Planet & The People is one of the most utilitarian podcasts one can find on the market. Actor Tom Ward-Thomas interviews various experts and activists about the realities of climate change and what’s being done on various fronts to lessen (or hopefully reverse) its impact on the world. This show serves as somewhat of an antidote to most big-picture coverage of climate change that tends to present individual issues in broad strokes without nuance. Simplicity is the order of the day with Planet & The People. 

Ward-Thomas sits down with someone, interviews them about the given topic, and at some point the episode ends. That’s about it. Ward-Thomas is a gracious, curious host who sounds genuinely committed to the cause and helping his audience understand the realities of climate change outside vague stats about how many feet the ocean will rise in the next hour. His “practical, positive” approach makes even facets of climate change one might have heard covered elsewhere engaging and, more importantly, understandable. There’s very little fluff to it all with no gimmicks or protracted segments to pad for time. What you see in the episode title is what you get with The Planet & The People, which is refreshing.

We were fortunate to talk with Ward-Thomas about the podcast, how they differentiate from other podcasts, and their future plans in podcasting. See below for our full Q&A.

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DISCOVER PODS: How’d you get into podcasting?

WARD-THOMAS: I’d been listening to podcasts and had wanted to do my own one for a while. I’m an actor and a writer and I do a lot of presentation work and I wanted to channel that into something interesting for a podcast. Then I became interested in climate change, and became more and more panicked by the reality of it. I found myself reading up on a lot of issues, and discovering some amazing initiatives and inventions that offered some really exciting solutions and I decided that was what my podcast was going to be about, championing and promoting this work, to help it reach centre stage, and change the dialogue from panic inducing to something more like an exciting opportunity. 

DISCOVER PODS: In your own words, why should listeners tune in to Planet & The People?

WARD-THOMAS: If you don’t know much about climate change, or if you do but would like to know more, Planet & The People aims to give you more knowledge and understanding, in an easy going, accessible way, about this often overwhelming issue. I hope people will discover things they might have not been aware of before, such as how to save the arctic, what is direct air capture and how can that help us, what are international governments doing and how does fashion impact the planet. I want it to empower listeners, without lecturing, and equip them so they can have conversations, and encourage more people to care about this issue and do something about it in their own ways.

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DISCOVER PODS: What kind of feedback have you heard from your listeners?

WARD-THOMAS: So far all the reviews on Apple Podcasts have been 5 stars, calling the podcast ‘crucially informative’, ‘a funny, interesting and very poignant podcast’, ‘a great informative, uplifting listen’. Friends who have listened to it have spoken about how unpreachy it is, and how it has opened their eyes to things they’d never thought of and they’ve changed their ways as a result, eating less avocados, thinking twice before buying new clothes etc. In some cases even resorting to different forms of activism: my sisters, who are country singers called Ward Thomas, and were guests on the most recent episode, are embarking on a busking tour, raising awareness and money for climate change, and they say this podcast has given them the extra nudge to do that. Someone else I know, who is an artist, has incorporated climate change as a major theme in her art. An online blog called Sustainable Is Trainable described it as their favourite podcast about climate change while another online environmental service listed the podcast as their number one recommendation for ecological discovery.

DISCOVER PODS: Describe your recording set up? What equipment are you using?

WARD-THOMAS: I use a blue yeti microphone for all my interviews. The podcast has been made entirely during the pandemic so most of my interviews have been done online. Early episodes were recorded through zoom, with my end of the conversation recorded via a separate channel on my computer. And then I started asking my guests to record their end of the conversation themselves. Most of them don’t have a mic set up so they’ve recorded it directly into their phone or laptop and then sent me the recordings. I also have a small lapel mic, which I record my intros and outros on while out walking in the countryside. In the few interviews I have done face to face, I have used my blue yeti, which has several settings perfect for podcast discussions. 

DISCOVER PODS: What’s the biggest challenge you face as an indie podcaster?

WARD-THOMAS: The biggest challenge by far has been promotion and time. As a new podcaster I have done everything myself, including editing the podcast and producing promotion material and maintaining a social media presence, and it has taken a huge amount of time, although I’ve really enjoyed every process. I have promoted it almost exclusively through social media, and I have had the occasional blog give reviews, but promoting it, and building up the listenership, and competing with the huge amount of other podcasts that are out there, has been the biggest challenge of all.

DISCOVER PODS: Where do you want to take your podcast?

WARD-THOMAS: I would like to continue to promote the work of some more brilliant innovators out there, and tell their uplifting stories. I would also like to shake up the format a bit, have some more group discussions, in person, maybe cutting between different interviews to make a more dynamic episode. I also aim to get some guests who work in unrelated fields, such as the arts, who will bring a wider audience and who can talk about why they are passionate about climate change.

DISCOVER PODS: What other podcasts are you listening to now?

WARD-THOMAS: My favourite podcasts are the Adam Buxton podcast, How to Fail, with Elizabeth Day, Grounded with Louis Theroux, and You’re Dead To Me, a history podcast where a different comedian and historian discuss a different historical subject with the host, Greg Jenner. I also loved The High Low, which is unfortunately finished now, and I’ve been recently listening to Made of Stronger Stuff, a brilliant podcast exploring different parts of the body and how they work and how the correlate with our brain and our mind. 

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DISCOVER PODS: Anything else you’d like to add?

WARD-THOMAS: I’ve really enjoyed the process of making this podcast. I have some favourite episodes, the fashion one being one of them, and some episodes that I would describe as more urgent, such as the episode about the origins of pandemics. What I have learnt over the course of all my interviews is that climate change is not an insurmountable problem. There are so many solutions out there and some brilliant people making those solutions. The main barrier is making enough people care about the issue and know about these solutions, so I hope that Planet & The People will help to make that happen.

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