Second Nature
Second Nature is a podcast that explores the intersection of nature, business, finance, adventure, leadership, and politics. Host Rich Stockdale interviews people driving change in conservation and purpose-driven organizations. The show features stories of extreme journeys, conservation breakthroughs, and insights from leaders. It aims to challenge assumptions and inspire action for the planet's future.
Episodes
E198 Chris Winter: Scaling Intelligence - The Technology Behind the Future of Nature
Can AI transform how we understand, value and restore nature?Dr Rich Stockdale is joined by Chris Winter, newly appointed Managing Director of Oxygen Intelligence, to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence, technology and natural capital. From world-record carbon credit prices and AI-powered landscape analysis to drones, LiDAR and digital twins of individual trees, they reveal the tec
E197 Fiona Milden: Scaling Conservation - The People Making It Possible
Buying land is one thing. Transforming it is something entirely different.As Oxygen Conservation enters its next chapter, Fiona Milden steps into the role of Managing Director, responsible for turning some of the UK's most ambitious natural capital projects into reality. From woodland creation and peatland restoration to estate management, leadership and navigating extreme weather, the challe
E196 Manuel Pinuela: The Most Undervalued Asset Might Be Right Under Our Feet
Dr Manuel Piñuela is CEO and co-founder of Cultivo, the natural capital company approaching 2 million acres across North America. His argument is deceptively simple: take degraded landscapes, understand where the economic and ecological upside lies, regenerate them — and build something institutional capital can actually invest in. Rich and Manuel get into the reality behind that idea: natural cap
E195 Eliza Ecclestone & Gavin Lane: Why Britain Needs to Rethink What Its Countryside Is For
We ask an extraordinary amount of Britain's countryside.Produce our food. Restore nature. Store carbon. Hold floodwater. Build houses. Generate energy. Create jobs. Give people access. And, somehow, remain completely unchanged.Gavin Lane, President of the Country Land and Business Association, and Eliza Ecclestone, Vice President, were two of the most engaging people we've had around the
E194 New York Climate Week Live: The Uncomfortable Truth About AI, Climate Change & Nature
AI could be one of the most powerful tools we've ever had for nature. It could also make the problem considerably worse.Live from New York Climate Week, Rich Stockdale is joined by Anna Lerner, CEO of Climate Collective; Sheila Oviedo, Head of Climate and Nature Products at S&P Global; and Danan Margason, CEO of Aarden AI, to ask a deceptively simple question: will AI ultimately be positi
E193 Tim Wigmore: What Cricket Can Teach Us About Data, Business, Talent & Risk
Rich Stockdale has given away more copies of Crickonomics than any other book. Not because he is obsessed with cricket, although that helps, but because he thinks it might secretly be one of the best business books ever written.Tim Wigmore has spent his career using statistics, economics, history and brilliant writing to understand why cricket actually works. What followed became a conversation ab
E192 Sam Larner: Why Talent Alone Doesn't Build a Winning Team
What if the most valuable person in a rugby team isn’t on the pitch?Sam Larner has spent years pulling apart professional rugby through data. And the numbers expose some uncomfortable truths: teams overpay for experience, coaches repeatedly recruit the same profiles, unconventional players are systematically undervalued, and sometimes the difference between winning and losing is buried among 50,00
E191 Nadia Nikolova: The Uncomfortable Truth About Investing in Nature
Impact investing has spent years fighting for a tiny slice of institutional portfolios. Nadia Nikolova thinks that is the wrong fight.As CEO of ResponsAbility, managing almost $6 billion across emerging markets, Nadia sits at the intersection of institutional capital, climate, sustainable food and financial inclusion. She explains why impact investments should compete for the same 95% of portfolio
E190 Cain Blythe: Stop Trying To Save Nature! This Is How We Actually Fund It
For years, the nature sector built projects first and asked where the money would come from later.Cain Blythe thinks that has to change.From the first major investment into Broughton Sanctuary to Credit Nature's expansion across Europe, Africa and New Zealand, the conversation is finally moving beyond good intentions. Where is the demand? Who is going to buy? What return can nature generate?
