Living Planet

Tea and coffee. Millennia-old drinks that fuel our mornings and shape our cultures. But behind every steaming cup lies a journey across continents, a web of farms and workers, and a pretty hefty environmental tab. Which one leaves the bigger footprint, and how can we shrink it? We trace their histories, their impact, and some things we can do to brew a better future.

We love the smell of fresh laundry – but at what cost? In Episode Four of our Greener Living series, we unpack how our quest for "clean" has been shaped by marketing, not necessity – and how it’s filling our air, water, and bodies with microplastics and nasty chemicals. The good news? A few simple changes can lighten the load.

Who's a good boy? We love our pets (how could we not?) – and they love us back. But the way we care for our furry companions says a lot about how we consume, what we value, and the systems we're part of. In Episode Three, we reveal the environmental pawprint of having pets and what it can teach us about ourselves. Not to worry though – we're still allowed to have nice things, including pets.

Decipher the back of your sunscreen bottle with the help of an ecotoxicologist in Episode Two of our Greener Living series. Craig Downs helps us understand, and if we're honest, pronounce, the chemicals that have become the norm for protecting ourselves from skin cancer. But what exactly are they doing to the marine life at our favorite beaches?

Summer is here, vacation is calling, and Living Planet is out of the office. But not to worry, we’ve lined up five great episodes of our favorite tips for living a greener life. Take a spin with us in Episode One as we weigh the pros and cons of driving an EV versus hanging on to an older car. The experts we spoke with had some surprising answers.

Summer is here and the living is easy. Well, maybe not so easy when it comes to making environmentally friendly choices! From sunscreen to your next car, your pet's diet to your morning caffeine fix, our Greener Living series shares useful tips to make better decisions for yourself and the planet. Download this series for some easy listening on your next family road trip or day at the beach.

By day Matt Winning works on climate policy. By night, he’s turning scientific data into jokes. Fusing razor-sharp research with dry Scottish wit, Matt uses stand-up to make the climate crisis feel less distant, more human, and a lot harder to ignore.

Nuclear power is making a comeback in Japan. But in Hokkaido, indigenous Ainu communities are being sidelined as their ancestral land is eyed for nuclear waste storage. The Ainu musician Oki Kano leads a quiet resistance - raising questions about justice and who gets a say in the race to decarbonize.

Even in five episodes, we couldn’t cover everything. So in this bonus epilogue, Neil and Kathleen sit down with reporters Sam Baker and Charli Shield to unpack some questions we left on the cutting room floor – from the messy consequences of outdated US flood maps to why helping poorer countries leapfrog fossil fuels matters to us all – plus your comments, a few laughs, and final reflections.

It's the trip of a lifetime. A journey to the end of the Earth, where icebergs groan and penguins shuffle. More tourists are flocking to Antarctica than ever before, drawn by a sense of urgency as climate change melts its ice caps. But what happens when we turn the last wild places into destinations? And what can Antarctica teach us about our role as visitors in a changing world?