Lydia French: People, Planet & Positivity (Levitate With Ryan Nell Podcast - Episode 3)

Today, we talk to the wonderful founder of The Brighter Times, Lydia French, about why she founded a positive news hub with a mission to transform journalism (and perhaps the readers) for the better, what she worries about and is optimistic about for our children and our children's children, the empathy gap, the environment, technology, the importance of play, celebrating victories and welcoming failures, the struggle to stay positive, gratitude practices, strong women, and much more.

Transcript

Think about all the things that make you happy.

Tea makes me really happy.

And I do this thing before I go to bed.

My husband and I,

We have to tell each other five things that we're really grateful about,

What we're thankful for.

And it could be stupid things,

But we do it all the same every night.

And that is really lovely thing to do.

Gratitude,

My friends.

Yeah,

I'm very thankful.

I mean,

I'm human too.

Sometimes the world sucks and I hate everyone.

Hello,

And welcome to the Levitate podcast with me,

Ryan Nell.

In today's episode,

I'm chatting to Lydia French.

Lydia is the founder of The Brighter Times,

A positive newspaper,

Which aims to provide a counterbalance to the negative news cycles of the modern world.

In the conversation,

We chat about the environment and the hopes and perils that that faces right now,

The next generation,

What we're positive about,

What we're a bit worried about,

The empathy gap,

How we can get our heads around worrying about people five generations down the line,

People who haven't been born yet,

How to find hope and optimism in the future,

How to stay positive and survive the struggle of founding your own business,

Finding yourself with not instant money and instant success.

Some tips on gratitude.

Some look at the importance of play and what we can learn from our childhoods and bring into our adult lives.

We talk about inspirational women in Lydia's life.

We talk about Greta Thunberg.

We talk about Lydia's collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and our sacred duty to look after the animals.

And we stray into interesting topics like climate denial and have a lot of fun along the way.

I hope that comes across in this conversation.

Please stay tuned and thank you so much for joining for another episode of Levitate with Ryan Nell.

Now you may not know,

But this podcast is funded and supported by Levitate.

Levitate is my wellbeing and meditation company.

We're based out of London.

We provide drop-in group and private meditation classes to people with busy minds.

We are a growing community of like-minded people interested in pursuing mindfulness as a way of achieving greater mental health.

We believe that wellbeing must be holistic,

So it can't just stop with the mind.

It needs to also include your relationships,

Your environment,

The systems that you're part of,

The food you're putting in your mouth.

And so we'll be covering all of those topics and more as we develop this podcast.

Now you can support this podcast in a number of different ways.

We are yet to go to any advertisers because we're worried that it might damage the listening experience.

So you can support by donating on Patreon,

By subscribing to the podcast and sharing it with friends,

Perhaps leaving us a rating on the iTunes store or the Google podcast store.

And you could consider heading to the Levitate website,

Which is at www.

Levitate.

London,

Where we currently have a January offer on,

Which is three months unlimited meditation classes for 90 pounds.

The special price is designed to help you kick off a meditation practice that will last your lifetime,

Or at least to be able to start 2020 in a meditative style.

So thank you so much again for your support.

And now over to Lydia.

My guest today is Lydia French.

I'm really,

Really excited to have you here,

Lydia.

Lydia and I met ages and a day back at Leeds Uni,

Where I was at Leeds and Lydia was at Leeds Art.

It may have been a Carl Cox concert.

It was absolutely Carl Cox.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there's dancing away.

And yeah,

A lot of kind of water under the bridge since then.

And we were just saying,

I don't think we've seen each other for,

It could be 10 years.

Yeah.

I would,

Well,

We graduated,

I think we graduated the same year,

2004.

Graduated 2004,

Yeah.

And then there might've been one cheeky little meet in Covent Garden one time,

I think.

Yeah.

But other than that,

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

A very long time.

Maybe a house party.

Yeah,

Too long.

Anyway,

Isn't it funny the way that happens?

And so anyway,

So yeah,

Lydia and I met a little while back and just had a very kind of cool,

Or you've had a very cool career to date,

But the kind of,

Which I want to hear all about,

But specifically I wanted to get you on today to chat about The Brighter Times.

Lydia founded The Brighter Times.

It's a newspaper which is just full of all the positivity we need in a world that often seems negative and gloomy and lots to worry about,

But you wouldn't know it reading The Brighter Times,

And that is a wonderful thing.

So,

Lydia,

Welcome.

Thank you very much for having me.

Well,

It's just awesome to have you here.

So I want to kind of,

Yeah,

I'm going to ask you just straight off the bat,

You know,

Give us a little potted history of your backgrounds,

Like where you started out.

So yeah,

Well,

University graduated 2004,

And then actually I had a ski season planned to do,

But my mother was,

Bless her,

She was like,

No,

Lydia,

You've got to do something before you go,

Make the most of your time.

So I wrote to loads of different people and got a summer internship at an interior design company called Designer's Guild.

And then actually that turned into a job that I couldn't turn down.

So I spent four,

Five years there,

Which was amazing doing different things like product development,

Styling,

Art direction.

And then I think I got,

I was about 27,

And this is going to sound also terribly cheesy,

But I was having a moment of,

Oh,

Is this what I want to be doing?

I'm not really sure.

And at the same time,

I was dating someone that I was completely in love with and he broke my heart,

Boo hoo.

So- No,

The bastard.

Well,

Yes,

He was actually.

We can throw him onto the bus.

But I think all my mom said to me,

Look,

What do you want to do?

So I said,

I don't know,

I just need to come home.

So I went home for a while and then flew off to India and went around India on my own and Thailand and realized I still very much love design,

But I was more into startups and branding and that sort of thing.

So came home,

Did another internship for a year at a creative agency in Soho,

Which was amazing and brilliant,

Hard work,

About to play hard as well.

