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The Next Generation’s Dilemma: Confronting the Metacrisis

June 10, 2024

Conversation recorded on May 8th, 2024)

Show Summary

As the human predicament continues to accelerate, the conversations regarding the future are still dominated by older generations – yet it is their younger successors who will face the brunt of these issues throughout their lives. Today’s Reality Roundtable with Priscilla Trịhn, James Branagan, and Natasha Linhart, focuses on Generation Z’s perspective of the metacrisis, how learning the reality of the human predicament has affected their worldview, and what they see as viable future paths for themselves and the world. How might we approach intergenerational relationships to encourage the transfer of knowledge in both directions, without blame or resentment? What are the unique challenges that young people face when addressing  the layers of complexity and risk in the world, and thinking about how to respond? Could fostering community, empathy, and personal responsibility act as a bridge across generational divides, steering us towards a more unified and compassionate future?

About Priscilla Trịnh

Priscilla Trịnh currently serves as Director of Communications at the Post Growth Institute and co-coordinator of the Minnesota Youth Institute. She is also the creator of the #postgrowth jobs board and a founding member of The Overstory Alliance. Additionally, Priscilla is an editor at the Blue Marble Review, and contributor to the Minnesota Women’s Press. Priscilla holds a B.S. in Sustainable Systems Management and resides on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ lands (Minnesota, USA) and when not working, can be found near a body of water or in the kitchen.

About James Branagan

James Branagan is a content creator and video editor, posting content on slow living and philosophy from his channel, The New Naturalist. At a young age, he became disillusioned with many different components of society, becoming fascinated by the prospect of humans figuring out how to live in an ecologically compatible way. He’s committed to the task of addressing some of the many facets of Our Human Predicament, particularly education and food production systems.

About Natasha Linhart

Natasha Linhart graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 2023 with a degree in BSc in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics with a focus in Economics and Business, and electives in Degrowth and Critical Theory. For the last year, she has been working as a Research Associate with the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future. Natasha is also a passionate educator, founding her own tutoring company with a holistic approach to high-school education (IBCompanions).

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Show Notes & Links to Learn More

PDF Transcript

00:00 – Priscilla Trịhn, James Branagan, Natasha LinhartTGS Discord Channel

05:55 – What is the Metacrisis

13:30 – Money is a claim on energy, evolutionary psychology

12:20 – Intersectional Feminism

12:29 – Energy Privilege

16:25 – Jeff Bridges, Living in the Future’s Past, Trim tab

19:53 – Tomas Björkman, TGS Episode

23:18 – Intergenerational trauma

23:25 – Vietnam War

25:18 – Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers

26:28 – The Behavioral Stack

30:35 – ESGs

34:11 – Planetary Boundaries

35:59 – Most people in the US still live paycheck to paycheck

37:38 – The nuance of organic farming

42:46 – Complexity and fragility of food supply chains

50:01 – Deep time

50:52 – Anthropocene

52:18 – Critical Mass

1:01:57 – Norrsken Foundation

1:04:21 – Generation Alpha, Generation Z

1:05:26 – Re-indigenizing movement

1:08:13 – Emotional Container Model

1:08:28 – Overstory Alliance

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.

Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.