Welcome to Research Frontiers, a podcast series that highlights how our groundbreaking research informs teaching on the 150+ postgraduate programmes available at the University of Bristol.
This episode focusses on the crucial role that data and research plays in international decision-making to combat the many crises the world faces today, such as climate change. Our host, Ruby Lott-Lavigna speaks with Jess Epsey, a lecturer in the School of Geographical Sciences and a Senior Adviser to the UN Sustainable Development and Solutions Network, and Nina Cunningham, a student currently studying for a Master’s in Environmental Policy and Management. Together they discuss the importance of understanding and analysing data, as well as being able to use your conclusions to support important arguments in front of policy makers and governance.
Find out more about our MSc Global Development and Environment programme
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Transcript:
00:00:00 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
From the University of Bristol, you are listening to research frontiers. Hello, and welcome to Research Frontiers, a podcast series from the University of Bristol. I’m your host, Ruby Lavigna. And throughout this series, I’ll be joined by a collection of Bristol sport leaders taking a deep dive into the research at the university.
00:00:21 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Which is changing the world and enriching the education of students who study here. Our contributors will include some of the university’s most inspiring minds and the students who learn from them.
00:00:31 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Throughout these conversations will uncover the transformative power of research, both in our society and in solving global challenges, as well as in the future education of students during the Today is Jess Epsey, a senior advisor to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, SSN, and a former head of the trainers.
00:00:51 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Program SSN’s, thematic research network on data statistics. I’ve also been speaking with current Bristol student Nina Cunningham.
00:01:03 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Welcome both of you. Thanks chatting. So I guess just to kick off, Jess, as the expert in the fields, can you tell me a bit more about your research? What kind of drew you to global development and?
00:01:13 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Environment in the.
00:01:14 Jess Epsey
1st place. Yeah, thanks so much Ruby and and lovely to chat to you both. Today I’m going to be a full time lecturer at Bristol starting in July.
00:01:21 Jess Epsey
This is kind of the culmination of the last 16 years of work, really, which have all focused on global development and environment. I work for the UN and for NGO’s like, say, the children and think tanks and sort of a real mix of different policy and research.
00:01:36 Jess Epsey
Institutes and all of my research is focused on different aspects of sustainable development, predominantly concerned with different forms of inequality and how we use data and statistics to sort of better, understand and monitor different outcomes. Today, though, my research has has taken quite a turn and having worked at the interface between science and policy for the last.
00:01:56 Jess Epsey
16, 17 years. I’ve now taken a step back and I’m currently working on a book which is on the role of science in informing UN.
00:02:04 Jess Epsey
Negotiation, and specifically on the role of science within the UN General Assembly. So I’m really interested in the kind of macro trends around how science and research is actually used to inform political decision making.
00:02:15 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
That sounds like a particularly relevant subject at the moment, not to get too political. And Nina, what were your own steps kind of studying here?
00:02:24 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And what? Due to the course?
00:02:25 Nina Cunningham
I’ve only been here for a year doing my masters. I really different university doing sociology, so quite a change.
00:02:31 Nina Cunningham
I was interested in environment from quite young age, but I didn’t really think of it as a clear option because I was like so interested in sociology and then my family. Yeah, I was like, what can I do in the feature? And I thought that kind of the environment was a really good like way to go down. It’s so important to talk about and it’s, you know, just a kind of a very interesting like field study. So I was looking around the courses and universities kind of.
00:02:51 Nina Cunningham
You know, not made them still out to me like some of them weren’t quite right. And then I found this one and it could buy my interesting data with my interest in the environment and also kind of a few.
00:03:00 Nina Cunningham
Module like style modules as well.
00:03:01 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
OK, great. And just obviously you’re just about to join the University of Bristol and someone kind of in tune with drugs and environment. Why are you bringing your research to the university?
00:03:11 Jess Epsey
It’s really good question. I think there’s two incentives. I mean firstly, the University of Bristol, as with the recent rough schools that have just come out, so research excellence, framework schools have just come out and the geography, school, University of Bristol is the best in the country. And in particular, they’ve got a really interesting, really interdisciplinary department. And on the human geography side, there’s.
