S2E15: Are you a wizard or a prophet?—w/ Charles C. Mann

What is the best approach to solving the climate crisis? Should we leverage science and technology to ‘produce’ our way out of the problem? Or aspire to live in Hobbiton and radically reduce our human footprint? Charles C. Mann is the New York Times bestselling author behind 1491, 1493 and The Wizard and the Prophet and a regular correspondent for The Atlantic, WIRED and Science Magazine. Today, Charles joins Ross to discuss the two major schools of thought he identified in the environmental movement—wizards and prophets—and introduce us to the scientists he uses to represent each camp in his book. Charles walks us through the fundamental differences between the two groups, describing their values, blind spots and radically different ways of seeing the world. Listen in for Charles’ insight on a third school of thought that dismisses both wizards and prophets and find out where he falls on the wizard-prophet spectrum in light of the current global health crisis. Connect with Ross Nori Nori on Patreon Email [email protected] Resources 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World Charles on Twitter Norman Borlaug Road to Survival by William Vogt Jared Diamond Naomi Klein Paul Ehrlich Bill McKibben Ted Nordhaus Hans Rosling Jesse Ausubel Ramez Naam Emma Marris Planet of the Humans Nathaneal Johnson in Grist ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ by H.P. Lovecraft Dr. Vandana Shiva Adam Smith’s Parable of the Poor Man’s Son Lynn Margulis