Best Podcast Episodes to Listen to for World Ocean Day

Jun 5

From an underwater photography legend to the game-changers making fish without the fish, here are our recommended podcast episodes for World Ocean Day.

Covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, the oceans are home to millions of Earth's plants and animals, from miniscule single-celled organisms to the ginormous blue whale. These huge swathes of water are also crucial to our own lives; the oceans produce over half of the oxygen that we breathe and store 50 times as much carbon as our own atmosphere.

But our oceans are in danger - and it’s because of us.

World Oceans Day offers us an opportunity to pause, reflect, and raise awareness of what we can do to protect our blue planet. And what better way to do so, than through the fascinating stories of those working on the front-lines of ocean protection, advocacy, and awareness?

Here are our favorite podcast episodes to help you take a deep dive into the issues (and solutions) that are surrounding oceans and aquatic animals.

Michael Selden: Making Fish Without the Fish

Michael Selden is the CEO and co-founder of Finless Foods, the world's first cellular agriculture company. Meaning they make fish without the fish and without the mercury, plastic, herbicides, ocean habitat destruction, and cruelty.

If you’re interested in learning more about the future of food - particularly seafood -, this podcast episode will give you a glimpse into Michael’s world-changing work, his journey, and the destruction that the seafood industry is wreaking across the planet.

Finless Foods will change the world for the better for so many fish, humans, and of course, the oceans.

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Jonathan Balcombe: What A Fish Knows

Jonathan Balcombe is a biologist with a Ph.D. in ethology, the study of animal behavior. He is the author of four books on the inner lives of animals, including the New York Times bestseller, What a Fish Knows.

What so many people forget is that fish are sentient, complex beings, capable of feeling pain and fear. And when we consider that we slaughter trillions of fish for consumption every year, the sheer amount of suffering caused by the fishing industry is difficult to stomach - even when slathered in batter and served with a side of chips.

“If you took an average fish and then lined them up end to end, that row of fish would reach the sun and back with a few hundred million to spare, per year,” says Jonathan.

This conversation with Jonathan will encourage you to see fish as the fascinating creatures that they are, helping to break down the barriers and blinkers that enable us to exploit these animals without considering them as individuals.

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Brian Skerry: Underwater Photography Legend - Stories from the Ocean

Brian Skerry is one of the world's greatest and most accomplished underwater and marine wildlife photographers. He’s also one of the most prolific: he’s been a contract photographer for National Geographic since 1998. His work brings us the beauty and the majesty of our oceans, but it also shows us the devastation and the destruction that we've caused them.

In this fascinating episode, Brian tells his own stories from beneath the waves and reminds us all that although the outlook may currently seem bleak, there is still time to save the oceans - if we act now.

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Chris Kerr: The Godfather of Vegan Venture Capital

Want to learn more about how vegan seafood is disrupting the food industry? This episode sees podcast host, Elizabeth Novogratz, sit down with Chris Kerr. Chris is essentially the Godfather of vegan venture capital and co-founder of Gathered Foods, known for its Good Catch plant-based seafood products.

Chris is helping some of the top plant-based companies through investment funding and mentorship, all with the goal of accelerating the plant-based food industry and moving the world away from eating animals.

To protect animals and the oceans we need to get to the core of the issue: our global food system. Chris is transforming the food industry’s reliance on wild and farmed fish towards animal-free alternatives - and with our ocean’s fisheries predicted to collapse by 2050, this change can’t come quickly enough.

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Looking for ways to make an impact on World Ocean Day? Enjoy a plant-based evening with friends or family. Visit Species Unite’s Vegan Nights to download your free plant-based dinner guide.