E189 Nathan Curtis & Ben Stansfield: What Makes A Great Lawyer?
Nature is moving from environmental obligation to financial opportunity. But what does it actually take to turn biodiversity, habitat and ecosystem services into something institutional capital can invest in?Nath Curtis and Ben Stansfield have spent two decades watching renewable energy evolve from a new, uncertain industry into an investable infrastructure market. Now they are seeing many of the
E188 Tom Crowther: Stop Trying To Save The World
For years, the environmental movement told us to be afraid of the future. Tom Crowther thinks that story has run its course.From discovering 3 trillion trees on Earth to watching his trillion-tree research explode into a global movement, and then become one of the most criticised ideas in environmental science, Tom has seen what happens when a scientific idea escapes the lab. He talks about the ba
E187 Katie Neck & Elena Doms: Building A Movement
Nature doesn't have a science problem.It has a communication problem.From Formula 1 paddocks to boardrooms, from global brands to Climate Week, Katie Neck and Elena Doms explore why the future of conservation depends less on convincing people they're wrong and more on showing them what's possible. Commercial thinking, personal brands, storytelling and optimism aren't distractio
E186 Ollie Potter & Kevin Webb: The Nature Tech Revolution
Everyone agrees nature matters. Almost nobody understands where the real opportunity is.Nature tech is quietly becoming one of the most important investment themes of the next decade. AI is changing conservation faster than most people realise. Data centres are forcing a rethink of environmental infrastructure. And the companies that solve biodiversity, agriculture and ecosystem restoration won&ap
E185 Benedict Macon-Cooney: Winning The AI Century
Everyone agrees AI will change the world.Almost nobody is asking what happens when governments built for the industrial age try to govern the intelligence age.Benedict Macon-Cooney has spent over a decade inside the Tony Blair Institute, advising political leaders around the world on AI, state capacity and government reform. This isn't a conversation about chatbots. It's about whether We
E184 Soma Pitiryi: The Human Algorithm
Everyone talks about product-market fit. Hardly anyone talks about founder-market fit.Soma Pirityi believes we've been measuring startups the wrong way. After building businesses, losing money, working in venture capital and studying AI, risk and entrepreneurship across Cambridge, UCL and St Andrews, he reached a simple conclusion: companies rarely fail because of the spreadsheet. They fail b
E183 James Cameron: The Lawyer Who Changed Climate
James Cameron has spent four decades operating where politics, business and the environment collide. He helped shape modern international climate law, advised governments across the world, founded one of the first climate investment businesses to manage over $1.7 billion, and still believes the biggest opportunities are ahead of us.But this conversation isn't really about climate.It's ab
E182 Luke Baldwin: Rarer Than Diamonds
Luke Baldwin started a carbon credit business in 2023 — by his own admission, the worst possible year to do it. The market was in freefall, trust was gone, and nobody was buying. Two years later, his business closed the first deal in the world to capitalise future carbon removals as an intangible asset on a corporate balance sheet.This conversation goes into why the environmental sector still hasn
E181 Clifford Chance, Live: The Honest Room
Five years ago a carbon credit was $1 and largely a joke. Today it's hundreds of pounds a tonne, rated, insured, and traded on an exchange. The people who did that are in this room.Live at Clifford Chance during London Climate Action Week 2026, Rich convened a panel that doesn't usually end up on record together: a Magic Circle funds lawyer, the CEO of Climate Asset Management, a conserv
E180 Nature Inc. Live: Live From London Climate Week
The economy has always been a subsidiary of nature. We just didn't have the instruments to prove it. Now we do — and the conversation is getting uncomfortable in the best possible way.Recorded live at London Climate Week, this is the conversation the sector has been having in private, finally happening in public. Tripp Wall of Pantheon Regeneration, Siddarth Shrikanth of Just Climate, and Dim
E179 Allister Furey: Manufacturing Trust