So it was an exhausting year.

And then I've sort of been freelancing ever since as a designer.

And then what happened,

Gosh,

It's just,

It's actually quite funny thinking about what I've been doing.

How I've been doing.

But yeah,

I guess I got to a point.

I mean,

I've always loved design,

But I've always been into self-development and being self-aware.

And I am someone who has a lot of feelings and a lot of emotion,

Which I now love and I've learned to deal with it.

But when you don't really know how to deal with it,

It can be very difficult.

So sort of parking that.

I also got so fed up of opening the newspaper and it just being negative stories constantly and awful things happening to people.

And yes,

These things are important and you should be aware of them,

But also there is a huge amount of goodness going on in the world.

And people should know,

I don't understand why people shouldn't know about these things too.

They are just as important,

If not more important to promote.

So that's where the brighter times sort of started in my head.

I know as a freelancer myself,

I know that there's a lot of chewing yourself up that you have to do during that process.

Absolutely,

Yes.

So bits of positivity,

You kind of clutch onto like life rafts almost because there's all the uncertainty.

You have to celebrate every little victory that you have to keep you going because there is a lot of struggle financially is one as well.

That's quite a stress.

Like,

Oh,

How am I going to pay my rent this month?

But it does always work out and you have to keep driven and motivated.

And that to me was,

I mean,

The brighter time started with an Instagram account.

That was mainly for me really.

And I just started posting motivational quotes or people that inspired me to keep going.

And it sort of built up a little momentum and people were like,

Yeah,

This is wicked.

And yeah,

It's gone on from there really.

Snowballs.

I want to kind of get into it,

But what do you think the reason is that,

Obviously if you open a newspaper,

It is mostly doom and gloom.

Why don't the positive news stories get the same amount of coverage?

Do you know what?

I've asked myself that a lot because I've found it quite a difficult journey to build up a lot of momentum.

I dare say this human nature,

I don't know,

Maybe people do like a little bit of gossip and drama.

You know,

Everyone loves EastEnders.

To answer your question,

I don't know actually.

I know it sells more papers.

Yeah.

But I remember,

I don't know,

I remember being younger and even at the end of the news on the television,

It always rounded up with a positive story.

Like cat rescued from a tree.

Do you remember that?

I do.

I think it was around when I was 17,

18.

It was normally like the more local news.

Yeah,

It was more the local news,

But it always ended on a high and they don't even do that anymore.

Although I think there is a certain element of it coming back in.

Yeah.

I have noticed that,

Which is fantastic.

So if you're listening,

BBC and all other major news reporters.

Let's assume they are.

Yes,

Let's just assume they are.

Of course they are.

Bring it back,

I say.

Yeah.

Or everyone just followed the brighter times.

Hurrah.

Yeah,

Exactly.

Exactly.

And we're gonna plug the hell out of the brighter times later and make sure everyone knows the Instagram channel and everything else,

The initial notes as well.

But yeah,

I have noticed something on a personal level that,

You know,

Watching,

I made a mistake getting really addicted to like just BBC news,

Like the channel.

Okay.

Which it became like my morning routine for like a couple of months this year,

Just to kind of just wake up and just switch on the news while I was doing things,

Having breakfast,

Whatever.

And I'd always come out of the other end of it more agitated.

Because especially with a news channel,

There's no like,

There's no off.

It's not just the 9 a.

M.

News.

Constant.

It's like,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

It just keeps on rolling.

It's funny actually,

I spent some time at my mom's recently and she is a very smart woman and she's totally clued up on politics and everything that's going on in the world.

Yeah.

Because she's very interested in Brexit and what's happening,

But she will have it on constantly.

It is constant,

Constant.

And I've just said to her,

Look recently,

You're angry a lot of the time because it's like you're there in these situations and you just need to step out of it.

And sometimes I think you do have to do that.

Really?

Yeah.

So,

Ryan,

Stop watching the TV every morning.

Yes,

Ma'am.

Okay.

Just staying with this kind of idea of positivity,

Do you have like a really happy memory from your childhood,

Something that you think back?

So,

I mean,

Like mine is,

I don't even know if this is a real memory,

But I'm in like,

There's a photo of it as well,

Which might've muddied the picture.

Yeah.

So,

I'm in this photo and I'm behind like the bars of my,

You know,

Kind of cot and my auntie's given me like a tube of Smarties and it's just the best thing in the world.

Yeah,

So it's a bit of a sort of simple memory.

And I just don't even know if it's been implanted by seeing the photos so many times,

But- Who cares?

Just own it.

Yeah,

Yeah.

It's kind of my happy place.

I go back to you sometimes.

Lovely.

Yeah,

Just me and a pack of Smarties.

Gosh,

Happy memories.

Well,

To be honest,

I mean,

I have quite a few.

I've had a happy childhood.

What did you guys do for fun?

Well,

We were outdoors a lot.

We're very outdoorsy kids and we lived on a cul-de-sac.

So,

All of the kids on the street would be constantly out on the road and we'd be on our bikes.

And,

You know,

My best friend,

And she still is one of my best friends,

Sophie,

She had a bike,

I think called it Holly and mine was Bianca and we used to just go biking.

I would say that was very much a happy part of my childhood,

Being outdoors and cycling,

Which is hilarious because I don't cycle at all now.

I have a bike,

But it's in the shed.

Maybe I should definitely bring that back out actually.

Yeah,

For sure.

Thank you for reminding me of that because that really did make me happy.

And there's something about kind of just the freedom of being on a bike.

Oh,

Totally.

And with just all the time in the world when you're a kid to a feels like that.

Totally.

Yeah.

And we used to go exploring,

Which was actually very naughty,

But at the top of the road,

There were a load of derelict houses.

