PODCAST · society
Conversation Earth
by Citizen-Powered Media
For the first time in history, the activity of human civilization reaches into every corner of the globe. So significant is the role we play that our time has been dubbed the Anthropocene Epoch. This calls for self-examination at a new level. Conversation Earth presents insightful dialog with the leading thinkers of our time. Philosophy, ethics, science, psychology and economics, at a macro level, and all focused on humankind’s relationship with the planet.
Episodes
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Survival of the Kindest (Encore)
Tom Shadyac is a successful Hollywood comedy director who found the traditional trappings of success were not the key to happiness. He traded a mansion and private jets for a mobile home and a bicycle. After a bicycle accident nearly killed him, he decided it was time to tell a different kind of...
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Why This May Be Our Last New Episode
Host Dave Gardner explains why we'll be sharing encores from the 2nd season of Conversation Earth in the coming weeks, and why there are likely to be no more new episodes. The link mentioned in this brief message from Dave is http://www.tinyurl.com/CEseason3
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Reinvent the Economy: Gus Speth 118 (Encore)
While world leaders wring their hands over forecasts of timid GDP growth, a growing list of visionaries around the world are collaborating to redefine economic objectives in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Former White House advisor Gus Speth has been at the forefront of new economic…
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A Not So Big Life: Sarah Susanka (#117 Encore)
How we inhabit our homes, our lives, and the planet. Architect Sarah Susanka observed that houses in the U.S. were getting larger – but some rooms were seldom occupied, and often not even furnished. She found clients frequently did not get the immense satisfaction they expected from living in…
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Limits to Growth: Dennis Meadows (#116 Encore)
"Our computer-generated scenarios all showed this growth stopping in the early decades of the 21st century, and, I must say, looking back now, it seems that we're right on schedule." Dennis Meadows led the team at MIT whose computer simulations led to the publication of the top-selling...
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Durable Future: Bill McKibben (#115 Encore)
Relocalization may be the most important strategy for minimizing climate change. According to Bill McKibben, "working as communities is the most important thing that we can be doing right now." In this wide-ranging conversation about the sustainability of our civilization, McKibben shares his...
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Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely (#114 Encore)
Do we behave rationally? You might be surprised how often our decision-making deviates from what is in our best interest. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies human behavior and decision-making. His experiments have led him to startling conclusions. "We repeatedly and predictably make the…
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Economic Heresy: Herman Daly (#113 Encore)
Would you believe we've entered a period of "uneconomic growth?" Robust economic growth has become the Holy Grail of public policy and politics. But some economists and many scientists have come to believe growth has become "uneconomic." Former World Bank Senior Economist Herman Daly explains…
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Nature Doesn't Negotiate (#112 Encore)
"One of the ways that radical ideas become more mainstream is when those of us who hold them aren't afraid to speak about them." This thought has guided much of journalism professor Robert Jensen's work. His writing and speaking often focus on the news that "we live in an economy that is based on...
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What We Want More Of (#111 Encore)
Our ecosystems contribute tens of trillions of dollars to our economy every year, but – as L. Hunter Lovins notes, "At present we're losing every major ecosystem on the planet…What are we doing to ourselves?...We have the…intelligence…to make different choices." Hunter Lovins co-authored the...
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Behaving Against Our Interests: Paul Ehrlich (#110 Encore)
Today it could be argued that human beings daily act against our own self-interests. How? Biologist Paul Ehrlich and fellow scientists tell us we are expanding our population and economy beyond the Earth's carrying capacity - at our peril. Why do we insist on continuing? Ehrlich has been a keen...
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Running on Empty: Rex Weyler (#109 Encore)
Rex Weyler has lived the life dreamed of by those who want to make a difference. As a young man he joined early Greenpeace expeditions to document and stop commercial whaling. He went on to co-found Greenpeace International, and as a journalist has covered the subject of ecology extensively.…
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Lying to Ourselves: Lorna Salzman (#108 Encore)
What went wrong with the environmental movement? Environmental activist, organizer and author Lorna Salzman shares her thoughts about climate change, consumerism, cheap energy, economics, lawyers and politics. She discusses "what went wrong with the environmental movement," plus irrationality,...
