Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Alex Leff If 99% of human history was spent as hunter-gatherers, what can that way of life teach us about equality, freedom, and hierarchy today? We connect our foraging past to modern politics—and ask if industrial civilization is all it’s cracked up to be.
New York Times bestselling author Christopher Ryan joins the odyssey to discuss human nature. What’s universal, what’s cultural, and what’s personal? Can we really change the culture we live in? And are some societies better suited to human well-being than others?
Humanity soon will be returning to low-power ways of organizing itself. And in our new age of tariff wars, the tide is already turning from global to regional in trade, investment, and politics. What has seemed impossible may soon become obviously necessary to larger numbers of people.
Join us for a live online conversation inspired by the Human Nature Odyssey podcast, tracing the long arc of the global battle between monarchy and revolution, authoritarianism and democracy, hierarchy and equality.
Several decades after the Cold War, Russia and the U.S. found themselves on eerily parallel oligarchic paths. In this episode, we trace how the world drifted from dreams of liberation to authoritarian control—and how a new generation began planting the seeds of liberty and equality once again.
Can we meet the needs of humanity without undermining the life-support systems of the planet? Find out if bioregioning holds the key to a positive and systemic way forward. Lyla June Johnston, Samantha Power, and Brandon Letsinger will offer insight and inspiring leadership in “Bioregioning: How to Thrive where We Live.”
Put on your best polyester pants, grab a bunch of gleaming mylar balloons, and crack open a case of bottled water. In today’s episode, we’re entering the plastic world of plastic pollution in all its glorious plasticity.
We continue that epic struggle across centuries and continents—from the upheavals of the Russian Revolution, to the rise of fascism, the global crucible of World War II, the tense Cold War standoff, the youth protests of 1968, and the ongoing battle for power, equality, and freedom.
After the more than two centuries since the American and French Revolutions, the kings are back — or at least, trying to be. But we don’t have to be stuck in this strange cycle.
Across the world, politics is often framed as left vs. right. But where did that divide begin? This episode traces the roots back to the French Revolution and the centuries-long struggle over liberty, power, and the future of democracy.
Microplastic pollution is poisoning nearly everything on the planet—from the deepest parts of the ocean to inside the cells of living beings. In “Troubled Waters: How Microplastics Are Impacting Our Oceans and Our Health,” we’ll dive into this growing global crisis.
Modernity’s inevitable failure need not be humanity’s ultimate failure. Modernity never could have worked in the long term, and represents only a small sliver of human existence.
