ProGRESS
Every episode of ProGRESS brings insights and information about eclectic career paths direct from the people working, living and learning in values-led jobs.Guests range from sustainability consultants and managers, researchers, green and ethical entrepreneurs, environmentalists, ecologists and conservationists plus others working and studying in architecture. We talk to campaigners, city planners, comedian (yes really!), philosophers, psychologists, scientists, serious games creators and technologists and many more besides, all united by their goals to improve the planet and offer a hand up to younger listeners and career changers seeking values-led work and green home lives.Whether you're starting out, mid-career, looking...
10
Holly Westgarth-Graham, Masters student at Edinburgh Futures Institute
<p>Holly Westgarth-Graham has returned to her studies after a spell working as an intern for sustainable travel company Byway, the flight-free holiday platform. She talks about how she is carving out her own future, bringing ethical and eco-storytelling together with ethical innovation and strategic foresight, which she is specialising in, along with AI implementation, at Edinburgh Futures Institute.</p><br><p>Influenced by Byway Travel colleagues such as Kurt Henderson, a polymath designer, musician and eco-traveller, and business founder and CEO Cat Jones, and COO Holly Clarke (as well as many others), Holly talks about learning calling on interdisciplinary...
Elspeth Yates, career coach at Happier Humans and head of people at Change Agents
<p>This episode drops in January, traditionally the month when people quit their jobs or evaluate whether what they are doing is the right thing for them.</p><br><p>As an independent career coach alongside working as head of Change Agents UK's People and Placements team, Elspeth Yates helps people find their purpose in green careers.</p><br><p>She encourages them to look at their existing skills and examine how they might use them in a company more in line with their values, or enables them to bring their values to the workplace they're already in.</p><br><...
Whitni Thomas, Head of Corporate Finance, Triodos Bank UK
<p>How do you land a job at a bank that creates positive social, environmental and cultural change? And how do you get to hear about banks like Triodos in the first place?</p><br><p>Whitni Thomas, the daughter of missionaries (her father is a vicar), says that she never meant to go into banking.</p><br><p>Yet she landed a plum (and highly sought-after) graduate role at JP Morgan, despite telling her careers advisor at university that she did not want a corporate career and she didn't want to work in New York.</p><br><p>But...
Carlos Terol, changemaker, responsible entrepreneur
<p>Carlos Terol is a founder at Good Ripple, a community of change-makers who want to make a difference in the world.</p><br><p>He describes his fascinating journey to find meaning and purpose in his work life over the last 10 years, and how he is enabling others to make positive, ethical social impact through their own jobs.</p><br><p>To wind the clock back to his early career, Carlos's love of maths, problem solving and science led him into a civil engineering degree, but he became downhearted after applying for hundreds of jobs and getting nowhere. Then...
Dr Jessica Tipton Head of the National Education Nature Park at the Natural History Museum
<p>Dr Jessica Tipton, or Jess as she is known, is head of the National Education Nature Park at the Natural History Museum, a project commissioned by the Department for Education as part of its Sustainability and Climate Strategy.</p><br><p>In 2020 Jess founded the UK Schools Sustainability Network (UKSSN) as head of youth networks at Global Action Plan. She led a delegation of students to the COP26 global climate summit and instigated the annual online Youth Climate Summit.</p><p>In addition to all of the above, Jess has worked as a policy adviser at the Department for...
The big five-zero. Season five finale and round-up
<p>Here's the Series 5 grand finale, featuring the best bits of the latest guests on ProGRESS, the podcast promoting green, ethical, sustainable and socially responsible careers.</p><br><p>The podcast was set up with the notion that listeners might like tips and ideas for how to follow in guests’ footsteps if they wanted to do something similar. As time has gone on, and 50 episodes in, it’s apparent that many of the guests have good human interest stories to tell about making a difference to the planet so win-win!</p><br><p>Everyone on the show has brought something speci...
Reena Mahajan, Urban planner, designer and advocate for sustainable development
<p> Drawn to both science and the arts when she was at school, Reena Mahajan’s studies and work took her to three continents. She studied architecture in New Delhi before moving to Paris to study urban planning and sustainable development. When she moved to Uruguay, she broadened her horizons and studies into gender responsive design and children-friendly planning.</p><br><p>Now a strong advocate for sustainable development, women’s mobility, social impact and gender equality – among other things – Reena founded Studio Divercity, with a mission to transform car-dominated urban areas into people-centric spaces. She recently set up StreetSmart, a digita...
Sarah Flynn, Psychologist, author and human sustainability coach
<p><br></p><p>Sarah Flynn is a career coach who works with purpose-led, empathic leaders making a difference to the world. In addition, Sarah teaches resilience for sustainability leaders on the Cambridge sustainability leaders masters.</p><br><p>Discussing her own squiggly career journey, Sarah explains how she felt when she discovered psychology as a teenager and then became inspired to study it in depth, thinking she’d work in clinical psychology. </p><br><p>She talks about moving to Italy to teach English as a foreign language, what led her into working in psychotherapy and how she became fir...
Matteo Menapace, Serious, ethical, cooperative games designer
<p>When he was young Matteo Menapace spent many afternoons playing video games and learnt to code so he could hack his first game. </p><p>So how does a kid playing video games (with a Saturday job making pizzas) turn his hobby into a professional career that challenges people to think about the most pressing issues of the era, including climate change?</p><br><p>Listen to hear the philosophy and ethics behind serious games design, why you don’t need to have studied graphics, games design or even to have a degree to be a successful games designer and...
Johnathon Miller-McCall, Science communicator, conservationist and nature nerd
<p>Johnathon Miller-McCall grew up in South London, seemingly an unpromising location for wildlife observation and a career as a conservationist, science communicator and storyteller.</p><br><p>Yet, Johnathon reveals, there are more than 14,000 species in the city, and it’s one of the world’s largest urban forests – you just need to know where to look.</p><br><p>Now Johnathan wears three hats, working as a comms and engagement officer for Synchronicity Earth, as a presenter and content executive for Earth Minutes and creating content for his own feeds.</p><br><p>So how does a shy boy go...
