
Humanism Now | A Podcast on Secular Ethics and Compassionate Change
Humanism Now is the weekly podcast for everyone curious, interested or actively engaged in secular humanism. Each Sunday, host James Hodgson—founder of Humanise Live—welcomes scientists, philosophers, activists, authors, entrepreneurs and community leaders who are challenging the status quo and building a fairer, kinder world.
Together we unpack today’s toughest ethical questions—using reason and compassion instead of dogma—and champion universal human rights and flourishing. Expect in-depth interviews on today's pressing issues, from climate action, protecting freedoms, equality & justice to AI ethics and cosmic wonder. Every episode delivers practical take-aways for living an ethical, purpose-driven life while discovering more about ourselves, others and the universe.
Whether you’re a lifelong secular humanist or simply curious about a naturalistic worldview, hit follow for insight-packed conversations that challenge ideas, celebrate human potential and inspire positive change. Join our global community working toward a fairer, kinder and more rational world—for this generation and the next.
Humanism Now | A Podcast on Secular Ethics and Compassionate Change
41. Bridget Shirvell on Parenting in a Climate Crisis: Teaching Kids Curiosity, Resilience & Hope
“Research has found that the amount of questions kids ask dramatically decreases once they start formalized education.” – Bridget Shirvell
Journalist and climate-communicator Bridget Shirvell joins Humanism Now to share a four-part roadmap—feel, love, build, act—for raising climate-resilient kids. Drawing on her new book Parenting in a Climate Crisis, she explains how families can turn eco-anxiety into everyday action, nurture curiosity, and help children transform concern into hope.
Hachette Book Group
Connect with Bridget
- Website – https://breeshirvell.com
- Newsletter – Raising Climate Resilient Kids -Substack
- Instagram– @breeshirvell
- LinkedIn – /in/breeshirvell
Topics we cover
✔︎ Bridget’s feel-love-build-act framework for climate-conscious parenting
✔︎ Turning daily habits—into social tipping points
✔︎ Teaching stewardship through family pets without gender stereotypes
✔︎ Countering the curiosity slump that formal schooling often creates
✔︎ Balancing individual choices with systemic change & local activism
✔︎ Practical ways to ease eco-anxiety while fostering genuine hope
✔︎ Food, waste-reduction and other low-lift actions kids can lead
Resources & further reading
- Parenting in a Climate Crisis – Bridget Shirvell (2025)
- Tipping point for large-scale social change – Science (2018)
- Parenting and the climate crisis –The Ecologist (2025)
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Music: Blossom by Light Prism
Welcome to the Humanism Now podcast. I'm your host, james Hodgson. It's now beyond reasonable doubt that we live in a time of escalating climate change, a crisis that's hard to look away from, but also hard to fully face. The science is clear and the stakes are high, and for anyone raising the next generation it feels especially personal. But how do we make space for both concern and action, for honesty and hope? That's where today's guest comes in.
James Hodgson:Bridget Shirvell is a journalist, climate communicator and mother. She's the author of Parenting in the Climate Crisis, a book that explores the challenges and opportunities of raising children in the age of climate change, with a focus on environmental issues, social justice and family dynamics. Bridget's writings delve into the emotional and practical aspects of navigating climate concerns whilst parenting. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, fast Company, martha Stewart, living and Grist, blending deep research with lived experience. In today's conversation, we'll explore how to talk to kids about the climate crisis, how to manage eco-anxiety, especially as parents, and how we can raise the next generation to be resilient, compassionate and climate conscious, without falling into guilt or despair. Bridget Chauvel, thank you for joining us on Humanism Now.
Bridget Shirvell:Thanks so much for having me.
James Hodgson:So how did you come to focus on parenting within the climate conversation? Was it becoming a parent that shifted your perspective, or had the seeds been there earlier?
Bridget Shirvell:I think it was really a little bit of both. I was a food systems reporter for a long time, so I was already very much talking about how climate change was affecting the food that we eat and what farmers were able to produce. After I had my child in 2018, I started looking for like resources, thinking about, well, how, what type of skills is she going to need to live in the world as it's changing? I wasn't so worried about how I talked to her about climate change just because, as a communicator, that wasn't something that I felt like I really struggled with, and but really what I found was that there was a lot of information out there and how we talk to kids about climate change, but there wasn't that much information about the type of skills that they were going to need or just what to do in your everyday life to really raise kids who would be flexible and resilient to what was coming. So that was really what started me down this path.
