The Parallel Effect Podcast

In this episode of The Parallel Effect, we travel to a parallel world where the scientific evidence linking food, climate and planetary health has driven a profound transformation of the global food system. In order to stay within proposed safe limits for greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, water pollution and biodiversity loss, plant-rich diets have become the norm, agriculture has been radically reshaped, and governments, farmers, scientists and consumers work together to keep food production within the boundaries of a liveable Earth.Dr. Kathleen Kevany – an expert in sustainable agriculture and global food systems – takes us inside this parallel world, exploring what becomes possible when we act on science and redesign food systems around the ecological capacity of the planet rather than asking the planet to accommodate the systems we already have.Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Kathleen KevanyOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist, Sam Wallman has responded to this parallel world. To watch a documentary about their thinking and creative practice, and to read the scientific research from our realm about global food systems, visit https://theparalleleffect.substack.com/p/a-world-with-sustainable-food-systems*And with that, we reach the end of the first half of the season. The Parallel Effect Podcast will be back on Friday, October 5, for more adventures through the wardrobe.

What if technology had evolved to serve people and communities, rather than profit and power? Many Worlds Traveller, Dr Alex Hanna, takes us into a parallel world where technology is locally governed, data is collectively stewarded, and AI is developed within ecological limits. Alex, who is the Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute, imagines what it would take to build technologies that genuinely support human and planetary flourishing and what would need to change in our world for that to become possible.Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Alex HannaOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist, Warren Armstrong has responded to this parallel world. To see what they've created and to watch a short documentary about their thinking and creative practice, visit https://theparalleleffect.substack.com/p/world-where-tech-answers-to-community-not-capital

In this episode, psychologist and writer, MJ Barker, takes us into a parallel world without heteronormativity. It's a world where diverse forms of sexuality, intimacy, relationships and family are understood as equally valid, and where consent and ethical relating underpin how people live together. Along the way, MJ explores what this shift might mean for gender, parenting, education, kinship and our relationship with ourselves, asking what becomes possible when we move beyond the hierarchies of “normal” and “abnormal”.Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: MJ BarkerOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist, Audax Mrozik Gawler has responded to this parallel world. To see what they've created and to watch a short documentary about their thinking and creative practice, visit TheParallelEffect.Substack.com

In this episode, rather than travelling to another universe, we’re exploring a parallel world that exists right here as a legal principle. Distinguished International Law scholar and human rights advocate, Richard Falk, joins us to examine the structural forces that have prevented the promise of International Humanitarian Law from ever being realised. It's an invitation to imagine what might become possible when no one stands above the law and when justice is no longer constrained by power.Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Richard FalkOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist, Safdar Ahmed, has responded to this parallel world. To see what they've created and to watch a short documentary about his thinking and creative practice, visit  TheParallelEffect.Substack.com

In this episode, we’re entering a parallel world where ableist frameworks of care, productivity and temporality are no longer embedded within the systems that shape our lives. Here, access and inclusion are not afterthoughts, nor are they reduced to compliance exercises or boxes to tick. Instead, disabled people’s knowledge, lived experience and leadership are central to how this world is shaped – influencing education, technology, governance, and the ways communities understand life, interdependence and human worth.So how did this world come to be, and what might it reveal about the one we inhabit today? Our Many Worlds Traveller is blind, human rights lawyer, and disability rights advocate, Elham Youssefian. Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Elham YoussefianOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist, fashion designer and researcher, Rachel Shugg, has responded to this parallel world. To check out what she has to say and to explore further episode resources, be sure to visit and subscribe to TheParallelEffect.substack.com

In this episode, we’re going to hear about a world identical to ours—politically, climatically, and even biologically—except for one key difference: this is a parallel world that has decided to invest in long-term mobility solutions as a central response to tackling the challenges associated with Climate Change. So how did it become that way? What were the hurdles – if any – it faced in getting there? And what unexpected social and cultural transformations emerged as a result? Railway engineer and public transport policy activist, Gareth Dennis, guides us through this parallel world.  Episode Credits:Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Gareth DennisOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist and public transport worker, Ted McKinlay, has responded to this parallel world. To check out what he has to say and to explore further episode resources, be sure to visit and subscribe to TheParallelEffect.substack.com

In this episode, we’re journeying to a parallel world where plastic — once everywhere —  is now almost absent from daily life. Single-use plastics, packaging, and synthetic microfibres are no more. But this isn’t a regression to a pre-industrial past. It’s a world shaped by radical transformations in material culture, in policy, and in collective responsibility.So how did they get there? Environmental lawyer, activist, and a leader in the fight against plastic pollution, Tiza Mafira, guides us through this parallel world.Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz ChandlerMany Worlds Traveller: Tiza MafiraOriginal Music/Soundmix: Edwin MontgomeryGraphic Design: Ahmed SalamaThe artist and engineer, Majid Rabet, has responded to this parallel world. To check out what he has to say and to explore further episode resources, be sure to visit and subscribe to TheParallelEffect.substack.com