This week’s Downstream guest is Dale Vince, the former new age traveller who led in the widespread adoption of a string of transformative technologies, from the world’s first green energy company to Britain’s first electric charging network for cars.

In conversation with Aaron Bastani, Vince tells his story in full, starting with his days living on the road in the 80s and 90s. In 1985 Vince was beaten up by police and arrested during the infamous Battle of the Beanfield at Stonehenge. Less than a decade later - and he was the CEO of Ecotricity, Britain’s first green energy company.

Vince then gives an account of how he developed the Electric Highway charging network, and how Elon Musk tried to steal it, resulting in a David-versus-Goliath legal battle – which Vince won.

In recent years, Vince funded controversial climate group Just Stop Oil, became a major donor to the Labour Party, and owns Forest Green Rovers, the world’s first vegan football club. His next project? Creating edible high protein food - from grass.

Bastani asks: to what extent did the new age traveller movement prefigure our world today, from veganism, to environmentalism, clean energy and post-materialism? And would he ever buy a Tesla?

‘Manifesto: The Battle For Green Britain’ by Dale Vince is available from Penguin books.

This week’s guest is best known for hijacking a panel at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, where he told a room full of billionaires to stop avoiding taxes. He now claims that this form of protest has been proven ineffective in the struggle for progress. The last 25 years have seen some of the biggest protests in history, yet we’ve seen wars erupt and inequality widen.

With his new book, ‘Moral Ambition’, Rutger Bregman lays out a history of how societal change actually happens, and how we can learn from the agentic groups of thoughtful individuals who improved our civilisation.

In conversation with Aaron Bastani he discusses the true origins of abolitionism, what the left gets wrong about Elon Musk and why we might actually see the end of history.

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