14 - The King Is Dead, Now What? The 250-Year Struggle for Democracy (Part 3)
Release Date: 07/24/2025
22 - Earth Abides (Part 2): Future Animists
Human Nature Odyssey
Okay, it’s been fifty years since the sudden collapse of civilization - why isn’t everything back up and running already? In the 1949 sci-fi novel Earth Abides, Isherwood Williams tries and tries to teach the next generation about law, economics, and geometry but these dang kids would rather explore the streams that flow over abandoned boulevards and overgrown shopping malls. In Part 2 of this two-part series, Alex and astrophysicist Tom Murphy explore the unexpected evolution of life after the fall—when civilization fades into myth, and a new way of seeing the world begins to take root....
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21 - Earth Abides (Part 1): Life After Civilization
Human Nature Odyssey
You ever go on a little trip, to just get away from it all — only to come home and find all of civilization collapsed while you were gone and you might be the last person left on earth? Well then you could totally relate to George R. Stewart’s 1949 science-fiction novel, Earth Abides. Earth Abides is not your typical post-apocalyptic tale. It challenges some of our core notions on progress, human happiness, and civilization itself. It’s a study of how our built infrastructure crumbles in our absence and becomes home to nonhuman life. It’s about how human communities...
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20 - Joanna Macy & The Great Turning — with Jess Serrante
Human Nature Odyssey
How do we live through wild times? Legendary scholar, activist, and systems thinker Joanna Macy named the moment we are living through the Great Unraveling—a time when our ecological, political, economic, and social systems destabilize to the point of no return. And yet, she also insisted that we stand on the threshold of a Great Turning: a profound transition toward a more just and sustainable world. Before Joanna’s death in 2025, climate activist Jess Serrante recorded a series of intimate and insightful conversations with her. In this episode, Alex sits down with Jess, weaving in clips...
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19 - Modern Myths: Flat Earth, Space Colonization, and the Stories We Tell to Escape Reality
Human Nature Odyssey
At first glance, believing the earth is flat and dreams of colonizing Mars couldn’t seem further apart. But both are built on the same story — that reality can be escaped if we just think big enough. This episode looks at two beliefs that seem opposite — flat earth and space colonization — and asks what they reveal about our urge to escape reality rather than reckon with it. One is the belief that humans could, and should, live in space: that we’re destined to leave our planet behind and colonize the stars. The other is the belief that we’re not on a planet at all—that the...
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28 Years Later: Embracing Zombies, Death, and Gilmore Girls
Human Nature Odyssey
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the === 28 years after the Rage Virus spread across the UK, the British Isles have been completely quarantined from the rest of the world. Zombies roam the forests and countryside while the survivors huntwith bows and arrows and make do in their fortified village. But for 12-year-old Spike, this is all normal. 28 Years Later is director Danny Boyle's sequel to the classic zombie thriller 28 Days Later. In this bonus conversation, Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan from the Death and the Garden...
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18 - Time Machine 2126 (Part 2): Techno-Utopia Or Apocalypse?
Human Nature Odyssey
Picture the future 100 years from now. What do you imagine? Flying cars? Space colonies? AI talking toasters? But if we can’t sustain an endlessly growing economy - even with a transition to green energy - what does a realistic and positive future look like? Alex joins the hosts of Crazy Town to imagine life in the 22nd century: walking from our family farms into communal villages, living off the land in a low-energy lifestyle, taming our pet donkeys, and resisting our local warlords. It’s not the future the movies told us to expect. But it might be a future we enjoy living in. ...
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17 - Time Machine 2126 (Part 1): Has Green Energy Saved Us Yet?
Human Nature Odyssey
What does a livable future look like 100 years from now? If we unlocked unlimited green energy, what would we actually do with it? And are our dreams of a renewable-energy utopia sometimes just as delusional as the fossil-fueled drill baby drill mentality? In this two-part series, Alex is joined by the hosts of Crazy Town—Jason Bradford, Rob Dietz, and Asher Miller—a research biologist, ecological economist, and Executive Director of the Post Carbon Institute, who bring a depth of knowledge as well as dad jokes. Together, they explore the implications of exponential energy growth on a...