00:03:29 Jess Epsey
Political scientists and public policy people like me. But there’s also sociologists and anthropologists, and urbanists and so on. So it’s it’s a really interesting kind of melting pot, of different teaching stuff with different expertise and so on. So that was one big incentive. And then the other major incentives, I was just really eager to start making a home in academia because having done sort of applied research for quite a long time.
00:03:50 Jess Epsey
Like I sort of felt like I was touching the tip of the iceberg on lots of different subjects, but not really having the time and space to really delve into truly understanding them.
00:03:58 Jess Epsey
So joining a a university like Bristol gives me the the space and time to both learn from other colleagues, but also to really dig into some of this research in a lot more detail.
00:04:07 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
OK, amazing. I mean, you kind of discussed like what brought you to the university, how have you found the?
00:04:12 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Course. So far I love.
00:04:13 Nina Cunningham
I’ve loved it. I think it’s really interesting how it’s in disciplinary. Yeah, I’ve just said so. Even like among the staff, you have a whole lot of, like, different backgrounds, but also among the students. And you do as well. I can go to class and I can learn from people who have done kind of rather do before, for example.
00:04:29 Nina Cunningham
Or media background with sociology, or people who come from a career and so that really drew me to the course. But also I looking at the lectures and stuff like they are amazing, I think and really interesting to learn from, like the research they’re doing is so interesting and also some very topical and present right now. So it’s really cool to learn from people who are actively changing the world.
00:04:49 Nina Cunningham
And making amazing decisions for the future.
00:04:51 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Definitely sounds very inspiring, Jess. Let’s kind of get into the the details a bit. So I’d love to talk to you about SDG’s or sustainable development goals. Now they’re 17 and we’re not expecting you to go into all of them at this moment. But how is your research contributing to these year?
00:05:07 Jess Epsey
So I’m a real SDG nerd. I was one of the negotiators for the outcome and the Sustainable Development Goals. When I worked in the UN as supporting different countries in their negotiations, particularly at worked in Liberia, as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, special adviser on this. So I really strongly believe in the the power of of this framework.
00:05:28 Jess Epsey
The set of 17 goals that are set of aspirational goals to try and drive, you know, political attention and investment, and effective public policy.
00:05:36 Jess Epsey
Moving forward and in terms of my work, as I said before, I’ve worked on different goals. I worked a lot in inequality, which is SG-10. I worked a lot on urban sustainable development and inclusive urban growth, and that SG 11. But now what I’m really trying to do is to try and contribute applied, you know, research that can support the UN system, the General Assembly and.
00:05:57 Jess Epsey
Economic and Social Council to try and use the best cutting edge knowledge and research much more effectively to make informed decisions. It’s really interesting that there’s a very lively discussion about how you use evidence in national policy.
00:06:10 Jess Epsey
But it is a conversation, and it’s also starting to bubble up quite a lot in sub-Saharan Africa, there’s lots of new research networks trying to do sort of applied research for policy there. But in spite of this interest at the national level, we really haven’t seen an equivalent campaign or effort to try and make science the foundation, or at least a a strong supporting.
00:06:29 Jess Epsey
Element of political decision making within the UN system. And so that’s really what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to make sure that when countries in particular are designing new policies and investments and programmes in support of different sustainable development goals, they’re also looking at the latest.
00:06:44 Jess Epsey
Comments and seeing you know what are the most appropriate strategies? What is the latest evidence showing us and this is all the more important now than ever before as things are changing so rapidly in the context of climate change and the other biodiversity crises we’re facing. And as we’re seeing more and more transboundary challenges and things like coronavirus have obviously demonstrated to us that.
00:07:04 Jess Epsey
These issues aren’t national. They are inter country cross country transboundary. And so I’m hoping ultimately this research will will support is a as a.
00:07:12 Jess Epsey
No change within the US system itself to try and make all of international decision making more evidence based.
00:07:18 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
OK, great. And Nina, how did the Sustainable development Goals kind of come through in?
00:07:22 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Your course, we.
00:07:23 Nina Cunningham
Learned about them in one of our modules and it’s really interesting to actually about them, kind of in an academic sense because I did an internship last summer and we actually used the SDG’s to kind of inform decision making for the actual kind of internship. And like part of the business I was working for was trying to.
