Collaborating with EIA to create podcasts for King’s College’s climate change action module
Who am I?
Hello! My name is Oliver Yu Hurst and I’m studying a part-time MSc in Climate Change: Environment, Science & Policy in the Department of Geography at King’s College London and I graduated from Queen Mary University of London in 2021 with a BSc in Geography with Business Management.
I’ve been a volunteer with the EIA since March 2022 and aspire to gain a career along the interface between academia and social-environmental justice, working within public, charity, creative, think-tank, social enterprise and/or non-governmental/civil society organisation sectors.
What were the podcast episodes for?
Since July 2022, I’ve been co-creating a university-wide module at King’s called ‘Sustainability and Climate Change #TakeAction’, available to all staff, students and alumni.
This provides a broad overview of key topics in social, environmental and economic sustainability and how people can get involved and make a difference on different scales.
Given the expansive nature of sustainability and climate change, I led on how to ensure the module showcases multiple perspectives from western/global north to indigenous, southern, decolonial and intersectional environmentalism.
Melting ice in the Antarctic
Why create episodes with EIA?
Having volunteered with the EIA for a couple months, I soon realised how diverse its fields of work are and the myriad backgrounds and experiences of its campaigners and staff.
Working with the Climate team researching China’s responses to the Kigali Amendment of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer encouraged me to create a section in the module dedicated to looking at why ozone management complements and is a threat to climate action (and vice versa).
This soon got very text-heavy, so interviewing Climate Campaigner Sophie Geoghegan to provide a more interactive education source just felt like the right thing to do!
I also recorded an insightful interview with campaigners Tom Gammage and Lauren Weir from the Ocean Team about EIA’s critical role this year towards securing a global plastics treaty, alongside topics of circular economy, plastics and environmental justice.
These topics appear throughout the module, so I couldn’t resist creating another episode while further showcasing the wealth of knowledge and experience of EIA.
Plastic pollution in Bali, Indonesia
What was the experience like?
Enjoyable. I’ve conducted countless interviews for my BSc and MSc, so this boosted my confidence when planning and interviewing EIA staff.
However, this was my first time in creating and editing a podcast episode. Fortunately, I received invaluable support from Digital Implementation Manager Chris Buckler in processing audio tracks and a bunch of terminology that I won’t risk explaining wrong here!
This was a great opportunity to gain some insight into the complexities of, and software used for, sound editing and has certainly opened my eyes as to how crucial this is for an environmental campaigning organisation such as EIA.
Liaising with Head of Communication Paul Woolwich, Senior Press & Communications Officer Paul Newman and Volunteer Coordinator Dean Roberts also helped me to understand the ‘behind-the-scenes’ elements of the production of communications materials.
* Connect with Oliver via LinkedIn.
