A Wild and Beautiful World
Who do we have to become, in order to preserve the chance of a wild and beautiful world that includes humans? Join me as I try to understand this, in conversation with some of the most thoughtful and visionary people I know, all of whom have spent decades, in myriad ways, working to save what’s precious. Guests include Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Lent, Craig Santos Perez, Sonia Shah, David Abram, Kathleen Dean Moore, Jerome Foster II, Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin Dorjee, Lise Van Susteren, and more. ______ Welcome to A Wild and Beautiful World. My name is Emily Johnston, and I’m a writer and climate activist in search of ways to think about this moment that might help us seize its best possibilities, rather than its worst. Though it’s hard to integrate with our distracted daily lives, many of us know that we’re living amidst a terrible biodiversity crisis, and at the beginning of a long climate catastrophe. What has to change, and how might we have to change, if we want to preserve the chance of a wild and beautiful world that includes us? There’s a lot of critical day-to-day of work, of course: ending fossil fuel use, preserving and restoring forests and grasslands, and much more. But there are also existential questions about how we as a species can avoid making the same mistakes: seeking dominance rather than mutual thriving, and addictively chasing short-term benefits rather than longer-term well-being. So how can we move forward in a way that leaves open the possibility not just of survival, but of a more expansive and inspiring future? How do we take heart from that possibility on days when grim realities threaten to overwhelm us? What can anchor us, and bring us joy? I’m going to open the series with a quote from Wendell Berry. He says: "We don’t have a right to ask whether we’re going to succeed or not – the only question we have a right to ask is: What’s the right thing to do? What does this Earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?" Thanks for joining us as we explore this question. If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at glow.fm/awabw. *** Many thanks to Hank Lentfer for the use of his gorgeous sounds--more about him can be found at hanklentfer.net
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Just Me: The Spring Creek Project lecture
05/04/2024
Just Me: The Spring Creek Project lecture
This week I have something a little different. I was asked to take part in the Collective Climate Action lecture series for the Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University. These are the same folks who asked me to do a keynote five years ago, which turned into the essay that’s in the wonderful book All We Can Save. I struggled with this one, as I struggled with that one, trying to honestly describe and also find power in the very complicated feelings that climate change instills in me as in many others. I’m going to keep working on this one too, because I think it will serve as the keystone in a book of essays. Meanwhile, I hope you find it useful, or at least interesting. ____ Links: Spring Creek Project: Spring Creek Lecture Collective Climate Action series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T1WjHGofKk Loving a Vanishing World (the lecture I gave for Spring Creek in 2019): https://medium.com/@enjohnston/loving-a-vanishing-world-ace33c11fe0
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Michael Eliason: What Our Cities Could Look Like
04/26/2024
Michael Eliason: What Our Cities Could Look Like
"If we had a climate leader like Anne Hidalgo, the Pike/Pine network itself, going from Capitol Hill, which is dense enough to support its own pedestrian zone and car-free streets, could be car-free or mostly car-free down to the water, there'd be this wonderful green interchange between Capitol Hill and downtown and there's really wonderful opportunities for a sustainable connectivity that we can't really conceive because every square inch of this city has to be handed over to the private vehicle." ____ Mike Eliason is the founder and principal of Larch Lab. He is a researcher, writer, urbanist, and architect based in Seattle. He has dedicated his career to advancing innovation and broadening the discourse on passivhaus, community-oriented housing, ecodistricts, prefabrication, and circularity. He is an activist for dense, livable, affordable, and sustainable cities, and he currently sits on the board of Seattle’s new Passivhaus Social Housing Development PDA. He has just finished a book on climate adaptive ecodistricts for Island Press. ____ Links:
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Lauren Regan: They're Doing This Because We're Winning
02/14/2024
Lauren Regan: They're Doing This Because We're Winning
"Because the one thing they will never have that we have is numbers, and moral high ground. Most of us are doing this because we care, it's coming from a place of love, often we're doing it in our volunteer time--and the government and corporations will never match that." ____ Lauren Regan is the legendary founder, executive director, and staff attorney at the Civil Liberties Defense Center. She and the CLDC have defended “green scare” activists, climate activists, water protectors, and many more. The CLDC was a founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective, active at Standing Rock and Line 3, and has also worked to defend activists at Cop City in Atlanta. Lauren has also coordinated the defense of large groups of activists in the Pacific Northwest, and run countless Know Your Rights briefings, security workshops, and information sessions about the dangers of SLAPP suits. She represents activists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion, immigrant rights, indigenous rights, Black Lives Matter, and other environmental and social justice movements. I’ve personally experienced her fierce and focused legal advocacy, and can attest to the fact that you definitely want her on your side if you’re challenging the system. _____ Links:
