Wild with Sarah Wilson

SAMANTHA SWEETWATER: How do we actually emerge our way into “the what comes next”?

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:47:00 GMT

Samantha Sweetwater (systems thinker, Gaian futurist, expert facilitator) draws on complexity science, deep ecology, indigenous wisdom, and 30+ years of experience guiding embodied transformation to help humans navigate civilizational transition. She joins me to talk us through how we can best emerge our way out of the current fiasco and toward the world we’d like to create, what it might look like and what we might want to start doing – or being – to be part of it all. We cover how to use our dreams, our intuition, psychedelics, “the local news" as well as the place of AI and technology in this emergent transition we’re in.

This is a beautiful, emotional and real conversation that launches “series 2” of Wild in which we’ll be exploring “the what comes next” - the “new world” - that we will take the place of the “old” self-destructing, tech-addled, carbon-based, linear world order that’s on its way out.

About Samantha

Samantha is a systems thinker, executive coach, wisdom teacher, and founder of One Life Circle. She pioneered the conscious dance movement, built a global community of practice, and has been initiated into indigenous lineages of Africa, Latin America, and Turtle Island. Her recently published book True Human: Reimagining Ourselves at the End of the World tackles exactly what we're speaking of here.

Show notes

In this episode, we mention previous Wild chats with collapsed academic Luke Kemp and Adam Mastroianni

Samantha’s new book is called True Human: Reimagining Ourselves at the End of the World

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Watch on YouTube or Substack

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

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WE’RE BACK! Series 2 of Wild is here

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:47:00 GMT

After a long-ish hiatus, we’re returning with a fresh series of Wild. This second series will be taking a slightly new direction and is now “watchable” on YouTube and Substack.

There will be no fancy studios, no professional gear…Sarah will be getting straight to the important, “life-generating” conversations that steer us through the coming challenging years and decades of what is now understood of complex systems' collapse.

Please hit “follow” or “subscribe” on whatever platform you’re now on so you don’t miss an episode and share the link with, say, at least a dozen of your friends and family.

Catch up on the Wild conversation with these previous episodes:

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Watch on YouTube or Substack

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

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BEST OF: IAIN MCGILCHRIST - Our “wretchedness” is a left-brain issue

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

As many of us move into the holiday season and slower days, I wanted to reshare this conversation with Iain McGilchrist. It’s a spacious, illuminating exploration of how we’ve come to live as we do — and a reminder that meaning and beauty are still available to us, even when solutions feel out of reach.

Dr Iain McGilchrist (neuroscientist, psychiatrist, polymath, author of The Master and His Emissary) devised a thesis that sets out how the two sides of our brains can affect the way we both interact and create the world. The left hemisphere is a narrow, extractive, problem-solving “machine” that divides and conquers things, fails to see our part in the world and to fathom beauty, awe and responsibility. Our civilisation, Iain says, has become ruled by a left-brain mentality, which is killing us and leaving us “wretched”; we need to put the right side back in charge!

Iain is an associate of Green Templeton College in Oxford and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society of Arts. His 2009 book Master and his Emissary became a cult read and the recent follow-up, The Matter with Things took him 12 years to write (and is 600,000 words long!).

In this chat, we cover why societies start out creative, happy and flourishing (right-brained!) but switch left and destructive as they expand; the secret to living a well and happy life and how to find meaning and beauty in a world we possibly can’t “fix” (in the left-brain sense of the word).

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Iain's work via his website and watch his videos here.

Buy Master and his Emissary and The Matter with Things here.

Listen to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's Wild episode.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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BEST OF: MARTHA BECK - Only the most nourishing chat I’ve had about anxiety ever

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

As many of us head into the holiday season — travelling, slowing down, or looking for something good to listen to — I wanted to reshare this conversation with Martha Beck. It’s a thoughtful, generous discussion about anxiety as a guide rather than a problem, and one I have a feeling will land right now.

Dr. Martha Beck (author; “best-known life coach in America”) is about to release a book on anxiety. The international best-selling author – who holds three Harvard degrees in social science and was described by Oprah as “one of the smartest women I know” – specialises in helping people find meaning and integrity in their lives.

In this episode, Sarah and Martha reconnect after 15 years to discuss their takes on the role of anxiety in our lives, and how it can be used to create purpose and direction (tune in to hear about the time Martha “bent a spoon with her mind” for Sarah!). They also share tangible techniques for using creativity to switch out of anxious spirals. Martha’s book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose, is available now.

SHOW NOTES

Order your copy of Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose

Here’s the newspaper column I wrote about my first meeting with Martha in 2010

I refer to previous podcasts with Dr Jill Bolte Taylor and Iain McGilchrist, and another on the role of creativity with Ian Leslie

You can read more about Martha's work here and connect on IG here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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A Wild Live with Dr Sharon Blackie about… fairytales and collapse

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Wild has been on hiatus while I finish my most recent book. We’ll be back with a fresh direction and new guests in the coming months, but in the meantime, I’m dropping in a small handful of interviews I’ve been doing on Substack that you might find interesting. They’re far more rustic and casual than my usual offerings. You can, of course, watch the video versions over on Substack.

My guest today is Dr Sharon Blackie a psychologist, mythologist, and author whose work lives at the meeting point of story, psyche, and ecology. In this conversation, we explore the role of fairytales and myths in hard and disorienting times, and what these old stories can teach us about the deeply human act of hospitality, how we welcome others, and ourselves, in moments of fear, change, and uncertainty. You can also watch the chat here.

We anchor the discussion around a beautiful essay of Sharon’s, The Meaning of Hospitality, which she has generously made available for free.

A bit about Dr Sharon Blackie: An award-winning writer and teacher working at the intersection of psychology, mythology, and ecology. She’s the author of the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted, and her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Irish Times, and The Scotsman. She lives on a smallholding in the mountains of Wales, where she continues to explore how myth and story can guide us through modern life.

PS: My new book, I Eat the Stars, will be out worldwide in May/June 2026. If you’re curious, you can read the serialised version over on Substack. Today’s chat touches on a few of the themes I explore in that work.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

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A Wild Live with Ohh that’s RICH on "extinction burst"

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 20:00:00 GMT

My guest today is Rich from Ohh That’s RICH, who dissects the intersections of culture, politics, and privilege - and pretty much everything that’s unfolding in real time across the progressive landscape. A former MTV News political correspondent, he now writes the Substack Ohh That’s RICH, where his rapid-fire commentary has built a loyal, quietly fired-up following.

In this chat, we dive into a concept he unpacked that has given him a whole new lens on our current moment: the “extinction burst.” It describes that temporary spike in behaviour right before it finally collapses…or, as Rich puts it, “the last frantic gasp of a system losing its grip.” Here’s the post we reference in the conversation, and you can watch our chat here.

A bit about Ohh That’s RICH: Rich describes himself as a Liberal member of the silent majority. He covers culture, politics and power structures with sharpness, humour, and a kind of grounded clarity. You’ll also find him over on Instagram and TikTok.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

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A Wild Live with Grace Blakeley about neoliberalism and collapse

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 20:00:00 GMT

Wild has been on hiatus while I finish my most recent book. We’ll be back with a fresh direction and new guests in the coming months, but in the meantime I’m dropping in a small handful of interviews I’ve been doing on Substack that you might find interesting. They’re far more rustic and casual than my usual offerings. You can, of course, watch the video versions over on Substack.

My guest today is Grace Blakeley, who explores the intersections of capitalism, politics, and economics… and pretty much everything that’s happening right now — from tariffs to collapsing stock markets on her Substack, Grace Blakeley. She is the author of Stolen, The Corona Crash, and Vulture Capitalism, and edited Futures of Socialism.

In this chat, we cover specifically her commentary about what the Left can do to respond to the rise of the oligarchs. You can read her original call-to-arms essay here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations, subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

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VANESSA ANDREOTTI: And now we have hospice modernity…(and a goodbye from Wild)

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 20:02:46 GMT

Dr Vanessa Andreotti (Indigenous Knowledge advocate; author) is a Brazilian academic who has developed a radical thesis for how to move through the multi-crises we face. In her book Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism she draws on Indigenous wisdoms and entanglement theory to steer humanity through the destruction, grief and uncertainty as democracy, the growth model, “the West” crumbles around us.

Dr Andreotti is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, Canada where she is also one of the designers of the Facing Human Wrongs: Climate Complexity and Relational Accountability course. She has written 100-plus papers on climate education, global justice and race.

In this chat – the last in the current Wild series – she talks through how modernity is the most “adolescent” civilisation in history, how Indigenous cultures have the knowledge to assist us, how the West won’t act until “the water is up to their bum” and the value of “black belt aunties”.

Get your copy of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism.

Find out more about Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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MARTHA BECK: Only the most nourishing chat I’ve had about anxiety ever

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 20:03:09 GMT

SHOW NOTES

Here’s the newspaper column I wrote about my first meeting with Martha in 2010.

I refer to previous podcasts with Dr Jill Bolte Taylor and Iain McGilchrist, and another on the role of creativity with Ian Leslie.

You can read more about Martha's work here and connect on IG here.

Preorder a copy of her upcoming book Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

INDY JOHAR: The starkest collapse prognosis I’ve heard

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:35:43 GMT

Indy Johar (founder of Dark Matter Labs, systems designer) re-imagines and redesigns systems for a changed world. The architect and Professor of Planetary Civics at Melbourne’s RMIT and the University of Sheffield has worked with and advised organisations worldwide. Including the Scottish Government, the Mayor of London and WikiHouse, solving complex, entangled problems. Using complexity, emergence and entanglement theories he is a rare expert in this space to provide the (only) path to fixing the world, which is to say fixing our relationship with the world.

This conversation goes to a level I’ve not been to before publicly. On his modelling, we don’t have any choice but to start building the world that comes next, for the current one has no viable pathway. He gives a vision for this this. And he gives a timeframe, too.

For this episode, I’m providing a forum where you can talk through how you feel about the ideas and your feelings with others. Indy has offered to chime in too: Join the chat on Substack HERE.

SHOW NOTES

If you are new to this collapse topic you might want to catch up via this conversation with Luke Kemp, the one with Meg Wheatley and this one with Corey Bradshaw.

There are some previous guests and topics that are referenced in this chat:

Nate Hagens on the future of fossil fuels
Kate Raworth on Doughnut Economics
We talk about zero-sum theory. I talked about this with Liv Boeree, former world poker champion.
We also cover the Blue Zones concept. I interviewed the man behind this, Dan Buettner, here.
Indy also references the work of Iain McGilchrist, a guest a few weeks back.

You can learn more about Indy's work via DarkMatterLabs

Connect with Indy on socials @DarkMatter_Labs and @indy_johar

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LYNDSEY STONEBRIDGE: How would Hannah Arendt explain Trump?

