Reimagining the Cultural Narrative: Art and Storytelling for Systemic Change with Dougald Hine
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Release Date: 02/12/2025
Unintended Consequences in a Complex World | Frankly 91
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
As current events continue to accelerate around us, there is no better time to pause and view the rapid changes unfolding around us through a broader, systemic perspective. It’s only by slowing down and adopting this holistic lens that we can begin to meaningfully prepare for what lies ahead. In this short edition of Frankly, Nate dives into the theme of unintended consequences across energy, environmental issues, and social movements.. Through this lens, we understand the importance of looking two or three steps ahead of today’s actions and see the - sometimes unwanted - ripple effects in...
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Planetary Insights: How Satellites Could Transform Our Understanding of Earth’s Predicament with Will Marshall
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
When we are able to see the full scope of a problem, rather than a fragment, it changes how we respond. Throughout history, comprehensive data has catalyzed transformative change—from the measurements that spurred the halting of ozone depletion to the coral reef monitoring networks that revealed the devastating impacts of ocean acidification. Yet, the average person remains disconnected from visualizing their lifestyle’s impact on Earth's systems, leaving an incomplete perception of our collective footprint. But what transformations might occur if we could observe the full consequences of...
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Living the Change: How TGS Viewers are Transforming Their Lives and Communities
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
A few months ago, we invited viewers to share the projects, initiatives, and lifestyle changes they've embraced after becoming aware of the global challenges facing humanity. In this special compilation episode, we're featuring just a few of the many inspiring videos that were submitted. The responses were diverse and surprising, ranging from community education and regenerative projects to small-scale repair shops and off-grid living. We hope these examples serve as inspiration for the kinds of prosocial actions we can each take in our own lives. Additionally, if you tend to listen to the...
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Living Without Fossil Fuels: How Living Energy Farm Created a Comfortable Off-Grid Lifestyle with Alexis Zeigler
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
As we deepen our understanding of the existential challenges facing humanity, the path from our industrialized lifestyles to ones that respect planetary boundaries can often feel unclear and overwhelming. However, there are already individuals and communities who have transformed their way of life to do just that. What are the lessons they’ve learned along the way, and how might we use them to transform our own lives? Today, Nate is joined by Alexis Zeigler, a founding member of the cooperative community Living Energy Farm, to take a peek into the Farm’s unique daily life and explore...
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Net Zero and Other Delusions: What Can't, Won't and Might Happen | Frankly 90
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Language is one of humanity’s most unique and powerful tools. We are amazingly good at imagining the pictures created through words - almost to the point that even the most fantastical things can seem real. But how might this extraordinary ability backfire as we try to chart the course for the 21st century? In this Frankly, Nate explores the limitations of using our imaginations to shape our understanding of what's possible through the use of three categories: what can’t happen, what won’t happen, and what might happen. Nate demonstrates how this framework can be used by going through...
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Rewilding 15 Million Acres: Why True Wealth Means More Than Money with Kristine Tompkins
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
While the wealth of the world's richest individuals continues to accumulate year after year, funding billions into AI, technology, and innovation, our true wealth—the planet's natural ecosystems—receives only a fraction of the funding needed for restoration and protection. What can we learn from those rare individuals who have dedicated their lives to conserving and rewilding the Earth, choosing to invest in nature rather than the next market breakthrough? Today Nate is joined by conservationist Kristine Tompkins, to discuss her decades of work on conservation initiatives in South America,...
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Digital Democracy: Moving Beyond ‘Big Tech’ to Save Open Societies with Audrey Tang
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
As the world is increasingly shaped by the dominance of ‘Big Tech’ – including the race for Artificial Intelligence – the outsized impact on our democratic and information systems has left many with fears and confusion about the path forward. But what if we could use technology as a tool that helps preserve the values of democracy and increases civic engagement, rather than eroding them? Furthermore, what sorts of people, projects, and policies are already paving the way? Today Nate is joined by Taiwanese Digital Ambassador at large, Audrey Tang, to explore real-world examples of...
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The Mad Scramble for Power: Global Superpowers’ Strategies for Energy, Economics, and War | Reality Roundtable #16
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
The rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape of recent years can be hard to follow. With economic conflicts between global superpowers and violent clashes across multiple continents, today’s events can seem starkly different from the trajectory of past decades. So, how can a deeper understanding of energy and resource security help us make sense of these chaotic trends? In this discussion, Nate is joined by Art Berman, Michael Every, and Izabella Kaminska for a broad exploration of the complex relationship between energy, geopolitics, and economic strategy. Together, they provide valuable...
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Thinking and Feeling | Frankly 89
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
The human brain has proven to be particularly good at breaking down all sorts of things into categories and dichotomies - even our perception of the world itself is often split between ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling,’ shaped by the sensory input we receive. It seems that our values, beliefs, opportunities – even how we define ourselves as individuals – are limited to opposing and polarized options. Yet, does this binary mindset only lead us toward more blind-spots? In this Frankly, Nate unpacks the influence of beliefs on our feelings, and how it ultimately affects our actions. As global...
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Threats to U.S. Security: Aging Infrastructure, Fragile Systems, and Information Warfare with Dan O’Connor
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
The threats facing the United States’ stability seem to be escalating daily - from aging electric grids and deteriorating infrastructure to rising information warfare from domestic and international sources. How are some of the leaders within our institutions approaching these risks to respond with resilience and strengthen our national security? Today, Nate is joined by national and homeland security authority Dan O’Connor to discuss what he sees as the most pressing risks for the stability and resilience of the United States. Dan emphasizes the critical role of energy in shaping...
info_outline(Conversation recorded on November 12th, 2024)
In today’s modern era, the overwhelming flood of information that constantly flows our way can leave us feeling disoriented, lost, and powerless. Even science – our most trusted source of truth – can be taken out of context to fuel division and distort the reality around us. In the midst of this confusion, how can we learn to ground ourselves and find guideposts that can direct our lives and work?
Today, Nate is joined by storyteller and social thinker, Dougald Hine, to explore the importance of narratives in shaping our understanding of the world and how they can help us navigate the complexities of life, especially in the face of ecological crises. Together, they discuss the need for a reframing of conversations around environmental and climate issues, the importance of grassroots responses to systemic crises, and the concept of ‘engaged surrender’ as a way to navigate the challenges of modern life.
How can we foster emotional resilience in the face of ecological overshoot and the death of modernity? What role do art and storytelling play alongside science and data in responding to our collective human predicament? And how can we strengthen our communities and plant the seeds for a different way of life, starting in our own small corners of the world?
About Dougald Hine:
Dougald Hine is a social thinker, writer and speaker. After an early career as a BBC journalist, he went on to co-found the Dark Mountain Project, where he was the director until 2019. He is also the co-author, with Paul Kingsnorth, of Uncivilisation: The Dark Mountain Manifesto, and his latest book is titled, At Work in the Ruins: Finding Our Place in the Time of Science, Climate Change, Pandemics & All the Other Emergencies.
Dougald’s recent projects include Notes From Underground, a ten-part essay series for Bella Caledonia exploring the deep roots of the new climate movements, and The Great Humbling, a podcast he co-hosts with Ed Gillespie. He and Anna Björkman are creating a school called HOME, ‘a gathering place and a learning community for those who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture’. His latest writing is published on his Substack, Writing Home.
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