Are Rivers Alive? Author Robert Macfarlane argues they are.
Release Date: 06/24/2025
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info_outlineThis week on Mongabay's podcast, celebrated author and repeat Nobel Prize in Literature candidate Robert Macfarlane discusses his fascinating new book, Is a River Alive?, which both asks and provides answers to this compelling question, in his signature flowing prose.
Its absorbing narrative takes the reader to the frontlines of some of Earth's most embattled waterways, from northern Ecuador to southern India and northeastern Quebec, where he explores what makes a river more than just a body of water, but rather a living organism upon which many humans and myriad species are irrevocably dependent — a fact that is often forgotten.
Regardless of whether humans see rivers as useful resources or living beings, Macfarlane says their great ability to rebound from degradation is demonstrable and is something to strive for.
" When I think of how we have to imagine rivers otherwise, away from the pure resource model, I recognize that we can reverse the direction of 'shifting baseline’ syndrome. We can make it ‘lifting baseline’ syndrome. We can make our rivers touchable, then swimmable, then drinkable again. Drinkable rivers. Imagine that!"
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Banner image: The author Robert Macfarlane. Photo by Bryan Appleyard. Courtesy of Robert Macfarlane.
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Timecodes
(00:00) The liquid asset story
(05:42) The beginning of the ‘hydrocene’
(12:49) Is a river alive?
(20:01) ‘Rights of nature’
(30:02) Landmarks of hope & looming threats
(35:41) ‘Slow violence’
(39:43) ‘A gathering that seeks the sea’
(45:13) Public waterways under private ownership
(48:59) How the Cuyahoga River caught fire
(53:58) Collective health over private wealth