The Oxford University Flying Less Group has put together a fantastic, six-part podcast on aviation and higher education. Rather than focusing on what is lost by markedly reducing academic jet-setting, the podcast asks, “What do you and your university stand to gain by Flying Less?”
The rich set of episodes engage experts from a wide array of universities and academic disciplines while addressing a diverse set of topics, ranging from matters of career advancement, accessibility, and gender to the social and climatic implications of net zero versus absolute zero emissions. The podcast does so with the goal of illuminating challenges associated with reducing flying, while addressing questions of why there is a need to fly less and how to do so—all while maintaining robust international engagement, not least in terms of research and teaching.
Rather than focusing on what is lost by markedly reducing academic jet-setting, the podcast asks, “What do you and your university stand to gain by Flying Less?”
Dr. Noah Birksted-Breen, a postdoctoral research associate at Oxford, is the host and producer of the podcast; Ryan Beckerleg, a research student at Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, edited the series. Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment in collaboration with the university’s Environmental Sustainability team commissioned the endeavor.
Below are links to all the episodes.
Episode 1 – Why do we fly and could we fly less?
Episode 2 – Decarbonising conferences
Episode 3 – Flying Less research–thinking ambitiously
Episode 4 – Aviation and the case for Absolute Zero
Episode 6 – How to thrive when Flying Less? Staff Profile: Professor Hannah Knox, Anthropology (UCL)