Sobriété vs Poverty: Preparing for a New Cultural Paradigm with Jean-Marc Jancovici
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Release Date: 04/30/2025
The Silent Collapse: What the Disappearance of Insects Means for Humanity and the Earth with Oliver Milman
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Insects, bugs, creepy-crawlies – these small animals are often considered a nuisance (or worse) by humanity, bringing up an ongoing desire to kill or mitigate these “pests” that plague our backyards, homes, and gardens. But we’re beginning to see that, despite our cultural misconceptions, insects are actually at the foundation of our biosphere, food supply, and nearly every life process on Earth. This makes recent reports of rapidly declining insect populations all the more troubling – but can we recognize the vital importance of insects and reverse the harm we’ve done before...
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The Ghost of Dopamine Past | Frankly 103
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
In this week’s Frankly, Nate reflects on a moment of unexpected insight during a morning bike ride, which catalyzed a larger meditation on the modern human predicament. This episode explores the neuroscience of dopamine, and offers a reflection on the ways it plays into distraction, technology, and how we interact with the hyperstimulating world around us. What is the “ghost of dopamine past,” and how does it shape not only our individual lives, but our collective economic and ecological behavior? Why does the urge to scroll on our phones override the deep calm of watching...
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Nothing Can Stop This Train: Our Financial Predicament From a Systems Perspective with Lyn Alden
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Money, debt, and finance shape the lives of everyone globally, including through the policies and actions of national central banks – yet even those who are well-versed in these subjects often miss the full scope of these intricate relationships. For the average person, headlines about mounting government debt and surging interest rates often feel like a confusing and concerning trend. What can we learn from historical cycles, global energy dynamics, and the differing fiscal strategies of nations about the trajectory of the world economy? In today’s episode, Nate is joined once more by Lyn...
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Towards Individual Wisdom & Restraint
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
In this Earth Day presentation, recorded earlier this year, Nate offers nine broad paths for individuals to cultivate resilience in an increasingly uncertain and unstable period of human history. From the intellectual & ecological to the spiritual & psychological, these ideas might be considered waypoints for navigating the human predicament, and - in aggregate - help build 'scout teams' of humans working on the upcoming cultural transition away from infinite material expansion. How do we slow down and reject the “hustle culture” that prioritizes gains in efficiency, wealth and...
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The Packaging Revolution: Industry’s Responsibility & the Innovations That Could Mitigate the Waste Crisis with Wes Carter
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Packaging is an unavoidable feature of modern life. It’s so embedded in our products and systems that even the most environmentally-minded consumers struggle to avoid it entirely. Yet packaging accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste, contributing to widespread ecological harm and growing threats to human health – highlighting the urgent need for an overhaul of packaging materials and industry practices. So how are some industry leaders reimagining materials, systems, and supply chains in ways that align with the realities of our finite planet? In today’s episode, Nate is joined by...
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What I Learned This Week: Corn Sweat, Coral Bleaching, and the Climate Credit Crunch | Frankly 102
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
In this week’s Frankly, Nate shares a handful of things he’s learned in the past few days that have implications for the Great Simplification. Nate covers a wide range of topics in this edition, from the connections between corn sweat and wet bulb temperatures to a timeline of coral reef bleaching events. Our culture is marked by information overload, which has been expanded intensely by technology. This makes it difficult to absorb the data, narratives, and headlines we are presented—let alone sort through them and examine what is relevant for the Great Simplification scenario....
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The Myths Shaping Our Economies: The Disconnect between Economic Theory and Reality with Josh Farley
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Economic theory has come to wield outsized influence over our societal goals, decisions, and policies – often relying on models that claim to optimize how human systems function. Yet the outcomes of our modern economic structures tell a different story: accelerating ecological collapse, widening inequality, declining public health, and increasing social disconnection. What if the foundational principles of mainstream economics are actually built on false assumptions that obscure the realities of our world? In this conversation, Nate is joined by ecological economist Josh Farley to...
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What I Want to Want for the Future | Frankly 101
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
In today’s Frankly, Nate imagines that he’s looking back from an unspecified point in the future (even from beyond his lifetime), and ponders the core things he would want during his time on Earth. Breaking from what our culture steers us to seek out, Nate examines what a bedrock of human experiences might include — the things in our lives that keep us grounded and experiencing life to the fullest extent. While naming some of the things he values in his own life, from experiencing full spectrum love to having a purpose, Nate encourages the viewer to reflect on what they might “want to...
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Moving from Apathy to Action: How Facing Grief Can Help Us Navigate a World in Crisis | Reality Roundtable #17
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
When facing the realities of our world, the urge to drown in grief or shut down into apathy is becoming more and more common. As we are flooded with information and global predicaments outside of our control, overwhelm can set in, affecting our energy, efficacy, and even our ability to care. But what if facing our grief is actually the pathway to increasing our capacity to stay connected to and work on the things that matter most to us? What tools, practices, or rituals could we use to help us begin to metabolize our grief? In this episode, Nate is joined by John Seed and Skye Cielita Flor to...
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Ask Nate Anything 2025 | Frankly 100
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
In today’s Frankly, Nate reads and responds to questions from viewers of the channel, offering reflections on a wide range of topics from current events, balancing fear and action surrounding often existential topics, green technology, and more. By directly addressing these questions, Nate aims to further unpack some of the nuances in the complex and expansive concept of The Great Simplification. The goal of TGS is to build out a comprehensive outlook that connects the dots of energy, human-made systems, and Earth's functioning ecosystems. By making clear the biophysical reality of our...
info_outlineAs economic, political, and environmental pressures continue to reshape our daily choices, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the era of hyper-consumption that defined the past century is no longer sustainable. Recognizing and adapting to this reality represents one of the most profound cultural shifts of our time – requiring collective reflection and cooperation. But just as importantly, how can we recalibrate our personal expectations today in ways that preserve our sense of agency and sufficiency?
In this episode, Nate is joined by energy expert and educator Jean-Marc Jancovici, who shares insights from his ongoing work advising governments and the public on the limits of our economic systems amid growing energy and ecological constraints. Together, they discuss the evolving geopolitical landscape between the U.S. and Europe, the distinction between energy sobriéte and poverty, and the role of the elite in leading societal change towards more practical consumption levels.
How can we change the way we’re communicating the science behind our predicament, especially as political and economic tensions continue to accelerate? Why is our collective vision of the future so important for preventing political turmoil? Finally, how can we combine technological efficiency with a change in cultural values to create a future that's not just survivable, but meaningfully better than the default?
About Jean-Marc Jancovici:
Jean-Marc Jancovici is a founding partner of Carbone 4, a Paris based consultancy and data provider specializing in low carbon transition, biodiversity impacts, and physical risks of climate change. He is the founder and president of The Shift Project, a Paris based think tank advocating for a low carbon economy. Jean-Marc Jancovici is also an associate professor at Mines ParisTech, member of the French High Council for the Climate, and (co-)author of 8 books. Most recently, he and Christophe Blain released an American adaptation of their graphic novel, World Without End, which describes why our energy and environmental constraints require us to rethink everything: our energy supply, our economies, and our whole world.
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