Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
From here I can return to my old country, neither prodigal nor victorious, but someone unexpected, without history, without illusion, appearing beside a silvery bush whose bitterness frees the spirits of this haunted earth and colours everything green.
These communities are not just surviving, they are innovating within their means. But without structural support, resilience has its limits.
For too long, discussions about energy have been confined to the realms of technicians and engineers. The energy we consume and the infrastructures sustaining its seemingly endless supply—whether fossil fuels or electricity—have largely remained out of sight and out of mind for much of modern history.
Now, the ILR invites anyone to traverse The Line (accessible by Google Maps) by foot (or boat, bicycle or other human-powered method) and document the landscape. The documentation—called “linear research”—is collected in the Atlas of Remoteness, an ongoing research project that is archived on the Atlas of Remoteness website and in books that explore The Line globally.
The war economy relies on the enclosure of the commons. By reclaiming the commons, we can build a world based on cooperation, ecological stewardship, and social justice.
In this episode, Nate is joined by social neuroscientist Taylor Guthrie to delve into the neuroscience of identity, exploring how the brain constructs a sense of self and the implications for our modern societal challenges.
My thesis here is that democracy in America, the democracy practiced every day, is a major cause of the climate crisis and to address that crisis we need a transformation in American democracy. Democratic political action must be the spearhead of the attack on climate destruction and its biological impoverishment, and for that America needs a climate-capable democracy.
These are the three keys to a sovereign Algeria. Without control over our resources, without care for our soils, and without independence of thought, there can be neither lasting prosperity nor real autonomy. Sovereignty is not decreed — it is built every day, in our fields, our workshops, and our schools.
In an era when climate breakdown demands radical alternatives to endless growth, we might find unexpected wisdom in a largely forgotten experiment from the periphery of Europe’s recent past. For over four decades (1945-1991), Yugoslavia pioneered a unique form of economic democracy that shifted power from political elites to working people – anticipating many principles that today’s degrowth and post-growth movements advocate.
Pull Einstein out of his artificial context and plop him (with colleagues, sure) into a wild place and you’ll quickly find out who the real geniuses are. Humans are certainly capable of such genius survival, but only if loaded with the appropriate cultural software—as vanishingly few are today. Not genius.
In this conversation, Nate is joined by Stephen Jenkinson, a cultural activist and author on the topic of grief, loss, and dying, to discuss his extensive work on grief literacy and the shortcomings of the dominant cultural attitudes towards death.
I think that GDP as a measure has many flaws. I still believe, however, that the GDP as a measure of economic activity has some relevance and as I am exploring the link between the economy, the human ecology and the resource throughput, I find it interesting to get a grip on it.