So we used to bike up there and explore and all these houses and pretend we were on some adventure.

We maybe really weren't.

Probably be followed by our parents.

Right,

Right.

Nervously,

Just out of sight.

I think that's glorious.

And does seem like there are a few less kids playing in the streets than there used to be.

I mean,

Maybe that's cause I live in the middle of London.

I mean,

Most likely.

It just wouldn't be okay.

I mean,

I've just moved to,

I've lived in London since 2004,

But recently moved to Weybridge where there are a lot more kids around.

I kind of forgotten about children as well.

It's very strange seeing all these teenagers around,

But do they play outside?

No,

Do you know what?

Maybe not.

I'm not sure.

Kids,

If you're listening,

Are you playing?

Yeah.

Who knows?

Bring that back.

How do you,

Do you have like an element of play in your life today?

Is.

.

.

Well.

Do you kind of have a,

Like an inner child that you tap into?

We were chatting before we switched on the mics about not feeling like we grew up.

I really do.

Especially when I go home,

I have so many brothers and sisters and every time we go home,

I sort of regress.

Is that the right word?

Yeah.

Back into being a child again.

But we are massive dancers in our family and I will even do this on my own and I will just get excited and just dance around.

That's probably me being playful and silly.

Dancing.

Yeah.

I've always,

I mean,

We met dancing.

I love dancing.

Yeah.

But yeah,

Cracking on some eighties classic bangers.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Dance like no one can see you.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's really funny.

I haven't been asked a question like this ever,

Actually.

Yeah.

Thanks for asking.

I need to bring back some inner child in me,

I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well,

People keep on saying it to me,

Like where's the play?

You know,

Because I feel like it's all a little bit playful because I'm creating and you know,

But it's also very serious.

You know,

Like where's the next paycheck going to come from?

Is it going to work and all of that.

So.

And actually my husband,

Matt,

He often asked me,

Is this still fun for you?

You have to always think,

Is it still fun?

And I think that's actually very important.

As soon as things stop becoming fun,

Move on,

Mix up,

Change it.

Yeah.

That would be my advice.

Yeah.

That's brilliant.

And I obviously like the fun kind of comes across in brand in the newspaper.

You talked a little bit about the sort of the Genesis of it.

And it was a,

It was an Instagram channel.

And it's now more.

Yeah,

It's now online newspaper,

Saving the trees and all that.

What I love about the,

I love promoting the good in the world.

And I,

So I like to back the people who are trying to do these things,

But not everyone is able to be exposed as well as they should be,

You know,

Good sense.

So I've just enjoyed meeting people who are trying to do great things for the world and championing them a bit.

I mean,

I'm only a little company for now,

But if I can talk to them,

Get it online,

Even if there's like 20 people or 200 people reading it,

Then I think that's a fantastic thing.

And it makes people feel good reading it because it's positive and hopeful.

Yes.

Hope for me is a really great thing because the world is a little bit crazy,

But I think if we can keep up hope,

Then that's a great thing.

Yeah,

And it's not,

It's not that optimism is fingers in ears.

It's very much,

I think you can hope your way towards a better place,

Essentially.

I think for me,

That's sanity as well.

Cause life,

And this is another thing about the brighter times,

It's definitely not rainbows and kittens and oh,

Life is wonderful.

Cause it's not life is really,

Really tough and really hard.

So I just think if you can still find light in a lot of lot of dark,

Then we just need to grab it and make it shine everywhere.

If that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense.

That's glorious sentiment.

And how do you find your guests,

Your people,

The people you feature?

Well,

It's very new actually.

It's called Rise on the website and it's sort of rising with people and I will just approach them and hopefully they'll be interested or I've had a couple of people approach me and said,

Look,

I'd really love to be featured.

And anybody is welcome.

It could be,

I think,

The smallest things should be highlighted and people,

I don't know,

Say it could be a child doing their maths GCSE and they've just had to work really,

Really hard to get the grade that they need to crack on and do whatever they need to do.

And it should be celebrated.

People should be made to feel really good about these things.

So it could range from that to,

I had an amazing woman,

Her name's Alice and she started up a company or charity called Love Support Unite and it's based in Malawi,

Empowering and educating the local people to create sustainable communities.

So it's just incredible and she does it purely from a place of love,

Which is amazing.

There's nothing in it for her financially or anything like that.

She's just doing it to make the world a better place and to help people.

So it makes me feel amazing and I'm hoping it will make other people just feel amazing.

Yeah.

That's it really?

Yeah.

What are you most kind of proud of when it comes to work or life?

You know what,

I'm really proud of myself.

Is that allowed?

It's positively encouraged.

Because I mean,

I'm proud of loads of things.

I'm proud of my family and I'm proud of my friends and everything in my life I'm extremely proud of,

But I am so proud of myself from my own personal journey,

From where I was as a child to who I am now.

There's been a lot of self-help and development going on there.

So yeah,

It's a really difficult thing I'm doing.

I'll be completely honest.

Startups are really,

Really hard and I'm having to,

And I also love it,

But I'm having to freelance on the side to sort of fund this thing.

And sometimes I just think,

Oh God,

It would be so much easier to just get a job and know where your next pay packet's coming in and yada yada yada.

But I am proud of myself for continuing and you know,

You've got to keep going.

So that's exactly what I'm doing.

So yeah,

I'm proud of me.

Yeah.

No,

No,

That's amazing.

I think people are often quite kind of,

Yeah,

They don't want to say that actually,

But there's no ego in saying you're proud of yourself.

There's none actually.

I'm just sort of- It's self-worth,

You've got to celebrate yourself.

It is and I didn't have any for a really,

Really long time and I'm still working on it,

But I am,

I'm going to celebrate here.

I mean,

I'm here.

We're celebrating you right now.

Yay.