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Cornucopian Myth: William Catton (#107 Encore)
"The age of growth and the age in which growth is going to be considered a good thing is coming to an end." The late sociologist William R. Catton was certain of this, but spent a significant portion of his professional life attempting to understand why mainstream society was reluctant to prove…
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Cruel Hoax: Stephanie Mills (#106 Encore)
Stephanie Mills made headlines in the Spring of 1969 when she vowed, in her commencement address (titled The Future is a Cruel Hoax), to conceive no children. "Our days as a race on this planet are, at this moment, numbered," she proclaimed, "and the reason for our finite, unrosy future is that…
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Rewriting Our Cultural Narrative: William Rees (#105 Encore)
How big is your ecological footprint? Probably bigger than you think. After all, out of sight, out of mind. As an originator of ecological footprint analysis, population ecologist William Rees knows a thing or two about our impact on the planet. In this interview he provides some fascinating, and...
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Ecological Amnesia: Winona LaDuke (#104 Encore)
The author of Recovering the Sacred tells us we need a society that is "respectful, resilient, and ecologically and socially responsible." Instead, "we have a society based on conquest, on consuming more than it needs." We emphasize "quarterly profits over intergenerational responsibility." This…
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The Fetish of GDP: Raj Patel (#103 Encore)
"Gross Domestic Product has now become a fetish," according to economist Raj Patel. Many undesirable things end up adding to GDP: wars, disease, and environmental destruction, for example. And GDP fails to measure many desirable indicators of community health. It has led us to live in an...
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Retrospective: Dave Gardner #223
Our 41st episode is a retrospective of Seasons 1 and 2 of Conversation Earth. In this episode we turn the table, as co-producer Kaitlyn Hickmann interviews host/creator Dave Gardner. The two share highlights from previous episodes and discuss the joys and challenges of producing the series. This...
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Time Blindness: Jack Alpert #222
Frustrated at the abysmal rate of adoption when seatbelts were introduced into cars in the 1960s, Jack Alpert quit his job as an automotive engineer to study human decision-making. In this episode he sheds interesting light on how we gather and process information to predict future outcomes and...
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Bystander Effect: Alan Berkowitz #221
Are we all "bystanders" when it comes to responding rationally to the serious environmental crises faced by our civilization? How is our behavior shaped by that of those around us? We've all heard of "the bystander effect" in which a large number of people stand by and do nothing to help someone…
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Thriving Economy: Not Rocket Science - Kate Raworth #220
Human civilization can thrive while living within sensible limits imposed by a finite system. "Renegade economist" Kate Raworth manages to tell the truth about what we're getting wrong in economics, while at the same time inspiring activism and optimism. In this conclusion of a two-part…
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Flipping Economics on Its Head: Kate Raworth #219
No civilization should head out into the world without "Doughnut Economics" in its survival kit. With her modernized thinking, economist Kate Raworth is, in her words, "flipping economics on its head." UK Guardian columnist George Monbiot calls her new book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to…
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Near-Term Human Extinction #218
Award-winning scientist Dr. Guy McPherson has concluded that for human civilization, the end is near. He advises the rate of change of our climate is increasing far more rapidly than we are being told, and this puts us on his endangered species list. In this 2017 interview, McPherson reveals why...
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Local Food Revolution: Michael Brownlee #217
Re-establishing our personal relationship with food and ending our role as commodity "consumers" is part of a healing, regenerative process. It's a part of our natural evolution, according to Michael Brownlee, author of The Local Food Revolution: How Humanity Will Feed Itself in Uncertain Times.…
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Surviving a Hostile Climate on Local Food: Michael Brownlee #216
A scaled-up local food system may be the only way we can feed ourselves as we weather the storm of climate change. Until now, CSAs, urban gardens and farmer's markets have been the face of the local food movement. But Michael Brownlee, author of The Local Food Revolution: How Humanity Will Feed...