00:07:39 Nina Cunningham
Improve their relationship environment using Sigs as a baseline. So it’s really interesting to learn about it from, you know, maybe it critiquing some of them, but also like, you know, understanding how they work.
00:07:48 Nina Cunningham
Because they’re obviously used in businesses and in just kind of, you know, the world right now to improve the planet.
00:07:53 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Yeah, it’s amazing. You see something that you learn about kind of applied in practice?
00:07:57 Nina Cunningham
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Jess.
00:07:59 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I was also really interested to hear more about SSN’s, trends of which you were the director. Could you share some of how this came to be and what the?
00:08:06 Jess Epsey
Kind of main aim is it was very well in the negotiations on the STG’s and one of the things that we found is that sort of a recurrent theme throughout all the discussions coming from politicians and technicians and policy people.
00:08:17 Jess Epsey
Was this strong focus on data and statistics? It was sort of one of the main learnings from the Millennium Development Goals that.
00:08:23 Jess Epsey
We’ve used aggregated statistics and the information we had was really poor and that there were huge time mags with our poverty data and so on, and this really needed to be a focus of attention moving forward with the sustainable development goals. But one of the things that I sort of observed at that time was that there wasn’t really a kind of academic Advisory Board, there wasn’t really anyone out there who was saying if you’re going to focus on investments in data and statistics.
00:08:47 Jess Epsey
These are the core official statistics you should focus.
00:08:49 Jess Epsey
On these are the core investments you need to make. These are the best new approaches, so we established trends as a as a global think tank working on the governance of data and statistics for sustainable development and in particular a big focus is how do you encourage public private partnerships. So you know you might have read in the press or seen examples of for example telephone companies giving.
00:09:10 Jess Epsey
Anonymized data on individual movement to try and help track disease spread happened during the Ebola crisis. It’s been used to some degree to track the spread of COVID, but how do you regulate those kinds of mobile data sources? How do you integrate them with official statistics? How do you use them to support sustainable development outcomes? And what are all the challenges?
00:09:29 Jess Epsey
Related with that. So that was really what the group was sort of intending to do and be a a sounding board for these issues and A and a group of really diverse experts who could provide advice to different countries and to.
00:09:39 Jess Epsey
The UN system on this.
00:09:40 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And in terms of research, how do you handle data on such a kind of seemingly large scale? Are there kind of regular developments in this area or preferred approaches in handling data and research?
00:09:51 Jess Epsey
I think it depends on the data you’re talking about. It’s all very different. I mean data is is a catch all term for loads of different types of information and they all have different governance challenges.
00:10:00 Jess Epsey
And they all have different research implications. I think that’s one of the things that’s been tricky. Whilst there is quite good guidance on how to use these different types of data in, in research and scientific research, particularly sort of small scale, qualitative and quantitative samples and data sets that are are compiled by the individual researcher.
00:10:17 Jess Epsey
There’s also lots.
00:10:18 Jess Epsey
Of guidance on how you use these really large scale.
00:10:20 Jess Epsey
Except coming out of private companies particularly, and how you use them and research and how you use them within policy and the whole host of government challenges associated with.
00:10:29 Jess Epsey
Data sets because of course a lot of this is individually owned as such, but it’s being repurposed by the private company, so it throws up a a huge number of challenges and I think GDPR, which is the new European framework on data management, is a hugely important first step in how we think about using data more carefully. And you know, I hope it’s going to pave the way for similar trends.
00:10:49 Jess Epsey
In the US and parts of Asia and southern Africa and so.
00:10:52 Jess Epsey
On no what?
00:10:53 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I need.
00:10:53 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Access to data do you have in your studies? I’m kind of interested to hear about what it contributed.
00:11:00 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
In your kind of studies and how it might be used, Post University.
00:11:02
I think you can.
00:11:03 Nina Cunningham
Really tell the.
00:11:04 Nina Cunningham
Course is informed by data and science, and it’s very important to your climate change whether a lot of sexism around it. The lectures as well, like also kind of very much based in science. So you can do their research and talk to them about what they’re doing, which is always very interesting. I think in terms of data we we look at, we do analysis as one of our modules. So looking at data.
00:11:23 Nina Cunningham
In that way, like how to analyse it, which is very.