Allister Furey trained as a biologist, fell into AI before anyone called it AI, built kite-powered wind energy systems, sold a company to a competitor, ran operations in Singapore, and ended up building a carbon ratings agency. Not because it was the plan. Because the market was lying and someone had to say so.Allister is CEO and co-founder of Sylvera — the data business that rates carbon and comm
E178 OC Round Table: Building A Dynasty
Five years ago there was no portfolio. No team. No podcast. No estates. The highest carbon credit price was under £20. Biodiversity net gain didn't exist. Rich had a business plan and a conviction that you couldn't scale conservation without capital — and almost everyone told him it was too complicated, too risky, or too ambitious.This episode is the five-year reckoning. Gathered with th
E177 Asger Strange-Olesen: The Additionality Problem
Asger Strange Olesen has spent 15 years building context most people in this space only claim to have. Carbon developer, EU Climate Directorate, FSC Global Chief Climate Officer, now heading climate and biodiversity at IWC — a $6bn forestry asset manager backed by BNP Paribas. He has been inside the policy rooms, the certification bodies, the investor meetings, and the forest itself.This conversat
E176 Richard Kelly & Robert Guest: Britain Is Running Out of Trees
Richard Kelly and Robert Guest were employees 63 and 64 at Foresight. They built a £150 million portfolio in 12 months, took it public on the London Stock Exchange during COP26, watched interest rates destroy their share price through no fault of their own, delisted — and then rebuilt. Within months of going private, their three biggest shareholders rolled straight back in. That's not a recov
E175 Insurance Round Table: The Market Nobody Talks About
Everyone talks about capital flows into nature. Nobody talks about what has to be true before that capital will move. Insurance isn't a nice-to-have in natural capital markets — it's the load-bearing wall. Without it, the deals don't close, the banks don't lend, the corporates don't buy. With it, you get carbon credits on a balance sheet as assets instead of liabilities. Y
E174 Ed Thorne & Greg Robson: Relationships Can't Be Automated
Greg Robson and Ed Thorne founded Sand River three years ago with a simple but radical premise: the companies solving the ecological crisis are the best businesses on earth — they just haven't been funded that way. Both came from operational backgrounds. Neither had the next great idea to save nature. What they had was the judgment to find the people who did.This conversation goes deep into h
E173 Tim Christophersen: The $7 Trillion Secret Destroying The Planet
Tim Christophersen had a UN contract running to 2038. Diplomatic passport. Lifetime security. A ringside seat to every major environmental agreement on the planet. He left. That decision tells you something important about where this man thinks the real leverage is — and where it isn't.He's spent 30 years building the architecture the world runs on: the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
E172 David Gerard: Wonder Is a Business Strategy
David Gerard has spent 30 years learning how to make people forget to be cool. From FAO Schwartz at six years old to the highest-rated show in Las Vegas, from Google's marketing floors to coaching Fortune 500 CEOs on stage presence, David has built a career at the intersection of wonder, attention, and human connection — and in an AI world that's automating everything else, that intersec
E171 Troy Carter: AI Will Save the Forests
Carbon markets are broken. Not because the projects don't work — but because nobody has decided they should. Troy Carter, founder of Earthshot Labs, has spent five years building the end-to-end infrastructure to get serious money into reforestation and conservation projects worldwide. He's watched the market go hot, go cold, and watched good operators go bankrupt for reasons that have no
E170 Dimitri Theocharis: The Hyperscalers Are Coming
Dimitri Theocharis grew up watching an economy collapse. So he left. New York, San Francisco, Harvard Business School. Then something unexpected: a climate startup in the UK that needed someone who understood both money and markets.Dimitri is now CEO of Ecologi, a platform at the intersection of carbon accounting, nature-based funding, and the voluntary carbon market — working with over 16,000 bus
E169 Tommy Ricketts: The Reckoning Is Coming
Tommy Ricketts is the co-founder and CEO of BeZero Carbon — the company that built the world's first carbon ratings agency, walked into COP26, and got told they were the single biggest risk to the carbon market. That was 2021. By 2023, the projects their critics were defending were in freefall.Tommy spent years at Bank of America training under a number-one ranked analyst, pitching ideas to h
