Episodes

  • Rebecca Solnit on Slowness as a Superpower

    Rebecca Solnit on Slowness as a Superpower
    Dec 11 2023
    Rebecca Solnit, the author of books including “A Paradise Built in Hell” (2009) and “Orwell’s Roses” (2021) and the co-editor of the new collection of essays “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility,” discusses the long view as a “mind-blowing” way of looking at the world, why the majority of people tend to be altruistic and resourceful in a disaster, and why the climate crisis requires eschewing a scarcity mindset for one of abundance.
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    53 mins
  • Charlayne Hunter-Gault on History as a Compass for Navigating the Present

    Charlayne Hunter-Gault on History as a Compass for Navigating the Present
    Nov 20 2023
    The civil rights activist, award-winning journalist, and former NPR and CNN foreign correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks about her book “My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives”; why understanding history is like a form of armor in a world full of misinformation; and the transformational, life-altering notion of viewing herself as a “queen” from a young age.
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    30 mins
  • Sarah Lohman on Creating a More Affordable, Healthful, and Moral Food System

    Sarah Lohman on Creating a More Affordable, Healthful, and Moral Food System
    Oct 23 2023
    The culinary historian Sarah Lohman, author of the new book “Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods,” talks about the importance of engaging with local foodways, why “the idea that eating McDonald’s is universally bad is woefully unaware of class and racial conflicts,” and how Indigenous communities across the U.S. are fighting to protect their heritage.
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    25 mins
  • David W. Orr on the Inextricable Links Between Climate and Democracy

    David W. Orr on the Inextricable Links Between Climate and Democracy
    Sep 18 2023
    David W. Orr, editor of the new book “Democracy in a Hotter Time” and a professor at Arizona State University, discusses the climate crisis as an obviously bipartisan issue; why building “Democracy 4.0” must ultimately be a localized, grassroots mission; and why, in our “long emergency” that is the climate crisis, we must “stretch our hearts to reach out to other species and future generations.”
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    32 mins
  • Pedro Gadanho on How Architecture Must Adapt to Our Ecological Emergency

    Pedro Gadanho on How Architecture Must Adapt to Our Ecological Emergency
    Jul 10 2023
    Architect, writer, and curator Pedro Gadanho, author of the book “Climax Change!” and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, discusses how architects must increasingly innovate through densification and adaptive reuse rather than building anew; existing buildings as “material banks”; and the importance of downgrading our consumption levels, particularly in the Western world.
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    30 mins
  • Chris Impey on the New Space Race and Exoplanet Habitation

    Chris Impey on the New Space Race and Exoplanet Habitation
    Jun 5 2023

    Astronomer Chris Impey, author of the new book “Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity” and a professor at the University of Arizona, discusses the vast possibilities of extraterrestrial human habitation, why imagination is an important form of scientific speculation, and why humans’ initial move to space will likely mirror the lawlessness of the Wild West.
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    19 mins
  • Lesley Lokko on Imagining the Future Through an African Lens

    Lesley Lokko on Imagining the Future Through an African Lens
    Mar 13 2023

    Architect and novelist Lesley Lokko, the founder and director of the African Futures Institute and the curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, discusses how, for her, the rich context of Africa has always served as a “testing ground for ideas” about the future; why she has become disenchanted with the academic establishment over time; and how architects serve as translators between the imaginary and the real.

    Episode sponsored by MUD\WTR.
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    27 mins
  • Dacher Keltner on Why We All Need Daily Doses of Awe

    Dacher Keltner on Why We All Need Daily Doses of Awe
    Feb 27 2023

    UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, author of the new book “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life,” talks about human emotion as a tool for making sense of the world, the extraordinary acts of kindness that take place around us all the time, and moral beauty as a way of life.

    Episode sponsored by MUD\WTR.
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    30 mins