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Paul Koberstein & Jessica Applegate: Canopy of Titans
02/06/2024
Paul Koberstein & Jessica Applegate: Canopy of Titans
"The clear-cuts were littered with these big old logs, they were just lying there rotting in the sun, and we asked Dominick DellaSalla, the scientist who was our tour guide, what's that all about, and he said 'they're really picky about which logs they bring back to market, so if they see flaws in the wood they'll just leave it behind...70% of the logs, of the old growth yellow cedar trees that are cut down, are left behind.'" ______ Today’s episode is with Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate, the co-authors of Canopy of Titans (currently a finalist for the Oregon Book Award), which focuses on Pacific Northwest forests and their importance to our global climate. Paul is editor and co-founder of Cascadia Times, and has won awards for investigative journalism. He’s an Oregon native who currently resides in Portland. Jessica Applegate is managing editor and photographer for Cascadia Times and works with young children with special needs. As a lifelong environmental activist and public servant, she also owns an organic vineyard in Douglas County, Oregon. Jessica resides in Portland. ______ Links: Canopy of Titans: https://orbooks.com/catalog/canopy-of-titans/ Do Young Trees Suck Up More Carbon? 350 Seattle forestry FAQ: https://350seattle.org/forestry-faq/
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George Monbiot: Nourishing Ourselves and the Wild
01/19/2024
George Monbiot: Nourishing Ourselves and the Wild
"Our ignorance of the soil really impedes our efforts to reach what I see as the holy grail here, which is low-impact, high-yield farming. There's plenty of high-impact, high-yield farming, and plenty of low-impact, low-yield farming, but neither of those are the answers that we need to find. We have this enormously challenging thing that we face, that we have to feed 8, and one day 9 or 10 billion people, while trying to bring that system back within planetary boundaries." ______ George Monbiot is a columnist for the Guardian, and an investigative environmental reporter. He’s in some cases barely lived to tell the tale while writing about forced migration in Indonesia, peasant movements in Brazil, assaults on nomadic people in Kenya and Tanzania, and the illegal traffic in mahogany, including to Buckingham Palace. He’s the author most recently of Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea, and Human Life, and Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet. He received a UN Global 500 Award from Nelson Mandela. ______ Links: The Cruel Fantasies of Well-Fed People: Grazed and Confused: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/reports/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf
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Justin J. Pearson: Doing Nothing Was Not an Option
01/05/2024
Justin J. Pearson: Doing Nothing Was Not an Option
"The climate crisis that we have now, the environmental justice crises that we have now, are because there was not an investment or concern about the communities that are feeling the brunt of these illnesses when these facilities were being created, when these plans were being made. If we had cared about climate change, if we had cared about the environment, 40/50 years ago, when Valero Energy Corporation was planning to build in SW Memphis, we probably wouldn't have the cancer rates that we have now. If people had cared about all of these toxic release inventory facilities that surround our community, we wouldn't be dealing with the consequences of environmental degradation and environmental racism that we have now. The reality is that to show that we care, it does require us to show up differently, and that means consistently, persistently rejecting the status quo. " ______ Justin J. Pearson is a state representative in Tennessee’s General Assembly, a powerful pipeline fighter who helped to defeat the Byhalia Pipeline through his work with Memphis Community against Pollution, and an activist who has also stood up for educational equity, racial justice, and gun control. Along with Justin Jones, he was one of the two state representatives who were expelled after taking part in a gun control protest at the state capitol. He was reappointed six days later. ______
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Paul Gilding: Disruption and (Positive) Change
12/07/2023
Paul Gilding: Disruption and (Positive) Change
