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A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.

12/24/2025

2025 - a GoodGeist Retrospective

Send us a text It's time for some GoodGeist year-end reflections from our co-host Damla and Steve. We take you across 2025’s most revealing sustainability moments, from radical listening that halted deforestation by focusing on community health, via an off-grid box turning sunlight into clean water within hours, to city-scale transport fixes that make streets safer, air cleaner, and commutes saner. It's 25 minutes of practical optimism, gathering stories that prove change is built locally and scaled through trust, clarity, and good design. Our tour spans continents and disciplines. We revisit the ethnography of behaviour change, new money concepts and sustainable finance, and the thorny dilemmas of philanthropy and concentrated wealth. Guests challenged language itself: when “sustainability” feels poisoned by greenwash, how do we reframe for honesty and impact? From “belly’s not bins” to cocoa that respects farmers and forests, food became a lens for agency at home and accountability in supply chains. We also dig into retrofit and property innovation, the unglamorous but essential work of upgrading what we’ve already built to cut carbon, bills, and cold homes. And the closing truth we carry into 2026? No-one can be sustainable alone. Hold the line with us, share this conversation, and if it moved you, subscribe, rate, and leave a review so more people can find it. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

27 min
12/17/2025

The Creative Truth, with Steve Mayer

Send us a text Want a sustainability claim that inspires without inviting a regulator into your inbox? We sit down with Steve Meyer, director of Carbon Blue Solutions, to explore how. From mangrove forests and seagrass meadows to desert halophytes, Steve first of all explains why blue carbon stores CO2 for millennia and how that changes the maths on offsets, resilience, and coastal protection. Then we shift to the communications frontier and EcoApprase, an AI-assisted tool that scores green claims on clarity, evidence, scope, and risk. It flags risky phrases like planet-friendly and net zero without boundaries, offers practical rewrites, and stays current with fast-moving case law so marketers can publish with confidence. We talk with Steve about how, across the UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, we see the same pattern: bold sustainability stories need proof, baselines, and clear KPIs. India’s rapid enforcement and real-world pollution pressures are accelerating adoption, while “recyclable” claims face a tougher test when local facilities don’t exist. The message is simple: creativity thrives under discipline, and defensible claims help teams avoid both greenwashing and greenhushing. And along the way, Steve shares what keeps him motivated—watching genuine builders get the backing to scale solutions that matter. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

30 min
12/03/2025

The Feminist Art of Walking, with Morag Rose

Send us a text What if a walk could change how a city works? We sit down with walking artist, activist, and academic Morag Rose to explore psychogeography as a living practice—one that uses curiosity, conversation, and gentle mischief to reclaim streets from noise, ads, and exclusion. From dérives guided by pigeons and dice to community-led wanders across Manchester, Morag shows how moving side by side can dissolve hierarchies, surface hidden histories, and open a path toward more just, accessible and sustainable places. We dig into the Loiterers Resistance Movement and its simple, radical premise: the streets belong to everyone Morag challenges the myth of the lone flâneur by centring collective walking and a feminist ethic of care. We talk accessibility and crip time, acknowledging that bodies move at different speeds and that true inclusion requires benches, toilets, lighting, and safe routes as standard, not extras. Morag’s new book, The Feminist Art of Walking, and her monthly First Sunday invitations offer a blueprint for community-led exploration that turns urban design into a shared conversation. If you’ve ever wondered who public space is really for, this conversation hands you the map to redraw it together. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

27 min
11/26/2025

The Myths of Aviation, with Denise Auclair

Send us a text The airport‑as‑engine of growth story is powerful, but the data tells a different story. We sit down with Denise Auclair, who leads the Travel Smart campaign at Transport & Environment, to unpack a new Europe‑wide study that tracks the real relationship between air traffic and prosperity across 274 regions. The headline is striking: in much of northern and western Europe, economic growth tends to drive more flying rather than flying driving growth. Once networks mature, extra frequencies deliver diminishing returns, and the old promise of expansion starts to look like a costly habit. We explore why aviation’s emissions are so hard to tackle and we also dig into tourism balances: when cheap flights pull residents abroad, local economies can lose more than they gain, especially when a small group of frequent flyers accounts for a large share of trips. Join us as we map a practical route to sustainable travel with Denise: clearer evidence, better choices, and systems that reward time, health, and climate, not just passenger counts. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

