For this edition we spoke to Ariane Krause, engineer, researcher, and founding member of KAnTe (Kollektiv für Angepasste Technik – in English, “Collective for Appropriate Technology”) about their work around sustainable technologies, circular economy, and appropriate technology in Germany. Focusing primarily composting, charcoal and favourite topic, compost toilets, they host workshops and produce educational materials as well as coordinating larger projects. We take a deep dive into their ongoing efforts to bring practitioners, small companies, and researchers together for collaborative ..read more

This time Lucy reports back from her trip earlier this year to Dinacon – the international “digital naturalism conference”, bringing together jungle, beach, ocean, microprocessors, new media art, DIY science, food-phreaking, crafting, coconuts, robots, crystals, drones, crabs, cats, disturbing intertidal invertebrates and a great many interdisciplinary humans for 6 weeks on a small island in Thailand. The podcast is an interview with conference organisers Tasneem Kahn and Andy Quitmeyer. We talk about why and how they put Dinacon together, the experiences that lead them there, and the fu ..read more

We spoke to Célya Gruson-Daniel, cofounder of Paris-based community, Hack your PhD, and social scientist. Célya started out as a community organiser and advocate for open science, writing and sharing the stories of open science proponents around the world, and connecting young scientists around the use of free and open source software, open data, and open practices in science. As her focus shifted towards activist research and eventually a PhD in social science, she describes how her shifting role has given her a broader insight into the meaning of open science for institutions. Taking as a c ..read more

In this episode we are really happy to present Kat Austen. She is an independent artist and researcher based primarily in Berlin. Starting from a deep concern for the environment she trained as a chemist, with a PhD on sources of anthropogenic pollution. pH meter circuit-bending. photo courtesy of Kat Austen However, whilst science and the scientific method is still the foundation of how she understands the world, she felt that the analytical methods she was using as a scientist lacked some broader understanding and didn’t connect to the urgency for action that she felt. So, in parallel to her ..read more

For our second episode we talk to Winnie Poncelet from Ghent, Belgium, about biohacking, biofabrication, open source, strategies for building sustainable independent DIY science communities, and the pitfalls of breeding insects in your parents’ basement. photo courtesy of Winnie Poncelet He co-founded the diybio community lab, ReaGent, in 2015 which has since spun out into an ecosystem of non-profits and companies and cooperatives that work together with a shared goal of knowledge sharing, education, open source development, and making science accessible to all. We’re really wowed by their co ..read more

It is done! We finished our first episode and we could not be happier with our guest, Dawn Walker! The Toronto based data activist gave us an insight into the work of EDGI, the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative. photo courtesy of Dawn Walker In the wake of the Trump election and the realisation that a very climate un-friendly administration was about to take power, EDGI sprung into action and took on an enormous task. With the memory of the actions of the former Canadian administration’s attacks on climate policy under Stephen Harper still fresh, EDGI rapidly assembled a large co ..read more