"We need regulation, we need policy, we need community pressure, we need expectations, we need movies, we need poetry...we need all these things that drive us to a certain behavior, because we have got a lot of good sides, and they're not brought out by our current society and our current economic model, they are repressed and destructed by it. There's a great academic story about a guy who went to look for evidence that we behave badly under pressure--the whole dog eat dog market view of the world, when things go bad we're going to be fighting for the food, fighting for shelter, and...all the apocalyptic movies, The Road, etc...and there's a side of us that can behave that way, but his view was that the academic evidence was not just not supportive, it was the opposite--that when we have a wildfire, when we have a flood, when we have a really intense threat to a community, the community comes together, and it comes together because it needs to in order to protect itself, and that's a natural tendency of humanity, not something that we need to be forced into." ______ Paul Gilding is the author of The Great Disruption, and has been an activist for over 50 years: a student activist against Apartheid and for Aboriginal land rights, a union organizer, a disarmament organizer, a climate organizer, the Executive Director of Greenpeace International, and much more. In consulting and speeches, he’s also worked to persuade companies and corporate executives to respond appropriately to the climate crisis, and he’s a teacher and researcher at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. ______ Links:
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Rachel Heaton: Recognizing Our Place
11/23/2023
Rachel Heaton: Recognizing Our Place
"Standing Rock was like the beginning and the end of various parts of my life. I feel like I was asleep before Standing Rock. When I took my children out there it became more about recognizing our place on Earth as human beings and realizing that if we don't have our children in those spaces, how are we going to pass that knowledge on, or how do we expect them to stand...as much as I would love to say that our youth didn't have to stand on the frontlines, but they're inheriting what's been created already, and so unfortunately we are left to create warriors to continue this work that we're doing." ---- Today I have the pleasure of talking with someone a little closer to home than most of my guests. Rachel Heaton is a Muckleshoot tribal member, a founder of the Indigenous-led divestment group Mazaska Talks, a mountain climber, a cultural educator, a naturalist, and mother to 3 beautiful children, Mercedes, Nylah, and Dahnahhi. I’ve been lucky enough to work with her on and off over the last several years, and I can honestly say there are few people I’ve appreciated more. Her kindness, intelligence, and dedication shine through in all she does. ---- Links:
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Adam Welz: Field of Wonders (at Risk)
11/03/2023
Adam Welz: Field of Wonders (at Risk)
"Start by just learning the names of the bumblebees in your garden and the butterflies that fly past your room, of the birds, and it's not hard...and once you open that door, once you start, it's this neverending unfolding field of wonders, as crazy and naive as that sounds, and I wouldn't be able to live my life without it." ________ Adam Welz is a South African journalist, nature conservation consultant, photographer and filmmaker. Most recently, he's the author of The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown, which Bill McKibben has called “A book that goes deeper than any before into the meaning of the climate breakdown for all the rest of creation.” ________ Links:
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Season 2 Introduction
10/23/2023
Season 2 Introduction
Just a quick hello to note that the second season is coming soon! My guests will include cultural educator and mountaineer Rachel Heaton, lawyer Lauren Regan, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, and writers Adam Welz, Paul Gilding, Ursula Goodenough, George Monbiot, Paul Koberstein, and Jessica Applegate. Stay tuned!
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Lise Van Susteren: Turning What We Know into What We Do
06/27/2023
Lise Van Susteren: Turning What We Know into What We Do
“The issues that we attempt to suppress and sweep under the rug--or repress, which means we sweep under the rug unconsciously—they don’t go anywhere, they just go in the darker crevices of our mind and then, like poisoning in groundwater, they seep into us, unconsciously, and we feel stressed and anxiety, and when it reaches a certain level we become more aware of it, and when we don’t take action is that it just keeps poisoning us, building up, we know over and over again, and studies show this, that when people start to name the problem and figure out a strategy to address it, that their anxiety goes down.” ________ Dr. Lise Van Susteren is a general and forensic psychiatrist in Washington, DC, and an expert on the physical and mental health effects of climate disruption. She is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University and co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance. A frequent contributor on television, radio and in the print media, she was also the expert witness on the psychological damages to children in Juliana v US Government, and the People V Arctic Oil before the European Court of Human Rights. Just last week, she was the expert witness for the youth in the Held v Montana trial. ________ Work mentioned: Ronald Wright A Short History of Progress: Stacey Colino, Countdown: Stacey Colino and Lise Van Susteren, Emotional Inflammation: Lise Van Susteren, in progress, Climate and Your Mind Erica Chenoweth on nonviolent revolutions: ________ This episode is the last interview of the season, though I may do a bonus episode in the coming weeks. Once I’m back in the city and have a better internet connection again, I plan to return for a new season in the fall and winter, interviewing some terrific folks about what a better and healthier world might look like: our cities, wild places, food systems, and more. Until then, I wish you historically seasonal weather, clear air, calm seas, and at least some of the pleasures of our childhood summers. If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds, and to for the cover art.
