Episode Details
Back to Episodes
Marketing Director: “Climate is Trapped in the Culture Wars” | Sam Zindel, Gen R founder
Description
Sam Zindel is Managing Director at digital marketing agency Propellernet and founder of GEN R. Gen R is an environmental movement that uses music and art to support nature. He's created a jukebox that plants trees for every song played - and it spent the summer with Fatboy Slim.
Sam's mission is to drag environmentalism out of the culture wars and root it back into popular culture where it belongs. No sandals required. No technical jargon. Just fun, accessible climate action that meets people where they already are - at gigs, festivals, and in the pub.
In this episode, we dive into:
Why 80% of people care about the environment but the climate movement is still stuck in an echo chamber - and how to fix it
The story behind the 1959 vinyl jukebox that plants trees, displays holographic bees, and ended up at Fat Boy Slim's Brighton cafe after debuting at Glastonbury
Why scaring people with sea level rise or confusing them with "scope 1 emissions" are terrible entry points to climate action
The school play moment that changed everything - when an 8-year-old read a story about a hummingbird and called out the adults in the room
How Propellornet went from measuring a 91-ton carbon footprint to funding a million trees in three years (and why offsetting for £1,000 felt "appalling")
The three core principles of Gen R: individual decisions without judgment, collective responsibility, and accepting imperfect progress
Why "movement is a message" - from reusable cup schemes at festivals to train travel included in football tickets
The power of imagination over climate denial - even if you don't believe in global warming, who wouldn't want cleaner air at the school drop-off?
Why nature is a superpower in climate storytelling and how the Wildling app makes it accessible to everyone (not just National Trust members)
Book recommendations: How Bad Are Bananas? by Mike Berners-Lee, From What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins, and Net Positive by Paul Polman
Thank you to Ecologi for supporting the podcast. They're the UK's most trusted climate action platform. They help businesses reduce their emissions, restore our planet and report their progress for every step of their climate journey. Check them out @Ecologi_hq at https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth
Follow the jukebox journey at @gen_r_jukebox on Instagram
Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/
And connect with me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-coop/
00:00 The Jukebox that Fatboy Slim hosted
07:40 Engaging Popular Culture for Environmental Change
13:28 Behavior Change Through Storytelling
16:38 Collective vs. Individual Action in Climate Solutions
22:31 Personal Responsibility and Grassroots Action
28:43 Inspiring Hope and Fun in Environmentalism
31:24 The Hummingbird Story that changed Sam’s life
43:09 Awakening to Environmental Responsibility
51:39 Measuri