James Hodgson:And I know, as adults, this topic can already feel very overwhelming, and it's something that our children are inheriting and they'll be taking the fight forward. So how do we face the realities of the situation that we're in and the decisions that have to be made without shutting down, and how do we model resilience and clarity when explaining these issues to children?
Bridget Shirvell:Yeah, I think that's so hard right. It does feel like such a big, overwhelming issue, and I think for a lot of people, what I've heard is they're very concerned about climate change, but they don't know what they can do, and so in a lot of my writing, I've focused on the little everyday things that don't feel like making a huge difference but are, in fact, like little things that are driving systematic change, and so that's really what I have focused on, whether it's thinking about, like the types of food you eat or the types of products that you're buying, and I think that those things can drive larger systematic change.
James Hodgson:And I know you break the book down into four broad parts or themes, and I love the titles of them.
Bridget Shirvell:And I love the titles of them. So it's feel, love, build and act, which I guess are great themes for children, but things we can all also focus on as well. So could you walk us through those four elements and how they relate to kids, about climate change, but also how we talk to our friends and our neighbors, because there's a lot of research out there that kind of shows that the more we talk about climate change, the more people will think about taking action. And then that other part of that first section is really dealing with climate emotions, right, so how you process your own emotions around climate change, how you help your kids process their emotions From there.
Bridget Shirvell:The love section is really about fostering this love for nature and how that kind of plays into being an environmental steward. So it talks about spending time in nature, also just spending time with the family pet, and how that can relate to kind of climate resilience and really thinking through curiosity. The next section builds, starts to go into the everyday actions that people can take themselves. So there's a whole chapter on food, because for a lot of people that's the biggest thing that they can do. There's also a chapter on kind of consumerism and then from there. The next part of the book is really about more systematic change. So community action and activism overall and really what happens in our kids' schools too.
James Hodgson:I thought it was very interesting the section that you had and you mentioned there about spending time with a family pet, because I think there is, as with everything that we do in our lives, there is research to suggest that you know, potentially having a pet can add to your carbon footprint. So what do you think are the benefits that you've seen or that you found in your research to having children spend time with animals?
Bridget Shirvell:what was really fascinating to me when I did my research is that a lot of kids from a very young age we start to see a big gender divide in terms of like caregiving right, and that is seen as much more of a female trait, and that is a problem when you think about nurturing a love for the environment overall and protecting the planet.
Bridget Shirvell:But where that difference changes is when it comes to like taking care of animals specifically like the family pet, like a dog or a cat. That is kind of a responsibility that their kids don't see a gender divide before, and so I think that was really fascinating to me and also something that using the family pet to talk about oh, we do these things because it's better for the pet, it's also better for the planet is like a very easy way for kids to grasp what's happening. We were talking earlier right about like heat waves, so that is something that affects a dog. So it can be something so much as having your kid try to figure out how often the dog needs to be hydrated, like what time of day is better for it to be like walking outside.
James Hodgson:All of those kind of go into climate resilience and adaption and you mentioned a couple of times as well that really what you're looking to do is foster curiosity in children, and that's a huge theme for us here at humanism. Now we often talk about curiosity, how we can encourage it, embrace it ourselves, just aim to be more curious in the world. Taking it back in the book that you also mentioned, that you feel that the current educational system isn't really designed to foster curiosity for children. I don't know if that's something you found purely in the US or whether it it relates globally, perhaps for our audience in the uk or elsewhere. I wonder if you could just explain a bit more what you found in terms of how the education system might be failing children when it comes to learning to be curious and learning to think critically and and have a, I guess, an attitude of discovery about the world of course.
Bridget Shirvell:So I will say that this probably varies greatly depending on, like, where you are in the world and also the type of school that you send your child to, because there's a whole range of school experiences.