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:02:48 GMT

Lyndsey Stonebridge (Humans rights academic, Hannah Arendt biographer) was worried about the banality of evil she was observing in the world and so dug down into the work of controversial philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt for insights. Her new book, We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience is a guide on how to live--and think--through a moment like the one we’re in now in the wake of the US election. It draws on Arendt’s ideas about totalitarianism, loneliness, the dulling of the mind, capitalism, as well as the imperative to love the world. Lyndsey is a Professor of Humanities and Human Rights at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. and writes and broadcasts about a range of topical subjects: refugees, feminism and the moral mind. In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

SHOW NOTES

I mention the Wild episode with BBC Washington correspondent Nick Bryant

Get your copy of Lyndsey's new book, We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience

Read more about Lyndsey's work here and follow her on IG here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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LUKE KEMP: Will our global civilisation go the way of the Roman Empire?

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 20:03:31 GMT

Luke Kemp (historical collapse expert; associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk) has studied past civilisations and mapped out a picture of how long they tend to last before they collapse, what tends to tip them and what (if anything) can be done to stall their demise. Luke works alongside Lord Martin Rees and Yuval Noah Harari, is an honorary lecturer in environmental policy at the Australian National University and his collapse insights have been covered by the BBC, the New York Times and the New Yorker. His first book, 'Goliath's Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse' will be published in June 2025.

In this episode I get Luke to provide a bit of a 101 on how civilisations do indeed decline and perish and to update us on the latest theories on how and whether ours might make it through. The answer is surprising.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s Luke’s original report on complex civilisation’s lifespans.

Keep up to date with Luke's work here

A few past Wild guests are referenced by Luke. You can catch the episode on Moloch with Liv Boeree here, the interview with Adam Mastroianni here and my chat with Nate Hagens here

The first chapter of my book serialisation – about hope – is available to everyone here

And here are the two chapters that I reference at the end

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: A post on how I write a book about collapse on Substack

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:07:12 GMT

Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of “Ask Me Anything” questions about the minutiae of writing about - and having to live through - collapse. I try to cover most of these kinds of questions as we work through the book Serialisation process, but a few get left behind. And so this week’s Wild episode covers these off.

You are welcome to join the 55,000 subscribers who are following the book, chapter by chapter, week by week, here. You’ll be invited to upgrade (sorry to have to use such commercial language) to a paid subscription…this helps me to be able to dedicate most of my working week to writing said book. But don’t feel obligated. You can stay a free subscriber and read these first few chapters here and a preview of every other one!

SHOW NOTES

Here’s where you can start reading the first chapter of the Book Serialisation

And here’s the link to subscribe to my Substack newsletter

Want to ask me your own question…post it here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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JOEL PEARSON: Do we have free will? Is anything our fault?

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 20:04:13 GMT

Prof. Joel Pearson (Neuroscientist; AI and cognition scientist) returns to Wild, this time to discuss whether free will is an illusion. In our last chat (about intuition) the subject was raised and Joel promised to come back to discuss it further, particularly in the context of AI, algorithms, the rise of totalitarianism and our agency in systems collapse.

Joel is the founder and Director of Future Minds Lab which applies neuroscience findings to art, AI, media, advertising and various philosophical quandaries. He’s also a National Health and Medical Research Council fellow and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He developed the first scientific test to measure intuition and wrote The Intuition Toolkit. In this conversation, we also cover the science of manifesting!

SHOW NOTES

I mention the chapter on Blame and the very robust discussion the Substack community had around it. You can join this here

Here’s the previous episode where Joel talks about the scientific proof of intuition

Get Joel’s book The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why

Follow Joel on his Future Minds Lab Substack

I previously had willpower expert Roy Baumeister on Wild to talk about how the female orgasm shapes the world!

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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CHRISTIANA FIGUERES: On “stubborn optimism”

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 20:03:14 GMT

Christiana Figueres (the woman behind the Paris Agreement) is possibly the best-known official in the global climate change movement. The former Costa Rican diplomat and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2010-2016), managed to bring together 195 nations to sign the historical 2015 agreement that set the “1.5C” target/warning. She wrote The Future We Choose, cohosts the Outrage + Optimism podcast, has a moth, a wasp and an orchid named after her, and has won countless international awards for her work.

In this episode, we challenge each other on whether hope and optimism are still useful given we’ve passed the 1.5C threshold in February, whether the Paris Agreement is still viable almost 10 years on and the viability of the green energy transition. We don’t agree on a number of points, but we come together on what keeps us in the “fight” …love. Listen to the end with this one.

SHOW NOTES

The work of rare earth minerals expert Olivia Lazard and energy futurist Nate Hagens supports the energy points I make in this episode.

This international team of researchers and this team working out of France show fossil fuels will become net-energy negative in the future.

We are spending more energy to get less energy than before—our net energy is “plummeting”.

The world’s consumption of fossil fuels climbed to a record high last year according to the University of Exeter's Global Carbon Project and NASA.

A Finnish Geological Survey finds that “global reserves are not large enough to supply enough metals to build the renewable non-fossil fuels industrial system”.

According to a study on societal tipping points, a peak and fall in global oil production would bring down the entire financial and trade system like a house of cards.

This chapter of my book outlines the argument in detail.

And here are the first two chapters of my book, that outline my position on hope v truth.

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ELIZABETH OLDFIELD X ME: How to be Fully Alive in a collapsing world

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 21:05:34 GMT

In this SPECIAL EPISODE British coach, author and broadcaster Elizabeth Oldfield and I sit down in her London intentional community home and interview EACH OTHER on…what is sacred (and how we access it), acedia ( the moral loneliness we feel in turbulent times), how we sit in the grief and despair of things, losing friends to the cause, how to be of service, how to be Fully Alive (the title of her book) and honour This One Wild and Precious Life (mine!).

Elizabeth’s book has been endorsed by Krista Tippett; she’s written and broadcast for the BBC, The Times, and The Economist; was the Director of Theos, the UK’s leading religion and society think tank; and her podcast The Sacred has featured Nick Cave, Jonathan Haidt and an incredible array of spiritualists and existential thinkers. This was a joyous meeting of spirits!

SHOW NOTES

Visit Elizabeth's website and subscribe to her Substack

Buy your copy of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times here

This One Wild and Precious Life is available here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS EP: Nika Kovač the activist from the Slovenian gondola

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 21:02:13 GMT

I do these bonus episodes occasionally whereby I interview someone I serendipitously met on my adventures and who I wrote about in my books AND who struck a chord with readers. I track them down to see where they are now, and there is ALWAYS the most amazing follow-up story.

This time, Nika Kovač, a controversial Slovenian activist and Obama scholar who once invited me on a gondola ride with a communist philosopher when I was stranded without a bed for the night and pregnant (read This One Wild and Precious Life to learn more) found me. And it turns out I’d been following her activist work from afar…without realising, she was the dynamic founding director of The Research Institute of 8th March, which won two referendum campaigns, one against the privatisation of water in 2021 and the other against political influence on public media in 2022.

Nika also led the most extensive “Get-Out-The-Vote” campaign in Slovenian history ahead of the 2022 Parliamentary election, contributing to a 71 per cent voter turnout. BUT HERE’S THE JUICY BIT: Her latest campaign could achieve free and accessible abortion for all women in the EU. I’ve asked her to explain how the campaign works so everyone here can help achieve the goal…it’s a wild goal (and it’s a wild, wild life), but if anyone can do it, it’s Nika. Join us for the ride!

SHOW NOTES

You can learn about Nika here and follow her on IG here.

You can get This One Wild and Precious Life in the US, UK, Australia, Spanish, Lithuanian, and more…here.

Listen to my previous chats with The Lady in Red and Mammoth Dude.

Watch and join the conversation on Substack.

To get involved in the campaign with us:

1. Read more here, and if you’re an EU citizen, sign here.

2. Send the info to all your EU friends.

3. Share this Mark Ruffalo IG post and tag or message a Euro celebrity in your midst.

4. Look out for posts by Nika and I on Instagram and share those too.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IAIN MCGILCHRIST: Our “wretchedness” is a left-brain issue

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 21:04:41 GMT

In this chat we cover why societies start out creative, happy and flourishing (right-brained!) but switch left and destructive as they expand; the secret to living a well and happy life and how to find meaning and beauty in a world we possibly can’t “fix” (in the left-brain sense of the word).

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Iain's work via his website and watch his videos here.

Buy Master and his Emissary and The Matter with Things here.

Listen to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's Wild episode.

Here’s the link to the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival that I’m speaking at this month.

Here’s the starting point for joining my book serialisation project.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COREY BRADSHAW: Are humans going extinct? (And how soon?)

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 21:03:17 GMT

Professor Corey Bradshaw (global ecologist; author) has spent a career studying species populations and biodiversity loss and has the starkest of messages for humanity: we are in our own mass extinction event. Debate rages as to whether humans have an overpopulation problem or are in a fertility collapse, and which is more likely to take us down.

The director of the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University talks us through the devasting finer points of this divide. We also cover why Australia has the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world, why we should be having one less child, what happens when bees die out, and the importance of supporting anyone trying to ban political donations. This conversation is a hard one, but like many in this space, Corey has a philosophy for living fully and joyously with the truth he feels compelled to share: Life is going to get far shittier than we can imagine; our noble obligation is to make it a bit less shitty.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s the chapter in my book where I explain in full how fertility collapse is playing out. A REMINDER!! Corey will be joining the comments and is happy to answer any questions you have. You’ll need to post them in the comment section of this post.

Here’s where you can get started with the Book Serialisation (Put Table of contents).

Here’s my Wild chat with Parag Khanna on the best place to live in the world going forward.

Read Corey's blog Conversation Bytes

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How do I explain collapse to someone?*

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 21:16:50 GMT

*(and that the wars, climate disasters, democratic upheavals etc today are VERY different to crises in the past)?

This episode’s question has been asked by too many of you to mention. Many of us have been in situations where we try to talk about the domino’ing of crisis - AI, nuclear, climate, food insecurity, democratic decline, political polarisation, fertility collapse - and get told we’re just being a big old Henny Penny, and that crises happen all the time and humanity survives. The belief is that tech innovation, price mechanisms, progress (!) and human ingenuity will find a way to save us. However, this time is categorically different to past near misses and calamities. There are reams of science that prove it (sadly). So how do you explain this in a calm, convincing way at the next BBQ? Sarah provides a comprehensive rundown of all the points that one can make that set out a picture of how the collapse of complex systems works.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s where you can start reading the first chapter of the Book Serialisation. And here’s the table of contents.

Here’s the Meg Wheatley episode from the recent Collapse Series.

Here’s the written version of the explainer (should you want a printable version on hand!)

Want to ask Sarah your question…post it here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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NICK BRYANT: What has happened to America?

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 21:06:06 GMT

Dr Nick Bryant (BBC Washington correspondent, author) has spent most of his career covering the events that many of us see as spelling the decline of the US, a once-great nation – the school shootings, Trump presidency, Roe v Wade, storming of the Capitol, George Floyd, conspiracy theories and…all the rest. But in his new book The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself Nick argues that the hate, divisiveness, racism and murmurings of civil war are part of the fabric of the country – “America is just doing America”.

