In their workshop at the K3 Congress, our colleagues demonstrated why listening plays a central role in this process – and introduced our new Climate Listening Game, designed to build bridges to people who are often on the margins of the climate debate.
To enable the shift towards sustainable living conditions, we must think beyond the term “climate”. In her talk at the “Communicating Climate Hope” conference, hosted by the Universities of Tilburg, Netherlands, and British Columbia, Canada, our founder Eva-Maria McCormack emphasised social justice and democratic participation as essential foundations for successful transformation. She outlined how socially inclusive climate communication can contribute to this process.
Rearview: B. Sc. Journalistik & Strategische Kommunikation, Politikwissenschaft Universität Passau | Video-Editorin, Studio Weichselbaumer | Passau, Bayern | Vorstandsmitglied und Ressortleitung PR & Social Media, Hochschulgruppe JoKonnect | Praktikum timee.com, Frankfurt | Summer Camp Organizer, Teach Fun Club, Hanoi, Fotografin, Vietherb, Lang Son, Vietnam
Rearview: Bachelor in Communication Design at Politcecnico di Milano, Italy | Freelance designer in Germany and Italy | Photographer and Graphic Designer, Zalando eProduction, Berlin | Art Director, Zuumeo GmbH, Berlin | Art Director, WE DO communication | Freelance Art Director and Graphic Designer, Trente, Italy und international
Eva-Maria has founded and heads Talking Hope. What drives her are processes of disruption, rethinking and change, and as a historian, she tends to take a hopeful look at the world. Haven’t great transformations often grown from dreams that were first thought impossible: Freedom from slavery, workers’ rights, women’s suffrage? As a student at Cambridge University, she researched the great upheavals of the early modern era. And while she was busy writing essays on Renaissance and Reformation, her ears were peeled to the radio, where news of the fall of the Berlin Wall came in from her home country. Later, Eva-Maria headed the international newswire of the German Press Agency (dpa). With a team of 150 journalists based in more than 80 countries, she reported on the changed world after 9/11, on the impacts of rapid globalisation and the fallout of far too slow climate action. “A rich question of distribution, answered rather poorly”, would be her standard answer when asked to define politics after these years. Her view on this did not change much when, after a stopover at two business associations, she later headed the communications strategy of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Convinced that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to social justice, the functioning of democracy and human health, Eva-Maria eventually moved into climate communications and campaign strategy, most recently as Executive Director for Communications at the European Climate Foundation. She refuses to give up on her conviction that positive change is possible. Transformations are made, history teaches us that, after all, she says. How do we get there? By transcending doomsday scenarios to create the longing for an alternative future, she says. And by just not giving up. “I would still plant apple trees two minutes to Armageddon”, she says.
Rearview: History, history and philosophy of science, political sciences and English studies at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster und Cambridge University | M. Phil. University of Cambridge | Journalistic training, Institut für Publizistischen Nachwuchs e. V. | Hansard Scholar, London School of Economics and Hansard Society for Parliamentary Government | TV-journalist, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), and BBC Westminster, London | Lecturer TV-Journalism, Bournemouth University | Managing Producer, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland | Managing Editor, dpa news international, Cork, Irland, and Berlin | Head of Media and Public Relations, German Aviation Association (BDL), Berlin, and German Association for Human Resource Management (DGFP), Berlin/Düsseldorf | Director of Communication, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) | Strategic Climate Communications Adviser for climate startups | Executive Director, Strategic Communications, European Climate Foundation | Board member Hostwriter gUG and Adam von Trott Stiftung, Imshausen
Jenny Bischofberger is Talking Hope’s scientific coordinator and policy advisor. Her granddad, a forester, was the first to teach her that earth is a precious garden. In order to explore this garden further, she planned her first trip around the world while still at school and financed it by running a beer garden with miniature golf course upon her graduation. Later, Namibia became her secret home: As a geo-ecologist, she first researched the biodiversity of its savannah. Then, she became increasingly interested in the crucial interplay between nature, humans and politics. For her doctoral thesis, she analysed the dynamics between biodiversity, political decision-making processes and environmental perception in the north-west of the country. The task of connecting different perspectives has run like a thread also through her work as a scientific adviser siince, e. g. at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research in Frankfurt. What she also swears by is communication and collaboration: Complex problems need joint solutions, is her mantra. Good that we talked about this.