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Starting a Cosmic Commune: Inside Spaceship Earth and Biosphere 2
Human Nature Odyssey
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the === In 1991, a group of artists, inventors, and visionaries set out to live inside a sealed desert enclosure for two years—a bold experiment to see if humans could survive in a self-contained environment. The project made headlines, sparked controversy, and became a cultural sensation. Spaceship Earth is the riveting documentary that tells the nuanced story of the people behind this audacious experiment. In this bonus conversation, Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan from the Death and the Garden...
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16 - How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse
Human Nature Odyssey
A horrific zombie apocalypse has ravaged the world—but hardly anyone seems to notice. One lone podcast sets out to interview those navigating this strange new reality: from people attending mindful zombie retreats and binging zombie media, to those stockpiling shotguns and fortifying bunkers, to others disappearing into the woods to build something entirely new. This is an original script written by Alex Leff. VOICE ACTING CREDITS Jason Bradford Rob Dietz Jake Gibson Maia Kinney-Petrucha Jessie Lian Jake Marquez Asher Miller Maren Morgan Ray Tannheimer Maggie Weiler...
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Andor, Star Wars, Rebellion, and the Reality of Our Global Empire
Human Nature Odyssey
This is the first 30 minutes of a longer conversation. The full conversation is available on the === A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there was an old Republic that, out of fear of a phantom menace, voted to consolidate authoritarian power—unknowingly sealing its own demise. It transformed into an Empire, bent on wielding its weapons of mass destruction to conquer all who dared resist. But don’t worry—this is just a story. It has nothing to do with us. After all, it all happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Right? Jake Marquez and Maren Morgan are fellow...
info_outlineBreaking news: The Soviet Union has collapsed! The Berlin Wall has crumbled! Communism has fallen! Capitalism wins! USA! USA!
But wait… what’s this? Russia has been overtaken by oligarchs and an authoritarian dictator. Oh no… Well, at least that could never happen in the United States. Right?
This is the climactic Part Three of our three-part series on the history of the left/right political spectrum.
After the youth protests of the 1960s failed to topple governments, left-wing radicalism shifted its focus—from revolution to championing social equality through pop culture. But as culture wars raged, neoliberalism—liberalism and capitalism’s love child—conquered the globe, fueling deregulation, rising corporate power, and deepening economic divides that hollowed out democracy itself.
Just three decades after the Cold War, the old adversaries—Russia and the U.S.—found themselves on eerily parallel paths, ushering in a new era of oligarchy and a return to right-wing rule—like the one the French Revolution fought against all those years ago.
Join us as we trace how the world drifted from dreams of liberation to authoritarian control—and how a new generation began planting the seeds of liberty and equality once again.
If you’d like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.
For full episode transcripts, essays, and additional context, visit:
resilience.org/human-nature-odyssey-podcast
CITATIONS
“Vietnam War.” Encyclopaedia Britannica.
“Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics.” National Archives.
Thatcher, Margaret. Speech to the Conservative Women’s Conference. May 21, 1980.
Wong, Edward. “China’s Black Cat, White Cat Diplomacy.” Foreign Policy, July 10, 2009.
Reagan, Ronald. Speech at Reagan-Bush Rally in Warren, Michigan. October 10, 1984.
“Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989.” Federal Reserve.
Davidson, Amy. “Exploring Occupy Wall Street’s Adbusters Origins.” NPR, October 20, 2011.
“Youth Voting in 2016 Primaries and Caucuses.” CIRCLE, Tufts University.
Kestenbaum, David. “How Shock Therapy Created Russian Oligarchs and Paved the Path for Putin.” NPR, March 22, 2022.
Steele, Jonathan. “How Football Conquered Russia.” The Guardian, July 2, 2003.
Harding, Luke. “Roman Abramovich: The Billionaire Oligarch with a Backstory Shrouded in Secrecy.” The Guardian, March 21, 2022.
Keats, Jonathon. “Design of Dissent.” Forbes, October 28, 2019.
Birnbaum, Michael. “Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global.” The Washington Post, October 15, 2011.
Jojo Rabbit. 2019. Directed by Taika Waititi.
Music: Celestial Soda Pop
By: Ray Lynch
From the album: Deep Breakfast
Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI
All rights reserved.