Nick has been a foreign correspondent for three decades, writing for the BBC, The Economist, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and more. A copy of his previous book, When America Stopped Being Great sat on Joe Biden’s Oval Office bookshelf. This chat sets out to give context to the issues swirling in the lead-up to the November election. We cover Gaza, RFK Jnr, Project 25, guns, media both side-ism and the fascinating history of American Exceptionalism.

SHOW NOTES

Get your copy of The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself

I reference a post I wrote on Project 25. You can read it here.

This 7am podcast about Project 25 is useful.

And check out the Jim Jeffries clip on gun control. It’s brilliant.

You can get started with reading my next book here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CLIVE HAMILTON: CONTENTIOUS CLIMATE COLLAPSE TRUTH - how the “Electrify Everything” message + private schools could be our downfall if we don’t change course

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 21:06:41 GMT

Professor Clive Hamilton (public ethicist; climate activist; founder of the Australia Institute) has led the emissions reduction conversation for decades. But he - controversially - has recently switched tack, arguing that climate mitigation is now impossible. And irresponsible. And that we must instead put our efforts (and last resources) into trying to survive as best we can.

In this chat the professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, recently named a 'living legend' among Australian scholars, talks through the research published in his latest book Living Hot: Surviving and Thriving on a Heating Planet. We cover why Saul Griffith’s “electrify everything” campaign is flawed, the safest place to live and what we should now be fighting for, and we discuss the contentious issue of class and the dangerous role of private schools (strange but true) to our survival.

Clive’s previous Zeitgeist-shifting books include Requiem for a Species, Growth Fetish and Affluenza.

SHOW NOTES

You can get hold of Living Hot and The Privileged Few

You can read my Book Serialisation on Substack here. Here are the first two chapters, free to everyone.

You can listen to my Wild conversation with Saul Griffiths here.

My wonderful chat with Olivia Lazard on mineral depletion is a great backgrounder, too.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COLLAPSE SERIES: Jonathon Rowson - Welcome to the “metacrisis”. Now what?

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 21:04:57 GMT

Hello, dear wild friends! I'm taking a short break, but I wanted to share some of my previous interviews with guests who delve into themes of collapse, the meta-crisis, and the decline of the systems we've always known to grow—like GDP, technology, population, and prosperity.

Many of you have joined my book serialization project on Substack, where we're navigating the collapse awareness journey together. These interviews provide valuable context for our journey. You can join us here if you're not already part of the project. I release one chapter of my book at a time, and we discuss its contents in the comments, tackling this big, beautiful, hard thing as a community, step by step. In the meantime, enjoy this wild conversation with Jonathon Rowson.

Jonathan Rowson (chess Grandmaster, metamodernist philosopher) is one of Britain’s biggest minds and I have invited him onto Wild to talk, well, what’s been dubbed the “meta-crisis” – the fundamental “meaning” crisis at the heart of “all the things” going on in the world today.

Jonathan is a theoretical psychologist with degrees from Oxford and Harvard and a Ph.D on what it means to become wiser. He has worked on “complex collective action” problem solving, was Director of the Social Brain Centre at the Royal Society of Arts and has run events with David Attenborough and Jordan Peterson (not on the same stage!). Jonathan now runs Perspectiva, a research institute that seeks to understand the relationship between systems, souls, and society. This is a big chat, but I think you’ll find this new and wild idea a helpful navigational tool for, well, “all the things”.

SHOW NOTES

As I flag, my UK friends can preorder This One Wild and Precious Life here.

Follow the Perspectiva community and their various events here.

Jonathan is also on Substack and Twitter.

His latest book The Moves that Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life is out now.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COLLAPSE SERIES: Olivia Lazard - The big fat renewable energy blindspot NO ONE wants to talk about

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 21:02:18 GMT

Olivia Lazard (peace mediator; rare minerals expert) exposes missing chunks in the “green” energy transition that many of us assume to be the “fix” to the climate crisis. Via her work as a fellow at Carnegie Europe and advisor on global security, she explains how the mining and extraction of rare earth metals like lithium, graphite and cobalt - to make the batteries etc for the new green “economy” - are both rare (there’s literally not enough of them to make the transition), come with massive ecological costs (therefore rendering the “clean tech” very dirty), but are also destabilising the world in ways few are able to fathom. This is a very confronting reality, especially for climate activists and green economy evangelists.

In this chat we go deep and wide into climate security issues, pull apart the techno-optimist “but AI and innovation will save us!” mindset, and what we really need to know about geo-engineering. This, on paper, sounds like a very “head-y” conversation, but Olivia also weaves in “heart” considerations that I think many of you are aching for in this debate. At the end, we discuss whether we have “hope”.

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Olivia on X / Twitter

Check out Olivia’s TED talk to see the charts she talks about.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COLLAPSE SERIES: Nate Hagens - On the “Great Simplification”

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 21:04:21 GMT

Nate Hagens (mindblowing energy futurist) was working on Wall Street when he realised…we don’t have enough energy to fund the world’s economy! Massive pivot ensued and he is now the global leader in energy systems, director of the Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future, on the board of the Post Carbon Institute, teaches an honours course, aptly titled Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota, oh and he also advises governments and institutes around the world on the future of energy!

Nate and I met at a conference in Stockholm to address these very (meta)modern issues. In this chat we talk about how green growth is not possible, EVs are not the answer, and he makes a numbers-crunched case for how to live once collapse occurs, what he calls the “Great Simplification”. This is a big one. It changes (mostly) everything, including my own ideas about the climate crisis.

SHOW NOTES

You can learn more about Nate's work here and listen to his podcast here

I also mention previous episodes with Tyson Yunkaporta, Douglas Rushkoff and Gaya Herrington

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COLLAPSE SERIES: Margaret Wheatley - An episode on civilization collapse (warning: truly confronting)

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 21:03:07 GMT

Margaret Wheatley (collapse theorist, global leadership consultant) is something of a legend in her field. She has worked for 50 years helping humans adapt to their world using systems analysis, chaos theory and deep spiritualism. Poets, scientists and philosophers quote her writing, she has worked in countless disaster situations and was commissioned to transform the leadership of large institutions. Plus she’s the author of 12 books, including Who Do We Choose to Be? and Restoring Sanity.

This is a challenging conversation and the subject has its deniers. Meg steers our focus to becoming the leaders we want to see amid the cascading crises facing the world and to create “islands of sanity” amid the despair. In this conversation, we cover the responsibility of the rich, why it’s redundant to talk about saving the world, and how to sit in despair and create a meaningful life from it all.

SHOW NOTES

Meg references the poet David Whyte who has also been a guest on Wild

You can purchase Who Do We Choose to Be? now and Restoring Sanity

Find out about her workshops and events here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

COLLAPSE SERIES: Gaya Herrington - Complete global collapse by 2040? The prediction is “right on track”

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 21:04:38 GMT

Gaya Herrington (Club of Rome adviser, “global collapse” expert) hit the headlines when she showed that a world-stopping 1972 MIT study and bestselling book predicting the collapse of civilisation by 2040 was…right on track. She was a KPMG economist and financial advisor to the Dutch government when she released the report in 2021. I read it and was left speechless.

Gaya’s now just published a book, Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse, which sets out a bunch of surprising ways we might be able to save ourselves in time. Gaya’s message is stark: Economic growth must stop now! We are hitting the global limits of our more-more-more approach and the decline will be fast. What does the data tell us that can save us? The answer won’t be what you’re expecting. In this chat we flesh out how systems theory works, why we’re obsessed with growth and why rich white men resist change the most.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of the book Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse

Feel free to read the now-famous 1972 paper The Limits to Growth

I mention the chat about the Indigenous knowledge system with Tyson Yunkaporta, you can listen to it here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JEM BENDELL: Oh gosh! Finding beauty in a collapsing world.

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 21:04:23 GMT

Jem Bendell (collapse “poster kid”, academic) wrote the paper that launched the “Deep Adaptation” movement and spawned Extinction Rebellion. That was in 2018. The paper argued that societal collapse was unavoidable and would happen in our lifetimes, probably before the end of the 2030s, and it went very, very viral.

The University of Cumbria Emeritus Professor and co-founder of the International Scholars’ Warning on Societal Disruption and Collapse has now released a new book, Breaking Together: A Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse, which confirms the worst, but also provides, as per the subtitle, a path for a despairing soul to live beautifully beyond the doom.

This conversation is confronting and Jem’s honesty is brutal. He warns of food collapse in the next three years and that the economy could go (and our savings rendered worthless) any moment. But he also explains how we can use this reckoning to live a courageous, kind, noble life. For anyone on the collapse awareness journey, this is a crucial listen.

SHOW NOTES

You might want to follow my book serialisation on Substack where we are doing the collapse awareness journey together, one step at a time.

You can catch Jem in Sydney at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on 24-25 August, more details here.

Jem offers a couple of online courses a year, on the topic of Leading Through Collapse.

Here is the post he wrote about Talking to Relatives About Collapse we mentioned

Want to know more, you can engage with Jem via the following:

Find Emotional Support

Visit the Deep Adaptation Forum

Watch some of Jem’s talks

Read his key ideas on collapse

Read his book Breaking Together

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JEAN TWENGE: Do millennials and Gen Z have it harder?

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 21:04:24 GMT

Jean Twenge (psychologist; professor at San Diego State University) is regarded as the world expert on “generations”. She famously described millennials as “Generation Me” (also the name of her 2006 book) and first made the (controversial) connection back in 2017 between smartphones and the sharp uptick in anxiety and depression among Gen Z teens, which has since become one of our culture’s top talking points. In her recent book, Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents―and What They Mean for America's Future she explains how themes such as narcissism, individualism, fear and tech addiction play out between the generations (including the Boomers, Xers, and the latest cohort, “the Polars”).

In this chat we cover…Do millennials actually have it harder? Why do 60% of Gen Z girls have mental health problems? Why aren’t young people aren't getting their driver's licenses? Is modern parenting setting kids up for failure? As well as the “slow life” phenomenon.

You can catch Jean in Sydney at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas on 24-25 August, speaking at the following talks.

SHOW NOTES

Subscribe to Jean's Substack, Generation Tech

Here’s the teen mental health post I wrote on Substack

And here’s the Substack post about the difference in young men's and women’s political leanings

Learn more about the Festival of Dangerous Ideas here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How do I parent in the face of so much existential crisis?

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 21:07:44 GMT

This week I asked fellow substacker Anya Kamenetz to help me answer the above question. Anya is a parent and climate activist, a former NPR journalist and she has written five books loosely related to the mental health of young people in the face of difficulty. She is also the producer of Joanna Macy’s incredible podcast with Jess Serrante, We Are The Great Turning.

This question - How to parent in the face of collapse and crisis? - comes up often on my Substack and there was a particularly moving thread that opened up last week that spoke to this concern that so many parents have. Here it is, if you would like to read it. The gist is that while we (the adults) might be able to accept what is happening to the world on one level, when we reflect on the kids in our lives an incredible emotional dissonance kicks in. Anya and I talk about how to talk about the crises in front of kids, how to help them with their emotions, why prioritising enjoying the world is key and “parenting as activism”.