Rearview: Diploma in Geo-ecology, University of Bayreuth | PhD in Biology/Botany, University of Cologne, with dissertation on “Rangeland use in Northwestern Namibia – An integrated analysis of vegetation dynamics, decision-making processes and environment perception” | Advisory Board of the Namibian NGO EduVentures (environmental education) | Research associate, VW Junior Research Group “Ecological and economic sustainability of different forms of use of a savannah landscape of northern Namibia”, University of Cologne | Research associate at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Ufz), Leipzig, Department of Ecological Modelling | Project Coordinator at the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), Frankfurt a. M.
Nils Fleischmann had just returned from a semester abroad in Estonia when he joined Talking Hope as an intern in spring 2024. What did he like about the country in north-eastern Europe? “The civic spirit,” he says. “Estonia is a small country of just 1.3 million people. You can feel how much it cares about the common good – with many contact points for citizens, many sports facilities, with its digitalized administration and also in services of its healthcare system.” The common good is also what drives Nils when he talks about climate and sustainability. “Good communication is absolutely crucial for this”, he says and adds: “We have to get a lot more people on board, not just the green bubble.” We are happy that Nils is supporting Talking Hope in this goal for two months, before he returns to the University of Passau for his final year of study in Journalism & Strategic Communication and Political Science. Thanks for your support, dear Nils!
Rearview: B. A. student Journalism & Strategic Communications and political sciences, University of Passau | Foreign exchange student, University of Tartu, Estonia | Working student, Product & Communications, be+ GmbH, Schwabach, Bavaria | Development volunteer service at YMCA Bavaria | Volunteer work with Food Bank, Passau
Rearview: State examinations in Political Economy, History, Educational Science and Philosophy | Ph. D. in Didactics of Political Education, University of Kassel, with dissertation on “Emotional-Political Self-Education: Toward a a critical understanding of political feelings” | PhD Award 2022 of the Kassel International Graduate Centre (KIGG) | Research Associate, Didactics of Political Education, University of Kassel | Visiting Research Associate, Research Unit “Gender and Politics”, University of Vienna | Lectureships on political education research and theory at the universities of Kassel, Lüneburg and Gießen | Co-Founder and Editorial Member, Diskurs: Zeitschrift für innovative Analysen politischer Praxis | Project Manager “Partnership for Democracy”, Foundation Adam von Trott, Imshausen e. V. | Executive Director (ad interim), Foundation Adam von Trott, Imshausen e. V. | Academic publications on the relationship between politics and feelings as well as on the critique of political feelings, i. e. in Journal für Politische Bildung, Diskurs: Zeitschrift für innovative Analysen politischer Praxis.
Soeren-Elias Griewel is Talking Hope’s web wizard and the Swiss army knife that can do everything – whether it is developing digital strategies, getting Talking Hope to the top of the Google rankings, find great uses for the latest AI tools or setting up the team’s passwords for the 5000th time. He is one of those rare nerds who can also talk to the unenlightened and for whom technology must help make the world a better place. He was fed politics and dissent by his parents, both Protestant theologians, from his boyhood days – and he thanked them for it by plotting large-scale protests against the Iraq war when he was still at school in Frankfurt. He loves to start new things and push them forward, he says. Especially when it’s about a cool future, in both senses of the word.
Rearview: Apprenticeship in publishing and traineeship as media business administrator | Coordinator for technical development & market analysis as well as international mobile marketing manager in a listed media publishing house | Project manager e-commerce and responsible for the relaunch of an eBook shop into a full-range provider | Self-employed IT consultant and consultant for web development and digital strategies
Jennifer Griewel is Talking Hopes’ specialist for youth mental health issues and the social participation and inclusion especially of young people. As a licensed psychotherapist for children and adolescents, she experiences their eco-anxiety and growing fear of the future in her practice every day. Originally trained as a social worker with a research thesis on young people’s participation, and in charge of introducing students from non-academic backgrounds to the scholarship programme of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst, she also never loses sight of the social contexts and conditions that impact on young people lives and perceptions. And as a blue-collar kid from the industrial Ruhr herself, she also takes the mickey out of any political pseudo-solutions with just two words: “Really now?”