E168 BNG Round Table: This is Still the First Chapter
Britain's biodiversity market was two years old when someone tried to kill it. Not deliberately — just through the spectacular collision of political timing, an overloaded planning system, and a regulatory bottleneck that hit at the worst possible moment. In this episode, I sit down with three of the people who were there — Emma Toovey of Environment Bank, Fiona Milden of Oxygen Conservation,
E167 Paul Beavis: Why I Left the Greatest Wines in the World
Paul Beavis ran a €90 million global champagne business. He was the face of one of the world's most prestigious drinks brands. And he walked away from all of it.What he built next took three years of searching every great wine region on earth, 178 attempts to name a single product, and a back vintage tasting at Claridge's that nobody in the industry thought was possible.Wild Idol is the
E166 Martin Berg: Nature Is Becoming a $1BN Business
A $1 billion bet on nature sounds like impact.It’s actually something far more uncomfortable.Martin Berg isn’t guessing where this goes—he’s building it. From inside global finance to running a $1BN natural capital platform, this is what happens when markets collide with ecosystems. Land becomes strategy. Carbon becomes currency. Biodiversity becomes… investable.But beneath the ambition sits tensi
E165 Dimple Patel: Stop Waiting For Permission
Dimple Patel didn't arrive at the CEO chair via the usual route. She grew up on a council estate in the north of England, the daughter of immigrants who had their house burnt down and opened the shop the next morning anyway. She got to Cambridge on scholarships, traded through the 2008 financial crisis at Goldman Sachs, scaled a coffee chain to 37 stores and sold it to private equity, pivoted
E164 Ian Simm: Nature Is The Next Big Trade
Can investing help solve environmental challenges — while still delivering strong returns?In this episode of the Oxygen Conservation Podcast, Rich Stockdale speaks with Ian Simm, Founder and CEO of Impax Asset Management.For more than two decades, Ian has been investing in companies that enable the transition to a more sustainable economy — from renewable energy and water infrastructure to smart m
E163 Vian Sharif: Finance, AI and the Future of Nature
What happens when financial markets finally realise nature isn’t external to the economy — but fundamental to it?In this episode of the Oxygen Conservation Podcast, Rich Stockdale speaks with Vian Sharif, Founder of NatureAlpha — a company using AI and environmental data to help financial institutions understand how their investments impact the natural world.Today, NatureAlpha’s insights inform in
E162 Will Foulkes: Retail Is Sitting On Untouched Billions
What if the fastest way to fund nature isn’t through donations… but through the global payments system?Will Foulkes left elite structured finance at a Magic Circle law firm to build something radical: a “green margin” embedded into everyday transactions that automatically funds nature restoration.From adding 1p to supermarket products, to integrating directly into Europe’s largest payment processo
E161 Lara Salam & Doris Koeck: We Built a Nature Algorithm
Everyone thinks Oxygen Conservation is a land company.It’s not. It’s a data platform from its absolute DNA.In this rare behind-the-scenes conversation, Rich sits down with the team building the engine that powers every acquisition, every restoration plan, and every carbon model. From screening every square metre of the UK using 50+ datasets, to deploying drones capturing 3cm resolution imagery, to
E160 Rob Gardner: Floods Will Break Britain
Rob Gardner isn’t trying to make nature sound good. He’s trying to make it investable.As CEO of Rebalance Earth, he’s building the UK’s first natural capital asset manager — structuring real revenue models around flood mitigation, water resilience, peatland restoration, and even oyster reefs. With a £25m cornerstone portfolio backed by West Yorkshire Pension Fund, this is institutional capital mov
E159 Giles Bristow: The Water Crisis Was Engineered
What does real leadership look like when the country’s rivers are polluted, the public is angry, and the system feels stuck?Giles Bristow, CEO of Surfers Against Sewage, has lived both sides of the fight — from environmental lawyer inside the corporate machine to leading one of the UK’s most recognisable grassroots movements.This is not a comfortable conversation.Rich and Giles go head-to-head on
E158 Mark Clayton: Is Your Bank Funding Extinction?
