Down To Earth

Alex Pye and Associate Professor Kurt Iveson talk about making your own top soil from food scraps and farming worms, even in the smallest of spaces.

Kurt joins Alex to chat about the flow on effects from Cyclone Debbie and how real estate pressures are threatening market gardens.

How do changes to our cities change how our kids grow up? Less vacant lots, more traffic - Kurt joins Alex this morning to chat about how changing cities affect children.

Commercialising green space: In Sydney's growing urban environment, why are we decreasing the access to the few public spaces that remain? Join Kurt and Alex to chat about the planned burger festival in Newtown, and how this has reignited a familiar Sydney debate. Plus: Should members of the community be able to use school grounds for their own recreation when school's out?

Kurt and Alex are back for the new year! This week, we chat about the social side of power, the pros and cons of green power, and how to choose and use renewable power in rental and share households.

1.3 billion tonnes of food gets wasted every year, with 360kg thrown out per person each year in Australia. Kurt joins us to talk about what we can do with this excess.

Not only do places to eat food form massive parts of our cities, but so do places to produce this food. This week Kurt and Alex explore how food is produced in the City of Sydney, and what else can be done to improve the sustainable production and consumption of food in our cities. Are we out-developing ourselves? Can we find new ways to produce our own food while living in a city?

How does the experience of public transport affect the way people use it? As much as we may improve the technologies behind public transport, is the same amount of effort being put into the experience for the daily user? Kurt joins us to talk about the emotional bonds we form with the people who we sit down next to every day on public transport.

How do cars affect the design of our cities? How will this change with the dawn of the self driving car? Kurt and Alex look at the geographic and ethical effects of the self driving car, and the social responsibilities of their manufacturers. What's future of public transport in the face of self driving technology, and how can police pull over a driverless car? It's all in this episode of Down to Earth.

Kurt goes through the history of Sydney's green bans and what they mean for the proposed redevelopment of the Sirius Building in The Rocks.

Do you know what goes into your smart phone? What about when you throw it away? Kurt and Alex go through the hidden processes and human side of your mobile phone, as well as the initiatives like Mobile Muster that work to recycle and reuse previously-loved devices.