Rearview: Social work degree at the University of Applied Sciences Dortmund, NRW | Specialist profile child and adolescent psychiatry | Student scholarship from the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst | Postgraduate training as child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Training Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Cologne (AKiP) | Academic and practical training, e. g. at the Social Paediatric Centre of the Children’s Hospital, University Hospital Cologne; Division of Public Behavioral Health Policy and Justice Policy, University of Washington, Seattle | 2017-2022 Chief therapist specialist psychiatric practice for children and adolescents | Since 2021 Self-employed with own private psychotherapy practice for children and adolescents.
Boris Babic is Talking Hope’s master of complexity when it comes to writing about supremely difficult topics. There were times when he called himself “Writer for Money”, but that is modest. He has worked as a reporter, correspondent and news editor for more than a quarter of a century, mostly pouring the complex past and entangled present of the Balkans, his homeland, into stories for outsiders. “That’s when you adopt the direct, simple style,” he says. What drives him is his interest in how people tick and social fault lines work, and his sheer refusal to accept injustice. The latter probably dates back to his childhood days: Having grown up moving around between Belgrade, Cairo and Bonn, he saw deep poverty and sometimes the very rich from early on. Today, he says, we need to take a clear look at the future in order to tackle the conflicts over resources which climate crisis, inequity and social injustice present to us. And on this, he likes to write clear texts. Preferably accompanied by hard rock. Or the jazz guitar of his grown-up son.
Rearview: American High School, Bonn | Journalist, Beta News Agency, Belgrade | Balkan Correspondent Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa international | News Editor, Germany Today, Deutsche Presse Agentur
Stefan Lueke is Talking Hope’s resident excel master and looks after organization and finance issues. Experienced in creating structure from creative beginnings, he is also proof that one can walk straight even on winding paths in life. A carpenter and budding civil engineer in his first life, his student fast-food job turned into an express career: At the age of 25, he was managing 55 franchise branches of a very well-known American gastronomy chain in Cologne/Bonn. To make up for this, the “King of French Fries from Suttner-Square”, as he was called, later became a devoted vegan. But his learning on the job – and his accompanying management training in the USA – also opened new doors for him: Stefan later ran the operations and finances of a research institute for energy-efficient heating, an international food shipping company and a holiday flat rental company. He is the founder of www.morethan.art , which advises artists engaged in social arts projects on marketing and distribution.
Rearview: Carpentry apprenticeship | Studies in civil engineering | Area Manager McDonald’s Franchises Cologne/Bonn | Managing Director Rhein-Partner GmbH | Technical Managing Director Forschungs- und Entwicklungsinstitut Dr. Reichelt GmbH | Managing Director Tenerife Apartments | Founder More Than Art
Susann Kreutzmann works with Talking Hope on policy and economic issues, especially in the areas of energy and climate, foreign policy and development. Having grown up in East Germany before the fall of the Iron Curtain, democracy and the rule of law became her themes early on: She still remembers what it meant for her to cast her vote in a free election for the first time. She studies politics, Latin American studies as well as peace and conflict studies, and then specialized as a correspondent for economic and political affairs, reporting for Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, ZEIT Online and Neue Zürcher Zeitung amongst others. Her heart lives in South America where she worked as a foreign correspondent for many years: From São Paulo, she reported on political and economic developments, environmental policy and human rights issues. A recurring theme for her during this time were the deforestation of the Amazon rainforests and its impact on people and development in the region. She frequently acts as an election observer and media expert in EU election observation missions in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and has also worked as a strategic communicator for the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Germany’s oldest foreign policy think tank.
