Welcome to Better Circles, where we bring great people together to share ideas that are good for the planet.
The scary part of change is the unknown. As the world recognises we need urgent climate action, we explore conversations with industry professionals to paint the picture of a truly sustainable world.
Every episode we sit down with our deck of conversation starter cards and talk about the things that are making us feel hopeful and inspired.
No Offence Wines: Building a circular wine industry one venue at a time.
For our first recording in the new Into Carry space in Brunswick, we sit down with Lucan Creamer and Lorraine Tighe of No Offence Wines.
Together, they’re building a bridge between winemakers and venues, serving great wines on tap, saving time, reducing waste and creating a circular solution for wine packaging and distribution. We talk about the startup rollercoaster, why it’s so helpful to have someone on the journey with you, and dream up what a No Offence wine and sandwich bar would be like.
Join the Better Circles conversation at instagram.com/bettercircles.co, come along to one of our monthly, in-person impact mornings at Into Carry Brunswick, or join our new Better Circles book club in East Brunswick. Latest details for all the community events are at bettercircles.podbean.com.
6 Jul 2026
Corner Store Network: Making great coffee and building resilient food systems
For this episode of Better Circles, Luke and Fi head south to Oakleigh to visit The Corner Store Network. We talk to founders and siblings Alice and Jake Mahar about why coffee is seriously undervalued, how they turn setbacks into opportunities to create jobs, and how their ‘hippy’ parents have shaped the way they run this amazing social enterprise.
30 Jan 2026
We're back for Season 2, and it's a new era for Into!
Welcome back, for Season 2 of Better Circles - now also in video format, so if that's your thing, head over to youtube.com/@BetterCircles
In our first episode of 2026 (though we recorded it in late 2025), Luke and Fi chat about some big changes happening at Into, as well as Fi's new column in Renew magazine, Luke's experiments transforming marathon trash into plogging bags, and we get into what's making us feel hopeful, existential, and connected… sometimes all at once.
If you want to follow up on things we talked about, here are some handy links:
Into wins a Good Design Award in the Social Impact category: https://good-design.org/projects/__trashed-20/
Rutger Bregman's book Moral Ambition: https://rutgerbregman.com/
Fi's Renew magazine column: https://renew.org.au/
Luke's plogging bag experiment: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQvyGXDACw_/
And if you're in or near Collingwood, Victoria, on 9 Feb 2026, come to Into to support Luke's fundraising for the Bob Brown Foundation Takayna run: https://takayna.org/screening/into-carry-screening-collingwood/
22 Aug 2025
Kunal Khanna: From compost king to film festival director
Kunal’s the Compost (and Kombucha) King of a permaculture farm in India; co-founder and director of All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT-EFF), the largest decentralised film festival in the world; and a service designer tackling waste systems in Melbourne… and that’s not everything!
Much like a screening of ALT-EFF, this chat left Fi and Luke inspired, energised and ready to take action, and we hope you feel the same way.
We also promised a fact check for this episode. Kunal mentions an often-quoted statistic that to make a movement into a wide-spread transformation only requires 5% of the population to be on board: that a “critical mass” of people is much smaller than we think it is.
We went looking for references, and we couldn’t find any studies that magical 5% backed up by research but here’s what we did find:
Research on the impact of non-violent protests by Erica Chenoweth, Ph.D, found that only 3.5% of a population needs to take part in non-violent protest to create social change: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
And research on social tipping points by Damon Central, Ph.D, found that 25% of of people need to take a stand before large-scale social change occurs: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-behavior-spreads/201905/the-25-percent-tipping-point-social-change
Finally, we also have a source for the idea we discussed, where people underestimate how much other people support climate action, compared to their own values, which makes being visible and vocal about wanting to see change in this area even more important: https://behavioralscientist.org/we-still-underestimate-others-support-for-climate-action/.
Follow along at https://www.instagram.com/bettercircles.co/
28 May 2025
Katie Falkiner's tips for how to start a revolution
Katie Falkiner shares her insights on injecting joy and creativity into revolutionary pursuits, discussing cycling's liberating power and the transformative nature of sewing in this interview.
11 Apr 2025
Luke & Fi: Pants & Pickles
No guest this episode, just Fi and Luke hanging out in the comfy chairs and having a chat.
We talk about the power of short feedback loops in making positive change – building your own sense of hope, positivity and ability to have an impact. And how we're each trying create those positive experiences through teaching workshops, making pickles from veggie scraps and turning pants into bags.
We also go down a bit of a rabbit hole about a new startup that's fermenting, rather than farming milk, and how we feel about that.
If you're keen to get involved with Luke's sewing and upcycling workshops, you can find them all here: https://intocarry.co/pages/workshopcategories.
And the cooking classes at the Moving Feast kitchen are all here: https://movingfeast.net/movingfeastcookingclass.
13 Mar 2025
Nicky Tsekouras on creativity and finding value in discarded materials
We chat to multidisciplinary artist and workshop facilitator, Nicky Tsekouras about their art practice, including the gorgeous collage on the wall of IntoCoffee that features in the background of our podcast photos and video clips.
We go down a few rabbit holes and tangents talking about the most surprising materials Nicky has found to use in their collages, street posters and street art, and how seeing waste materials as resources is one of the most powerful creative things you can do, whether you're making art, making bags or making food.
We'd love to hear your 'it's still good!' stories, too! Share a photo of the clothes you're still wearing after lots and lots of years, your repair success stories, or the beloved item you rescued from going to waste and tag @better.circles.co on Instagram, and we might feature them on a future episode!
21 Feb 2025
Eating for impact, changing habits and upcycling with Frankie Cox
This week, we sit down with Frankie Cox. While some chefs are playing Checkers, Frankie's playing Chess. Frankie is a visionary food specialist and founder of Green On. She thinks global and acts local with her unique approach to food, health and community sustainability.
Frankie and Luke compare notes about running sustainable cafes that use food, conversation and community to have a positive impact, and we talk about what it takes for someone to change their habits.
We also get into the tricky topic of recycling, up-cycling and down-cycling materials that might be better off designed out of products altogether.
11 Feb 2025
The joy of inconvenience and clothes that last
Luke and Fi chat about food, fashion, and clean energy.
In this episode, find out out why Fi loves food co-ops and thinks convenience isn't always great, celebrate clothes that last and learn who Luke would name a sandwich after.
3 Feb 2025
Community, imperfect progress and the power of seeing your impact – Gemma Baxter
Gemma Baxter is an urban innovation climate specialist. Her multidisciplinary approach to work and impact is one of many reasons she’s now leading the Innovation Program at MAVlab, managing all 79 councils within Victoria.
In our first episode of Better Circles, we get out our deck of conversation starter cards to talk about the joy of seeing the impact of your work, the power of community and storytelling, and why making imperfect progress is a better goal than giving up.
29 Jan 2025
Introducing the Better Circles podcast
Welcome to Better Circles, a podcast where we bring great people together, to share ideas that are good for the planet.
The scary part of change is the unknown. As the world recognises we need urgent climate action, we explore conversations with industry professionals to paint the picture of a truly sustainable world. Every episode we'l sit down with our deck of conversation starter cards and talk about the things that are making us feel hopeful and inspired.
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