Interview with Leonie Joubert

Leonie Joubert achieved her BJourn from Rhodes University in 1999, and followed it with a Masters in Science Journalism from Stellenbosch University. She is a science writer and author specialising in climate and environmental collapse, energy policy, and why cities leave us hungry, heavy, and sick (the hunger-obesity poverty paradox). More recently, her work delves into the realm of public mental health. Leonie has spent the past two decades exploring these topics through books, journalism, communication support to academics and civil society organisations, non-fiction creative writing, and podcasting. She specialises in feature writing, opinion and analysis and has been widely published in local and international media, including in the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Tribune, Africa Geographic, Getaway and Farmers Weekly, among many others. Leonie is author of more than ten books, including ‘Scorched, South Africa’s Changing Climate’, ‘Boiling Point: People in a Changing Climate’, ‘Invaded: The Biological Invasion of South Africa’ and ‘The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities’. Leonie was awarded two honorary Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Awards, one for Scorched in 2007 and the other for Invaded in 2010. Leonie was the 2007 Ruth First Fellow (University of the Witwatersrand), the 2009 SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year in the print media category, and was shortlisted for the 2016 City Press Tafelberg Non-fiction Award.