SHOW NOTES

Watch the video and join the conversation over on Substack

Subscribe to Anya's Substack

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

GREG LUKIANOFF: Cancel culture – the non-hysterical reason why we should be very worried

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 21:02:14 GMT

Greg Lukianoff (New York Times best-selling author, attorney) co-wrote the blockbuster The Coddling of the American Mind, which argued we were failing young people by rendering them fragile victims. Then, 10 days after October 7, he came out with the first book to comprehensively track the rise of cancel culture -The Canceling of the American Mind.

Greg, who’s also CEO of FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expressions) and I talk through the confused aetiology of cancel culture and free speech, why the debate has been weaponised by both the Left and Right and he also outlines a bunch of solutions for parents wishing to raise kids who won’t buy into it. I am far from a free speech absolutist and take issue with America’s obsession with the First Amendment, but the subject fascinates me because it exposes so many other fault lines in our society that need to be understood urgently.

SHOW NOTES

You can learn more about FIRE here

Subscribe to Greg's Substack

Greg's new book The Canceling of the American Mind is available now

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JENNY ODELL: How to not save time (and creatively reject the productive, growth imperative!)

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 21:03:08 GMT

Jenny Odell (NYT bestseller, artist) wrote a bestselling book five years ago that Barack Obama declared one of his “books of the year”. “How to Do Nothing” stuck two fingers up to the productivity industry. Jenny followed it up with the recently published, “Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond The Clock” that argues the original problem is our framing of time as a bunch of units we own, spend, must be efficient with etc.

In this chat, Jenny explains that how we relate to time is our choice and she – fascinatingly – shows how radically rejecting our current take on time (and the productivity bro’ efficiency hacks) can help us navigate climate dread, the capitalist trap and our collective sense of disconnect.

SHOW NOTES

Jenny's book, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock is available now

Connect with Jenny on Instagram and keep up to date via her website

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Sarah, what's your take on dating apps?

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 21:10:48 GMT

OK, this week is a kind of personal and also sociological muse-fest (from someone who's been on ALL the apps since shortly after the last ice age). I cover how I first went on the apps in 2010 (and share what I wrote about it at the time), about my experiences on Raya and, yes, on the latest app people are talking about, Feeld. I had to drop my shame for this one. However, I include a bunch of sociological perspectives and reflections some of you might find useful (and very familiar).

Note, I’m making the Substack version of this episode free for everyone. Over there you can find all the links to the articles I reference.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FRANK OSTASESKI: How to live fully when it feels like so much is dying

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 21:07:48 GMT

Frank Ostaseski (Buddhist; end-of-life teacher; elder) helps people die best. He has accompanied over 1,000 people through the dying process and trained thousands of healthcare clinicians and family caregivers around the world. He was also a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and has taught at Google and Apple Inc., has been honoured by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and appeared on Oprah and Sam Harris’ Making Sense podcast. I asked Frank to join me to talk through his book, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully.

Death, grief and loss are always with us, but I feel we are needing moral and spiritual guidance more than ever (every 6-12 months or so I try to cover this issue on Wild, generally aligning with a dialling up in world events). In this chat Frank and I talk through simple techniques for coping with the loss we’re feeling watching the carnage in Gaza, witnessing climate destruction and polarisation.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of The Five Invitations

Here’s Frank Ostaseski's website where you can find a bunch of resources

You might like to listen to the interview I did with death walker Stephen Jenkinson

And this conversation with Clancy Martin about grief and suicide

As well as my glorious chat with Sister Helen Prejean and the other death row episode with Devin Moss

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: BONUS menopause questions answered, plus my BIG announcement

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:02:10 GMT

I need to give everyone here a bunch of updates…Plus, the BONUS video episode I promised with Dr Louise Newson is now live. Louise answers your questions about libido, whether to take HRT, how to manage menopause when you have Hashimotos etc, you can find it here.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s the Wild chat about perimenopause and menopause with Dr Louise Newson from earlier this week.

Here’s more information about my news…(hint: a new book which you can be part of, STARTING NEXT WEEK).

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DR LOUISE NEWSON: A wild chat about menopause

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 21:04:06 GMT

Dr Louise Newson (British GP; hormone specialist) is regarded as the “medic who kickstarted the menopause revolution”. For two decades women have been denied treatment for a debilitating condition that affects more than half the population, thanks to one (faulty) study that linked hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to cancer. Louise has been on a mission to undo the damage and educate women on their real choices.

In this chat, I try to cover off what every woman I know is asking right now:

Is HRT safe or not?
How do I weigh up the risks and benefits?
How do I know which hormone, how much and when?
Are there Big Pharma interests at play?
Do I need to take it if I’m healthy?
And, Is it just me or has perimenopause and menopause got worse for this generation?

NOTE: The next episode is a follow-up, where I get Louise to answer the granular, intimate menopause questions posed by the Substack community! Don’t miss it.

SHOW NOTES

To connect with Louise, and to check out her resources on menopause and peri-menopause, follow this link

You can download Louise's Balance app here

Get hold of her books here

And here’s that New York Times article on menopause

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: What is the best gear to pack for a minimalist camping trip?

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 22:39:38 GMT

Today’s question is one I always love answering…what do I stuff into my backpack, and what backpack do I actually use (ditto hiking shoes, tent, gear etc)?

I do a show and tell for this one, so the video version over at Substack probably makes sense. I throw in some minimalist hacks, too.

SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation over on Substack and post your own Ask Me Anything here

Book your one-on-one with me here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PARAG KHANNA: Where should we move to as climate collapses?

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 21:04:55 GMT

Parag Khanna (climate migration expert; AI founder) is a global strategist who forecasts human movement around the world and has a company, Climate Alpha, that predicts real estate values based on exposure to climate risk. He’s also recently published a book - MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us - that details how billions of us will be migrating, and living nomadically, within this century.

Parag has been named one of Esquire's "75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century" and featured in Wired magazine's "Smart List" and has written several books on empires, global order, the future of conflict and migration… you get the drift. As fertility declines and large slabs of the planet go underwater or become too hot and too uninsurable (in a property sense), we’re left to ask, where in the world should we live? And, should we bother “investing” in real estate anymore? Parag answers both, plus how we should be future-proofing our kids and why the best place to live is where the young people are flocking.

SHOW NOTES

Visit Parag's website to learn more and find all his books here

Catch up on my recent episode on Doughnut Economics with Kate Raworth

Here’s the Substack post I wrote explaining fertility collapse where you can also post further questions you might have.

And here’s the AMA episode I did on buying real estate in 2024.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: What is hypergamy? And explain why older women are dating younger men

Thu, 30 May 2024 22:57:35 GMT

In today’s AMA, I cover an intriguing phenomenon in male-female dynamics playing out in the dark, twisted underworld that is dating culture - hypergamy. The phenomenon that has existed for eons whereby women date/marry “up” in educational status, income, age, height etc and men tend to partner “down”. Where does this sit today with a generation dating online? Plus, does it explain (or not) why some older women partner with younger men?

I explain how I’ve been tracking this phenomenon for exactly 20 years, through “man droughts”, the “baby bonus”, Sex and the City tropes and more.

SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation over on Substack and post your own Ask Me Anything here.

I mentioned my Gaza post over on Substack, you can read it here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

OLIVIA LAZARD: The big fat renewable energy blindspot NO ONE wants to talk about

Tue, 28 May 2024 21:03:00 GMT

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Olivia on X / Twitter

Check out Olivia’s TED talk to see the charts she talks about.

Listen to Nate Hagen on WILD here and Douglas Rushkoff here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Is it doomist to talk about civilisational collapse?

Thu, 23 May 2024 22:27:11 GMT

A cracking Ask Me Anything question this week that gives us a chance to talk about crazy-making tech bros and their antics. My answer sees me dive into p(doom) numbers, Freud, techno-optimistic manifestos and fertility collapse. Fun!

Join the conversation over on Substack and post your own Ask Me Anything here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KATE RAWORTH: Doughnut economics as the antidote to “death by growth”

Tue, 21 May 2024 21:04:57 GMT

Kate Raworth (“renegade” economist; inventor of the “doughnut” systems model) has one of the most dynamic and controversial theories for “fixing” or adjusting to the planetary mess we’re in. Back in 2017 she released her book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist and it became a cult read – the Pope, Extinction Rebellion and the UN General Assembly praise it. It designs an economy that allows humans to flourish while ALSO not destroying the planet – existing within the planetary boundaries.

In this chat, Kate, an Oxford professor and Club of Rome member, and I talk about how the current economic model is fundamentally flawed (all those supply/demand and growth models have never been peer-reviewed!), how to debunk a Stephen Pinker disciple and how to balance the reality of looming (locked-in) collapse and living fully (the two are actually connected). Kate is a brilliant delight of a human – this chat is fun.

SHOW NOTES

Find visuals of a “rational economic man” and her doughnut head here

You can find out if your city has or is taking part in the Doughnut Economics Action Lab

If you’re from Melbourne, check out Regen Melbourne and Kate also mentions Takethejump.org

Here’s the chat with Nate Hagens on energy collapse

Here’s my Wild episode with Jason Hickle on degrowth economics

Here’s my chat with Gaya Harrington about the Limits to Growth report

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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AMA: How do you manage information overload PLUS should white women activists get out of the arena?

Thu, 02 May 2024 22:38:57 GMT

On today's AMA, I share my hacks and my “mindset” for sifting through, retaining and managing all the data inflow (amino supplements, tilting, biting off more than I can chew as a tactic and advice gleaned from systems thinkers). And I wade into when to speak out and when not to wade into a rally and take the mic (and the responsibility that comes with being a privileged white woman who looks as tame as a mum from an OMO commercial).

SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation over on Substack
Subscribe and post your own Ask Me Anything here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JOHANN HARI: Is Ozempic a miracle drug or something darker?

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 21:07:31 GMT

Johann Hari (bestselling author Stolen Focus and Lost Connections) has written another system-rattling book, this time about the new weight loss drugs that everyone is both talking about AND not talking about. I’ve been wanting a wild mind to come chat about the phenomenon for over a year. Johann happened to reach out and tell me he’d been experimenting with Ozempic, had travelled the world interviewing 100-plus experts on the matter and was up for a chat.

In this conversation, we talk through what he lays out in his book Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs. We cover how the drugs work on our biology; the emerging risks; how the rich are the guinea pigs in this particular science experiment; the implications of a world with no appetite (“What will become of the dinner party?”); and the fact these drugs mask the real problem – how Big Food manipulates our hormones with their Franken-foods. And, so, here we are again, told to fix a systemic problem with the same mindset that caused it in the first place (ie: manipulating nature with additives for profit). The Ozempic debate is a lot. This chat goes there!

SHOW NOTES

Johann's book Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs is available now

Connect with Johann on Instagram and buy his books here

Listen to my Wild chat about Ultra-Processed Food with Dr Chris van Tulleken

Read my Substack post on the Ozempic “divide” here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How do you plan your life financially in a collapsing world? Do you bother?

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:11:17 GMT

As we become aware of climate collapse and its ripple effect on the financial and energy systems, and as houses become uninsurable and fossil fuel markets get wobbly, do things like investing, mortgages, and retirement savings become moot?

