Event items
Hot mess: What on earth can we do about climate change? by Dr Matt Winning
Dr Matt Winning, climate comedian and environmental researcher
Date/Time: Tuesday 25 February 2025, 5.30pm
Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University
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All our events remain free and open to all, but pre-booking is required. Bookings for this lecture will open at 10.00am on 18 February. |
Chaired by Dr John Appleby, Senior Lecturer in Engineering Mathematics
This lecture blends comedy and informative content to encourage audiences to think about climate change in a more engaging and accessible way. The approach helps to break down barriers and encourages audiences to think critically about their own behaviours and the societal issues surrounding climate change.
Biography
Dr Matt Winning is a London-based Scottish comedian and environmental economist who performs live climate change comedy. Matt has a PhD in climate change policy and has been an active researcher, combining his two worlds of comedy and environmental issues in an attempt to help save the planet. In 2021 he published his book Hot Mess which encompasses these two worlds. A live show of Hot Mess was on tour around the UK in 2022, which Matt also took to the Edinburgh Fringe that summer as well as being awarded Pick of the Fringe at Bedford Fringe Festival. Matt’s last show It’s The End Of The World As We Know It received wide critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe and led to a nationwide tour. The “funny yet educational” high-concept hour follows the successes of his two previous lecture-style stand-up shows, Climate Strange (2018) and Filibuster (2017). He has performed at COP28, the Royal Institution, Net Zero Festival, UK Schools Climate Assembly, Bluedot, BBC Climate Creatives festival and many, many others. Matt has a TEDx talk about the importance of using humour to discuss climate change, hosts the BBC Radio 4 show Net Zero: A Very British Problem, the podcast ‘Operation Earth’ and co-hosted Mark Watson and Matt Winning: Seriously, Though, The Planet on BBC Sounds. On TV Matt has appeared on BBC2’s Inside Culture and as the environmental correspondent on Dave’s Unspun with Matt Forde and in BBC Scotland TV shows The State of It and Scot Squad. On radio he’s been a panelist on BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz and The Now Show and BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking The News. Matt has written articles on climate change in Guardian, New Statesman, Scotsman, Metro and Sunday Post. Matt has a PhD in climate change policy and is currently a Lecturer at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. Many of his recent journal papers were cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) AR6, and his work has been used by bodies such as the UK Committee on Climate Change.
This event is part of Newcastle and Northumbria Universities Hope not Heat 2025 conference, for more details please visit: https://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/hopenotheat2025/