Most banks talk about values. Very few are willing to let those values shape decisions.Mark Clayton, CEO of Triodos Bank UK, leads a bank that treats impact as a discipline, not a slogan. Having worked at the heart of big finance, he understands how neutrality, risk, and growth are used to avoid responsibility — and what it takes to do things differently.This conversation goes inside the real trad
E157 Elena Doms: Is Europe Running Out of Time?
Why expand into Europe now — and why Elena Doms?This conversation marks a defining moment for Oxygen Conservation as it steps into Europe, with Elena Doms joining as Director of Europe. It’s not an expansion driven by ambition alone, but by timing — capital is mobilising, regulation is hardening, and credibility is suddenly the limiting factor.Rich Stockdale and Elena unpack what it really takes t
E156 Rowan Martin: This Isn’t for Everyone
What does elite talent really look like in conservation — and why do most hiring systems miss it completely?Rowan Martin is a walking contradiction to the sector’s stereotypes. A PhD scientist in butterfly vision. A mountain biker with an instinctive grasp of risk. An estate manager running real land, real projects, and real decisions in West Wales. A mother, creator, and operator who refuses to s
E155 Ben Gascoigne: Can Anyone Lead Britain Now?
British politics has a problem — and it isn’t policy. It’s belief.Ben Gascoigne has lived at the heart of the machine. From Downing Street to the House of Lords, he’s seen how power is won, how it’s lost, and why so many leaders fail to hold the country’s attention once they get there.This conversation cuts straight through the spin. Why politics feels empty. Why no one’s listening. Why authentici
E154 Tom Bradshaw: Who Is Killing British Farming?
Britain’s food system looks calm on the surface. Underneath, it’s under strain.Tom Bradshaw, President of the NFU, sits down with Rich Stockdale for a raw, wide-ranging conversation about what it really takes to feed 70 million people — and why UK farming is being pushed to the edge. From balancing family life with national leadership, to fighting for farmers inside Westminster, Tom pulls back the
E153 Alok Sama: Escaping the Trap
Alok Sama has lived where most people only speculate. Inside Morgan Stanley. Inside SoftBank. Inside the long, lonely thinking of Masayoshi Son.Rich and Alok strip away the mythology of success — the status, the deals, the adrenaline — and examine what’s left when the noise dies down. From the absurd rituals of high finance to the quiet psychological cost of ambition, this is an unvarnished look a
E152 Ed Mansel Lewis: The Price of Taste
English wine didn’t evolve — it accelerated. And now it’s facing the consequences.Ed Mansel-Lewis, Head of Viticulture at Knight Frank, joins Rich Stockdale for a wide-ranging conversation about what really determines success in modern wine — and why the industry is quietly shifting from rapid expansion to ruthless consolidation.From Champagne houses planting vines in Kent, to £30 non-alcoholic wi
E151 Nye Gordon: The New Power Line
Nye Gordon, Director at Guidehouse, joins Rich Stockdale PhD for a conversation that moves fast — from politics to engineering, from nature markets to climate resilience, from imposter syndrome to the dream of working from a lochside in Perthshire.Nye argues that nature isn’t a backdrop to energy infrastructure — it is infrastructure. A tool for resilience. A shield for assets that are about to fa
E150 Tom Sobey: Redefining Coffee Culture
Tom Sobey built Origin Coffee long before specialty coffee became a trend — and long before the industry understood what “quality” actually meant. ☕️This episode goes deep into the real story behind one of Europe’s most respected coffee brands: the early graft, the relentless focus on culture, the obsession with craft, and the uncomfortable decisions needed to scale without selling your soul.We ta
E149 Tasmin Chilcott: The Future of Outdoor Gear
Dryrobe didn’t just invent a product — they created a culture.In this episode, Rich sits down with Tasmin Chilcott, the unstoppable force behind Dryrobe’s sustainability mission, to unpack how a cold-car-park problem became one of the most influential outdoor brands in the world. From a mum’s homemade prototype to GB Olympic kit, Dryrobe has become the Hoover, Dyson and Google of its category — an
E148 David Hill: The Architect of BNG
