence is the only way to achieve our goals. In this stark and compassionate episode, we discuss the traditional tenets of non-violence, their efficacy and their results. We hold different positions of what the future of activism should entail, and go deep into the weeds of morality, violence itself, and different cases of resistance from all around the world. This episode went out to paid subscribers only yesterday because I ticked the wrong box. Apologies, everyone! Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe [https://www.planetcritical.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

All of our industries are going to have to shrink. But how do we shrink the good ones? Martin Hensher [https://discover.utas.edu.au/M.C.Hensher] is a health economist and  a Professor of Health Systems Sustainability at the University of Tasmania. He’s spent years researching how to create a degrowth model for the health industry—and why it will be better for people as well as our planet. Martin argues that the way we currently run our healthcare is another symptom of overconsumption, explaining when healthcare benefits and healthcare expenditure actually decouple. This is a fascinating episode in which Martin interweaves the health of the planet’s body with our own, providing a vision for a sustainable, global healthcare industry which doesn’t depend on economic growth, inequality, or over-extraction. He explains we can save lives and prevent disease—but to stay within our planetary boundaries, we’re going to have to transform how we do that. Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. Join subscribers from 186 countries to support independent journalism. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe [https://www.planetcritical.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Women’s bodies have always been the cornerstone of reproduction. So has Earth’s. It’s why the enclosure and appropriation of both is fundamental to the accumulation of the capitalist class. On this extraordinary episode, I interview Marxist-feminist scholar, Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/321857/caliban-and-the-witch-by-federici-silvia/9780241532539], a phenomenal book which articulates how capitalism did not naturally evolve from feudalism, but necessitated the violent displacement of women’s power in their communities and control over their own reproduction. We discuss this in the context of women’s rights being violated all around the world today as we enter a period of resource scarcity, and why it is therefore imperative that the Western feminist movement recover this analysis to create an effective resistance movement. Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. Join subscribers from 186 countries to support independent journalism. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe [https://www.planetcritical.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ask anyone anywhere what’s the leading cause of global heating and they’ll tell you: fossil fuels. But what if we’re all wrong? Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop is a scientist for the World Preservation Foundation and worked as a Principal Scientist with Queensland Government Natural Resources, using satellite data to monitor three decades of vegetation cover and broadscale deforestation. In February 2025, he released a paper [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/adb7f2] showing how the IPCC is using different models to calculate the emissions from fossil fuels and animal agriculture. Gerrard researches shows, when we use the same model for both, animal agriculture becomes the biggest driver of global heating. In this episode, Gerard explains his research and other problems with emissions calculation, including how deforestation is disregarded and methane is misrepresented. He calls all of this inconsistent emissions accounting—and it could be leading policy-leaders astray. Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. Join subscribers from 186 countries to support independent journalism. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe [https://www.planetcritical.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

How do we survive? Max Wilbert [https://maxwilbert.substack.com/] is a long-time activist who spent the past few years defending Thacker Pass, and recently joined CELDF [https://celdf.org/] to as part of their new strategy to build out community resilience. I first interviewed Max [https://www.planetcritical.com/p/bright-green-lies-max-wilbert] on why techno-optimism won’t save the day. As with many compatriots around the world, the answer he’s landed on as to what will is local action. In this winding and weaving conversation we discuss the new bill on the floor of the New York State Senate which would give rights of nature to all water in the state before examining legal strategies more broadly under the umbrella of climate activism. We then examine Empire’s death throes and how it is violently grasping at power to maintain itself. We discuss violence and defence, patriarchy and permaculture, showing how resilience is an act of resistance in a system which has spent the past 500 years ripping apart our communal social fabric. This is a conversation about how to reweave a tapestry that had been lost to us, and why doing is of vital importance to survive what’s coming. Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis. Join subscribers from 186 countries to support independent journalism. Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe [https://www.planetcritical.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]