Bridget Shirvell:But speaking specifically to like the most popular US education, which is a public school, here it's really that research has found that the amount of questions kids ask dramatically decreases once they start formalized education, and I think you know it kind of makes sense, right. One of the reasons for that is because a lot of school is about following rules and like learning how to be part of a society, which is also super important, but doesn't necessarily give the time or the space to ask a lot of like open-ended questions that we think about in terms of curiosity. So I think that is just a really big challenge that schools face. I don't think there's any one like easy solution to it. You know, I know a lot of schools in the US. There's been a big push to spend more time outside and do like nature based learning, whether it's through like outdoor classrooms or even just more like nature inspired playgrounds, and I think that is a really great and easy way to inspire kind of more curiosity, because it like allows kids to spend time in the natural world.
James Hodgson:And do you think it's also on us to cultivate curiosity within the next generation, and what tactics have you found has worked particularly well?
Bridget Shirvell:So I hate telling busy parents that they had more work to do, but curiosity is kind of one of those interesting skills where it's not really something that you can teach, but it is something that you can you know, as you said help foster and really help cultivate. So the way I approach it in my own life with my child, who's six, is that it doesn't happen all the time, but when I have time to go down the deep dive of what do you think sea lion's favorite color is, right, right, like, all right, like, if we have time, maybe we'll look it up and we find out that. You know, sea lions only see certain colors, so I don't know what their favorite color is, but it's going to be limited compared to ours. I think it's really about how you respond, and sometimes it's saying oh, you know, we just don't have time for this right now. Can we go back to to it later and other times.
Bridget Shirvell:If you do have the ability to sit down and not give them the answer, but help them try to figure out the answer from themselves, I think that's a great way to foster curiosity, another way that you know anyone who spends time with kids can do it is really just talking about your own day, especially if there's some sort of like challenge you're struggling with at work. Right, you can say oh, you know, I like as a writer. I can say something like oh, I really needed to write this story, but I was having a hard time figuring out a different word to use, right, like that might be something that I notice, and so that's kind of like something that I might talk through with my own child of, like, you know, how did I go about thinking about those other words? How did I know that that was a problem? Just that idea of looking for other answers.
James Hodgson:They can come at issues with a wonderful purity as well. I find when with younger children especially because they haven't had the hang-ups of work or being in an office or you know the dynamics that come with that I love that perspective of actually, you know, asking them to help with your challenges or our day-to-day, to get them to kind of think about things and actually sometimes a fresh perspective can be extremely helpful. Yeah, and I did find that section curious because I think usually when we think of children we think of them as asking lots of questions. You know the stereotypical, constantly asking why, about everything? And and something I noticed in reading your book.
James Hodgson:It reminded me that when I was at school 30 years ago, we were already being taught about climate. We were being coached about it. I remember pestering my parents At the time. It was much more about just not being wasteful, trying to protect our environment, saving energy where possible. So the conversation has been happening for the younger generation for some time. So do you think it's something that perhaps children already do have a sense of awareness about and care about and that somehow that can get lost as we transition into adulthood and getting bogged down with day-to-day life? Or is there something else that you think is getting in the way from turning that into sort of action later on?
Bridget Shirvell:I think that is definitely a part of it. I think that is definitely a part of it. One of the things that I kept coming back to when I was doing interviews for this book was a lot of people said that having a kid, especially like a small kid, kind of allowed them to fall in love with nature again and to be really curious about things in a way that they hadn't really been since they were kids. And I think that's probably an experience that a lot of parents have right, Like with my child. I can't remember the last time I had jumped in the puddle for fun until I had her right and then all of a sudden she wants to do it and you're like, oh, this being outside is really cool and really fun, even though it's raining. So I think that is kind of a gift that children give adults.
Bridget Shirvell:I think that there is a way to continue that awareness through as they get older, but I think it gets challenging.
Bridget Shirvell:You know, my child is still very young, right, but last year was her first kind of year in like real school, shall we say, where she had like a full day from nine to four. So that drastically affected the amount of time that we spend outside and I had to be a lot more intentional about finding ways to do that because I think that like spending out time in nature is so important. So I do think it just becomes more challenging. And you know also, just as you mentioned before, they're just like the different hangups as you get like older, right, Like little kids don't really care about like fitting in. But my daughter now is at an age at school where everybody else has this type of backpack or this type of lunchbox and I'm kind of like we're not going to get that type of lunchbox because it's made from mostly plastic and I like the stainless steel one because it's better for the environment, and I will have those conversations with her.
