Interview with Zoe Cohen, board level director, Master Coach and Activist

The Public Affairs in Practice Podcast

In an interview episode, I talk to Zoe Cohen, a highly experienced board-level director and Master Coach.

We talk about the importance of taking action to save the planet, climate communications, her activism and work with Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.

This episode was recorded before the recent UK General Election and *WARNING* it does contain some swearing.

Learn more about me and my services @CWE Communications

Thanks to my editor Callums World.

Zoe has kindly provided some links and reading materials for us as well.

Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and support – it’s really important for those of who feel this deeply to not be on our own with it, and to seek support, see https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/index.php/find-support Planetary Boundaries – I described how 6 of the 9 ‘planetary boundaries’ have been identified as broken/passed – here is the framework behind that, developed by Professor Johan Rockstrom and colleagues -https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html (there’s a Netflix movie on it too, with David Attenborough if people prefer, but of course it’s less blunt than it needs to be) The ‘Humanity Project’ - https://humanityproject.uk/ - I talked about the project here in the UK to upgrade democracy, through local community assemblies, and a new grass roots national people’s assembly – by the people for the people And just to add – deliberative democracy and citizens assemblies can be global as well as local and national. A Global Assembly was run in 2021 https://globalassembly.org/ with 100 ordinary people from all over the world. Now a coalition of organizations, individuals and governments are working to establish a permanent Global Citizens’ Assembly, to address humanity’s greatest challenges, and try to place citizens at the heart of global governance. See https://www.gcacoalition.org/ ‘Breaking Together’ – I recommend this book by Professor Jem Bendell. It is a critical and multidisciplinary in-depth view of our current predicament, and some of the potential responses to it. Jem’s blog is here and includes a page on the book with a free e-read version - https://jembendell.com/2023/04/08/breaking-together-a-freedom-loving-response-to-collapse/ The ’Great Simplification’ - If people aren't already familiar with it, this as Nate Hagen’s podcast and YouTube series -https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/ - also a good source of multidisciplinary, big picture perspectives on our human predicament, whilst I don’t necessarily agree with all the perspectives represented, it’s still a good source. ‘Defend Our Juries’ - https://defendourjuries.org/ this is an important campaign which began last year to defend all UK citizens rights to a fair jury trial. Jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience – but this is under attack in multiple ways and must be defended. ‘This is Rigged’ - https://www.thisisrigged.org/ - This is a great youth-led, campaign in Scotland, which is taking nonviolent action to pressure the government on food justice to ensure everyone can eat and no one goes hungry