I think as well,

But yeah,

It's exciting.

So I want to kind of chat a little bit about challenges that have come up while you've been doing it.

So obviously you've referenced some of them.

So money,

Having to do another job alongside.

Oh yeah,

And some.

Yeah.

I mean,

Has anything kind of gone,

You know,

If you read any business,

But they always say sort of,

You know,

Failure is,

You know,

I don't know,

The fuel for growth or,

You know,

You've got to fail a lot before you succeed.

Which I have done,

But it's true.

And failure,

Again,

It's something I'm teaching myself about and it isn't a bad thing.

I've done things where I was really excited about and nothing,

I got nothing from it.

I thought,

Okay,

Well actually I'm going to learn from it and I won't do it again and I'll do it differently.

So surely that is a positive in itself.

So I just think,

Yeah,

Initially you get a bit of disappointment and then you think,

Well,

All right,

Well that just doesn't work.

I'll just do something else.

So,

And you just got to keep doing that and doing that and doing that and then hopefully one thing will work.

Land,

Yeah.

And then there'll be no stopping as Ryan,

But yeah,

I wouldn't take failure too seriously.

No,

No,

No.

I think that's so important.

Obviously there's always,

Well,

There's often such gap between expectations and reality.

Oh yeah.

We millennials,

Although I'm using that term quite loosely.

So I think I'm like,

I'm right on the cusp of it.

You know,

Almost Generation X,

But anyway,

That means anything to anyone listening or watching,

But yeah,

We millennials get a little bit of flack.

People like Simon Sinek who kind of says,

You know,

We're all paper thin and bruised very easily and we expect the world and then we're crushed when we don't get it kind of thing.

I know my parents buy into- But I then ask the question,

I'm not saying I believe,

If I raise the question,

Well,

Who made us that way?

Like- Touché.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Who raised us.

Yeah.

So if you're listening,

Parents.

Not saying that's true,

But I think millennials are given quite a hard time and actually there's a fair few amazing ones out there.

But yeah.

So boomers get back in your box basically.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Although I love you really.

Yeah,

Exactly.

But is it so funny that kind of the wheel that turns from generation to generation that knows what our kids are going to have to deal with,

But it will be a different set of situations where we overcompensate one way or the other.

Of course.

Yeah.

We'll see.

I don't know.

So we'll be the ones who want to kind of grind in like hard reality,

You know.

Yeah,

Because I think though- Even small.

I mean,

Yeah,

Oh God.

I mean,

I have definitely had an element of that.

I may be very naively,

But I thought,

Oh,

I've got this amazing idea and I'm going to start it and I'm going to do all this and I'm going to work really,

Really hard and it will be super successful.

And actually reality kicks in and you're like,

Oh,

Okay.

Well,

There's actually loads of other people doing this too.

And,

Oh wait,

They've got more followers than me on Instagram and oh my goodness,

But I can't afford to do this.

I'm going to have to get a second job and yada yada yada.

And that was a bit of a shocker.

Yeah.

Because I don't know why.

I think,

I don't know.

I sort of thought,

Oh,

Instant success.

Because when you have,

Today when you go to school,

You take an exam and you get your grade and it's sort of an instant success and you go to university and you get your degree and you do a job and you get a payback or maybe a promotion,

But when you have your own startup or your own company,

It's like,

Oh,

Okay,

Well,

There's not this sort of definite success.

Does that make sense?

It makes perfect sense.

My good friends keep on counseling me,

Like just be patient.

It is a virtue.

I'm such an impatient person.

I shouldn't say as a meditation teacher,

But I think I often,

I need it more than most.

And yeah,

I think,

While of course there'd be something really,

Really rewarding with just a flash in the pan success,

Some BC or Silicon Valley somehow get involved and just go,

We just want to give you hundreds of millions,

Keep doing what you're doing.

But it also feels like that's a company that might not exist in a few years time,

Weirdly that kind of quite often it's like,

It's so trendy that it's not a thing after a while or it's changed irreversibly by all the money coming in.

This is what I tell myself until I stay positive.

He's telling himself that.

So it's like,

It's great that I'm self-funded and it's great that it's not totally flying yet because it means- It's character building.

Yeah,

You kind of actually having to,

The thing you're developing is rich.

Totally.

A bit like a relationship with people,

I guess.

It's the same.

It's not a shallow romance,

It's something deeper.

Deeper,

Meaningful.

Let's keep telling ourselves this.

If anyone does want to give me a yacht,

That's fine.

Right,

Exactly.

I wouldn't say no to a hundred million.

I'd just worry about it changing me somehow.

So,

And then I want to just pivot a little bit because I know you're doing something with WWF right now.

I am.

The World's Wildlife Fund.

Yes.

Is that right?

Yeah.

A very cute panda.

A very cute panda.

I think they moved on from the panda.

No,

It's still a panda.

Yeah.

It's always a panda.

Yeah,

But I mean,

They don't only look after the panda.

Oh,

Right,

So you mean,

No,

They are looking after- As a logo,

It's good.

The world.

Yeah.

Essentially.

They are amazing.

I've been to,

They have their headquarters in Woking,

Which is conveniently close to where I live now.

Yeah.

So I've been there a couple of times and it is amazing.

They are just the most incredible people.

And actually,

You know,

The two ladies I worked with,

Karen and Kim,

They are so passionate about what they do.

And I just,

Every time I leave there,

I just feel so alive and excited.

And it is wonderful being around these people who are trying to essentially save the planet from destruction.

But yeah,

Anyway,

I digress.

So I- No,

No,

It was beautiful digression.

So what are you- I was just getting very excited about these people.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

Yeah,

It's contagious,

Their energy,

Because they're just trying to do something quite incredible.

Yeah,

And their passion comes across.

Totally,

Because they're not doing it for the money side of things.