Rearview: Diploma, Political Science and Latin American Studies, University of Rostock and Free University of Berlin | Peace and Conflict Studies. Humboldt University Berlin and Hagen University | Correspondent for Labour Market, Social and Education Policy, Associated Press (AP) | Foreign Correspondent (Politics & Economics) for Latin America, Financial Times Deutschland | Correspondent for Economic and European Policy, The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires | Economics Editor and Chief of Service, Zeit Online | Communications Manager, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) | Correspondent, Federal Bureau Berlin, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Anna-Zoë Herr supports Talking Hope in researching and designing communication and engagement strategies. She is firmly convinced that the climate transformation needs vision, creativity and hope. Before entering academia, she, therefore, searched for a university where she could study sustainability, sociology and art at the same time. She went for a B.A. at a liberal arts college in the US, and added a Master’s degree in Global Studies at Humboldt University Berlin – interspliced with study periods in South Africa and India and always with the combined focus: How can work on sustainability and development be advanced also with creative approaches? She went on to test this question in practice at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, where she worked as Public Engagement Coordinator of the Berlin School of Public Engagement. In addition to her work at Talking Hope, she is now pursuing a doctorate. Her research topic: “Why climate communication needs hope”. And, of course, she continues to paint and photograph.
Rearview: B. A. Global Studies, Sustainability, Studio Art, Principia College, USA | M. A. Global Studies, Humboldt Universität, Berlin | Study periods at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; University of Pretoria, South Africa | Journalistic internship, The Christian Science Monitor, Boston/Mass., USA | Director for Media and Design, The Euphrates Institute, USA | Public Engagement Coordinator, Berlin School of Public Engagement, Natural History Museum, Berlin | Graphic Designer, Photographer, Painter, stonesandfeathers.com
Jules Mascarenhas is Talking Hope’s guru for ingenious creative and media campaigns. He has done the lot in the film, video and social media world: films that made it to the Berlinale Film Festival, media projects that won multiple awards at Cannes, social media campaigns, animation projects as well as digital brand strategies for multinationals and other companies. His creative approach has always been: Create impact through surprise. His heart’s desire today is: Inspire people for positive transformation. To achieve that he gladly uses the creative skills he has learned on the big screen. Every person has an unstoppable inner force for change, like the molten magma of a volcano, he says. Tapping into his, he now designs creative campaigns on climate change, social justice, diversity and migration themes, and he especially likes to pursue participatory formats that genuinely involve those affected by these issues. In other words: Talking Hope all the way.
Rearview: B. A. Communications, London Metropolitan University | Producer Foundation Course, National Film & Television School, U. K. | Owner & Producer, Quince Film & Digital | Head of Moving Image, Radley Yeldar, London | Head of Creative Content, Investis, London | Executive Producer, Brand, Media Zoo, London | Independent Creative Consultant, Director, Executive Producer and Writer | Global Silver Medal and Global Gold Medal, New York Festivals International Film & Television Awards 2015 | Cannes Silver Dolphin, Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards 2015, 2016 | Gold EVCOM Clarion Award 2019
Rositsa Atanasova is Talking Hope’s adviser on legal frameworks, especially in the context of social justice and human rights policy. Born in communist Bulgaria, she went on an impressive journey through academia to ultimately become a lawyer on refugee, migration and human rights issues. Her degrees in classical studies, Arabic, theology, and law took her from the United States via the Sorbonne and Harvard to Cambridge University and back again to Europe. “If at all, we’re all ‘economic migrants’,” she likes to raise the odd eyebrow amongst highly white-collared surroundings, “Isn’t it funny that you are only called an expat when you are rich?” What drives her is the idea of human dignity, regardless of pomp or poverty, or even popularity. For more than 15 years now, she has advised on human rights issues and managed projects for NGOs, government and other organizations, among them the European External Action Service, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and JK Rowling’s Lumos Foundation. Where does this come from? “Maybe it is as simple as just investing in people?”, she laughs, “Isn’t that how we create meaning and belonging?”