What happens when an ecologist stops waiting for government — and builds the system himself?Professor David Hill CBE, founder of Environment Bank and the architect of biodiversity net gain (BNG), joins Rich Stockdale PhD for a conversation that rewrites the rules of conservation.From founding the UK’s first environmental consultancy to forcing Westminster to legislate for nature, David’s journey i
E147 Neil Beamsley: The Biodiversity Builder
Neil Beamsley doesn’t just build homes — he builds habitats.As Group Head of Biodiversity at Bellway Homes, Neil is leading one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders into uncharted territory: a world where development enhances nature, not erases it.From his early days in archaeology and ecology to shaping national policy on Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), Neil’s story is one of balance — between progress
E146 Don Macleod & Crawford Mackay: The Scotland Land Reform Bill
Scotland has just passed one of the most controversial pieces of land legislation in modern history — and we brought the experts into the Shoot Room for our first-ever round table to break it wide open.Rich Stockdale PhD sits down with Don MacLeod (lawyer and land reform specialist) and Crawford Mackay (partner at Galbraith) to dismantle the real implications of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill — t
E145 Joe Stanley: How Farmers Can Actually Save the Planet
Joe Stanley has spent his life on the land, but this conversation isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about the brutal, beautiful, and misunderstood reality of modern farming.A farmer, writer, and NFU environmental representative, Joe joins Rich Stockdale PhD to dismantle the myths about what it means to feed the nation while fighting climate change. From soil carbon and silvopasture to biochar and bureau
E144 Molly Biddell: The Wild Blueprint
They called Knepp reckless. Now it’s the blueprint for Britain’s environmental future.Molly Biddell, Head of Natural Capital at Knepp, joins Rich Stockdale PhD to talk about what happens when you stop controlling nature — and start trusting it.From the death of “sustainability” to the birth of new markets for nature, Molly pulls no punches on the realities of rewilding, regulation, and the courage
E143 Richard Peers: The Next Operating System
What if the future of tech wasn’t about faster chips — but deeper values?Richard Peers, founder of Responsible Risk and former Microsoft and Accenture leader, has lived through every technological revolution from the birth of the PC to the rise of AI — and he’s seen what we keep getting wrong.He built alliances without power, sold the future to people terrified of change, and watched as the world’
E142 David Marquet: The Leadership Mutiny
What if the best leaders stopped giving orders altogether?David Marquet — former US Navy submarine commander and author of Turn the Ship Around! — took command of the worst-performing crew in the fleet and transformed them into one of the best. His breakthrough wasn’t about charisma, authority, or discipline. It was about letting go.By replacing command and control with intent and trust, Marquet b
E141 James Shepherd: From Responsibility to Resilience
James Shepherd’s journey began in a family boatyard in South Staffordshire, but his path was never straightforward. Growing up with challenges at home, he learned responsibility far earlier than most, lessons that shaped both his resilience and his ambition.From Cambridge to Knight Frank, from shaping land to shaping a family, James shares how he’s navigated the shift from son to father, and what
E140 Carl Atkin-House: Scaling the Unscalable
What does “scale” really mean when you’re talking about saving the planet?For Carl Atkin-House — Head of Natural Capital Strategy at Climate Asset Management — it’s projects measured in tens of millions of dollars and thousands of hectares. Regenerative agriculture. Sustainable forestry. Environmental assets that prove nature can deliver institutional-grade returns.In this conversation, we go deep
E139 Andy Creak: Natural Capital: A Guide for Institutional Investors
Andy Creak isn’t here to talk about sustainability — he’s here to rewire finance itself.After decades building fintech platforms and taking on titans like Fidelity, Andy turned his attention to the one market still stuck in the dark ages: natural capital. With his company Kana, he’s creating the digital infrastructure to make investing in nature as easy — and as powerful — as buying stocks or bond
