105: Lean into Clean with Jarvis Smith - Episode 105105: Lean into Clean with Jarvis Smith - Episode 105
UK Health Radio Podcast
Jarvis Smith talks with climate comedian Stuart Goldsmith about using stand-up to face the climate crisis, climate burnout, and everyday hypocrisy. The conversation mixes sharp humour with simple, practical ideas for making meaningful climate-friendly choices.
51:27•7 Oct 2026
Laughing Through the Climate Crisis with Stuart Goldsmith
Episode Overview
- Humour can help people process climate dread and feel less alone with difficult information.
- Being open about personal hypocrisy, like flying to climate events, can build trust rather than pretending to be perfect.
- Changing to a climate-friendly pension or investment fund is a high-impact action that you set up once and then leave.
- Clear, authentic communication—saying what you actually mean—beats jargon-heavy sustainability briefings.
- Big shifts (like pensions and food choices) matter more than obsessing over tiny everyday gestures that have limited effect.
“"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organise."”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? On this occasion, the focus shifts to another heavy topic many sober and health-conscious people care about: the climate crisis, and how humour might help us face it. This episode of UK Health Radio brings together host Jarvis Smith and climate comedian Stuart Goldsmith for a lively, candid chat about using stand-up to talk about the climate emergency without sending everyone into despair.
Jarvis introduces Stuart as “the news” for the day, and from there you’ll get a mix of sharp comedy, personal honesty and practical ideas. Stuart shares stories from performing at the United Nations and London Climate Action Week, including sitting just three rows away from Al Gore reflecting on the 20 years since *An Inconvenient Truth*.
One line that sticks with Stuart is Gore’s Tennessee mantra: “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organise.” Stuart admits he doesn’t do any of those yet, and that tension becomes part of his act. You’ll hear how climate comedy lands with burnt-out sustainability professionals who clutch his hand afterwards and say “thank you”, and why he describes himself as a “prism” refracting frightening data into something that “rainbows”.
He talks openly about hypocrisy, especially flying to climate events, and jokes about declining business class because “nothing feels as good as walking through business class knowing you were offered it and declined.” Beyond the laughs, Stuart explains how he works with organisations and MBAs to improve climate communication, urging people to drop jargon and say what they actually mean.
He also makes a surprisingly simple plea: if you do one thing after hearing him, change your pension to a more climate-friendly fund and then forget about it. If you’re interested in health, recovery and living your values in a warming world, this episode offers humour, honesty and a big dose of “me too” around climate anxiety. What small change could you make today that would actually count?
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