00:11:26 Nina Cunningham
But also kind of accessing different sources in terms of like kind of how that relates to the future. I think I’ll be bringing a lot of my knowledge, my knowledge into the workplace and also kind of the stuff that I’ve learned and the new things I’ve learned from this course and from the lectures that have taught me, I think it’s a very important to like base everything you do with like science and data, particularly when trying.
00:11:45 Nina Cunningham
To convince people.
00:11:46 Nina Cunningham
That the best way forward is an environmental.
00:11:48 Jess Epsey
Way just a small point to add on that, but lots of the other Masters courses across the geography school, there are modules on qualitative and quantitative methods. So how you do research design, how you use it to inform your projects.
00:12:00 Jess Epsey
Your research, and so on. So we do and try and make sure that all students come out of a master’s degree with that kind of competence in in those different areas and make sure that people sort of comfortable using data to inform their research. In addition to understanding some of the broader governance implications with the sort of macro data conversations that are going on.
00:12:17 Jess Epsey
Right now, yeah.
00:12:18 Nina Cunningham
I would agree with that completely, I think.
00:12:20 Nina Cunningham
And employers as well, mentioning your data knowledge and you know your ability to like understand what what is kind of going on with data is something that’s so important and I found that people are very interested in.
00:12:31 Nina Cunningham
So have no skills has been so useful when I’m looking for jobs.
00:12:33 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Yeah, I think it’s an incredibly important skill. I mean, massively in journalism where I work, it’s it can, like be incredibly informative and and very useful just for unpacking information and also communicating information which is like such a large part of kind.
00:12:46 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Of any role.
00:12:47 Nina Cunningham
And also just personally as well, I would say kind of looking at data and not taking it like as it is understanding it and knowing where it comes from is something that.
00:12:55 Nina Cunningham
A lot of.
00:12:55 Nina Cunningham
People don’t know to this forsake has taught me a lot of how to do that. So when I look at the data, I won’t go, oh, this is the this is the result I can actually analyse it and understand where it’s from rather just taking it at its face value.
00:13:05 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Yeah, very, very useful.
00:13:13 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And just do you find a crossover between your kind of different research projects or do you see them as very distinct units?
00:13:19 Jess Epsey
I think in the past my research has been quite soloed. As I said, I’ve done quite a lot of work around understanding child vulnerability and inequalities as they affect children and that could be different forms of compounding.
00:13:29 Jess Epsey
Inequality, so income, assets, health well-being and so on.
00:13:34 Jess Epsey
And then separately, I started specializing in things like urban sustainable development and what’s been really nice both working on data and statistics and the governmental statistics and now working more broadly on sort of the role of science within multilateralism is it’s finally pulling all these different sectoral insights together and really starting to understand where there are sort of complementarities and also.
00:13:54 Jess Epsey
The most similar challenges across different sectors in how research is used, how it informed policy and decision making, how it’s communicated to the general public. And that’s really sort of where my interests are now is trying to be multi sector.
00:14:07 Jess Epsey
And understand you know how improvements in one area can inform advances in another.
00:14:12 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
MHM.
00:14:12 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And you know what kind of research strategies have you developed through your studies at Bristol?
00:14:16 Nina Cunningham
Critiquing data is a big one for me, kind of how? How to work, how to apply yourself and kind of understand the kind of science, but also how that works. Public policy writing essays, creating an argument. I think, you know, in terms of that just kind of researching my course. It’s not a research masters, but I still, you know, use the research skills that I’ve learned throughout the course from this.
00:14:38 Nina Cunningham
And I’m doing it on carbon offsetting and so I’m doing interviews and surveys I’ve done kind of both briefly, but.
00:14:45 Nina Cunningham
It’s a quite a new experience for me, so it’s.
00:14:47 Nina Cunningham
Gonna.
00:14:47 Nina Cunningham
Be really useful to actually carry those out and look at my own data and analyze my own data and then make conclusions from what I’ve discover. So I’m very excited to like start doing that, but just throughout the course I think of developing an argument using the data that’s been given to you is something that is a really important story that I’ve learned and it will be so useful.
00:15:04 Nina Cunningham
And I have a job and go into work and you know, have to argue a point across, particularly when it comes to climate change where.