James Hodgson:But it does like get harder as you get older this route of trying to conform and I wonder as well, in terms of do you find that just having an appreciation for science and natural history, how the environment came to be the way that it is, the huge number of chance happenings and, I guess, the precarious nature once you understand how, I guess the precarious nature once you understand how the natural world came into being and persists as an ecosystem, do you find that encouraging an understanding of that from an early age is also helpful for children and also, I guess, for adults as well, to understand really the pressing nature of the climate crisis?
Bridget Shirvell:I think so, and I would say even more than sort of the pressing nature of the climate crisis. I think that type of knowledge helps you, or at least helps me. I shall say think of myself less as like a separate being right, and I think that's something that humans do right. We think of ourselves as separate from nature instead of part of nature, and so the more I understand and appreciate the natural world and you know how things grow, even if it's like these seeds I planted that are now turning into flowers, right and just like the incredible ability of nature to do that that makes me kind of see myself more as part of it and less separate.
James Hodgson:I think having that experience as well you mentioned obviously having a pet is one thing I know. With my son, I've had the experience of encouraging him to plant some seeds and then come back later and watch the plant grow, and I think being participating in nature is also a really nice trait in so many ways as well. And so what's your advice to families trying to reduce their carbon footprints or and and to encourage this behavior in the next generation, without, I think, as I mentioned at the start, without turning it into guilt essentially which is, I guess, what we all feel but we also want the next generation to be inspired and encouraged.
Bridget Shirvell:Yeah. So I think that the first thing to realize is that, like you're never going to do it perfectly all the time and that shouldn't be a reason why you don't start. I think you know a lot of people get so overwhelmed and think, oh well, I have to do. You know, like I have to become a vegetarian if I'm serious about fighting climate change and I can't be a vegetarian every single day, so I'm just not going to do anything at all. And I think that, really, just thinking through where you are in your life and what is possible to do, and not guilting yourself too much, when my kid was about two, my sister moved to Texas, which is far away from us here in Connecticut, and up until that point she had never my daughter and my sister had never been gone more than two weeks without seeing each other. So as somebody who is concerned about the environment, I don't like to fly that much, but in those two years that my sister lived in Texas, like we got on a flight and went to see her a lot, because that relationship was important to me, the fact that they would have that relationship, and that was kind of a decision where I kind of looked at it and said you know, like I know, this isn't the best thing in the world, but this is where we are in our life right now and where everybody's living, and this is just what we're going to do. So I think not guilting yourself too much is a huge part of that For most individuals. I will say I think the sort of easiest way to really start reducing your carbon footprint is through your food, and it could be something you know, where you do try to eat less animal products. Maybe it's one day a week you don't eat any, or two, whatever that is that that looks like for your family? Another way, when you think about your food, how to do it, is really thinking about food waste, just because we do tend to waste so much food. So whether it's thinking through how you can use as much of the food that you're buying as possible, which is also right, going to save you money.
Bridget Shirvell:It in the trash, if you do have to throw things away, is a great thing to start doing, and the earlier you do it with your kids right, the more like second nature it becomes. I, for instance, grew up recycling, but I didn't grow up composting. Recycling is second nature to me Composting I still kind of have to like think about. But my kid has grown up composting so she just kind of like knows that she throws like her banana peel in the food trash and not like the regular trash.
Bridget Shirvell:And then I think as your kids get older you can kind of really let them take the lead, depending on the things that they're interested in, their concerns. And it can be, you know something, where they say I'm really worried about how clean like the riverbank is. I like want to organize some sort of like river cleanup, or I really want to figure out how we as a family can use less plastic because I don't want that to end up in the river. And I think it's really kind of helping to practice that or nurture that curiosity, but also practice their problem solving skills.
James Hodgson:Yeah, I like that. And there's one thing, a movement that I've heard of recently which I think is a really great idea, which is to give natural features like rivers, give them rights within, you know, protected rights within the local jurisdiction, and I think that's another wonderful way of protecting those, the individual elements, that then also hopefully then fosters more respect and consideration for the wider climate and environment going forward.