E138 Alex Godfrey: Carbon, Cash, and Collapse
Alex Godfrey left a career in high finance to rebuild the rules of investment around the only capital that matters: nature. From the Bolivian Amazon to UK estates, he’s seen firsthand how regenerative agriculture, biodiversity credits, and carbon markets can reshape not just land—but entire economies.This conversation cuts through the noise on ESG and digs into the real questions: How do we make n
E137 Guy Hayler: Building The Blue Earth Summit 2025
Guy Hayler doesn’t just talk about business as a force for good — he’s building the ecosystem to prove it.As co-founder of Blue Earth, Guy has raised £155 million for 60+ purpose-led companies and is connecting founders, corporates, and investors who actually want to change the system, not just tick a sustainability box.From the BE100 campaign filtering 1,000+ startups into the top 100, to BE Vent
E136 Julia Armstrong D'Agnese: Forecasting the Future
Julia Armstrong D’Agnese isn’t selling software. She’s building Earth Knowledge — digital twins of the planet that Fortune 500s, governments, and insurers use to see the future before it hits.From hurricanes to droughts, supply chain shocks to financial collapse — the risks are here, but most of us are still blind to them. Julia and her team fuse climate, weather, and nature data into something mo
E135 Peter Stein: The Conservation Deal-Maker
Peter Stein has spent his life proving that conservation isn’t about nostalgia—it’s about power, money, and strategy.From building urban parks in the South Bronx to managing Lyme Timber’s $900 million portfolio of forests, Peter has been at the intersection of land, finance, and community for decades. He’s seen how conservation easements can outlast politics, and how private capital can scale natu
E134 Anika Staccone: Nature Needs More Than Numbers
Anika Staccone has always lived at the edge of forests and frontiers. From watching pine beetles devastate her childhood landscapes in Colorado, to leading research on nitrogen-fixing trees at Columbia, her path has been shaped by the question of how we truly understand nature. Today, as Product Owner at Earthshot Labs, she is fusing AI, geospatial data and field science into tools that don’t just
E133 Tripp Wall: The Economics of Restoration
Can markets really bring ecosystems back to life?Tripp Wall thinks so — and he’s putting capital where most only put campaigns. As founder of Trailhead Capital and Pantheon Regeneration, he’s scaling restoration projects that don’t just conserve nature, but rebuild it: rivers, forests, biodiversity, and the communities that depend on them.We dive into the economics of regeneration — from voluntary
E132 Shannon Smith: The Truth Behind Offsets
Carbon markets could be the backbone of climate finance.Shannon Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at Chestnut Carbon, joins Rich Stockdale PhD to unpack one of the most controversial tools in climate finance. From planting 30,000 acres of diverse forests to signing a 25-year, 7-million-tonne carbon removal deal with Microsoft, Chestnut Carbon is moving at scale. Backed by JP Morgan, powered by LIDAR
E131 Lauren Carrol: Through the Lost Forest
Lauren Carrol, Chief Operating Officer at BrewDog, takes us inside one of the most talked-about sustainability moves in business: the acquisition — and sale — of The Lost Forest.From a dinner with David Attenborough to buying a Scottish estate, BrewDog has never shied away from bold, ambitious action. Their decision to pass Kinrara Estate on to Oxygen Conservation reflects a recognition that the p
E130 Tim Graham: Wilding Without Limits
What if the systems meant to protect nature are actually holding it back? Tim Graham has spent 20 years inside the world of conservation, and he’s not afraid to call out what’s broken—and what’s possible.From reviving lost species and shaping national policy, to navigating bureaucracy and ethical minefields, Tim takes us behind the scenes of nature recovery like few others can. Rewilding isn’t jus
E129 Paul McMahon: From Soil To Scale
What if farming wasn’t broken — just funded the wrong way?Paul McMahon, Managing Director of SLM Partners, joins Rich to reveal how regenerative agriculture and forestry can become profitable, scalable, and investable.From cattle that restore grasslands to continuous-cover forestry, from carbon markets to “lighthouse” farms inspiring the next generation — this is about turning food and forests int