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Carbon Drawdown: Paul Hawken #215
100 real-world actions happening now have the potential to bring greenhouse gases back down to a level that won't cause humans to join the ranks of the dodo and other extinct species. They just need to be scaled up. That's the conclusion of environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken and the…
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Sustainable Population Roadblocks: Bill Ryerson #214
Most scientists agree the current level of human population, in combination with present living arrangements, is damaging our ecosystems. But doing something about overpopulation is not high on public policy lists. It's rarely discussed in the media or over coffee with friends. Why? Population...
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Everything You Want to Know About Population: Bill Ryerson #213
World population passed the 7.5 billion mark in the Spring of 2017, and it could rise to 11 billion by the turn of the century. We currently add over 200,000 to the population every day. If fertility rates don't continue to drop, and we don't suffer a "massive die-off," that figure could be…
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The Free Market Assault on Science: Kerryn Higgs #212
What exactly are "think tanks" supposed to be thinking about? Are some of them part of a campaign to cast doubt on science when it could interfere with profits? Author Kerryn Higgs recounted the growth-seeking activities of the corporate world in her book, Collision Course: Endless Growth on a...
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Collision Course: Kerryn Higgs #211
How and why did our society come to value economic growth so highly that we pursue it at the risk of our long-term survival? For some time scientists have warned that human civilization is living beyond the ecological means of our planet. Yet our commitment to economic growth is unwavering....
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Avoiding Thought Traps: Frances Moore Lappé #210
We need to change the way we think if we want to extend the shelf-life of our civilization, according to Frances Moore Lappé, author of EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think and Diet for a Small Planet. In this 2017 conversation, Lappé explains some of the "thought traps" to avoid in order to...
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What Keeps Our System Stuck? Mike Nickerson #209
We're not living on Earth as if we want to stay, observes Mike Nickerson. In our last episode, Mike Nickerson shared his vision for, and the joy of, making the cultural shift necessary for a sustainable human civilization. In this continuation of the conversation, we explore some of the forces...
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Cultural Metamorphosis: Mike Nickerson #208
"We could be having so much fun that there just isn't time to consume resources on a quantity, or produce waste on a quantity that would be problematic for the planet," according Mike Nickerson. He shares his ideas about how enjoyable it could be to make the cultural shift necessary for human...
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Public Policy Brakes on Procreation? Travis Rieder #207
Efforts to date are falling far short of achieving the greenhouse gas reduction needed to avoid catastrophic climate disruption. Bioethicist Travis Rieder shakes things up by suggesting ethical use of public policy to encourage smaller families, which would result in dramatic decrease of carbon...
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Moral Basis for Small Families: Travis Rieder #206
With human activity disrupting the climate, do we have a moral imperative not to have children, or to have only one child? Bioethicist Travis Rieder dares to explore this bold question with sensitivity and scientific rigor. Rieder shares his logic in the short book, Toward a Small Family Ethic…
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Trickle-Down Consumption: Brian Czech #205
How can policymakers be persuaded to abandon the most widespread public policy goal on Earth? In our last episode, Brian Czech explained that economic growth cannot be sustained perpetually on a finite planet. This episode continues that conversation with the conservation biologist and economics...
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Pulling the Rug Out from Under Our Kids: Brian Czech #204
Economic growth is the number one public policy goal around the world, yet our pursuit of growth is "pulling out the rug from our own kids' and grandkids' future," according to Brian Czech, founder and president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He wants us to...
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End of Ponzi Economy: Jerry Mander #203
Was globalization a temporary state that has run its course? That's the case made by Jerry Mander, who believes there is plenty of evidence that the promises of capitalism, consumerism, individual wealth and never-ending growth are coming up empty. He's founder of the International Forum on...
