Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Green Gown Award winning Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Jack Dinham, Ellie Howell, Mya Harvey, Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Podcast communications: Tyler Domone-Hollands, Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
Follow us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast
Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
How can we overcome barriers to being a vegan society?
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In this student takeover episode of the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute (SRI) at the University of Southampton, we are discussing the sustainability impacts of veganism and the barriers that prevent individuals from adopting a vegan diet.
Veganism has been shown to produce the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of dietary styles; however, a mere 1-2% of the UK population are vegans. There are many barriers that prevent individuals from becoming vegan, from culture and psychology to cost and lack of education. In this episode, we dive deeper into why these barriers exist and what needs to be done to overcome them, with education as the main method.
To learn more about how to have a nutritionally complete diet as a vegan, we recommend visiting the NHS website:
· https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-eat-a-balanced-diet/the-vegan-diet/
And if you want to read more about veganism and the barriers faced, we recommend the following papers:
· Meat‐related cognitive dissonance: The social psychology of eating animals. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12592
· Dissociating meat from its animal origins: A systematic literature review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2019.104554
· Indian Animal Ethics https://doi.org/10.1017/S1477175622000227.
· The nutritional composition and impact on UK dietary intakes of meat and plant-based meat alternatives https://doi.org/10.1038/s41538-025-00577-7
Episode host: Helenya Baker
Episode guests: Athanasia Hagios, Nick Chen, Alice Houlden, Kate Waller
Episode editor: Kate Waller
Episode researcher and script writer: Ollie Thompson
This episode is part of the Student Takeover Season on the Meliora Podcast and is a group project from the University of Southampton UOSM2043 Global Sustainability Challenges module.