You know,

It's a charity organization,

But they're just doing it purely for the love of the planet and animals.

Saving animals is probably a terrible way to make money.

And long may that be the case.

But yeah,

So they are a lovely organization.

And it all started when,

Have you watched Our Planet on Netflix?

Oh yes.

It's amazing and beautiful,

But also heartbreaking.

Yeah.

You've seen the walrus scene.

I mean,

I just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed,

And I've always loved animals.

In fact,

I used to send WWF drawings when I was about six or seven.

Just being like,

Hey,

Here's a whale.

Keep up the good work.

Anyway.

And they had them on the walls,

Obviously,

When you got there.

Obviously,

In fact,

They were there when I went.

Yeah,

So I watched Our Planet and I was heartbroken,

And I just thought I have to do something.

So being a designer and a creative,

I just whipped up these prints of endangered animals to sell on my website,

And then the profits were donated to WWF.

And one day my husband said,

Oh,

You know that our friend Mandy works for WWF.

I was like,

No,

You did not tell me this,

What?

So I dropped her a message saying,

Look,

I don't know if this is of any interest at all,

But I'm doing this thing.

Maybe there could just be a little post about it on social media.

Anyway,

About three weeks later,

I got an email from them and long story short,

We've now done a collaboration together of sustainable gifts that are actually amazing.

They are really high quality,

And the cotton is amazing that they use,

But they are so sustainable.

I mean,

They have to be.

So I have done all the designs that go on said products,

And I'm very proud of them.

They're really,

Really cool.

And they launched,

I think last,

Wait,

I've been so busy.

Yeah,

They launched last week.

I'm yet to go and actually look at the final things.

I will be announcing it properly on my own website very soon,

But yeah,

They're very cool.

Sometimes people think,

Oh,

Charity shop products,

Really.

But actually these are brilliant.

Tote bags,

T-shirts,

Mugs,

All kinds of things.

And yeah,

With very stylish designs on.

Illustrated by me.

There's really,

Really incredible.

And I think I've seen some of the designs and they're really,

Really beautiful.

Oh,

Thank you.

Where could people get them if they want to find them?

On their website.

So on the gifting section,

But also there will be a little banner on my website,

Which you could just click on.

And also the link you might buy on Instagram that you can click straight to the page.

And then yeah,

Go treat yourself.

Go out and buy those t-shirts and everything else.

Yeah,

And it'll just help with what they're doing,

Because they are doing incredible things.

And they need all the support.

They can get.

Do you feel that looking after the animals is looking after us too?

Is there a sort of,

Is there a link or a synergy?

I feel like as humans,

We have such a responsibility to look after the planet,

Especially animals,

Because they don't have a say in anything.

They can't speak English.

They can't protest.

They can't do this,

That and the other.

And we are essentially destroying them.

So I think it is our duty to look after them and rescue them.

Yeah.

And yeah,

Is that answering your question?

I'm not sure it was actually.

No,

It really is.

It's quite profound.

I don't know if you saw Avatar.

I love Avatar.

Yeah.

Yes.

So I feel like they weren't animals.

They were sentient beings,

But they did a good job,

I think,

Of illustrating the world,

Of illustrating the difference between the way humanity approaches nature and the way the,

Are they the Navi approach nature.

I think clearly at some level,

We've got to be carrying around a pretty big kind of psychic wound by becoming so separate from nature,

Given that we are natural ourselves.

Yeah,

It's true.

And I think you're right.

People don't even realize what they're doing.

And nature is so good for you.

I mean,

Who's ever come away from going on a walk or being by the beach,

Feeling bad?

No one.

So I think even though people aren't aware,

You know,

We live,

Especially as city folk,

You know,

You're running around doing your thing.

You don't stop to actually think about it,

But you're right,

Actually.

Oh,

My goodness,

You're right.

Yeah.

Well,

It doesn't happen often.

So glad we captured our microphone.

Being scarred by what we're doing to the planet without even realizing.

Mm.

That's a depressing thought.

That is a depressing thought.

Let's save it.

We'll save it by,

When I teach meditation,

I tend to,

Every metaphor is like a nature metaphor,

Which is funny.

I think the Headspace guys do like a really great job of talking about buses and mobile phone notifications and everything of the modern world.

And that makes what they're teaching seem very,

Very relevant.

But to me,

There's nothing more kind of powerful than talking about the life cycle of a tree,

You know,

Losing its leaves,

And then the leaves giving food for new growth.

So it hasn't really lost anything at all,

Or an ocean where each wave is a thought or an experience.

And there's something kind of quite primal.

I don't think it's just that good metaphors.

I think it's that it's sort of tapping into a bit of a longing each of us have to be more connected than we are.

Yeah.

Anyway,

That's what I'm going for.

But I have to get the reports from the students.

Yeah,

I actually think that's really lovely.

Yeah.

And a really lovely way to think about it.

Yeah.

We're chipping away at the problem from different angles.

But yeah.

Yeah.

We're trying.

We're trying,

Indeed.

I wanted to ask you actually,

You know,

On this more positive kick,

You know,

How do you see the world changing for the better at the moment?

Oh,

Gosh.

Is it in the little things like that child getting their GCSE grade?

Or is it,

You know,

Have you an eye on some bigger themes?

How do I see the world changing for the better?

Well,

Actually touching on what you just said about connection,

I think that is a massive thing.

And I heard something the other day,

Whether it's true or not,

About a child is more likely to be connected to someone in a child in India rather than their parent in their front room or something like that.

I'm not sure.

They'll quote me on that.

They're playing Fortnite.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that I found quite,

In a sense,

It's amazing.

But it was also quite terrifying.

Yeah.

So I do want people to talk more and be open more and to be honest with themselves.