Rearview: B. A. in Classical Studies, Willamette University, USA | University Diploma in Arabic Language and Literature, Université Paris IV Sorbonne, France | M. Theol., with specialization in Islamic studies, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, USA; Graduate Felloe, The Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School | LL. B., Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK | LL.M. Law in a European and Global Context, Católica Global School of Law, Portugal | Research Fellow, Lilly Endowment, Paris | Consultant, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, Salem, OR, USA | Windsor Fellow, Legal Adviser’s Branch, Home Office, London, UK | Project Administration Manager & Emergency Desk Consultant, Médecines Sans Frontières, Brussels, Belgium, and Amsterdam, Netherlands | Project Manager for Unaccompanied Migrant and Refugee Children, Lumos Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria | Advocacy Expert, Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, Sofia | Senior Legal Assistant, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Sofia | Independent Consultant on refugee, migration, human rights, children’s rights, gender and religion & politics issues as well as EU law | Advocacy & Communications Expert, Foundation for Access to Rights, FAR, Sofia | Numerous publications, policy briefs, public lectures and media appearances on asylum and migration as well as Islamic studies | Member of the Board and General Assembly, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
Julia is Talking Hope’s master of story-telling: As an expert climate communicator, she advises on campaign strategies, audience-specific communications and narrative design. As Engagement Lead of the Berlin-based section “Germany Talks Climate” of Climate Outreach, she co-authored their study on how Germany ticks when it comes to climate protection. Julia is passionate about collaborative and creative approaches to addressing climate change, and she is particularly interested also in visual communications. What she also brings to her communications work is solid scientific expertise, cross-cultural competence and an affinity for sheer good writing: Julia holds a Master in Environmental Policy and a Master in European Literature and History. As a dual national of Germany and the U. K., who has worked for a number of international organisations, she enjoys integrating perspectives on climate change from various angles, including culture, education, entrepreneurship and research. She is inspired by the many people, ideas and actions that are already working towards a just transition. She is an active member of several international associations and networks, such as Linking Tourism and Conservation and the Environmental Justice Network (EnJust). And she is also a nature enthusiast: You will often find her in the countryside, cycling, swimming and bird-watching.
Rearview: M. A. Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge, U. K. | Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute & Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research | M. Sc. Nature, Society & Environmental Policy, University of Oxford | Project Manager, British Council Brussels | Head of Partnerships & Networks, British Council Germany, Berlin | Programme Manager, British Council London | Education Lead DACH, Climate-KIC GmbH, Berlin | International Programmes Lead, Climate-KIC BV, Berlin | Engagement Lead, Climate Outreach, Berlin | Fellow Climate Justice 2021, CrossCulture Programme, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen | Member of Environmental Justice Network, Linking Tourism & Conservation
Nyima supports Talking Hope with media work and as expert advisor on the topic of migration. In both fields her voice was noted early on: Selected as one of the top students of Kiron University, she found herself on a public panel with Angela Merkel at the age of 24 in 2017 – and promptly asked her the surprise questions. Today, Nyima hosts her own TV programme for migrants and refugees on Alex Berlin TV. And she loves to turn the public image of refugees as “takers” in society upside down: “We are all part of society. Everyone has something to give” she says. In 2021, she was nominated by the German Foreign Office as the first refugee delegate to advise the German government at the High-Level Officials Meeting of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Her TV programme in Berlin is called “Nyimas Bantaba”: In Mandinka, her native language, bantaba is the big tree under which people gather to jointly find solutions for the issues that matter to their community. What particularly moved her as a refugee when she first arrived in Berlin was seeing the remainders of the Berlin Wall. “I didn’t know that Germans have been refugees within Germany.” And again she says: “Every person stands for something.”
Rearview: Diploma of law, West African Insurance Institute, Kololi | Student reporter, The Standard Newspaper, Bakau | Afrinity Productions online TV, Serrekunda Marketing Manager and Presenter | German language certificates, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg | Kiron University | Journalistic and cross-media communications training, Alex Berlin TV and Berlin Journalism School | Free-lance reporter, Gemeinschaftswerk der Evangelischen Publizistik | Scholar, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) | Editor & Co-presenter, African Women In Trade, Webinar | Mentor, Neue Deutsche Medien Macher*innen (NDM), Deutsche Welle (DW-TV) | Founder Bantaba Academy, Media Competence for Migrants and Refugees | Social Facility Manager, Gangway E.V. Straßensozial Arbeit Berlin e.V. | Project Coordinator, Migrant Media Network (MMN) Gambia, r0G Agency, Berlin and Gambia | Coordinator, Verband für Interkulturelle Arbeit, Partnerschaft für Demokratie Leben, Berlin Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg | Board Member, Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) | Editor, producer and presenter, Nyimas Bantaba programme, Alex Berlin TV | Member of the Global Refugee-led Network | Board Member & Coordinator of the Second Summit of the European Coalition of Migrants and Refugees (EUCOMAR)
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