35 min
11/19/2025

AI Shaping the Future, with Sam Fankuchen

Send us a text In this episode we sit down with Golden’s founder and CEO, Sam Fankuchen, to explore how AI, ethics, and interoperability can transform volunteering from good intentions into measurable, scalable impact. Sam’s story begins with a near loss on 9/11, a moment that reshaped his purpose and his focus on removing friction so more people can contribute meaningfully and safely. We look at the state of AI and how to create an ethical framework for its use, with guardrails and evals that keep outputs accountable. We also discover that if you want to stay ahead in an AI-driven world, you need to absorb the very latest innovations on a daily basis. Sam explains why agents are changing the resource equation for nonprofits and public agencies—automating research, fundraising, policy mapping, and programme audits while keeping humans in the loop. The result is a “shadow organisation” that scales capacity without sacrificing trust. If you lead a team or support a cause, this conversation offers a playbook for ethical AI adoption, cross-sector collaboration, and systems thinking that actually moves the needle. Have a listen to our latest GoodGeist! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

33 min
11/06/2025

The Italian Take, with Filippo Nani

Send us a text Direct (sort of) from the bustling floor of Ecomondo in Rimini we have a great conversation with Filippo Nani, president of FERPI in Italy and veteran strategist in public relations. Together with Filippo we explore how credible communications can unlock real progress on sustainability, from major strategic decisions to building stakeholder trust, with the stories that inspire action across industries. Filippo traces his path from journalism and government spokesperson to agency leadership, revealing how narrative craft and public accountability shape the green economy. We unpack the persistent “green vs growth” myth and examine why investors, banks, and customers increasingly reward companies that commit to measurable, transparent climate strategies. The theme is clarity over hype: no easy fixes, but real momentum where incentives, proof, and purpose align. We also dive into the changing craft of communications. How AI, used well, gives practitioners more time for strategy and better tools for research and analysis. Anchored by FERPI’s Venice Pledge, Filippo argues for ethical AI practices, disclosure to stakeholders, and keeping humans at the centre of every decision. Listen in to a great conversation about the future of communications - and sustainability - in Europe. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

9 min
10/29/2025

Sustainability is Bullsh*t, with Kasper Bjørkskov

Send us a text In this episode we chat with activist and former architect Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov as he shares his journey from major architecture studios to founding No Objectives, a nonprofit using design, marketing, and policy interventions to turn 'minority rights into majority action'. We dig into playbooks that move the needle: a municipal carbon budget calculator that treats emissions like money, so councils can plan within science‑based limits; Denmark’s (beautifully designed!) Reduction Roadmap, which rallied companies to demand binding caps aligned with the Paris Agreement; and a new method to quantify offsite biodiversity loss in supply chains, paired with obligations to restore the areas harmed. Along the way, Casper makes the cultural case for aesthetics as strategy. If the next economy looks worse, people will resist it. If it looks and feels better, the centre follows. The heart of the conversation challenges language that has lost meaning. In a degenerative system breaching planetary boundaries, nothing is “sustainable” in isolation. Sustainability is an outcome, not a pathway. Regeneration is the work: restoring living systems while deepening democracy and shifting power over production. Listen in and if this episode sparked new thinking, follow the show, share it with a friend who cares about climate and culture, and leave a review to help others find us! Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

28 min
10/22/2025

Local Action, Global Change with Yunus Arıkan

Send us a text In this episode we're talking to Yunus Arıkan, Director of Global Advocacy at ICLEI, to look at how local government is at the centre of global climate action, and why the path to 1.5°C runs through streets, budgets, and everyday choices. From the Earth Summit and Local Agenda 21 in the nineties to COP30 in Belém, we connect the dots between global agreements and real change on the ground. We explore the three essentials every city needs to deliver: skilled teams that can steer investment, deep community engagement that builds consent and momentum, and visible leadership that models that shift. Our conversation challenges the myth that only global capitals lead on the transition. Small and mid-sized cities often move faster, delivering zero-waste systems in Malaysia for example, or rapid fleet electrification at the scale of Guangzhou. The lesson is clear: innovation is not a postcode; it’s a mindset backed by governance. Listen in if you care about sustainable urban planning, climate policy, and how to turn big goals into real outcomes – this conversation with Yunus offers practical insights and honest hope. Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

33 min

A podcast on sustainability, hosted by Damla Özlüer and Steve Connor, brought to you by the DNS Network. Looking at sustainability issues, communications, and featuring global guests from a wide variety of sectors such as business, NGOs and government.

Creator

DNS
Years Active

2024 - 2025
Episodes

97
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2025 GoodGeist
Show Website

GoodGeist