You know,

If they're not big talkers,

Just talk to yourself and just check in with yourself and make sure you're OK.

And I think that would lead to better things for people personally.

And yeah,

I just,

How do I,

I mean,

I would love to see more good news being celebrated.

And actually,

I don't know whether it's because I'm just tapping more into that industry,

For want of a better word myself.

But I am seeing more and more of it.

I think people are,

I hope it's just not because it's a trending thing.

I really hope that it's genuine.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because I have seen some people that don't do that kind of thing and they've sort of leapt on this good news bandwagon.

But then I kind of think,

Oh,

Well,

Actually,

Do you know what?

If it's good news that's getting out there,

It doesn't matter how it is.

It's just,

It is.

And there are some amazing,

I don't know if you've heard of Emily Coxhead.

She does the Happy newspaper and she's so successful.

She's doing,

I think it's a quarterly newspaper,

Which is amazing.

And there's Upworthy and there's the Happy project.

There's some incredible people out there promoting the good.

So if we think back to what we were talking about earlier about people naturally being more intrigued with the morbid and the bad,

What would be amazing if people were more intrigued by the good?

And then hopefully they'll do more good and so on and so on.

I read the other day that,

Well,

In a past life,

As it were,

When I was working in advertising,

I ended up at a place called MNC Saatchi World Services.

And that's by the by.

But we were working with people like humanitarian aid and World Food Programme and World Bank and lots of the UN.

And so one of the projects they were working on at the time was polio eradication,

Which is not a sexy story.

And it's a frustrating one because every time it's like there are only six known cases of polio.

And then one village doesn't get vaccinated.

And then it just breaks out again.

And so it's like continually sort of pushing the goalpost back,

I suppose.

Yeah.

And yet the biggest story is over the last 10 years,

We've 99.

9% eradicated polio.

We're on the cusp of it not existing in the world anymore.

And it never being able to come back because it needs a human carrier.

So I think that's journalists will say,

Well,

That's a hard story to kind of carry.

I mean,

We carry the story when the final person doesn't have polio.

Yeah.

But when you draw that line,

It's probably a year after the last known case.

So I'm sure it'll be all over the news.

But the 10-year battle is 10 years.

And we're used to news cycles that are like days or hours or minutes long.

And so I think you need quite kind of intrepid journalists to keep on pushing a story which is emerging so,

So slowly.

Yeah.

So and then God knows why,

But we're all watching true crime dramas all the time,

Right?

I know,

But they're so good too.

They are so good.

I remember I used to be living out in Taiwan.

They had something called the Apple Daily,

Which is like a trashiest of trashy tabloid newspapers.

I don't think it would have an equivalent here,

But it would be,

This will sound a bit snobby,

But I don't know,

This Daily Sport or something.

And what they would do is they'd do a sort of like a comic strip of the latest murder.

So it's like a whole reenactment thing as they imagined it,

Grizzly and gruesome,

But just cartoons.

And it was just nonstop.

And then TV news would do the same,

But they'd do it with actors.

And it seems so kind of barbaric and insensitive,

But I did realize when I came back to the UK,

OK,

Well,

We don't do the comic book strips,

And we don't dramatically reenact.

We do do it later in our dramas and all sorts of things,

But there's a bit of a,

There's a respectful gap hopefully.

But we're all kind of seeking out that stuff nonetheless.

And so perhaps just because the mystery elements of it,

You know,

The how could anyone act this way kind of thing.

Possibly.

I mean,

I love horror films.

Right.

Massively.

Right.

But,

You know,

We're humans.

We're made up of all kinds of craziness.

But just because you like horror or whatever doesn't mean that you still can't be balanced and promote the other side of it.

Right.

But sorry,

I interrupted,

But yeah.

No,

No,

I don't know where I was going.

I think it's just maybe,

Yeah,

To your point,

We probably need to work a bit harder to excite people to the same level with positive news.

That's probably the challenge of our times.

Yeah,

100%.

I agree.

Because there is something,

You know,

I think everyone's been always fascinated with the macabre and this,

That,

And the other.

But.

Well,

There are so many kind of good stories out there.

So I'm a bit of a tech geek,

Right?

So I can tell.

You should see this room.

It's full of the whole wide thing.

Yeah,

The rig.

Yeah,

Most of it's on camera,

But there are cameras behind the cameras.

Yeah,

You know,

So I get a big kick out of,

I don't know,

Elon Musk.

Oh,

Yeah.

Designing a better battery for houses in Australia,

Or,

You know,

Because it's like,

What's the point?

And,

You know,

He's got a solar roof that just looks like tiles now.

Which means people are more likely to put them on their houses.

And it's not,

You know,

Clunky solar panel on top of your beautiful tiled roof.

It just looks like tiles.

But then you've got the issue of,

Well,

How do you store the energy?

If you have a lot of sun,

It's like you can't,

Batteries aren't particularly good.

So now he's got something called,

I don't know,

The Powerwall,

Which is an enormous battery,

Which he hopes everyone's going to have in their homes.

But not all about Elon Musk.

But I get a big kind of kick out of,

You know,

I suppose looking at where tech might be taking us.

Some of that's not very human,

Though.

You know,

Solar powered roofs and rockets and faster transport and things.

But it certainly might improve climate change conditions.

So tech can be a good thing.

It's helped medical advances.

Yeah.

Yeah,

You can tell the story in two ways.

Either like,

How the hell are we still producing this many cars?

Or isn't it great that now some of them are electric?

Totally.

And I imagine that's the whole good and bad thing.

Every story,

There's always a positive spin to every story.

But I think a lot of people choose,

Or they're just given the negative version.

So it's up to me and you and all the other good vibe tribe lot out there to keep up with a positive spin,

If you choose to.

You know,

Life is a choice,

But surely it's better to live with a smile on your face than an angry one.