Bridget Shirvell:Right. That goes right back to you know what we're talking about before of kind of seeing yourself not separate from nature as a part of nature, and so that movement where people are giving rivers and other things rights, I think fits right into that and is really important but I was reminded as you were speaking just then.
James Hodgson:There is a sort of fringe movement online now which would actually argue that having children is one of the worst things which you can do for the environment. Is it called antinatalism, I think?
Bridget Shirvell:so yeah.
James Hodgson:I wonder did you encounter that at all whilst researching this book and what is your response to that claim?
Bridget Shirvell:So I will say I didn't really encounter it, but I didn't seek it out because I was writing this book for the perspective of people that had kids or were thinking about kids or knew that they were going to have kids. I'm not sure. I think that the decision to have kids or cannot have kids is just so individual that I'm not sure I would feel comfortable telling people one way or the other what they should do. I have had people with young kids reach out to me much more frequently and say you know, how do you have hope, how do you not feel guilt? And I think that that is a really like. That is something that a lot of parents are feeling right now.
Bridget Shirvell:One of the things that I kind of turn around and say to that is well, would it change anything Like whether or not you think that we're doomed? Does it change the way that you're going to behave? Like? I am a certain type of person. I'm still going to care about other people, I'm still going to try to find joy in the world, whether or not I think that the world's going to burn up within our lifetime, and so I kind of don't focus too much on that anymore.
James Hodgson:I just focus on what I can do yeah, I think if we're not protecting this world for future generations, then then who are we protecting it for and what? Yeah, and I and you're right, and there is this sense of overwhelm. I think that we can all feel you, whether we have those with children or not. I mean, there's so much happening in the world at the moment and there are so many issues, the news cycle is so relentless, that sometimes something like climate, which we've all been aware of for decades, cannot feel so pressing. We've all been aware of for decades, cannot feel so pressing. So what is your advice, you know, to those who do feel overwhelmed or slightly powerless, I think, when it comes to dealing with such a large issue, in terms of you know how we can have an impact, be heard, but also be conscious that we're a small part of a larger movement but also be conscious that we're a small part of a larger movement.
Bridget Shirvell:I think in that scenario, the best thing that you can do is really like talk about it.
Bridget Shirvell:Talk about it with your friends and your neighbors or, you know, the other parents at your kids school, because I think that we think that the majority of people don't care about climate change and and data shows that that's not true, that there is kind of a silent majority that really wants action, but that we're just not talking about it enough.
Bridget Shirvell:So I think when you are feeling very overwhelmed, it's just like one thing to say, like I'm worried about the air quality right now and our kids being outside. It's very hot here. My daughter is at nature camp, so she is outside every single day. This week it's been in the 90s and very humid, which is a little unusual for us, and so that is something where I've had conversations with other parents. To be like it is so hot and I like this is scary and all these are some of the things that I'm doing in my day to day life about it, whether it's just thinking about the things that I'm doing in my day-to-day life about it, whether it's just thinking about, like, the food I'm eating or the type of containers or like what I'm buying.
James Hodgson:But I think that speaking about it and kind of that building community around it will make you feel better but will also give you ideas of actions that you can take it's that difficult balance between the ethics of individual action with that collective action, and I guess the other side is the systematic change as well, and I think this is something we debate a lot within humanist groups. That, I see, is you know, how much should we take personal responsibility versus, you know, advocate the systematic change? So you know, where do you see the balance in terms of how much lies with the individual versus we should really be encouraging governments.
Bridget Shirvell:So I think that there has been this movement, at least here in the US over the past several years, where the focus has very much been on systematic change instead of individual actions, and I kind of think that that is a mistake, just because I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I think the more individual actions we take we can make systematic change a reality. You know there's this whole science around the tipping point and how much any sort of social movement has to have support for before we start taking action. Any sort of social movement has to have support for before we start taking action. So, for instance, with composting, you know, once you get to like 25%, say, of the United States composting, it becomes like just something that slowly catches on and everybody does. That's sort of like the tipping point metric of it, and so that is something that I see as individual actions being able to drive change.