00:15:11 Nina Cunningham
Sometimes he’s a bit of convincing people to get on board with that.
00:15:14 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
That’s good when you have the data when you.
00:15:15 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Got the stats? Yeah, exactly.
00:15:18 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I’m just kind of Speaking of projects and research subjects. Do you know what you’re gonna be?
00:15:22 Jess Epsey
Researching next very good question. I’ve got lots of ideas and some irons in the fire. As I said, I’ve got this book coming out on the on science and multilateralism in later in this year and and I’m specifically doing those.
00:15:34 Jess Epsey
Papers at the moment on.
00:15:35 Jess Epsey
That topic, but within different sectors to try to understand out how it played out. For example, once the the public health community, which has a very long tradition of engaging with science and academia, and the lessons that can be learned from that and so on, I think moving forward a topic I’m really interested in is actually and. And having looked in a lot more detail at the UN system and I’ve worked in it for a long time. But actually having had the chance to sort of take a step back and critically.
00:15:57 Jess Epsey
Understand it. I’m really interested in thinking about the decolonisation of of institutions, of of global.
00:16:03 Jess Epsey
Evidence. There’s still a lot of historical relics you could say in the way the US.
00:16:08 Jess Epsey
System is structured.
00:16:09 Jess Epsey
Not necessarily through any fault of its own. It’s a a product of history. But you know, I think there are a lot of things. Obviously the, the composition of the Security Council is a very well known one. But even within the General Assembly, there are a lot of institutional challenges that I think, you know still need to be overcome.
00:16:23 Jess Epsey
And so I’m quite interested in looking at how that affects outcomes decision making.
00:16:27 Jess Epsey
Whose voice count?
00:16:28 Jess Epsey
And kind of how power and authority play into a lot of the decision making that happens at the highest levels of government.
00:16:34 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I’ve got another quite like big question for you. What would you say is kind of the main aim of your research? What are the real world consequences you want to see and what you’re hoping as an individual?
00:16:43 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
To achieve large.
00:16:45 Jess Epsey
I I want to see, you know, sustainable development outcomes for the world. I, you know, we need to take drastic and immediate action on climate change and biodiversity loss on a whole range of.
00:16:55 Jess Epsey
Different planetary crises, as well as social issues. You know, we have really acute levels of inequality and deprivation still around the world, and inequality is only rising.
00:17:03 Jess Epsey
So I think you know at the very highest level, just really trying to draw more attention to these really important issues. But I think in a more practical way, I’m very focused on applied research. That research informed policy and to work very closely with a different government, stakeholders and policymakers and ministers or Heads of State to try and help them and think about these issues and then think about how they design more effective.
00:17:26 Jess Epsey
Obviously, and programs in response.
00:17:29 Jess Epsey
And so, you know, one core part of that is obviously, how do you use the best cutting edge evidence and research to do that and how do you turn insights you might get from huge multicultural studies into actually designing a new program on early childhood interventions or on plastic management on sustainable production and consumption? And that’s really kind of that Nexus is where I’m really interested. So I hope that through.
00:17:52 Jess Epsey
Small amount of research I’m able to contribute, I can support policy makers to do that a bit more effectively.
00:17:56 Jess Epsey
And and help us.
00:17:57 Jess Epsey
Move towards the Sustainable development goals that we’ve set for.
00:18:00 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
The world and how do you think your research is shared and interacted with by?
00:18:04 Jess Epsey
Yeah, that’s a good question. I mean, I’ve tried to bring a lot of my research into the classroom into teaching. So where I’ve worked on sort of facilitating different types of negotiation, as I said, I was very involved in the negotiations on the SDG’s. I’ve tried to bring that into class as I’ve been teaching on urban sustainable development. Thinking about how do you design policy at the local level?
00:18:24 Jess Epsey
At the national level to deliver sustainable outcomes and and sort of bringing in those reflections.
00:18:29 Jess Epsey
So both my research and my practical experience, because you know, I’ve worked in different professional capacities. And so I try and bring it into just weave it into my lectures and my classes and you know my teaching style is quite discursive and chatty. So try and bring the students in as much as possible to sort of talk and reflect on these issues and so on. And then in terms of my written research, you know, some of it does relate very much.
