Marx and Sartre go shopping for a car
Why is it so difficult to find a job or to buy products that align with our values? Why is it difficult to even know whether our personal choices might have effects in the right direction?
Broadening Science and Bridging Divides in a Complex, Interconnected World
Investment in science is a pillar for any dynamic, equitable modern society, and promoting scientific literacy across all levels of society can help foster innovation, dialogue, and consensus that crosses disciplinary and cultural boundaries.
Proposed East Texas water pipeline and the growing thirst for distant water
East Texas farmers and ranchers are finding out to their dismay that water has become a commodity like so many of our daily needs.
The Shutdown proved that the USA needs SNAP
The short, natural experiment we all witnessed reinforces that SNAP is the nation’s first line of defense against hunger and food insecurity and food pantries can only be a secondary and supplemental source of food. Food pantries and food banks cannot substitute for a robust, reliable, government-funded food safety net.
Don’t Forget to Ask: What Happens to the Savings?
The proposal for Degrowth calls for an intentional downscaling of the global economy to achieve both ecological sustainability and social justice. A degrowth transition would help ensure that ecological practices actually displace destructive ones, and that the savings from efficiency measures are truly saved.
Oil, AI, Electrification and the Next Big Crash
So, what have we got? A global economy staggering amongst geopolitical tension, a bubble to beat all bubbles, and the twin shocks of a (potentially permanent) oil price crash and the EV subsidies ending — and all with the backdrop of worsening climate change driving up inflation and inflicting constant disasters.
Ditching Dualism #1: Exaltation
It is important to start this process recognizing that all these marvelous attributes of the universe as we find it are still awe-inspiring even from a different starting point. In fact, my own experience is that it all becomes rather more incalculably stupendous as a result of shifting away from a dualist perspective.
Electricity Price Squeeze: Something’s Going to Give
Electricity is our energy future, but the details of that future are still sketchy. Right now, the picture is being drawn by billionaire investors, but it looks dark and dystopian. Surely more imaginative artists could do better.
Climate and the Revival of Political Hope
A transformation of climate politics will come when the majority on the margins becomes a self-aware political force. The approach sketched here—combining adaptation, emotionally literate education, and campaigns that awaken collective efficacy—offers practical, hopeful steps toward that outcome.
Directional Advice for the (More Than) Human Predicament
In this week’s episode, Nate invites listeners into an exploration of what it means to navigate a growing predicament shaped by ecological limits, rapid technological changes, and shifting expectations of reality.
Should We Start Taxing Meat?
The debate continues, but one certainty is that we must make the production and consumption of meat and dairy more sustainable and realign our agricultural systems with planetary boundaries and dietary guidelines.
Will there be solar panels after the dust has settled?
Solar panels will continue to work for decades. But soon enough societies will have to reproduce its energy resources, if you can’t do that, they are hardly renewable in the first place.