Bridget Shirvell:I do think that you know, on a systematic level, the more that we can vote for politicians that are going to take climate action, but also hold them accountable, like I try to contact my local elected officials at least once a month, and sometimes it's just to say like hey, I really liked this that you did, because I think that they need props too, right, nobody likes to be yelled at all the time, but then I also will say sometimes oh, I'm really hoping that you will support this bill. Or I really just want to know what your thoughts are on making summer camps more resilient to climate change. You know, it can just be like opening that conversation, and I think they also need to know that people are thinking about it and want action to take place.
James Hodgson:I think that's the first time I've heard of someone who contacts their local elected official just to congratulate them or say well done. Usually we're encouraged to write to them when we need them to take action on something new or change their mind. You've got to build rapport. I'm sure that's a much better way when you do ask them to do it for something. If you've already built some rapport and congratulated them, so that's good advice. I mean, if there was one regulatory or government initiative that you think would have the biggest impact, what would be the change that we should be advocating for Appreciating?
Bridget Shirvell:you're probably specific to the US, but anything you see around the world you're probably specific to the US, but anything you see, you know around the world.
Bridget Shirvell:Yeah, so there's a couple of things, and I'm not like I'm not aware of how this works in the UK or other places, but here in the US.
Bridget Shirvell:One thing that I would love to see is campaign finance reform, which is not a sexy topic and nobody really likes to talk about it, but we have to get a corporate money out of politics if we want to make real like actions, because it affects everything from the types of like laws we can pass right around, like sustainable fashion, to even things such as like getting rid of plastic bags. Here, like, there's so much corporate money and influence in it that having that campaign finance reform, I think would be really important. Another thing that I would love to see on more of a global scale and France has actually done this where they have outlawed flights that are, I think, under about like two hours if there is like a railway that connects them, and so I think that those sort of shorter flights, getting rid of those, is a great option as well, along with kind of taxing private airplanes more than they are currently taxed for their flights.
James Hodgson:I think that's an excellent idea. I haven't heard of that, but that makes a huge amount of sense and could be easily implemented and replicated around the world. I know you also mentioned fast fashion, or you know, or having more sustainable clothing, and I know Bridget has written a lot on that as well. So please do listen and check out all of Bridget's work and writing Just before we go. You mentioned a few times about having hope and instilling hope in the next generation. So what gives you hope, particularly when you talk to the next generation?
Bridget Shirvell:I think that here in the US, it's a very tough time right now to be an environmentalist, just because of the current administration.
Bridget Shirvell:One of the things that I have been hopeful for in spite of all of that is seeing a lot of high school students and college students organize these climate conferences around the country that they've I think some of them are already in the works before Trump was elected for his second term, but they've shifted their focus to focus a lot on individual actions and impact, and just the fact that they're willing to do that and kind of like make that noise around climate change at a time when a lot of people are being silent gives me a lot of inspiration for the next generation. And then, on more of a personal level, you know, just spending time outside with my kid gives me a lot of hope. We were at a concert at a beach last night with friends and I let her and her friend kind of walk over and they found all these hermit crabs in this little like river bank, and just like sitting there and watching them have so much fun in nature gives me, I guess, determination, but also hope for saving as much of it as we can.
James Hodgson:That's wonderful, yeah, and I think your book and your writing can give us a lot of hope as well. So thank you very much again. Our final standard closing question what's something that you've changed your mind on recently and what inspired that change?
Bridget Shirvell:I have slowly gotten more involved in local politics in my own community and I think for a while I was sort of a bystander or also felt like as a reporter it wasn't a good idea for me to get involved. And then, kind of over the course of writing this book, I got pulled into working on a climate change bill here in Connecticut and was slowly asked to participate in my local Democratic town council and I was just recently asked to run for board of education, and so those were kind of things that I wasn't sure about as more of an introverted person. I was kind of like I kind of like being on the outskirts, I like writing and kind of talking about it that way. But I just think it's really important that, if you have the time and the ability to do things, to give it a try.
James Hodgson:That's wonderful. Well, we'll look out for your name and your political career going forward, but congratulations again on the book and thank you so much, Bridget, for joining us on Humanism Now.
Bridget Shirvell:Thank you so much for having me.
James Hodgson:And thank you everyone for listening. You can support us by signing up to our Patreon and please do and share the podcast widely and follow us on all social media. We're at Humanism Now pod. Thank you.