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Craig Santos Perez: Caring for the Earth and Each Other
06/06/2023
Craig Santos Perez: Caring for the Earth and Each Other
“To me, that is the power of poetry, where we can take these fragments of our lives, of our psyches, and of our emotions, and to really conjure something new—not necessarily something whole and complete, but something that's beautiful and something that's empowering and inspiring from these ruins of history and migration and so on, and so that's why I really wanted to explore the fragments in my poetry and to weave these fragments together into a new tapestry, not necessarily something completely formed, but it's something that gives me a sense of self, a sense of culture, a sense of place, a sense of belonging as well.” ________ Craig Santos Perez is the author of seven books of poetry, and a winner of the American Book Award and a PEN Center USA Award. He is a native of Guam who moved to California at 15 and now teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Hawaii; he’s also a widely anthologized essayist who has thought deeply about place and ecology. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds, and to for the cover art.
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Lhadon Tethong & Tendor Dorjee: Connection, Contentment, & Independence
05/31/2023
Lhadon Tethong & Tendor Dorjee: Connection, Contentment, & Independence
“One of the words for which I haven’t been able to find an English equivalent is the word ‘nyingjey’...you'll hear Tibetans say this word very often, if you have a friend who is a little bit down, or there is a suffering animal nearby or a wounded bird or a wounded deer on the road… nyingjey, nyingjey. It's an expression of compassionate empathy, but it's not exactly the same as pity or ‘poor you’, that doesn't capture it, it's much more of an offering of solidarity. You’re trying to almost…becoming one with the other that's suffering, so eliminating the distinction or the line that divides us.” ________ A friend of mine introduced me to Lhadon and Tendor by describing them as badass Tibetan activists who work at the intersection of human dignity, spirituality, and climate. Given the arc of the podcast, I was convinced–and boy am I glad that I was. They touch herein on the complexities of exile, the parallels between American and Canadian treatment of indigenous peoples with what China is doing right now in Tibet, the importance of contentment, the misuses of Buddhism by CEOs and others, greenwashing, the Dalai Lama, the speed of culture change, and Chinese exceptionalism. When she was deported from China following an arrest for a protest, government functionaries called Lhadon “a threat to the stability of China”. It may seem absurdly hyperbolic that such thoughtful and gentle activists threaten one of the most powerful nations on Earth, but it may be true, in precisely the same way that the right wing is correct to be threatened by climate activists. The vision that Lhadon and Tendor offer here is not compatible with repression, nor with the exploitation of humans or the natural world–and that vision is also irresistible. Materialism can be infectious sometimes but so can its opposite and therein lies our best chance for survival. Lhadon Tethong is a Tibetan-Canadian political activist, the co-founder and director of the Tibet Action Institute, and a former executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, a global network of students and activists dedicated to advancing Tibetan freedom and human rights. Tenzin Dorjee is an activist and the author of The Tibetan Nonviolent Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis; he is also a former executive director of Students for a Free Tibet. His writings have been widely published and he is a frequent radio commentator on Tibet-related issues. He is currently working on his PhD on the influence of religion on political conflict at Columbia. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds, and to for the cover art.
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David Abram: A Shadowed, Exquisite, Holy World
05/22/2023
David Abram: A Shadowed, Exquisite, Holy World
"It's about being a part of, and participant in, a world that is shot through with loss, predation, grief, and yet it's all that shadowed difficulty that also makes this world so exquisitely beautiful, so holy." Cultural ecologist, geophilosopher, and performance artist David Abram is the author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology and The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World. Described as "revolutionary" by the Los Angeles Times, and as “daring” and “truly original” by the journal Science, his work has helped to catalyze several new disciplines, including ecopsychology. For the current academic year, Abram is the Senior Visiting Scholar in Ecology and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds, and to for the cover art.
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Interlude: It's all about Connection
05/18/2023
Interlude: It's all about Connection
I had some scheduling issues with folks, so I took this opportunity to do a short episode that attempts to begin to tease out some of the overlaps and intersections of my guests so far, and where those might lead. Coming next week will be a great interview with David Abram, followed by (in some order, perhaps not this one) Jerome Foster II, Craig Santos Perez, Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin Dorjee, and Lise Van Susteren. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds, and to for the cover art.
