Episode

Marketing Director: “Climate is Trapped in the Culture Wars” | Sam Zindel, Gen R founder

Podcast
Climate Unf*cked
Published
Nov 25, 2025
Duration seconds
4609
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not_requested
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https://episode.flightcast.com/01KAX1D856F7SQ94V4MQJ1QKEE.mp3
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Summary

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 (n…