The company we keep: Leonie Joubert

Leonie Joubert is a science expert, writer and author whose work focuses on climate and environmental breakdown, energy policy and the ways modern cities and food systems leave people hungry, unhealthy and excluded. Over the past two decades she has developed a wealth of expertise on these issues, sharing her research in books, long form journalism and podcasting.

Pronouns? She/her

Born? 27 October, 1972

Status? I’m not wild about framing our place in the world in relation to whether or not we have a significant other. It’s too politically loaded.

School? Junior school: Balmoral in Queenstown; high school: Queenstown Girls High. School.

University? Rhodes University (undergrad); Stellenbosch University (Masters)

First job? Writer at Wine magazine

Home? Nissan Hardbody bakkie with camper van on the back. Living on the road. Home is wherever I drop ‘anchor’ and park the vehicle.

Transport? That same Nissan Hardbody bakkie

Book on your bedside table? A pile of audio books on my phone. Just finished another remarkable Tim Winton novel: Juice. Starting another Australian futuristic dystopia: Salvage, by Jennifer Mills.

Music in your playlist? Two fabulous EDM sets by DJ Walter in the Deep House/Tech genre – Beautiful, and Lost & Found.

Describe your job in no more than seven words: Stories about humans and more-than-humans

What keeps you awake at night? The disease of predatory capitalism

Who is your biggest hero? Urgh! This is hard. Rachel Carson. Ursula le Guin. Margaret Atwood. Rebecca Solnit. Emily Davison.

Remote or office? Remote, constantly roving.

What’s the most exciting part of your job? The thrill of finishing the first draft of a story and hitting ‘send’ on the email that’ll dispatch it to the editor. That moment is even more thrilling than seeing the story in print.

Career highlight? Being asked to write for National Geographic magazine. It was like being given the chance to summit Everest. But I didn’t want to take the assignment because surely then the world would see that I’m a second-rate writer, right? I hoped Covid would take me out so I didn’t have to make the decision. Alas, fate forced my hand and I ended up hanging with a pangolin in the Kalahari. Life-changing experience, followed by a few more Nat Geo gigs. These have been treasured opportunities.

What is your superpower? Curiosity

What is the least known fact about you? Disease level body dysmorphia. rolls eyes at self in exasperation

If you could get the ear of one person, to convince them your work is important, who would it be? The ear of the collective. There’s no single person who can bring about the biggest changes we need… but if EVERYONE heard the messages and ‘got it’… ?

If you had the power to pass a presidential decree, what would it be? That there be a limit to wealth accumulation (eg a cap on max earnings etc); that nature has rights in our jurisprudence, and that corporations don’t.

Your best piece of advice? This pain will pass. And return. And pass again. Within this, know that every breath is a new beginning.

What’s your next big thing? Off to hang with the amaPondo on the Wild Coast, where the community has been holding the line against extractive mining efforts for 20 years.

What do you do to relax? Lie flat on my back and listen to audio stories – novels, non fiction, podcasts. March up a mountain.