380: Ezra Klein's Abundance vs. Paul Kingsnorth's Machine—Wizards & Prophets All the Way Down...

Episode 380 of the Reversing Climate Change podcast, hosted by Carbon Removal Strategies LLC, titled "380: Ezra Klein's Abundance vs. Paul Kingsnorth's Machine—Wizards & Prophets All the Way Down..." was published on January 2, 2026 and runs 41 minutes.

January 2, 2026 ·41m · Reversing Climate Change

Summary

The perennial fight returns... In one corner, there are the wizards: optimists who are betting that technology and economic growth can solve our problems faster than it can create them? In the other corner, prophets: who believe we have deeply lost in our way in ignoring limits and that we need to get ourselves back to the garden.How much wizard and how much prophet do you have contained in your own heart?Today's monologue episode has host Ross Kenyon exploring two recent books: Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson's Abundance, and Paul Kingsnorth's Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity, regarding how they continue the oldest and deepest fight in environmentalism.This Episode's Sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Absolute Climate:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the only standard that’s developed independent of registries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Philip Lee LLP: legal resources for carbon removal buyers and suppliers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Peter Minor from Absolute Climate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Listen to the RCC episode with Ryan Covington from Philip Lee LLP⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a paid subscriber of Reversing Climate Change⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the Reversing Climate Change Substack⁠Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity by Paul KingsnorthAbundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson"S2E53: Paul Kingsnorth on the shared roots of climate crisis, transhumanism, & immortality"TeleologyYin and yang"S2E15: Are you a wizard or a prophet?—w/ Charles C. Mann"The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World by Charles C. Mann1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. MannJoseph Schumpeter & creative destructionJohn ZerzanDunbar's NumberPrimitivismThe World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond (do note the disputing of a claim I echoed from the book, that violence can be endemic in hunter-gatherer societies; take my words with a grain of salt here)YIMBYNational Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)ZapatistasBattle of Seattle"Anyway, Here's Wonderwall" memeThe Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation SocietyEnabled Emissions CampaignAmory LovinsWendell BerryRay KurzweilWhat Technology Wants by Kevin KellyIf Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate SoaresA brief interpretation of some of Peter Thiel's Greta Thunberg antichrist commentsA House of Dynamite (film)"The mountains are calling and I must go."- John Muir“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”- Albert Einstein (attributed)"The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house."- Audre Lorde

Episode Description