Joshua Harrison: Art, Science, and Reconnecting with Our Roots in a Modern World

What Would The Ocean Say If You Could Ask It A Question?Exploring the intersection of art, science, and environmental activism, this episode features thought provoking conversation with Joshua Harrison, director of the Center for the Study of the Force Majeure based at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The art-science environmental research collaborative challenges us to rethink our relationship with the planet and provoke us into thinking beyond the status quo and our long-held assumption about how the world works and our relationship to it. Harrison's work lives at the edges: the intersection of disciplines, the boundaries between land and water, and the uncomfortable space between what we know and what we choose to ignore. Through immersive installations like the Sensorium for the World Ocean and community-based fire ecology projects with indigenous partners, Harrison is pioneering new ways to help us feel—not just understand—our impact on the world that sustains us. Harrison unpacks why our modern disconnection from nature isn't just a philosophical problem, but a practical crisis with deadly consequences. From the urban heat island effect claiming thousands of lives to overgrown forests fueling catastrophic wildfires, he reveals how abandoning circularity, community, and indigenous wisdom has left us vulnerable to the very "acts of God" his center studies. Yet Harrison refuses to leave us in despair. He traces the history of American innovation and destruction—from victory gardens to planned obsolescence, from universal education to the current brain drain—while pointing to concrete solutions: greening cities to match pre-colonial temperatures, recovering cultural burning practices, and building appreciating assets rather than extracting depreciating ones. The conversation explores how California's fire management thinking has shifted dramatically in just five years, proving that rapid change is possible when we're willing to learn.You Are Not Alone, And You Don't Have To Be PerfectThat's Harrison's message for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the scale of environmental crisis. He illustrates how mapping local resilience projects, connecting young people to place-based action, and finding the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what needs fixing offers a practical antidote to paralysis. As Gary Snyder reminds us: “Find your place in the world, dig in, and take responsibility from there.” Resources:Center for the Study of the Force MajeureLeaf IslandJoshua Harrison on LinkedIn