A Substack reader asks me how I’m personally prioritising these things, and I answer candidly. The chat moves into prepping and homesteading considerations. Background posts and pods about collapse are provided over at Substack, where you can WATCH these bonus episodes and join a conversation afterwards in the thread (and post a question for future AMAs).

SHOW NOTES

Join the conversation over on Substack
Subscribe and post your own Ask Me Anything here
Previous episodes you might like to listen to Meg Wheatley, Gaya Herrington and Nate Hagens

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ANNABEL ABBS: The subversive, creative upside of insomnia (oh joy!)

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 21:04:23 GMT

Annabel Abbs (English novelist; author of Sleepless) was crippled with insomnia. Rather than fight it she looked for its productive plus side and discovered that many incredible creatives have needed to stay awake to access their best selves – their Night Selves. Particularly women, as it turns out. Annabel chats to me about how famous writers, painters and Hollywood stars have used their sleeplessness to create their best work, and the science that explains why this happens - the role hormones play, how the nocturnal quietening of the prefrontal cortex affects women’s ability to access their creative courage and how we can access our body’s hallucinogens! We also cover why it’s good to stay awake in a full moon, why women need to invest in blackout curtains (to cut their cancer risk!) and the role of feminist rage in all this!

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of Annabel’s Sleepless: Discovering the Power of the Night Self
You can connect with Annabel on IG here and read more about her work here
I write a lot about different philosophical salves for insomnia in First, We Make the Beast Beautiful

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The “Uncles” climate case that could change EVERYTHING

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:58:56 GMT

Isabelle Reinecke (founder Grata Fund) is leading a super exciting landmark legal case that could force the Australian Government to actually stick to its climate commitments and stop approving fossil fuel projects immediately. By as early as the end of this year. Seriously! It’s called the Uncles Australian Climate Case (it’s being brought by two Torres Strait Islander elders) and it’s being referred to as “Bigger than Mabo” (if it wins). There is a lot of international attention on it and it’s being supported by a team that led a similar (successful) case in The Netherlands.

This is a short, straight-to-the-point episode to get you abreast of this monumental opportunity for change so you know what to do to support it. Let’s do it!

SHOW NOTES

You can watch our chat and learn more about the case over on my Substack

You can get involved by sharing this podcast with everyone you know and sharing any news items, social media shares etc.

Social media accounts you can follow:

On Twitter: @gratafund and @isreinecke
On Instagram: @australianclimatecase @isabelle.reinecke and @gratafund
On Facebook: @australianclimatecase
Hashtags to follow: #ClimateCaseAU #MuralKalmelSipa

You can sign the pledge and engage further HERE!

The Good Weekend did a cover story on the case, read it here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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ANNA FUNDER: On Wifedom (and calling out Orwellian “doublethink”)

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 21:04:00 GMT

Anna Funder (international bestselling author of Wifedom) pens books about power. She is the author of the international bestsellers Stasiland, about the Stasi, which is being made into a TV series starring Elizabeth Debicki, and All That I Am, about the Nazis, which won the Miles Franklin Award. Her latest book, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life, sees Anna take on the patriarchy. She exposes how literary giant George Orwell wrote his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy “out of existence”, despite (and possibly because of) her pivotal role in his work.

Anna and I talk through Orwell’s misogyny and his own “doublethink” (believing two contradictory ideas while blanking out awareness of the contradiction), plus how doublethink works to keep patriarchy going. We dig into the delicate issue of the cancellation of these kinds of figures (we both agree they shouldn’t be), the passive voice technique, why women must “claim their pronouns”, the power structure difference between France and Australia and how women write books.

SHOW NOTES

Get your copy of Wifedom here
You can read more about Anna here and follow her work on Instagram
This episode of Wild was recorded at Work Club, my workspace while I was in Sydney

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A FUN BACKSTORY: Because I promised it…

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:30:04 GMT

In last week’s interview with a Palestinian and an Israeli Father, I promised to share how we met, a story that involves a famous actor, an Irish author and a bizarre email chain that starts in the Australian outback. Here it is. For some fun. And to remind us all of the power of story and of reaching out to humanity.

SHOW NOTES

Catch the original interview here
Read Apeirogon by Colom Mcann
Learn about Parent’s Circle and donate here.
Join the conversation and watch the video over on Substack

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HELEN LEWIS: A heterodox update from TERF island

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:04:17 GMT

Helen Lewis (The Atlantic columnist, BBC podcaster, pop culture decoder) has become a darling of the heterodox podcasting community (and this podcast; catch my previous Wild chat with her about THAT GQ interview with Jordan Peterson here), and, relatedly, a pet target of the extreme Right and Left’s ongoing cancelling zeal.

In this interview, I invite Helen to talk through several very online eruptions that are crucial for fathoming what the hell is going on in the world today. We cover the feminist-trans wars playing out on “TERF Island”; why Kara Swisher has fallen out with Elon Musk and why the Left failed the October 7 “Hamas test”. Mostly this is a conversation about the role of discerning dialogue when the extreme Left and Right are dominating the online arena.

SHOW NOTES

Listen to my previous Wild chat with Helen
Here’s the episode I did with Hannah Barnes about the trans debate in the UK
Check out Helen’s brilliant The Bluestocking Substack
Get hold of her most recent book, the bestseller bestseller Difficult Women, A History of Feminism in 11 Fights
Check out her Blocked and Reported episode here
We reference a few of Helen’s recent The Atlantic columns: The Progressives Who Flunked the Hamas Test; Is Kara Swisher Tearing Down Tech Billionaires? and Why I’ll Keep Saying “Pregnant Women”

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A PALESTINIAN AND AN ISRAELI FATHER: “We must all stop being victims; victimhood causes the violence!”

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 20:04:32 GMT

Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan (peace activists with Parent’s Circle) are the two protagonists from Colum McCann’s Booker-Prize-longlisted book Apeirogon. Both lost their daughters to the conflict, ten years apart. Yet in spite of – or because of - this horror they became dedicated friends, or “brothers”, committed to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine and working with “the enemy” via Parent’s Circle, a peace group set up for parents from “both sides” who’ve lost a child.

I spoke to Bassam and Rami on day #169 in the conflict and they’d just come from seeing the Pope. We cover how Bassam decided to study the Holocaust while imprisoned in an Israeli jail as a teenager for seven years, why Israelis are trapped by their victimhood and how we’ve all been locked into seeing this conflict as a football game of two sides.

This interview is a chapter in an incredible story that involves a big-time Hollywood actor, who reached out to me while I was camping in remote Western Australia, a secondhand book find, a six-way email chain and an incredible love that reaches across history, walls and global fragmentation.

NOTE: I will cover the very intersecting story of how we (the dads, Colum, the actor and I met) in the next episode.

SHOW NOTES

Read Apeirogon by Colom Mcann
Learn about Parent’s Circle and donate here.
If you want a bit of extra background to this whole story, I write about it here on Substack.
I mention Naomi Klein’s work on the role of victimhood. A good starting point is this podcast interview with On the Nose.
Naomi has also released two chapters from her latest book Doppelgänger for free online that cover her thesis super well.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LIV BOEREE: Explaining Moloch, the mysterious game theory force breaking the world (plus a fix!)

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 20:03:40 GMT

Liv Boeree (world poker champion; astrophysicist; game theorist) is on a mission to explain why we are all trapped in a zero-sum, race to the bottom…with climate, AI, social media and politics. Why do we keep digging up resources, consuming carbon, getting stuck in nasty online spats and building robots that could kill us? Why don’t we just STOP?? Why CAN’T we just STOP?!

It’s because of "moloch" – a game theory "force" that sees us do something we know is bad for us - because everyone else is doing it and if stop we’ll be disadvantaged - until we wind up ruining everything for everyone. I’ve been exploring this concept for a while and invited Liv to talk about her antidote to “competition gone wrong”, which I think will intuitively gel for many of you. In this chat we talk about the death spiral of beauty filters, why AI is repeating the nuclear arms race and the joy we share for steadfastly searching for a win-win solution that will see us in a race to the TOP.

SHOW NOTES

Subscribe to Liv’s Substack

Follow Liv on Instagram and via her YouTube Channel

Read my original Substack post about Moloch

Listen to the Wild episode with Meg Wheatley on civilisation collapse

Watch the beauty fillers video Liv produced The Moloch Trap of AI Beauty Filters and Is the Media Moloch Driving Us Mad?

Read Scott Alexander’s Moloch essay we talk about

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How do you, Sarah, deal with a broken heart?

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:03:22 GMT

Substack subscribers have posed some beautiful thought-provoking questions this week. Do I suffer from a broken heart and how do I cope with it at a spiritual level? Do I stand by my I Quit Sugar message all these years later, particularly given an awareness of the triggering effect of restrictive messages? And where do we draw the line when someone we love uses the “mental illness card” to justify piss-poor behaviour. I recorded this with my long-suffering assistant Liana who I got to hang with yesterday.

Access the full recording on Substack and join the conversation in the comment section and don't forget to add your questions to the AMA thread.

You can catch my post about why I now distance myself from my bipolar diagnosis here.
You can listen to my Wild chat with David Whyte here
I mention David's book When the Heart Breaks: A Journey Through Requited and Unrequited Love
Learn more about Liana here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PROF JOEL PEARSON: Gut feeling is (scientifically) real; this is how to use it

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 22:14:52 GMT

Prof. Joel Pearson (Neuroscientist; AI and intuition expert) developed the first scientific test to measure intuition, dragging it out of the woo-woo realm and into a cognitive framework. He’s now written The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why to show us how and when to use this mysterious superpower in our lives (not while rock-climbing on a date, not at a casino!).

In this chat we cover when and how to use intuition, why intuition is hijacked by anxiety and depression, whether AI will ever be able to have intuition, aphantasia and a bunch of deep, wide questions about what it means to be human, including the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Mostly, Joel is a great conversationalist, someone you’d want to sit next to at a dinner party.

SHOW NOTES

Get Joel’s book The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why
Follow Joel on his Future Minds Lab Substack
You might also like to listen to my WILD chat with Sheena Iyengar, the scientist who first ran those “paradox of choice” studies
And with George Paxinos, regarded as the world’s leading brain expert on whether our brains are “good” enough to save the planet
I mention the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PETER FRANKOPAN: How climate collapsed civilisations (and will it ours?)

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 20:33:06 GMT

Peter Frankopan (Silk Roads author, Oxford historian) has just written a mega-history book called The Earth Transformed that reframes human history not via various major battles and legendary leaders but through a climate lens. Floods, droughts and, invariably, a volcano or two, dictated the fall of the Roman Empire, the fate of Cleopatra, the rise of gossip and beer halls, slavery and the different flavours of religion that exist around the world.

I was keen to talk to Peter to find out what we might be able to learn from the past about adapting and surviving climate upheavals, what the factors that saw climate destroy some civilisations and not others and what it means to live in an era where climate calamities are global in scale, as are all the fundamental aspects of society – trade, finance, disease routes, warfare capabilities. Oh, and at the end we talk about what is entailed in writing a book that’s more than 600-pages!

