Rosa Lister

London-based writer who covered the Sycamore Gap trial for Harper's Magazine

Rosa Lister (London-based writer who covered the Sycamore Gap trial for Harper's Magazine) has appeared as a guest on 1 episode in TMT. Topics they speak about most include Sycamore Gap trial, Sycamore Gap tree.

In their words

Positions and remarks grouped by topic, each with the exact quote and where it was said.

Sycamore Gap trial

  • Lister cited a tree lawyer who said this was the first UK case of imprisonment for cutting down a single tree.

    “According to a tree lawyer I talked to, it was the first time anyone in the United Kingdom had gone to prison for cutting down a single tree”

    This American Life: 892: Trapped on a Bus (Jul 20, 2026) · Listen from 46:02

  • Lister considered the prison sentences unusually harsh, noting that cutting down a tree in England usually results in nothing or a fine.

    “The sentence seemed weirdly over the top. When people cut down a tree in England, what usually happens is nothing”

    This American Life: 892: Trapped on a Bus (Jul 20, 2026) · Listen from 46:02

  • Lister reported the two men were charged with criminal damage valued at over 623,000 pounds, calculated partly with a tree valuation system.

    “The two men were charged with criminal damage amounting to 623,335 pounds, over 800,000 American dollars”

    This American Life: 892: Trapped on a Bus (Jul 20, 2026) · Listen from 36:19

Rosa Lister on Sycamore Gap trial →

Sycamore Gap tree

  • Lister argued the more disturbing explanation was that the men deliberately felled the tree because they knew how loved it was.

    “That they had thought about it quite extensively, that they knew how much people had loved the tree, and had cut it down for precisely that reason”

    This American Life: 892: Trapped on a Bus (Jul 20, 2026) · Listen from 48:31

  • Lister noted that sycamores are generally disliked in Britain and often regarded as weeds.

    “The truth is that people in Britain don't really like sycamores. Gardeners go so far as to despise them”

    This American Life: 892: Trapped on a Bus (Jul 20, 2026) · Listen from 43:32

Rosa Lister on Sycamore Gap tree →

Appearances

  • 892: Trapped on a Bus

    This American Life · Jul 20, 2026 · 1 h 3 min

    Guest host David Kestenbaum presents stories of unwanted journeys: a runaway bus, a neighbor-spy and bipolar paranoia, Havana blackouts, the Sycamore Gap felling, and an in-flight bite.

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