00:18:49 Jess Epsey
The things we’re teaching, so for a lot of the teachers at Bristol, a lot of our research does end up on the on the reading lists and on the corset material.
00:18:57 Jess Epsey
You know, they’re real leaders. You know, their work is really kind of at the forefront of their sector. And so it very often is what students will end up reading and and I think that’s quite inspiring because you’re really learning from, you know, some of the best in the field.
00:19:10 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And Nina, from your perspective, for those kind of interested in sustainable development, how do you interact with them? How do the results and accomplishments kind of influence your own study and research?
00:19:20 Nina Cunningham
I think it’s very similar to what just was saying how the people we learn from are so present. It’s really cool. So like, you know, look at your reading. Listen, go. Oh my leg.
00:19:28 Nina Cunningham
I wrote that for some of the development I think is a kind of a baseline for a lot of the call. So every time I think about it, it kind of, you know, it ties a lot to what I’m learning about trying to like, you know, improve the world in a in an effective way. So again, basing it in science, basing it in data also like collaborative people learning from.
00:19:44 Nina Cunningham
Others, I think.
00:19:45 Nina Cunningham
That’s a very important way to kind of improve and.
00:19:48 Nina Cunningham
Through the planet in all facets.
00:19:51 Nina Cunningham
I think that listen to people that you know, people on my course and you know, seeing what they have to say is so fascinating. And I really find that’s useful, particularly coming from, you know, a different that around some of my peers. It’s really interesting to learn from them. But also the lecturers in terms of my own study, I’ve it, it broadened my perspective on things. I listen. Most people, I would say, and I’ve kind of taken.
00:20:11 Nina Cunningham
More what people are saying and understanding, kind of different backgrounds and perspectives to try and create a.
00:20:16 Nina Cunningham
Better world overall.
00:20:17 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And Jess kind of on a more personal level, do you feel like you’ve achieved what you’ve set out to with your research? And is there anything you feel like you’ve missed? Is there anything you feel like a yearning to return?
00:20:28 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
To is there an area?
00:20:30 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
You could you could go back.
00:20:31 Jess Epsey
To and that’s a huge question. I I don’t think you could ever say you achieve what you.
00:20:35 Jess Epsey
Said that, you were all striving to develop and so.
00:20:36 Nina Cunningham
I’m done.
00:20:37 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Finished.
00:20:40 Jess Epsey
No, I mean, I think the world has got a very long way to go and there’s no end of work. We could continue to do. I mean, I used to work with.
00:20:48 Jess Epsey
Jeffrey Sachs, who was.
00:20:50 Jess Epsey
A leading sort of global economist has written extensively on sustainable development, and he’s been working on these topics since he was 20. And you know, at least sort of 4050 years now have gone by. He’s still writing frantically and campaigning and talking, and he’s the most passionate advocate and academic you’ll ever meet on this topic. And I think he’s just testament to the fact that the projects never over.
00:21:09 Jess Epsey
There’s still so much more to do and so much more to learn.
00:21:12 Jess Epsey
And so much more to research.
00:21:14 Jess Epsey
In terms of personal goals, I mean one of the things that I absolutely loved and I I sort of feel was a huge highlight state of my career as working in Liberia and supporting President Sirleaf when she was the Co chair of the negotiations on the first stage of the Sustainable Development Goals when they were first being deliberated. And that was just amazing, you know, sort of really immersing myself in completely different culture in a different way.
00:21:35 Jess Epsey
Working and support our office as best I could, you know, and to really understand how a policy process can be completely different in the context to which I was born, so that.
00:21:44 Jess Epsey
Something I’ve utterly loved and I feel was a real sort of highlight of everything I’ve done, but I would never say I have fulfilled any of the ambitions that I initially set out, so I’m I’m planning on working probably till I’m yeah.
00:21:56 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Right.
00:21:57 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And do you feel optimistic?
00:21:58 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
When you look at the kind of work you’re doing and look at the.
00:22:00 Jess Epsey
Industry and the sector. I do, actually. Yeah. And I.
00:22:03 Jess Epsey
You know I.
00:22:03 Jess Epsey
Think we all come across Doomsdays and I think we all have elderly relatives and friends and stuff you say ohh. The problem is too big. There’s nothing we can do. Why would I become a vegan? Why would I lower my meat consumption? Why would I worry about?