Less muscles and less wrinkles.

So,

You know.

Amen to that.

Amen.

Yeah.

It's a win-win,

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So do you sort of chatted about the world slowly changing for the better in some small ways,

And how maybe that doesn't get as much coverage as it might.

But you're doing something to change that.

And I would say too.

I say there's not a lot of positive stuff.

I mean,

There is.

There's our lovely Greta,

Who is doing remarkable things.

She gets a lot of stick as well.

But essentially,

Her message is a good one,

Whether you believe it's portrayed in the right way.

She's trying to do good things.

And that's actually been quite amazing at the moment.

So that is one awesome positive thing that's going on.

Anyway,

Sorry I interrupted.

Yeah,

That's huge.

And the climate strikes have become inspired by it in London and all over the world.

And it's inspiring the younger generation too.

And I think,

You know,

I don't have children,

But if should when I do,

I would much rather than be getting excited about that sort of thing.

Than,

I don't know,

Blowing up people on computer games.

So I say good for her.

Good for Greta.

Good for Greta.

What are you most kind of concerned about for the next generation?

Well,

I haven't really.

Sounds really selfish.

I don't mean it to be selfish,

But I haven't really thought about them.

Probably because I'm still concerned about mine.

You know,

We're 38,

But I still see lots of strange things going on.

What do I worry about?

Yeah,

There's a known,

I think,

Like an empathy gap.

It's quite hard to deal for generations that haven't been born.

I mean,

We have a hard enough time.

I think there's an earthquake on the other side of the world.

And you might feel very,

Very upset about it.

There's an element of what can I do.

You don't know the individuals involved.

No,

Of course.

But I mean,

My friends have started to have children.

And I mean,

I find it fascinating that they are more,

I swear sometimes,

Technologically advanced than I am.

They're on their iPads,

Like,

Flicking through things.

At the age of like two and three,

I mean,

It is mind blowing.

And sometimes I think,

Oh,

I wish you were outside playing.

But then I think we do live in this amazing digital world where you need to be on top of your game.

So I think,

Oh,

Gosh,

That's a very interesting question.

And I haven't thought about it.

But I feel like there are still good people on the planet trying to do good things all the time.

So unless some awful climate destruction happens and we no longer exist in however many years it happens,

I think they'll be fine.

We'll all be OK.

We've just got to keep doing our thing and surviving and hoping for the best.

And maybe that's,

Again,

A really naive way of looking at things.

I would rather focus on that than,

Oh,

God,

What's going to happen if this happens or that happens and they don't get this and they don't get that?

Because there's still a lot of good out there.

Yeah,

There is.

And I think,

Say we were most worried about the climate and we're going to leave a very hot planet for three,

Four,

Five generations down the line,

Which is scary.

I met a climate denier in the supermarket the other day,

Which was one of the weirder.

I can't remember if I talked about this.

If I talked about this on another episode,

Then apologies to the listeners.

I'd hope so.

But it was,

Yeah,

I'd hope so.

Yeah,

It was a whole strange situation.

So I think I was trying to pick out a bag of salad or something and going a bit back and forth on it,

Quite indecisive at supermarkets.

And this woman came up to me and said I'd go for that one or gave me a little bit of advice.

And we started chatting and said that her daughter was sort of very full of herself and very,

Very confident.

And what she really loved about her daughter,

So we got deep fast.

Wow,

Over a bag of salad as well.

Over a bag of salad,

Yeah.

And I was thinking,

This is wonderful.

I never speak to people in the supermarket.

And why is that?

So I'm going to go with it.

Well,

So her daughter thinks that climate change is just a conspiracy.

And her daughter thinks this?

Her daughter thinks that.

How old is her daughter?

12.

Unusual,

Right?

And so the mom was saying,

Well,

I'm really,

Really proud of my daughter because she'll stick up for her point of view even though all the scientists are telling her she's wrong,

Even though all of her classmates are telling her wrong,

The teachers are telling her wrong.

I,

The mother,

Happen to kind of agree with the daughter.

So there's maybe a little bit of,

You know,

She wasn't disfusing her daughter of that idea.

But I was really,

Really fascinated.

So I couldn't help but sort of start to get a bit agitated while having the conversation.

It's never helpful if you're trying to persuade someone of anything.

You know,

Kind of saying,

But what about all the scientists?

You know,

99.

9% of them,

The ones that aren't funded by the oil companies,

They're doing a pretty good job of definitively proving that climate change is happening and we're contributing.

You know,

It's incontrovertible.

But she kept on saying,

Ah,

But I know of five scientists who say it isn't the case.

And why do you trust the rest of the scientists?

Maybe they've got an agenda.

So fair,

Fair.

But afterwards,

You know,

I went away.

And obviously,

We didn't agree.

I don't think I changed her mind.

She hadn't changed mine.

But afterwards,

I started thinking,

Hopefully this isn't patronizing,

But perhaps lots of the climate deniers are actually deeply frightened about the climate change.

You know,

Because when we're really frightened of something,

What do we do?

We either put our heads in the sand,

Fingers in the ears.

It can't be happening because if it were happening,

That would be the most terrifying thing ever.

And then there's the other lot of us which kind of go,

It is happening and it's terrifying,

But that's sort of galvanizing us into action.

But do you know how I see it?

And maybe I don't know what you said to the lady,

But even if it is or it isn't happening,

You may as well act as if it is because you're doing the planet a favor anyway.

So just do your recycling and buy your next car an electric one because then you're not.

You're still doing it.

Just in case.

Just in case because otherwise,

You may as well.

There's no,

If you're going to be doing,

It's better for the planet anyway.

This is Pascal's wager.

Behave like God exists even if it turns out later not to be the case because on the off chance that you're not going to heaven because you ignored all the instructions.

I like it.

