Act: Inspiration

Podcast from the Prairie: “The Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man”

January 25, 2021

In this episode of “Podcast from the Prairie,” Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen discuss the creativity of both humans and the larger living world. In addition to finding expression in art, human creativity also is essential in the scientific enterprise and is part of everyday life. The ecosphere is creative as well, making diversity out of the raw elements of the universe. A theologian even suggested that “serendipitous creativity” was an appropriate metaphor for God. Jackson, who brought many of these ideas together in his “art without ego” exhibition last year, will help make sense of the role of creativity in life and in our lives.

“Podcast from the Prairie” is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Castbox, Blubrry, and Overcast.

For more information, go to https://podcastfromtheprairie.com/ and https://landinstitute.org/learn/podcast-from-the-prairie/.

“Podcast from the Prairie” is previewing some of the stories from Wes Jackson’s forthcoming book, Hogs Are Up: Stories of the Land, with Digressionswhich will be published in March 2021 by the University Press of Kansas.

Robert Jensen’s book, The Restless and Relentless Mind of Wes Jackson: Searching for Sustainability, summarizes Wes’ key ideas over the past half-century and will be out in February, also from UPK.

Robert Jensen

Robert Jensen

Robert Jensen is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin and collaborates with the New Perennials Project at Middlebury College. He is the author of It’s Debatable: Talking Authentically about Tricky Topics, coming this spring from Olive Branch Press. This essay is adapted from his book An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity, co-authored with Wes Jackson.

Tags: art as social change, creativity