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Kathleen Dean Moore: Bird-Graced World
05/09/2023
Kathleen Dean Moore: Bird-Graced World
"The ability to imagine what it's like to be inside another person's mind or another person's life is the beginning of compassion...and it seems to me too that moral imagination is a necessary condition for hope. When you set out to think of something new, then you have a reason to think it might be possible. If you can't imagine anything better then you'll never be able to act towards achieving it. I believe you can imagine a better future into existence." Professor Emerita of Environmental Philosophy at the Oregon State University, Kathleen Dean Moore was the co-editor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril, and the award-winning author of many other books, including Riverwalking, Great Tide Rising, and the illustrated Take Heart: Encouragement for Earth’s Weary Lovers. She retired early from academia to focus on the climate crisis, and she’s a senior fellow at the Spring Creek Project. She’s one of the fiercest and wisest people I know. What can YOU do about Climate Change? ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds!
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Bill McKibben: Bringing us to Attention
04/29/2023
Bill McKibben: Bringing us to Attention
"Sometimes [kindness] means waking people up, and that's what movements do...when we build movements, one of the reasons we do it is to bring people back to attention." ____ Bill McKibben needs no introduction. He’s the author of The End of Nature, which was the first layperson’s book about climate change, and a book that had a profound influence on me and many others. He’s also the author of many other thought-provoking books, including Falter and The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, which the New Yorker called one of the best books of 2022. He founded the global climate group 350.org with some of his students from Middlebury College, and founded a more recent group, Third Act, primarily with retirees across the country. No matter your age, in other words, Bill may urge you, too, to get involved. Astonishingly insightful, articulate, strategic, and generous, Bill’s commitment to and impact on this world would be hard to overstate; the fact that the world isn’t in better shape is simply a profound nudge to the rest of us to level up. _____ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds!
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Sonia Shah: Stewardship, Flux, and Migration
04/27/2023
Sonia Shah: Stewardship, Flux, and Migration
“I do think it's very important to be connected to your place, even if those places change, you have to be a student of that place. So this is what we've tried to teach our kids, is that wherever you end up, that you become a steward of that place, you become a student of that place, and you look after that place because you are part of it. When you go into that new place, you are now part of it. The animals are going to know you, they’re going to be affected by what you do, the water is going to be affected by what you do, the air is going to be affected by what you do, so you need to understand your role in that ecological fabric and be a good citizen in that ecosystem. And that just goes for wherever you end up.” Sonia Shah is an investigative journalist and the author of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books on science, human-animal relations, and international politics. Her 2020 book, , was selected as a best nonfiction book of 2020 by Publishers Weekly, and a best science and technology book by Library Journal. She also wrote , , and the prize-winning 2006 drug industry exposé, . Her work has been called “bracingly intelligent”, a “tour-de-force”, “brilliant”, “important”, and “powerful”. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds!
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Naomi Klein: Stamina, Transformation, & Collective Joy
04/20/2023
Naomi Klein: Stamina, Transformation, & Collective Joy
“We have an economic system that is very profitable for the winners, and they’re not that interested in the level of change that IPCC report after IPCC report is telling us we need: fundamental transformation of virtually every aspect of society….So how do we build the political power that wants that transformation?” Naomi Klein needs no introduction. The author of This Changes Everything as well as No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, among other books, she’s a professor of climate justice at the University of British Columbia, and one of the very few folks to whom I’d consider outsourcing my thinking. She has been a super-power for multiple movements, and has offered her sharp analysis, warmth, energy, and commitment in myriad ways to the fight for a humane and thriving planet. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds!
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Jeremy Lent: Towards an Ecological Civilization
04/15/2023
Jeremy Lent: Towards an Ecological Civilization
"We need to start to imagine what would it look like if we actually built a civilization that was designed from the outset to set the conditions for all people to flourish on a regenerated, living earth.” Jeremy Lent is a former tech entrepreneur, and the author of The Patterning Instinct, which George Monbiot called "perhaps the most profound and far-reaching" book he'd ever read. Following that, Jeremy wrote The Web of Meaning, and he’s currently at work on the third book in the series, Future Flourishing: Towards an Ecological Civilization. Together, the three books do no less than describe how human civilization has found itself in its current state, and work to identify how we might extricate ourselves from that state and rebuild in a way that allows for the widespread flourishing of both the human and the natural worlds. ________ If you enjoy these conversations, please make sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you can! I’m committed to making this free and ad-free, but will happily accept donations; if you can easily support it, please do, at . ________ Many thanks to for the use of his gorgeous nature sounds!
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Introduction (A Bit of Background)
04/15/2023
Introduction (A Bit of Background)
Just a bit of stage-setting for how I came to this podcast, and what I hope to offer in it....
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Trailer — A Wild and Beautiful World
03/04/2023
Trailer — A Wild and Beautiful World
Who do we have to become, in order to preserve the chance of a wild and beautiful world that includes humans?
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