“I’ve heard youngsters say in the olden days we never had mobiles, and how did we survive? This worries me. Ok youngsters are tech savvy, but they perhaps lack the ability to adapt quickly if tech fails them?”

This is the first of the two listener questions sent in for Stuart and William to discuss in today’s episode, this particular question came from Wayne in Bangor, Maine, USA.

Off the back of Wayne’s question, William recounts his own observations, where he has witnessed a younger person than him, attempting to pay for a bus ride on their phone, and when it hasn’t worked, they have not been able to pay by any other method, and therefore haven’t been able to travel. Off the back of this point, he comes up with an action: to always carry a backup with you, in this case a wallet with a physical payment card.

Stuart comes at the question from a different angle, he sets the lofty challenge of giving life without a mobile a go, and to see how you get on. William takes Stuart’s point and posits the idea that we need to strike a balance here. That phones are useful, but not to overly rely on them.

The second question for this episode comes from Paula in Norfolk, England.

“Huge amounts of trees are being planted to combat climate change, perhaps too many? Many die, because they are not cared for. How about Community Tree Ambassadors to keep an eye on them?”

The big bee in Stuart’s bonnet regarding Paula’s question is that though tree ambassadors can be potentially helpful, they can also just be a token gesture. He relates a story about one man in Oxford who set up a committee to plant more trees in the city, called The Forest of Oxford. The committee was populated by local people, but if this guy disagreed with you, he would overrule it and say the committee had made an alternative decision, when it was really him as an individual making that move. The group was really a toothless tiger, only there to give false credence and facilitate the guy's vision, which he couldn’t implement alone. He raises the question: How do we stop the tree ambassadors becoming a token gesture?

William’s opinion takes us to the very root of the matter, that planting trees is  not the sole solution to the environmental crisis as trees only form one part of the ecosystem in the first place. And when they are planted, they often aren't looked after.

In this podcast your co-hosts Stuart and William discuss questions the listeners have sent in. Get ready to join the chaos of their live audio circus, where your intrepid hosts dive headfirst into your listener-supplied mystery boxes of questions. They may chat, they might bicker—but rest assured, there's no fancy pre-reading. They discuss them, they rarely debate them. Sometimes a surprise guest or an unsuspecting listener takes center stage in The Listeners Chair, adding extra spice to the mix. It’s unscripted, unpredictable, and as raw as your first cup of coffee—so buckle up and enjoy the unfiltered ride! Most importantly Stuart and William don’t see the question before the press record, so their reactions and opinions come to you in real time, and they most likely start from the same position as you the listener at the start of the recording. Do you have a question that you'd like us to discuss? Let us know by sending an email to ⁠thepeoplescountryside@gmail.com

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This podcast's overall themes are nature, philosophy, climate, the human condition, sustainability, and social justice.

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