Constructive Voices

“We have a solution that is already here. It’s already doing the work that needs to be done. And all we have to do is let them complete the job.” Paul Koberstein

He has spent forty years reporting on the forests of the Pacific Northwest — and he is convinced they may be the most powerful climate technology on Earth.

Environmental journalist Paul Koberstein, co-author of Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest, makes a deceptively simple argument: the oldest, biggest trees are not scenery, and they are not merely a timber reserve. They are among the most effective carbon-storage systems on the planet — and they are already running.

The book began as an investigation and became a celebration. Stretching some 2,500 miles north of San Francisco into Alaska, the great North American temperate rainforest holds some of the largest trees in the world and an immense capacity to draw carbon out of the air. The older a tree gets, the more it stores, and the more it keeps taking in every single day.

That reframes the whole climate conversation. We must stop burning fossil fuels, Koberstein insists — but that alone won’t undo three centuries of carbon already in the atmosphere. Only trees can do that. The machine exists. It is running. All we have to do is let it finish the job.

“These are the trees that we should protect — the old trees, the big trees, the trees that store the most carbon.” Paul Koberstein

In this episode of Constructive Voices, Jackie De Burca speaks with Paul about old growth and carbon, the difference between a forest and a plantation, the rapid dismantling of a century of US forest protection, wildfire and the violent “fires that make their own weather,” the misinformation flowing from the timber industry — and the question every builder should ask before specifying timber: what forest paid the price?

In this episode

Jackie and Paul explore why old forests deserve to be treated as critical climate infrastructure — and why protecting them is as much a political and communication challenge as an ecological one. They discuss:

why the oldest, biggest trees are our best natural defence against climate change

what the great North American temperate rainforest is, and why it matters far beyond its own region

why a plantation is not a forest — on carbon, biodiversity and water

how recent US policy is dismantling more than a century of forest conservation

the eye-watering cost of the plan to thin 112 million acres — and what it means for democracy

why “wildfire prevention” can be industrial logging in disguise

pyrocumulonimbus: the fires so violent they punch smoke into the stratosphere

why these fires now reach Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean

the symbiosis between salmon and trees

the timber industry’s “plant three for every one we cut” messaging — and what it leaves out

what the construction sector must ask about the timber it builds with

why technological carbon capture won’t save us — but forests already are

“They’re not forests, they’re really just crops.” Paul Koberstein

Why this conversation matters

This episode is about far more than trees.

It is about power, extraction, communication and what we choose to value. Koberstein’s work asks a direct question: if we protect wetlands and coral reefs as critical natural systems, why not t...

“I grew up with my parents telling me stories about the ancient Persian civilisation… and I created this huge passion for ancient civilisations.” Moein Nodehi

Moein Nodehi Constructive Voices Podcast Cover

He was born in the middle of war.

As conflict tore through Iran, Moein Nodehi’s family fled in search of safety, eventually ending up in an immigration camp in Sweden.

But even in those uncertain early years, another world was being built inside him.

His parents kept hope alive by telling stories of ancient Persia — its gardens, palaces, civic systems and extraordinary buildings. Those stories stayed with him. So did the contrast he later witnessed when he returned to Iran as a boy: the visible scars of war set alongside the brilliance of ancient architecture.

That collision of destruction and civilisation shaped him.

It made him question how we build, why we build, and what kind of world our buildings are really creating.

“What happened to me in the pyramids was deeper than what I can really explain with words.” Moein Nodehi

Biotonomy's visual of green walls

Years later, that questioning would take him from engineering school to major construction projects in Dubai, and then far beyond the mainstream industry altogether. Disillusioned by what he saw — buildings celebrated as symbols of innovation while human and environmental costs were ignored — Moein chose a different route.

He walked away, travelled widely, learned from grassroots projects around the world, and eventually founded Biotonomy: a company focused on nature-based architecture that treats buildings as living systems rather than machines.

“I was really obsessed about how we are building our buildings, our cities, and really our civilisation.” Moein Nodehi

In this episode of Constructive Voices, Jackie De Burca speaks with Moein about exile, ancient wisdom, modern cities, water, heat, resilience, and why nature may hold many of the answers we’ve forgotten.

Moein Nodehi Biotonomy aerial view of green roofs

“The design decisions that we take for our cities, for our buildings, have a direct impact on our brain waves and our wellbeing.” Moein Nodehi

In this episode

Jackie and Moein explore how buildings can work with nature rather than against it — and why that shift matters not just for carbon and climate, but for

What if “healthy ageing” isn’t just about genes, diet, or healthcare — but also about the streets you navigate, the air you breathe, the noise you sleep through, and the buildings you spend 90% of your life inside?

“This conversation makes the case for a shift: from sustainability as a materials-and-energy conversation, to neurosustainability — designing environments that protect sleep, reduce stress load, support movement, and build cognitive resilience across the lifespan.” Jackie De Burca

Host: Mohamed Hesham Khalil – Creator of the Neurosustainability theory, architect and neuroscience researcher, and a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge.

