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Of Course We Can!  Lifting the lid on possibility with James Brown, mulit-Paralympian Gold Medalist and Climate Activist

Of Course We Can! Lifting the lid on possibility with James Brown, mulit-Paralympian Gold Medalist and Climate Activist

FromAccidental Gods


Of Course We Can! Lifting the lid on possibility with James Brown, mulit-Paralympian Gold Medalist and Climate Activist

FromAccidental Gods

ratings:
Length:
71 minutes
Released:
Jul 27, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

James Brown is an athlete, inventor, social entrepreneur, multi-Paralympian gold medal winner  - and climate activist.  There was a time when James was known most for his astonishing achievements across many sports. Between 1980 and 2015, he took part in no less than five Paralympic Games (winter and summer) as well as eighteen World Championship events.His range of disciplines was extraordinary: they included track running, cross-country skiing, triathlon, swimming, road/track cycling and guide-running. He has several Paralympic Gold medals, was holder of the 800m World Record for eight years and has three other World Firsts to his name, including being the first registered blind person to compete in a World Track Masters cycling event at the velodrome in Manchester. In 2018, everything changed for James when his daughter - then at university - broke down in front of him in a cafe in Exeter and explained all she had been reading about the climate and ecological emergency.  James wept with her, but she offered hope in the shape of the newly formed Extinction Rebellion, and the possibility that non-violent direct action might help foment change. James committed to being at her side in whatever actions she took and within weeks, they were walking arm in arm to the blocking of the five bridges that were the first London Extinction Rebellion action. Since then, James has been arrested 13 times for his non-violent actions (once for spraying chalk paint on the road outside DEFRA in Bristol where it was raining so hard the chalk was washing off as they sprayed it one and was gone long before the arrest process was complete). Most recently, he spent two and a half months in Wandsworth prison for the action that propelled him to climate-activist super-stardom - when he climbed onto a plane at City Airport and superglued himself to the top. The Facebook Live video that he recorded at the time has gone viral and James received thousands of letters and emails while he was in prison, from people who felt desperate about the climate emergency and wanted to know how to find the same courage. So this is what we explore in today's episode - courage and agency and activism in an age of total transformation.  What can we do, and how can we find the courage to take the action we know the world needs? James Brown Website: https://jamesbrownparalympian.co.uk
Released:
Jul 27, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

At this time of the Great Transition, we need new, fresh ideas, role models and narratives that show us how we can step forward into a future we'd be proud to leave to the generations that come after us. What does it take for our kids to look back and say, 'It was hard, but they did it'? What changes are we already making that take us in the right direction? We talk to the people leading the way, offering interviews, conversations and radical new ideas from people who are living the change we need to see in the world. We have the choice now, to transform - or to face the chaos of a failing system. Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future. Join the evolution at: https://accidentalgods.life