In dialogue with Roger Hallam, Extinction Rebellion co-founder

This episode is a rather different type of discussion to the usual ones I have on this podcast. Many of you will know that I do commentary videos on YouTube, and on some of those I have been strongly critical of the Extinction Rebellion group, and particularly its core organisers. We debate these issues with vigour because they are important. However, my preference is always that we can do so as a respectful discussion rather than standing at opposite extremes and shouting at each other, which sadly seems to have become the norm for political discourse at the moment. So I reached out to Roger Hallam, one of the co-founders of the group and the man most responsible for their early overall strategy, to see if he would be willing to discuss the group, its objectives, and some of our points of disagreement for this podcast. Lots of people in his position would have told someone who had been so critical to get on their bike, so I think it is enormously positive that we were able to come together and make it happen. We talk about where Extinction Rebellion came from, and what are its objectives. We cover a range of tough questions in a pretty frank and open way. We weren’t aiming to win the argument, but to explore the challenges. I think it ended up as an important and engaging conversation. It’s longer than usual, so that’s enough intro - let’s jump straight in.