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Moral Revolution: Tom Shadyac Pt2 #202
Hollywood director Tom Shadyac traded a mansion and private jets for a mobile home and a bicycle. He had found the traditional trappings of success were not the key to happiness. After a successful Hollywood comedy career and a near-death bicycle accident, Tom eagerly shares his discoveries about...
-
Survival of the Kindest: Tom Shadyac #201
Tom Shadyac is a successful Hollywood comedy director who found the traditional trappings of success were not the key to happiness. He traded a mansion and private jets for a mobile home and a bicycle. After a bicycle accident nearly killed him, he decided it was time to tell a different kind of...
-
Reinvent the Economy: Gus Speth #118
While world leaders wring their hands over forecasts of timid GDP growth, a growing list of visionaries around the world are collaborating to redefine economic objectives in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Former White House advisor Gus Speth has been at the forefront of new economic…
more -
A Not So Big Life: Sarah Susanka #117
Architect Sarah Susanka observed that houses in the U.S. were getting larger – but some rooms were seldom occupied, and often not even furnished. She found clients frequently did not get the immense satisfaction they expected from living in their "dream house." How this relates to the way we...
-
Limits to Growth: Dennis Meadows #116
"Our computer-generated scenarios all showed this growth stopping in the early decades of the 21st century, and, I must say, looking back now, it seems that we're right on schedule." Dennis Meadows led the team at MIT whose computer simulations led to the publication of the top-selling...
-
Durable Future: Bill McKibben #115
From November 30 to December 11 the world's attention is riveted on COP 21, the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Bill McKibben has played a major role in public awareness and discussion about climate change. His 1989 book, The End of Nature, was likely the first book for a general audience about...
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Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely #114
Do we behave rationally? You might be surprised how often our decision-making deviates from what is in our best interest. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies human behavior and decision-making. His experiments have led him to startling conclusions. "We repeatedly and predictably make the…
more -
Economic Heresy: Herman Daly #113
Robust economic growth has become the Holy Grail of public policy and politics. But some economists and many scientists have come to believe growth has become "uneconomic." Former World Bank Senior Economist Herman Daly explains this in terms we can all understand. Daly co-founded the journal,...
-
Nature Doesn't Negotiate: Robert Jensen #112
"One of the ways that radical ideas become more mainstream is when those of us who hold them aren't afraid to speak about them." This thought has guided much of journalism professor Robert Jensen's work. His writing and speaking often focus on the news that "we live in an economy that is based on...
-
What We Want More Of: Hunter Lovins #111
Our ecosystems contribute tens of trillions of dollars to our economy every year, but – as L. Hunter Lovins notes, "At present we're losing every major ecosystem on the planet…What are we doing to ourselves?...We have the…intelligence…to make different choices." Hunter Lovins co-authored the...
-
Behaving Against Our Interest: Paul Ehrlich #110
Today it could be argued that human beings daily act against our own self-interests. How? Biologist Paul Ehrlich and fellow scientists tell us we are expanding our population and economy beyond the Earth's carrying capacity - at our peril. Why do we insist on continuing? Ehrlich has been a keen...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
For the first time in history, the activity of human civilization reaches into every corner of the globe. So significant is the role we play that our time has been dubbed the Anthropocene Epoch. This calls for self-examination at a new level. Conversation Earth presents insightful dialog with the leading thinkers of our time. Philosophy, ethics, science, psychology and economics, at a macro level, and all focused on humankind’s relationship with the planet.
HOSTED BY
Citizen-Powered Media
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Conversation Earth have?
Conversation Earth currently has 64 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Conversation Earth about?
For the first time in history, the activity of human civilization reaches into every corner of the globe. So significant is the role we play that our time has been dubbed the Anthropocene Epoch. This calls for self-examination at a new level. Conversation Earth presents insightful dialog with the...
How often does Conversation Earth release new episodes?
Conversation Earth has 64 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Conversation Earth?
You can listen to Conversation Earth on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Conversation Earth?
Conversation Earth is created and hosted by Citizen-Powered Media.
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