00:22:16 Jess Epsey
Thinking you know, there’s all these arguments that can always be made to sort of not think about individual actions you can take. But broadly speaking, I’m incredibly optimistic because actually I think particularly young people these days, a lot of people I work, I encounter students but also younger colleagues, are just really motivated to take individual actions around sustainable development, to educate their friends and peers.
00:22:38 Jess Epsey
My children. You know my son. I’ve got 2, two boys and one was 5 and at school he has just the whole week on recycling and he came back and told me off because I put something in the wrong bin and you know, so just it’s really inspiring to see the fact that this has just become such a big issue for younger generations now. And I I’m really confident that.
00:22:57 Jess Epsey
You know, with all the sort of all these young, inspiring minds, we will come up with some incredible solutions. Obviously we still need huge political and behavioural change right now and that’s something that we have to keep voting for and there will be irreversible damage to the planet. I mean that much we already know. But I think there is a lot we can do to try and stem the tide and try and reverse a lot of the ecological damage we’ve seen. And I I’m optimistic that younger generations.
00:23:19 Jess Epsey
Are gonna be much better than my generation have been. So yes, I feel confident that we’re moving in a positive.
00:23:25 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Direction. Good. That’s something to feel positive about.
00:23:28 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
I’m just finally. Nina, what would you say to someone considering a similar choice and study? What advice would you give them from your own?
00:23:29 Nina Cunningham
I say go for it, but that’s definitely who I am. I think really consider if it’s for you. I found for me it was really doing for a job, but that’s not necessarily the only reason why you should do something like a masters like in.
00:23:35 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Experience.
00:23:48 Nina Cunningham
And I looked at the course, you know, emails about it went to, like, open days was kind of really understand if it was right for me. And I’m very happy that it was and that, you know, it is that there’s a feeling that you get and it’s.
00:24:02 Nina Cunningham
Very hard to.
00:24:03 Nina Cunningham
Describe, but you would of course you look at it and everything saying, Oh yeah, this is good. This is good. I think it’s.
00:24:09 Nina Cunningham
You know, tying to what you enjoy and understanding if it’s right for you, I will say, yeah, research, to be honest is the.
00:24:15 Nina Cunningham
Same thing. University Press is so lucky that we have some amazing lecturers, so definitely a place to consider a wherever. Of course you go into the environment is such an important area and just learning about it, it’s kind of, you know, for me I feel like I’m trying to.
00:24:28 Nina Cunningham
Make.
00:24:29 Nina Cunningham
A difference? Yeah. I can’t recommend it enough.
00:24:31 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
And finally, Neil, do you feel optimistic from your studies? Do you feel optimistic in the in the area?
00:24:37 Nina Cunningham
Yeah, I would agree with yes, I do. Actually. I think when I first started, I was going into it like trying to imagine fixing something that’s completely.
00:24:44 Nina Cunningham
Broken. But it’s not just kind of being around people who are so passionate about the planet and the environment and kind of, you know, improving make protein, sustainable development and improving the world for everybody on it really shows that there are people there who actually care and want to make change and are making change right now. And it’s so significant. So I’m kind of confident that, you know, there are people out there who want to change the world.
00:25:05 Nina Cunningham
And want to make amazing differences like just included, you know, lecturers, all the kind of people are doing my course. So it’s gonna maybe we’re gonna see again because I feel like, you know, Wednesday comes.
00:25:16 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Great. Jess. Yeah, thank you so much for your time and such a inspirational converse.
00:25:20 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Question. It’s been super fascinating to chat with you, and thanks for sharing your time and wide, wise knowledge with me.
00:25:26 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Thank you. Bye.
00:25:26 Jess Epsey
Thanks very much.
00:25:29 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Thank you for listening to research from tears from Bristol University. We hope you found inspiration, information, answers and more in all of these great conversations. Don’t forget to check in over www.bristol.
00:25:41 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
Dot UK Slash study forward slash postgraduate for more details on Bristol courses and information about Bristol University also keep the podcast nearby, subscribe to Research Frontiers wherever you get your favorite podcasts and please do share with people who.
00:25:54 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
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00:25:55 Ruby Lott-Lavigna
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