Seems like a good plan.

Be a nice person.

But if you're,

I think,

Get involved with helping the planet even if you don't believe it is a happening thing.

You've got nothing.

You've only got things to gain by helping.

And like I said,

Just do your recycling.

Little things will help.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm fully on board with that.

Although kudos to the 12-year-old for being strong.

I know.

I was kind of like that's a little bad ass because yeah,

I think I would have just folded in the face of that much opposition.

I don't even know if I was thinking about climate change at the age of 12.

Well,

I wasn't.

But I think.

I mean,

I really wasn't.

Yeah,

I know I wasn't.

But should have been.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Should have been.

And now I think maybe some of the criticism that Greta draws is you're terrifying our children.

And then,

You know,

Yeah,

True.

True.

But if that motivates them to act in a way that we haven't been able to,

Then maybe a little bit of fear is good.

And so maybe the next generation,

They will be OK.

And there's a lot of people fighting today for a better tomorrow,

Whether that is for climate change or LGBTQ or equality in schools and jobs,

Whatever.

There is so much going on.

So yeah,

Which is all great.

There is.

There is.

Because people are having a discussion.

You know,

Think back however many years ago,

My grandfather's era.

And he didn't talk about anything.

It was very stiff up a lip.

So you know,

I think everyone will be OK.

Yeah.

I hope.

Yeah.

Everyone will be OK.

You will be OK.

And so then finally,

I just really want to ask you kind of what keeps you positive?

What keeps you going?

Oh,

A lot keeps me going.

Definitely a natural inner strength,

Which I've always had.

And I've been very lucky to have a mother who is the same.

And I've definitely worked for some incredible women,

One of them in particular,

Marcia Kilgore,

Who at the time was the owner of,

She founded Soap and Glory.

And now she owns Beauty Pie.

And she is just incredible.

And we were emailing the other day.

And she's Canadian.

And actually,

I'm not even going to try to do a Canadian accent.

But she's like,

Oh,

Lydia.

What was she emailing a boot?

Sorry.

Canadians in the audience.

Yeah.

She,

Now I've lost my train of thought,

Ryan.

Yeah,

She was saying,

Never do things half ass.

Just always do them full ass,

As she would say.

And that's always stuck with me.

Other people will keep me positive.

Food,

Always eating.

Oh my god,

Eating well.

That really mind,

Gut thing is really important.

And I have only kind of,

I mean,

I've always been quite a healthy eater.

But that is something that I would really,

Really encourage people to do is eat well,

Think well.

I don't know.

Little things keep me positive.

Yeah.

All the time.

Sunshine.

Today is a gloriously sunny day.

It's beautiful.

So it's criminal that we're sitting inside.

There's a little bit of sun filtering down into the room.

There is a teeny little bit.

Get out into it soon.

Yeah,

And my husband,

As cheesy as that might sound,

He's very encouraging and keeps me positive.

Just,

I would always say,

Just always notice the small stuff and think about all the things that make you happy.

Tea makes me really happy.

And I do this thing before I go to bed.

Yeah.

We have to,

My husband and I,

We have to tell each other five things that we're really grateful about and what we're thankful for.

And it could be stupid things,

But we do it all the same every night.

And that is a really lovely thing to do.

Gratitude,

My friends.

Yeah,

I'm very thankful.

That's really,

Really beautiful.

You have to be.

Yeah.

I mean,

I'm human too.

Sometimes the world sucks and I hate everyone.

However.

Yeah,

I imagine sometimes it's hard to get to the five.

But then I'll usually just,

My go-to is tea or donuts or.

Yeah.

That big sip.

Yeah.

My coffee always gets a shout out for me.

Coffee.

Like the first cup of coffee in the morning.

Great,

The Lord,

Coffee.

So listen,

I just want to say,

What an absolute joy it's been to have you on the podcast.

No,

It's been a pleasure and a good exercise for me,

Actually.

So thank you very much.

Yeah,

Well,

Not at all.

Keep up the good work.

Good to catch up after all these years.

I know,

It's so nice.

And now we'll do some plugs and then I'll put them all in the show notes and under the video on YouTube as well.

So if you get anything,

We can add it in afterwards.

But where would people find you on the interwebs?

On Instagram,

It's the brighter times website,

Www.

Thebrightertimes.

Com.

That's it.

They're the two main things that I'm on.

I'm also on Twitter,

But that's actually something that needs to grow.

But yeah,

And whilst we're just talking about the brighter times,

Rise is something that I'm really,

Really passionate about.

And it's only just sort of started and taking off.

But by all means,

If anyone's listening that has a really great story to tell or they're really proud of something or they know of anyone else that wants to just have a bit of exposure,

It could be anything.

Anything at all.

As long as it's sort of making people happy or smile or encouraging or hopeful,

Then please get in contact.

Oh yeah,

Hello at the brighter times.

Com.

And just,

It's me,

Lydia.

Amazing.

Yeah.

Amazing.

Thank you so much.

And get to your nearest WWF.

Oh,

I was going to say shop,

But it's probably online,

Isn't it?

It is online.

And order all the range.

All the range.

Actually,

I did a photo shoot with them recently.

And the t-shirt quality is world class.

That's brilliant.

So go out and get them for all your family members.

And hopefully we'll have you again on this at some point in the future.

Oh yeah,

Definitely.

And we can check in with how everything's going.

Oh,

Thanks.

Until then,

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So that's it for this episode of Levitate with Ryan Nell.

Thank you so much to our guest today,

Lydia French,

And to the composer of the theme tune,

My super talented brother,

Nick Nell.

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More of this type of content,

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One word.

Thank you so much.

We love having you here.

Have a very beautiful start to this new decade.

Wishing you a happy new year.

And I can't wait to share the next episode with you.

Until then.

Goodbye.