E128 Franjo Salic: Recharging the Energy Revolution
What if the future of energy isn’t in building new projects — but rebuilding smarter ones?Franjo Salic, Chief Investment Officer at CEE Group, joins Rich in Rotterdam to reveal how repowering and hybridisation are transforming renewables. From turning a 50 MW solar farm into 140 MW on the same land, to combining wind, solar, and storage into resilient super-sites, Franjo explains the real innovati
E127 Jake Fiennes: The Wild Return to Holkham
Forget what you think you know about conservation.Jake Fiennes, Director of Conservation at Holkham Estate, is rewriting the rules of land management, biodiversity, and environmental investment in the UK. From bringing cattle egrets and white-tailed eagles back to Norfolk skies, to challenging centuries-old subsidy systems, to asking why ancient woodlands are still undervalued—this episode doesn’t
E126 Jim Murray: Putting a Spotlight On The Stream
Jim Murray’s journey spans the bright lights of hit TV dramas, the creative world of art, and the urgent, often overlooked fight to save Britain’s rivers. As an actor, artist, and conservationist, he’s witnessed the highs and lows of industries that thrive on fear, desperation, and competition — and he’s discovered that the courage to stand your ground matters just as much on a riverbank as it doe
E125 Guy Thompson: The Nature Market Paradox
What if the environment sector doesn’t really exist?Guy Thompson, MD of EnTrade, sits down in the Shoot Room to challenge the very idea of the sector, explore why £3 trillion in potential returns are being ignored, and ask whether nature markets are truly about environmental restoration—or just clever offsets. From regulatory roadblocks to bold innovation, we tackle the uncomfortable truths holdin
E124 Ashlee Murrell: Rewilding Estate Management
What does it take to run 694 acres of land, transform lakes and waterways, and launch a sustainable tourism program that wows hundreds of visitors - all while rewriting the rules of estate management?The Shoot Room Sessions travelled to Manor Farm to sit down with Ashlee Murrell, our estate manager at Manor Farm, to hear her untraditional journey from Manchester to Norfolk, from wedding planning c
E123 Archie Barnes: The Unreasonable Art of Hospitality
What if sustainable tourism wasn’t a niche — but the future of land management?Archie Barnes, Estate Custodian at Mornacott, isn’t just managing land — he’s rewriting the rules on how we connect with it. From a background in marine biology to running one of the UK’s most forward-thinking estates, Archie has turned “unreasonable hospitality” into a tool for conservation, creating experiences so wil
E122 Asher Clark: The Fate of Footwear is Bare
Asher Clark, co-founder of Vivobarefoot, is dismantling the myths we’ve built around footwear. In a world obsessed with more padding, more support, more stuff, he’s asking a radical question: what if less is the way forward?From seventh-generation cobbler roots to creating a global brand on a mission, Asher’s journey is proof that purpose and profit can walk the same path. We talk about the realit
E121 Annabel Thomas: The Future Poured Neat
What if the future of Scotch isn’t in its past — but in tearing up the playbook entirely?Rich sits down with Annabel Thomas, founder of Nc’Nean, the whisky distillery that’s not just rewriting the rules — it’s ignoring them altogether.No dusty traditions. No legacy pretence. Just a radical vision for what whisky could be: organic, elegant, sustainable, and built from the ground up by someone who n
E120 Robert Godfrey: Where the Money Should Grow
Can you build a climate start-up that actually works?Rob Godfrey, co-founder of Treeconomy, sits down in the Shoot Room to challenge the broken logic of carbon markets — and offer something better.They dive into what it means to measure nature like it matters, how remote sensing and rewilding can work hand-in-hand, and why biodiversity has been left behind in the rush to hit Net Zero.This isn’t th
E119 Paddy Dring: The Hidden Cost
What does it really take to stay at the top for nearly four decades?And what do you lose along the way?Rich Stockdale sits down with Paddy Dring, joint head of Knight Frank’s Private Office. With 36 years in the ultra-prime property market, Paddy shares candid insights on balancing relentless client demands with personal sacrifice, the secret to earning trust in a world of billionaires, and how a