This conversation feeds into previous episodes about limits to growth with the Club of Rome’s Gaya Harrington and collapse theories with Meg Wheatley.

SHOW NOTES

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History is available here
Read more about Peter via his website and you can connect with him on Twitter/X

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA with a Palestinian peace broker: What should we be doing to help, not hinder, the crisis? Does posting on social media do ANYTHING?

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:10:53 GMT

Today’s question has come in from many of you over recent weeks. It’s an important one to ask as we grapple with the horror in the Middle East and our sense of powerlessness, as leaders around the world seem immobilised by geopolitical interests. I’ve invited Palestinian peace broker Aziz Abu Sarah to help answer it. Aziz is one of the world's most powerful and connected peacebuilders. He’s a National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow. He has founded and led countless global conflict resolution organisations and helped broker peace deals in more than 60 nations, including Syria and Afghanistan.

I put it to him: Is there a role that those of us outside the region can play that will actually help, not hinder, the ultimate cause – peace and the cessation of the bloodshed and humanitarian disaster? What is the right thing to do on social media? What should we post and not post? Do protests, boycotts, and petitions work at this point? And is peace possible any time soon? I learned a lot more than I expected to from this chat – some of Aziz’s answers are very very confronting. Strap in for this one, dear friends. It’s big and hard. It’s also longer than my normal AMAs (and forgive me for the sound quality - I don’t quite have the budget yet for a producer for these Friday episodes!).

I encourage you to head over to my Substack for additional content, including:

Where Aziz will join the comments thread and happily answer additional questions there.
I will share the credible peace organisations, influencers and journalists that he recommends we support.
I will also share some other useful links that explain points raised in our conversation, including the Israeli bias in media.

SHOW NOTES

You can listen to our previous conversation here
Here’s Aziz’s website, social media and his book, Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler's Guide to World Peace

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

KELLY WEINERSMITH: Why settling Mars is a really dumb idea

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 20:04:19 GMT

Dr Kelly Weinersmith (behavioural ecologist and space expert) and her husband Zach have just spent four years researching a subject that perplexes many of us – why all the fuss about moving to Mars? Which begs, can we actually build a human settlement on Mars? And, would we want to?

They share their findings in their new book A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? which became an instant New York Times bestseller and Scientific American’s #1 Book for 2023.

Kelly, an adjunct with Rice University in Texas, joins me to talk through both the broad and the granular implications of what I think amounts to a “destroy and run” attitude to our relationship with Earth. I have a lot of questions, like: What’s with the tech bros and their obsession with living on a dusty, toxic planet? Who would “own” space settlements? Who would control the oxygen? Surely we’re not going to let Elon run rampant with this? And can you actually have sex in space? If you’re after a TL;DR, Kelly concludes: “Space: quite bad”.

SHOW NOTES

A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? is available here
The Wild episode with Douglas Rushkoff about billionaires and their apocalypse bunkers is here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DEVIN MOSS: An atheist death row chaplain on how to die without God

Tue, 27 Feb 2024 20:04:07 GMT

Devin Moss (atheist chaplain and humanist) late last year ministered a convicted murderer to his death by execution in the state of Oklahoma. Significantly he provided the prisoner, Phillip Hancock, spiritual counsel for more than a year, and “prayed” with him in the execution room…all without drawing on notions of an afterlife or a forgiving God entity. Which begs, what does spiritual counsel look like without “God” and the promise of hope that comes with It? What can be turned to? What are the practices and consolations that work to provide peace and cosmic perspective in the face of this final terror?

In this chat, Devin and I talk about humanist approaches to death and, to life more broadly. This is a conversation for everyone (all of us?) grappling with a world facing increased existential threats.

SHOW NOTES

You can listen to the Wild episode with Sister Helen Prejean here
Here is the original New York Times article about Devin and Phillip’s relationship

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Do we create art in the apocalypse?

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 20:07:03 GMT

I’ve been doing a bunch of Substack meetups around Australia over the past few weeks (the Sydney and Northern NSW ones are happening in March and you can register in the Substack post here). And several people in the community have posed some related questions to do with balancing where the world is at with your need for creative freedom, our own mental health, our tendency to run from hard topics and emotions. Yes, we MUST create and make art in these difficult, “liminal” times. I reference Teju Cole and late 19th-century philosophers to make my case.

I also answer:

How do you stay sane and be of service?
How do I motivate myself out of depression to be of service?

I share how I’ve been navigating things, lying awake many nights in a row, trying to rise to the challenges inherent in these questions.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MAGGIE JACKSON: Why “not knowing” is 2024’s survival superpower

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 20:04:04 GMT

Maggie Jackson (award-winning author and journalist) has just written a book - Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure – that argues that while humans crave certainty, we actually experience a less anxious, more productive, happier life when we embrace not knowing.

Maggie is known for her writing on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity. She’s written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and New Philosopher. But her latest work draws on a wave of new science that shows how building “uncertainty tolerance” (instead of running from what we don’t know or can’t get an immediate answer or fix for) is an antidote to the dangerous complexity of our times. Maggie and I chat about the wild idea of ocean swimming, using hedge words and actively championing leaders who say, “I don’t know” as ways to save humanity.

SHOW NOTES

Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure is available now
You can read Maggie's recent New York Times guest essay on uncertainty and resilience
Learn more about Maggie and her work here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Why does hiking “work”?

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 20:07:19 GMT

More than 43,000 studies have been done to show how and why walking in nature (hiking) has so many mental and physical benefits. In this episode, prompted by listener Stefan’s question that came through on Substack, I talk through my favourite explainers and how it plays out for me.

Conservatively, I would say I have done more than 500 hikes in my lifetime…and can vouch for the fact… it just works. Start walking and the movement, the phytoncides, and the fractals do their work on you.

SHOW NOTES

You can learn more about the studies and hikes in This One Wild and Precious Life
Here is the 2-for-1 code for the Wanderlust Adelaide event: Go here and use TNBOGO

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MAGGIE DENT: What to do about boys (‘cos you asked)

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 20:02:24 GMT

Maggie Dent (the “queen of common sense”; parenting expert) raised four sons, largely solo, and went on to write about her experiences and lessons learned. She soon became highly sought after for her candid and loving take on raising young men (she’s also known as the “boy champion”). Maggie is host of The Good Enough Dad and Parental As Anything podcasts, and the author of nine books, including her bestselling boys’ books From Boys to Men and Mothering Our Boys.

I’ve been doing an occasional series here on Wild addressing the issues affecting boys and men and was super keen to get Maggie on to answer some of the questions that keep coming up. Thank you to everyone who sent in their questions for Maggie.

In this episode we cover where the issues are stemming from, how we can benefit from boys’ “aggression nurturance”, what good men can be doing to plug the “Andrew Tate gap”, why parents need to buy boys a guinea pig, the need for a bro podcast on hacks for being an uber-productive life partner… and why mums need to fart in front of their sons!

SHOW NOTES

You can get hold of Maggie’s books here
Listen to The Good Enough Dad and Parental As Anything podcasts
Learn more about Maggie and her work via her website and Instagram
Here’s a Wild episode on men and porn with Connor Beaton
I have written about issues relating to masculinity, toxic men and why we should be worried about boys on Substack

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Why are girls flocking Left and boys are flopping Right?

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:07:28 GMT

Did you see the results of the survey published in the Financial Times that showed there is a growing political gap between millennial men and women? I was asked this week what my thoughts were, what’s causing the drift in both directions and other gaps, between young people, should we be worried and what to do?

I reference lots of different articles and data and put all the links over at Substack where you have the option to WATCH these bonus episodes and you can also join a conversation afterwards in the thread (and post a question for future AMAs).

SHOW NOTES

Explore the full episode on my Substack, complete with links to references, thought-provoking articles, and podcasts.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN: Exposing the Ultra-Processed Food Trap

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:06:18 GMT

Chris van Tulleken (doctor, TV host) is a London infectious diseases specialist known for his popular BBC health TV programs that he hosts with his identical twin brother (including the kids series Operation Ouch; they’ve won two BAFTAs). In his recent book Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?, which has been a #1 Sunday Times bestseller for 9 weeks, he exposes how ultra-processed food (AKA junk food) is making us fat and sick, destroying the planet, eradicating traditional cultures, shrinking our faces and making us infertile.

We talk about why Pringles are “crack in a cardboard tube”, why he thinks sugar and a lack of exercise are not the problem (!) and instead how the issue is the fact Big Food does NOTHING BUT refine their “profit-making product” to make us more perfectly addicted to it and to eat greater quantities. We also cover how to spot the worst food offenders and how the best fix for beating weight gain is to turn addiction into disgust.

SHOW NOTES

Get your copy of Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?
Connect with Chris on Instagram or X/Twitter
I Quit Sugar: Your Complete 8-Week Detox Program and Cookbook and I Quit Sugar for Life are available on my website

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: Do you regret not having kids?

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 01:42:56 GMT

A quick, breezy episode that talks about how to navigate decision-making regret, honing in on landing in one's post-repro years and not having had kids. Thank you Megan from my Substack community who sent in the question: Do you regret not having had kids?

You have the option to WATCH these bonus episodes over on Substack where you can also join a conversation afterwards in the thread (and post a question for future AMAs. I also post extra content, extracts from my book etc here. When you become a paid subscriber, you get access to bonus intimate conversations with me, as well as access to my one-on-one online coffee (or wine) sessions. This is how I’m doing things from now on – real, raw, intimate… and provocative.

SHOW NOTES

You can watch this in full over on my Substack
Become a paid subscriber to join the thread conversation and submit an Ask Me Anything question for an upcoming ep.
You can book a One-on-One virtual coffee chat with me here
I reference a previous AMA episode in which I talked about my thoughts on marriage.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ALAIN DE BOTTON: A philosophical fix for anxiety

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:01:52 GMT

Alain de Botton (School of Life founder; author) has written 15 books about the philosophy of living – such as The Art of Travel; Status Anxiety; Art as Therapy; and The Course of Love – but he has recently turned his focus to mental health and how philosophy can be used as a therapeutic aid. Alain argues that a mental breakdown can provide the opening a despairing soul seeks. Indeed, anxiety so often is its own fix.

We sat down in WeAre8’s London office for this two-way conversation about the philosophical wisdoms we personally use to have a life of meaning in the face of despair. We also talk about the writing process (and why it’s a salve), the healing effects of figs and dark chocolate, how to love, plus a super fresh take on “adult boredom” (embrace your impatience, get to the point!).

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of The Therapeutic Journey here and the School of Life range of books here
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful is available in more than a dozen languages here
I also mention my Wild chat with AC Grayling on how to have a philosophy of your own
And my conversation with Pico Iyer as well as the episode with David Whyte
We recorded the episode at WeAre8 HQ in London – big thanks to the team for being such wonderful hosts!

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: BEAU MILES: How to be a backyard adventurer

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:07:18 GMT

Over the Australian summer, I’ve been picking out some cracker eps that you might have missed or would benefit from revisiting. This chat with Beau Miles, a Patagonia and Outward Bound ambassador, author and YouTube star, is perfectly calibrated to keep the holiday spirit alive just a little longer.

