At a Distance

Rebecca Solnit, the author of books including “A Paradise Built in Hell” (2009) and “Orwell’s Roses” (2021) and the co-editor of the new collection of essays “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility,” discusses the long view as a “mind-blowing” way of looking at the world, why the majority of people tend to be altruistic and resourceful in a disaster, and why the climate crisis requires eschewing a scarcity mindset for one of abundance.

The civil rights activist, award-winning journalist, and former NPR and CNN foreign correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks about her book “My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives”; why understanding history is like a form of armor in a world full of misinformation; and the transformational, life-altering notion of viewing herself as a “queen” from a young age.

The culinary historian Sarah Lohman, author of the new book “Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods,” talks about the importance of engaging with local foodways, why “the idea that eating McDonald’s is universally bad is woefully unaware of class and racial conflicts,” and how Indigenous communities across the U.S. are fighting to protect their heritage.

David W. Orr, editor of the new book “Democracy in a Hotter Time” and a professor at Arizona State University, discusses the climate crisis as an obviously bipartisan issue; why building “Democracy 4.0” must ultimately be a localized, grassroots mission; and why, in our “long emergency” that is the climate crisis, we must “stretch our hearts to reach out to other species and future generations.”

Architect, writer, and curator Pedro Gadanho, author of the book “Climax Change!” and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, discusses how architects must increasingly innovate through densification and adaptive reuse rather than building anew; existing buildings as “material banks”; and the importance of downgrading our consumption levels, particularly in the Western world.

Astronomer Chris Impey, author of the new book “Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity” and a professor at the University of Arizona, discusses the vast possibilities of extraterrestrial human habitation, why imagination is an important form of scientific speculation, and why humans’ initial move to space will likely mirror the lawlessness of the Wild West.

Architect and novelist Lesley Lokko, the founder and director of the African Futures Institute and the curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, discusses how, for her, the rich context of Africa has always served as a “testing ground for ideas” about the future; why she has become disenchanted with the academic establishment over time; and how architects serve as translators between the imaginary and the real.Episode sponsored by MUD\WTR.

UC Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner, author of the new book “Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life,” talks about human emotion as a tool for making sense of the world, the extraordinary acts of kindness that take place around us all the time, and moral beauty as a way of life.Episode sponsored by MUD\WTR.

Marina Koren, a staff writer at The Atlantic who covers science and space exploration, speaks about why the “overview effect,” the cognitive shift that can occur when seeing the Earth from outer space, needs to be studied and understood in a more nuanced way; the ongoing Elon Musk–Jeff Bezos space-race saga; and the vast, galaxy-wide importance of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.Episode sponsored by MUD\WTR.

Sarah Jaquette Ray, author of the new book “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet” and a professor of environmental studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, discusses the importance of leveraging negative emotions for political change, the ties between the climate crisis and our own inner suffering, and how thinking differently about the world can lead to more positive feedback cycles.Episode sponsored by Grand Seiko.