Matt Winning: Filibuster

A science lecture with standup comedy in it, Filibuster is a carefully written show designed for both “learning and laughing”. Matt Winning's day job—he’s an environmental economist at Edinburgh university—has left him panicked at the terrifying creep of climate change, and now he’s passionate about spreading tips and stats about it. Take cycling holidays instead of flying, ditch the almond milk, reduce your meat consumption, switch energy supplier! 

A lot of the time he’s not joking when it comes to the horrors he’s seen while doing his research. He’s got plenty graphs and charts ready on the Powerpoint to hammer home the message, which is basically that if we don’t act, we’re going underwater. He enjoys cracking corny jokes in a nerdy-niche style and is fond of the occasional pun too, bringing groans from the crowd as he riffs on the likes of deforestation and fossil fuels.

Winning has written in a romantic twist to spice up his chirpy TED Talk style, something to offset all the science and make it a bit more engaging, he explains. He definitely takes an academic approach to how he serves up his fact-based humour, but there are laughs in there, sprinkled in amongst a lot of essential planet-saving info.