In a recent webinar, John Crick from Aspire.Sustain shared a striking U-shaped graph. At the bottom sat the “Trough of Disillusion,” with the “Slopes of Enlightenment” climbing out of it, eventually levelling off into the “Plateau of Productivity.” If you’re curious, you can watch the full video here.
That image stuck with me – especially when thinking about how we respond to the climate emergency. On bad days, I find myself trying to avoid the Trough of Disillusion. On better days, I feel like I’m climbing the (early) Slopes of Enlightenment, spurred on by the hope that comes from action.
In this spirit, I want to recommend a powerful podcast: Designing the Revolution, by Roger Hallam – co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, and founder of Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain. Hallam received a four-year prison sentence in the UK after being convicted in 2024 for organising motorway protests two years earlier. His goal was to draw attention to the dire threat caused by greenhouse gas pollution. He is one of around eleven people currently imprisoned in the UK for similar acts of protest.
Paradoxically, prison seems to have been a liberating experience for Hallam. Speaking over the prison phone for his podcast, he shares a renewed sense of hope and insight, with episodes like A New Way of Seeing, Finding Freedom Within, and The Prison of Perception. He has also published a new book, 50 Articles the Media Wouldn’t Publish. Together, the podcast and book offer fresh ways to think, act, and grow – both personally and politically. For me, they’ve been a much-needed lift out of the Trough of Disillusion.
Highly recommended.
