The Green Dream with Dana Thomas Dana Thomas

This month has been one of the most sparkly in ages. First, we had the Met Gala in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute's annual black-tie fundraiser, to kick off its latest blockbuster exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, on show until July 16. Invitees were asked to dress in homage to Karl Lagerfeld, the longtime designer of Chanel, Fendi, and Chloé, as well as his own namesake brand. Karl died in 2019, at the age of 85. That dictate meant high glamor on the red carpet, with lots of important jewelry. 
A few days later, there was the coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey, and while, in these difficult economic times, guests were asked not to wear coronets and tiaras, there was still a lot of remarkable jewelry on display, most notably the King and Queen's crowns. 
And now we have the Cannes Film Festival, a two-week-long glittering Red Carpet parade on the Riviera, and, by far, the glamest cinema event of the year. Anything and everything goes at Cannes.
To talk about all this shimmer and shine, and how it's sustainable–because, yes, it is–we have leading jewelry expert Carol Woolton. When Carol joined Tatler magazine in London in 2001, she created the role of jewelry editor, one she later carried on to British Vogue, and one that is now an important post at all major glossy magazines. She has written several books on the subject, including The New Stone Age, and coming this fall, Dolce & Gabbana High Jewelry, published by Rizzoli. And Carol has her delightful podcast, called If Jewels Could Talk. On it, she speaks with owners of important jewelry collections, and about the history of famous jewelry. This fall, a book inspired by the podcast, also called If Jewels Could Talk, will be published by Simon & Schuster.
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Carol Woolton and If Jewels Could TalkDiscover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio

When people talk about trying to reduce their carbon footprint, the one item that almost always comes up in the conversation is air travel. And with reason. Researchers believe that aviation accounts for approximately four percent of human-induced global warming–more than most countries, including Germany. If the aviation industry was a country, it would be the sixth largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan.
What to do? ​​The world's population is not going to stop flying. Quite the opposite: there were nearly 40 million flights in 2019, pre-pandemic, and the numbers are quickly reaching that record again, and will bypass it swiftly. Next year, that number is expected to be four percent higher, and by the mid-2030s–a mere ten years from now–experts predict that there will be 200,000 flights a day.
The only way to reduce aviation's impact on climate is to create an environmentally cleaner way to fly. And that's what our guest today, Val Miftakhov, is doing with his company Zero Avia. He'll explain how. 
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Val Miftakhov and Zero AviaDiscover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio

Four years ago this month, Notre-Dame de Paris, the 12th-century cathedral in the heart of Paris, caught on fire. The city was smothered in smoke for days, and hearts around the world were broken. Notre-Dame is a gem of gothic architecture, an incomparable beauty in the center of the city, and a site for pilgrimage and tourism. As the cathedral smoldered, the city of Paris pledged to rebuild it as it was. But the mayor had also set forth a plan to make Paris the greenest city in Europe by 2030, and realized that redoing the landscape around Notre-Dame in a more ecological manner could help Paris reach that goal. In September 2021, the city launched a pro-environment design competition for the site, and last summer, the jury selected a team led by our guest today, the award-winning Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets, who has specialized in taking hyper-urban, often desolate sites and turning them into eco-friendly oases. For Notre-Dame, he and his colleagues will use the same approach for the surrounding landscape–the parvis, as the West side plaza is known, and the gardens to the east. Their proposal will turn the Île de la Cité, the island in the Seine where Notre-Dame sits, into a sustainable microclimate. Bas is here on The Green Dream today to explain to us how they will do it.
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Bas Smets Discover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio

Today, we welcome Mya-Rose Craig, a 20-year-old British-Bangladeshi who is the foremost birdwatcher of her generation. Three years ago, Mya-Rose became the youngest person to have seen half the world's bird species. Mya-Rose, who grew up in a village near Bristol, England, has been a passionate conservationist and climate activist since she was a tween, when she launched her blog, called Birdgirl. We talk about her activism and the beauty of birds and all biodiversity in her new memoir, also called Birdgirl, The Times of London described her book as "a cross between a travel diary, an ornithologist's guide, and a thriller." And the esteemed writer Margaret Atwood has called Birdgirl, "Lyrical, poignant, and insightful." I think that's the perfect way to describe Mya-Rose, too. She spoke to us from her dorm room at Cambridge University in England, where she is studying Human, Social, and Political Sciences.
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Mya-Rose Craig and her memoir, BirdgirlDiscover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio

About a year ago, we welcomed on the Green Dream two Ukrainian fashion designers, Ksenia Schnaider and Ivan Frolov, to tell us about their harrowing experiences as the Russian army invaded their homeland. When we spoke, Ksenia was a refugee in Germany, with her husband and their young daughter, figuring out what to do next, and Ivan was at home in Kyiv, which was under heavy assault from the Russians. I thought, with the recent anniversary of the invasion, it would be a good time to check in with them and see how they are managing. Turns out they are as well as well can be, given the circumstances. This may be the most hopeful of all our Green Dream episodes. 
We also welcome back Hannah Elliott, luxury car writer for Bloomberg Pursuits, and a regular Green Dream contributor. She's going to tell us about her adventures as the first driver outside of the Rolls-Royce company to test drive the luxury motor brand's new EV, the Spectre. Yes, like the James Bond enemy. Hannah flew halfway around the world to take the wheel. How Bondian of her!
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Ksenia Schnaider and FrolovDiscover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio

It's Oscars Week next week, and to celebrate cinema's top awards ceremony, we've decided to have a glamorous movie episode here on The Green Dream. Our first guest is Shaunak Sen, the award-winning director of All That Breathes, a poetic documentary that has already won best documentary awards at both the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals – a first in cinema. And it has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.
Also on The Green Dream today is Time magazine film critic Stephanie Zacharek, who will tell us about other touching, and beautiful, environment-themed films in theaters or streaming right now. 
Read the transcript of this episodeGet to know Dana Thomas and her book FashionopolisLearn more about Shaunak Sen’s All That BreathesDiscover the fashion brand Another TomorrowExplore the new Green Dream website, thegreendream.studio