Members of the Transformations to Sustainability project teams have been featured in a number of thought-provoking podcasts in the past few weeks, on a broad range of topics relevant for understanding the social transformations required to create more sustainable and more equitable societies. All the podcasts give a taster of the research being undertaken in the different T2S projects, and all are available to listen to now:

30 minute listen: Climate Resilient Cities

Home to the majority of the world’s population and on the front-lines of climate change, ‘cities are going to feel the crunch’, as this New Foundations Podcast from The Economist puts it. Tune in to hear Neil Adger, Project lead for MISTY: Migration, Transformation and Sustainability share findings from research with migrant communities in Bangladesh. To create climate-resilient cities for the future, it’s essential to integrate human perspectives and to think about how people actually live in and use cities around them…

• Find out more about the MISTY project
• Read our interview with Neil Adger: Is migration an untapped resource in transformations to sustainability?

50 minute listen: Vaccines

When the world needs vaccines (and quickly), how does the patent system affect development and production? In this highly topical podcast, Frank Tietze, Principle Investigator with IPACST: The Role of Intellectual Property to Accelerate Sustainability Transitions project, provides an accessible overview of the different facets of intellectual property rights and discusses how they relate to vaccines. Exploring the IP rights that may support – or alternatively hinder – the development of urgently needed vaccines, can have learnings for the development of green technology which is required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions…

• Find out more about the IPACST project.
• Read the IPACST Knowledge brief on Intellectual Property.

70 minute listen: Imaginations of Control – Andy Stirling

Scientists are often called upon to ‘speak truth to power’, especially in crisis situations. But it’s essential to explore the assumptions that lie behind that statement, and consider how power shapes truth, says Andy Stirling, Principle Investigator for the Governance of Sociotechnical Transformations (GoST) project, in this podcast from Forest of Thought. Through discussions with host Ingrid M. Rieser, this podcast explores how science is necessary and essential, but not sufficient in and of itself. With an in-depth look at the use of scientific evidence with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic and global environmental change, this podcast explores what we can all do to respond to societal challenges with care and humility…

• Find out more about the GoST project
• Read Don’t save ‘the world’ – embrace a pluriverse, by Saurabh Arora and Andy Stirling.