Beau used to be a mad explorer – he’s indeed conquered Everest base camp, became the first person to run 650kms across the Australian Alps, kayaked Bass Strait and the rest. But a few years back he made the switch to exploring the world closer to home and now inspires a league of fans who froth over his mad-as videos of running the length of the old Warragul-Noojee Railway line to learn its history (dressed in a train driver uniform, carrying a shovel and three jars of dried pasta, just to chuck a hardship bomb into the equation), eating his body weight in beans (to see what happens), and spending a night in the tree outside his front door. This is more of a fun two-way chat where the two of us compare notes on flipping your day-to-day life into a flirtation, getting out of life ruts, playing and loving being weird.

Grab Beau’s book The Backyard Adventurer: Meaningful and pointless expeditions, self-experiments and the value of other people's junk
Stay up to date with all his adventures via Instagram
You can watch Beau’s films here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: TIM BROWN: Sarah’s interview with her meditation teacher

Tue, 16 Jan 2024 20:07:39 GMT

Wild is having a bit of a break as the New Year gets started and we’ll be running a bunch of important or really poignant episodes that you might have missed along the way.

Last year I lost my dear friend Tim Brown, my meditation teacher and confidente. He was an incredibly wise man and impacted a lot of people …some of you listening might have read my books - his wisdom and reality checks feature throughout…I don’t know how many times I’ve started with the sentence..as my meditation teacher Tim once said. Anyway, this episode in which he and I talk back and forth on …life…is very special to me and I feel his legacy needs to live on, joyfully, and playfully.

SHOW NOTES

The movie we mention, Groundhog Day

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: JULIA CAMERON: How to live the artist's way

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:07:09 GMT

Wild is having a break for a few weeks as the New Year gets started and we’ll be running a bunch of my favourite episodes that you might have missed along the way.

I’ve chosen this chat with Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way because her advice is the kind we all need for starting off something new, like a year, a year that’s likely going to require that we have solid footings and an expansive outlook. Happy 2024, everyone!

SHOW NOTES

Julia’s book Seeking Wisdom is available here

You can check out her creative work on her website

In this episode, I also mention my interview about curiosity with DR JUD BREWER and my chat with SETH GODIN about the artist process.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: AZIZ ABU SARAH: A radical Palestinian peace broker on how to solve wicked conflicts

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 20:06:33 GMT

Wild will be taking a pause for a few weeks over the summer period and we’ll be running a bunch of my favourite episodes that you might have missed along the way.

I feel given everything going on in the world it's appropriate to share my interview with Aziz Abu Sarah, a palestinian arab peace broker who knows and and has lived, or lives, the conflict in Israel and Palestine. So much noise, so much horror and so hard to comprehend the pain and the complexity…But Aziz provides the most compassionate, humane throughline I’ve come across.

SHOW NOTES

Aziz’s dual narrative tour business is Mejdi Tours and he ran this tour with Impact Safari

He’s also written a book that shows how to travel as a force for peace

I ran a bunch of other interviews with peacebuilders while I was there, which you can find on my substack

And here are the organisations employing the dual narrative approach that I promised to list:

Combatants for Peace

Bereaved Families Forum

Interact International

Hands of Peace

Healing Across the Divides

Creativity for Peace

Tech for Peace

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: BAYO AKOMOLAFE: The times are urgent, let’s slow down and become a fugitive

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:07:44 GMT

Wild will be taking a pause for a few weeks over the summer period and we’ll be running a bunch of my favourite episodes that you might have missed along the way.

I’ve chosen this chat with poet Bayo Akomalafe because it is DENSE with advice for complex times, times in which humanity struggles to encapsulate things with tidy answers. Bayo riffs in this ep with the most uplifting advice for “relaxing into our entanglement with the world” and joining the chaos. Forever timely.

Happy Christmas slash school holidays slash summer break if you’re in Australia, etc.

SHOW NOTES

You can connect with Bayo via his website and Twitter

Here is the poem I ask Bayo to read out

And here is the essay What Climate Collapse Asks of Us

He references Ursula K Le Guin’s book The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: DAN BUETTNER: Sarah chats with her friend about all things Blue Zones

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:07:38 GMT

Wild will be taking a pause for a few weeks over the summer period and we’ll be running a bunch of my favourite episodes that you might have missed along the way.

I know a bunch of you have watched the Netflix series Blue Zones and some of you know that I worked on the project briefly and became friends with the National Geographic explorer - Dan Buettner who coined the term, wrote the book and started in the series. We actually caught up for dinner in Paris recently - we try to find each other in the world when we can to talk not so much about longevity, but how to max a life, short or long. I hope you enjoy this one...OH and if listening on a road trip heading off on Christmas holidays or some such and ur in the passenger seat…please do take a minute to rate Wild, give it a review share it amongst your friends. It helps out a lot.

SHOW NOTES

Get Dan's latest book, The Blue Zone Challenge here

Watch Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DAVID BROOKS: How to be humanist in cruel times

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 20:04:12 GMT

David Brooks (New York Times columnist; best-selling author) is both one of America’s best-known conservative commentators and one of its most committed to pushing the case for deep moral discussion. David’s also a regular contributor to The Atlantic and NBC’s “Meet the Press”, has 30 honorary doctorates, is a teacher at Yale and is something of a regular guest on Oprah, the Sam Harris podcast and so on. He wrote the books The Road to Character, The Second Mountain and the recently published How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

In this nourishing conversation we discuss whether humanism – coming back to moral, generous interactions with others – is the fix for our polarising times. We discuss whether you can be “right” with the Middle East conflict, the best-ever dinner party conversation starters (the only kind I’m interested in doing), and whether civilizational collapse is preventable. He has ideas…

SHOW NOTES

David's book How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply See is available now, along with The Road to Character and The Second Mountain.

If you would like to read more of David's work:

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS EPISODE: A Life More Wild

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 20:07:15 GMT

Recently I was interviewed on the popular British podcast A Life More Wild which interviews prominent (mostly British) folk about what matters in life WHILE they hike in a favourite locale in the UK. It’s run by the outdoor holiday company Canopy & Stars, which is part of the Alastair Sawday Group (they publish a massive range of hiking guides).

For this episode, we do a circuit track in the Chiltern Hills (“Area of Outstanding Beauty”) in Buckinghamshire, about an hour out of London. I chose this one because it starts and finishes at a pub, passes by a very cute church that serves tea and scones on weekends and does a loop around the Prime Minister's holiday residence - Chequers. I share my various theories, tips and tricks for hiking in the chat amid birdsong and churchbells.

SHOW NOTES

Here's the trail I did.

For more inspiring stories, simply search for A Life More Wild on your favourite podcast app. Don't forget to follow Canopy & Stars on Instagram for additional content.

I have shared a bunch of epic hikes that I had done over the years, including all the details for accommodation, where to eat etc. You. can check them out over on my Substack: I’ve done a bunch of amazing multi-day Australian ones, several in the UK, Europe and more.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

HANNAH BARNES: We need to think through the transgender kids debate

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:02:33 GMT

Hannah Barnes (BBC journalist; exposed the “Tavistock Clinic” scandal) has become the somewhat reluctant global voice on the raging child transgender debate. In her award-winning BBC investigation, and in her new book, Time To Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children, she investigates how the UK Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at Tavistock Clinic in London referred more than 1200 kids, some as young 9 years old for treatment to block puberty, largely in the absence of data and research about its safety and efficacy. Her research highlighted a whole range of complex issues about the well-being of teens, trans people and our culture broadly.

In this chat, Hannah and I cover how 35 per cent of gender dysphoric teens are autistic, the massive uptick in kids identifying as trans worldwide (one study reports a 1000% increase in young people identifying as trans or nonbinary), and the important reasons why there are suddenly way more girls than boys wanting to transition.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of Hannah's book Time To Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children
The Australian situation regarding the age of consent is outlined here
And here’s the information showing the number of teen girls coming out as trans
I mention Jess Singal’s work on the subject. Find Jesse over at Blocked and Reported (this link has a bunch of extra reads on the topic relating to Hannah’s work) and read his original article for The Atlantic "When Children Say They're Trans"
Catch up on my Substack writing on it here and here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How should I (ethically) do a massive clean-out (to "Kondo" or to "Wilson”)?

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 22:00:00 GMT

In this episode of Ask Me Anything I answer three questions:

How should I do the massive cleanout of my life - to Kondo or to Wilson?
What does your life in Paris look like?
How do you find accommodation (in Paris and beyond) when travelling (or just living nomadically)?

I cover a bunch of links that you can get over at my Substack page. You can watch the video version there, too, where I show how I reworked a dress I’ve worn every summer since I was 21 and take the opportunity to give my denim shorts, which I’ve had for 18 years, a send-off.

SHOW NOTES

You can get hold of my Simplicious books here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CONNOR BEATON: The confronting reason why men watch porn

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 20:04:05 GMT

Connor Beaton (men’s coach, porn addict mentor) helps men face their shadows. The US author and podcaster has coached thousands of men on “how to be good at being men”. The masculinity crisis is a persistent theme here on Wild (and in the world) and so I am having these chats to better understand it and how it impacts all of us.

I asked Connor to join us to chat about porn – what it’s doing to men, what is not being satisfied and how it’s affecting relationships. We also cover why boys flock to Andrew Tate, what women really mean when they say they want a man to be vulnerable and what happens in relationships when women earn more than the bloke.

If there are any specific angles or experts on men and masculinity you’d like covered here, do let me know over in my Substack comments.

SHOW NOTES

You can follow Connor on Instagram and listen to his podcast Man Talks

Get hold of his book Man Talks: A Practical Guide to Face Your Darkness, End Self Sabotage and Find Freedom

Learn more via his website

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: My climate activist son needs your help!

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 20:15:40 GMT

This week’s question comes from concerned mum Emma, but it’s one that is cropping up a lot - What to do about the burden young people are shouldering in the face of a crumbling world? Emma is worried her 16-year-old activist son is taking on too much and she’s worried about his climate anxiety.

Research shows one-third of young people have sought counselling or medical help for eco-anxiety. However, my answer to Emma and her son takes a different direction. What if kids are pissed off and we, the adults, are projecting OUR anxiety (and shame?) onto them? I also cover my recent warm jacket purchase and why it is so very not French-fashionable.

SHOW NOTES

I mention in this rant the previous Wild podcast episodes with Meg Wheatley and Paul Hawken and the one with Margaret Klein Salamon.

We will continue the conversation over at my Substack if you’d like to join. It’s here you can also post another AMA question for me.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PAUL HAWKEN: We’re ending the climate crisis in one generation

Tue, 14 Nov 2023 20:03:35 GMT

Paul Hawken (Project Drawdown founder) is the climate activist who, for decades, has shown us how we can *actually* make a difference. He’s been an activist since the 1960s (he was once seized by the KKK), is the most influential voice on corporate sustainability and created the legendary Project Drawdown, which calculated the top 100 actions that bring down CO2 (tl;dr: educating girls and tackling food waste top the list).