Guest: Professor Agustín Ibáñez — Director of Global Research Networks at the Global Brain Health Institute (Trinity College Dublin) and Scientific Director of the Latin American Brain Health Institute

Guest: Burcin Ikiz — Neuroscientist and brain health advocate working at the intersection of climate, equity, and brain outcomes

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Brain health isn’t only personal. It’s environmental. And the places we live, move, and work in can either build resilience — or quietly chip away at it.

“The built environment… is the space where we most of the time live, move, think and also thrive or become sick.” — Professor Agustín Ibáñez

In the third part of this mini-series about neurosustainability, Cambridge scholarship student, Mohamed Hesham Khalil sits down with Professor Agustín Ibáñez and Burcin Ikiz to connect the dots between climate, inequality, urban design, and the ageing brain.

They unpack the exposome and zoom into the built environment as the missing middle layer we can actually change.

“Scientists sometimes we use strange words for simple things.” — Professor Agustín Ibáñez

What is the exposome?

The exposome is the full set of environmental influences (physical, social, and economic) that shape our health and behaviour over time — and why the built environment is the missing “mesoscale” link between global forces (like climate change and inequality) and individual brain outcomes (like cognition, dementia risk, and mental health).

“I always see that the built environment itself maybe hasn’t been given the same attention… because… people spend around 90 percent of time indoors.” Mohamed Hesham Khalil

Th...

Neuro-Sustainability: Designing Places Where Brains Can Thrive

What if sustainability wasn’t only about carbon, materials, and energy — but also about the human brain?

In this second episode of the mini-series about neuro-sustainability, neuroscience and architecture meet in a conversation that feels both urgent and surprisingly practical.

We investigate the work of Cambridge scholarship student, Mohamed Hesham Khalil, which we believe should be integrated into planning and architecture around the world.

“We can change diet, can change habits, but we cannot change a built environment. It’s built once and it lasts for tens of years.” Mohamed Hesham Khalil

In this episode, he is joined by Burçin Ikiz, who brings a climate-and-health lens to brain wellbeing across the lifespan.

Mohamed Hesham Khalil brings a design-and-research lens focused on environmental enrichment — and what our homes, streets, workplaces, and neighbourhoods are doing to us every day, whether we notice it or not.

This is not a theoretical chat. It’s about how we design environments that help brains thrive — especially as heat, pollution, and chronic stress become part of daily life for millions.

Why this episode about neuro-sustainability matters

We like to think of brain health as something personal: sleep, diet, exercise, mindset. But the built environment is a long-term exposure — and it’s stubbornly permanent.

If your surroundings make movement hard, keep you indoors, overwhelm your senses, trap heat, or load the air with pollution — you don’t just “feel it.” Your brain does too.

What you’ll learn

1) What “environmental enrichment” means in the real world

This conversation translates neuroscience into design language: environments that support movement, stimulation, connection, and recovery.

“Don’t use it, you lose it. Just kind of like our muscles in our bodies.” Burçin Ikiz

2) The indoor reality we rarely talk about

If buildings are designed mainly for convenience and comfort, what happens to stimulation, mobility, and everyday brain engagement?

“When we spend like around 90 percent of time indoors… almost no chance for cognitive stimulation or physical activity through the building…” Mohamed Hesham Khalil

3) Heat, buildings, and brain function

As the climate warms, poorly adapted buildings become neurological stressors — not just uncomfortable boxes.

“If most of our buildings… have not been created for this increasingly warming world, it can be very, very hot indoors and that can really affect our brains.” Burçin Iki...

Welcome to the Constructive Voices’ mini-series that dives into neuro-sustainability and the built environment.

“The brain is not concrete… it is always changing.”  Mohamed Hesham Khalil

We investigate the work of Cambridge scholarship student, Mohamed Hesham Khalil, which we believe should be integrated into planning and architecture around the world.

Mohamed also brings other top global experts to your ears during this short series of podcasts.

Neurosustainability and the built environment

What if sustainability isn’t complete unless it includes the brain?

In this opening episode, architect and Cambridge PhD candidate Mohammed Hesham Khalil introduces neurosustainability—a way of thinking about buildings and cities that asks how everyday environments shape mental health, cognition, stress levels, and long-term brain resilience.

“Sustainability… has to be inclusive and include the brain as well.” Mohammed Hesham Khalil 

Jackie and Mohammed explore how the built environment influences us in ways we often overlook: the presence (or absence) of nature, whether our days include movement, how much variety and “spatial complexity” we experience, and how factors like air pollution can undermine health—even in places that look green on the surface.

This episode sets the foundation for the series: a practical, research-informed conversation about designing places that support the brain—not just the building.

Neurosustainability and the built environment

This episode is for anyone who makes decisions that shape how people live inside places—and anyone who’s felt, personally, that certain environments lift you up or drag you down.

“It’s not only about architecture… it’s about the way we live.” Mohamed Hesham Khalil

People who really need to listen

Architects & designers (especially if you care about wellbeing beyond “light and air” checklists)

Urban planners & transport planners working on walkability, density, public realm, and mobility

Developers & project managers making trade-offs between cost, space, green features,...