Paul's latest project Regeneration (a book and website) takes things even further and provides the world’s largest listing and network of climate solutions geared not at fixing the crisis but rebuilding our sense of connection to the planet.

In this chat, Paul and I talk honestly about why 98% of people are still not changing their behaviour even though we now know the facts AND we are now living IN climate change, whether “drawdown” is possible and how to be most effective as a climate activist in light of all this.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of Paul’s books Drawdown and Regeneration

Play around on the Regeneration site to find very tangible solutions to things you might be doing or projects you might want to dive into.

Get your copy of This One Wild and Precious Life

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS EP: Sarah + Oliver Burkeman chatting on Intelligence Squared

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 22:00:05 GMT

Figured many of you here would like to hear the conversation I had recently with Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals over at the British intellectual podcast Intelligence Squared. It’s one of my favourite podcasts, and so I was supremely thrilled when they invited me to lead an "in conversation” about self-help scepticism.

Here’s the blurb they ran: Oliver Burkeman is the anti-self-help author that everyone interested in self-help should read. He encourages us to embrace uncertainty and imperfection in a world obsessed with self-improvement and relentless goal-setting. For over ten years he wrote the popular ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’ column for The Guardian and his latest book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals, was a huge bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Sarah Wilson is the founder of the global ‘I Quit Sugar’ movement, was editor of Cosmopolitan Australia at the age of 29, and has interviewed two Australian prime ministers, Beyoncé, Brené Brown, the Dalai Lama and dozens of moral philosophers, effective altruists and existential risk experts during her career. Her most recent book, This One Wild and Precious Life, won the US Gold Nautilus Prize and describes how she spent three years hiking around the world, following in the footsteps of Nietzsche and Wordsworth and emerging with a blueprint for living a wilder, more connected life. For this episode, Burkeman and Wilson come together at Intelligence Squared for an engaging discussion about the limitations of the traditional self-help industry, the importance of mindfulness, and practical strategies for leading a more balanced and purposeful life.

SHOW NOTES

Catch my interview with Oliver (about his book Four Thousand Weeks) here
Check out Intelligence Squared here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MARGARET WHEATLEY: An episode on civilization collapse (warning: truly confronting)

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 20:01:00 GMT

Margaret (Meg) Wheatley (collapse theorist, global leadership consultant) is something of a legend in her field. She has worked for 50 years helping humans adapt to their world using systems analysis, chaos theory and deep spiritualism (she’s good friends with one of my heroes the Buddhist monk Pema Chödrön). Poets, scientists and philosophers quote her writing, she has worked in countless disaster situations around the world and was commissioned to transform the leadership of large institutions such as the US Army and the National Park Service. Plus she’s the author of 12 books, including Who Do We Choose to Be? and the forthcoming Restoring Sanity. Meg has also researched the collapse of civilisations throughout history and is a leading voice among a community of scientists, economists, historians and philosophers who are arguing that our civilisation is also currently heading toward collapse.

Meg and I also recorded a second and even more challenging episode that can be found over at my Substack. In this extra episode we cover how long we’ve got left (when will collapse occur?), how to cope when others are still consuming and distracting themselves away from the issue, how to raise kids in this knowledge, where to live in coming years…

SHOW NOTES

Meg references the poet David Whyte who has also been a guest on Wild

You can purchase Who Do We Choose to Be? now and preorder Restoring Sanity (coming March 2024)

Find out about her workshops and events here

Other Wild conversations with elders: Stephen Jenkinson, Sister Helen Prejean and Margaret Atwood

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AMA: How do you make your podcast?

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 22:00:00 GMT

This week’s question comes from long-time reader, frequent and generous commenter Kei Ikeda, but it’s one I’ve been asked a few times - What goes into producing Wild?

My short answer would be: a lot of swirling self-doubt, over-analysis, faking-till-making and ad hoc recording set-ups. Here, I chat (on a cold Paris afternoon) about my recording equipment, how I contact guests, how the costs stack up, how the brand advertising and sponsorship works and more.

I flagged a few previous episodes you might want to catch up on with Sheena Iyengar and Sister Helen Prejean.

In 15 minutes (OK, 20 minutes) I don’t cover everything, so I invite you to ask me anything I missed in the comment section over on Substack. Also, I’ll start a thread on Sunday (again, over at Substack), as suggested by a bunch of you, where we can maybe thrash out a few ways to keep Wild going together. See you there.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: How to persuade people in a polarised world

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 20:01:13 GMT

Like many of us, Anand Giridharadas (American political commentator, bestselling author) despaired how the world had become stuck in a fractured suckhole and he could no longer convince people to change their hearts and minds to be kinder and better. So he went on a mission to find out how to persuade more effectively, resulting in his recent book The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy.

In this chat, the former foreign correspondent and New York Times columnist argues this wild idea: Progressives working on issues like race equality and climate (and, um, an Indigenous Voice to parliament) need to give up on political purity and… persuade! This is not your usual “effective communications” thesis. We cover what we can learn from the Russian bot farms, A.O.C. and a cult deprogrammer. This episode comes at a critical time, as many of us are 1. feeling defeatist about progressive/humane discussion today, and 2. seeking techniques to equip us for being of service in a troubled world.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of Anands’ book The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy

Follow Anand at his Substack The.Ink

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS EP: Sarah + Berry Liberman talk Sensemaking in the Metacrisis

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 21:18:11 GMT

For something a bit different this week, I’m posting an important conversation I had a few days ago via the Small Giants Academy with its co-founder Berry Liberman. Berry is also an impact investor, filmmaker and philanthropist who founded Dumbo Feather magazine on top of all this.

The conversation was titled Sensemaking in the Metacrisis: How to be of service in troubled times and it’s a big, wild, looping and uplifting chat about everything going on.

As with the weekly AMAs, the video version of this interview will be posted over at my Substack and it’s over there that you can engage in a conversation with me, the community and Berry afterwards.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Small Giants Academy

Here’s an explainer of Three Horizons that Berry references

You can read about Berry’s reflections on the recent Scandinavian sensemaking trip. Mine are here

Books to delve into: Walking the Tiger by Peter Levine, God is an Octopus by Ben Goldsmith

And someone in the chat asked for “my dancing & running playlist”

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TRACEY SPICER: AI is the new frontier of feminism!

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 19:02:02 GMT

There are many ways to challenge the AI juggernaut that has been unleashed on the world, but Tracey Spicer (multi-Walkley winning journalist, feminist) tackles it through a gender lens. In her latest book, Man-Made, she shows how the unresolved biases that exist in the world today are being fed into the emerging AI. The implications of this bigotry being embedded into our future are profound and could render any progressive work being done to address consent, pay gaps and so on moot.

Tracey has won two prestigious Walkley Awards in recognition of her journalism work, was awarded the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year, accepted the Sydney Peace Prize with Tarana Burke for the Me Too Movement, and won the national award for Excellence in Women’s Leadership. We talk about sexbot design, the significance of Siri et al being female, how our period tracker apps put us in danger and how she wrote this book with a crippling case of long covid.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of Man-Made: How the bias of the past is being built into the future

Catch up on the Wild chat with ChatGPT expert and linguist Emily M. Bender

Tracey mentions good work being done by Andrew Leigh MP

We also talk about the work of Caroline Criado-Perez who you can follow on her Substack Invisible Women

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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AMA: Sarah, What do you think of marriage?

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 22:00:00 GMT

Continuing with this new weekly format, each week I’m answering a hoary question from my Substack community (you can join here and post YOUR hoary - or otherwise - question in the thread).

This week I answer Dan: What do you think of marriage?

I take the opportunity to pull apart those studies that surface every few years that try to tell us that marriage makes you happier. Turns out it makes MEN happier than it does women, and not for very long (about two years). By implication, I also answer why I never got married. My answer has something to do with the Shaman from Eat Pray Love…

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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ANNIE MURPHY PAUL: We don’t think with our brains, we think with the world!

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:05:21 GMT

Annie Murphy Paul (US science writer and author of The Extended Mind) recently came out with a bold theory about how we think – we don’t think with our brains, instead, we think with our bodies, feelings, physical spaces and other minds. Her work on the topic won awards, was presented as a TED talk viewed by more than 2.6 million people and has been described by New York Times’ Ezra Klein as having “radical implications”.

In this conversation we discuss how our bodies can read other people’s minds and solve problems when our brains can't, why schools and workplaces stunt our thinking, how to get our clearest thoughts and why all those productivity hacks are…wrong.

I’ll continue the conversation over on my Substack where I’ll share more detail on how I loop.

SHOW NOTES

Annie's book, The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain is available now.

I refer to my conversation with Dr Jill Bolte Taylor about right-brain thinking, listen here.

And my interview with Tyson Yunkaporta that covers in detail, Indigenous complex thinking.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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AMA: Sarah, why did you move away from Australia?

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:14:06 GMT

News! Sarah is now answering your questions.

No fanfare here…I’m just launching into this by announcing I’ll publish an extra 10-15 minute episode here each week where You Ask Me Anything and I Answer it. Questions are posted via my Substack newsletter which you can subscribe to here. To kick off: SARAH, WHY DID YOU MOVE AWAY FROM AUSTRALIA?

I’ll keep things raw, frank, and short in these episodes. I won’t apologise for the background noises and stumbles. Nor for being contentious. I’m doing these extra episodes to be provocative because that’s what the world demands of us now. I answer this first question by referencing the larrikin myth, the reckoning of the Voice referendum, the way Australia’s land forces its people to “endure”.

You have the option to WATCH these bonus episodes over on Substack where you can also join a conversation afterwards in the thread. When you become a paid subscriber, you get access to bonus, intimate conversations with me as well as access to my one-on-one online coffee (or wine) sessions.

This is how I’m doing things from now on – real, raw, intimate… and provocative.

SHOW NOTES

You can watch this in full over on my Substack

Become a paid subscriber to join the thread conversation and submit an Ask Me Anything question for an upcoming ep.

You can book a One-on-One virtual coffee chat with me here

I reference the Larrikin myth episode, a conversation I had with Lech Blaine

Here are my thoughts on the Voice from a recent Substack

Here’s the Nate Hagens episode if you missed it

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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MISSY SIMS: The TikTok star suing Big Oil

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 21:10:04 GMT

Missy Sims (TikToker, Republican, lawyer taking down Fossil Fuel companies) could be described as the modern-day Erin Brockovich. Late last year she filed a world-first lawsuit on behalf of Puerto Rican municipalities against Exxon, Chevron and Shell. Claiming the atmosphere-destroying emissions they produced were directly responsible for the deaths and horrific damage caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017. And - wait for it - she’s doing it via the laws she uses to take down mobsters.

I started reading about the case, then about Missy, with her 2.2 million TikTok followers and her belief that God steers her vigilante work, and I had to know more. I also wanted to get her inside take on whether this wild approach to the climate emergency might just work.

SHOW NOTES

Here's the Shell TINA document Missy references

You can follow Missy on TikTok here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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NATE HAGENS: On the “Great Simplification”

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 19:01:07 GMT

Nate and I met recently at a conference in Stockholm to address these very (meta)modern issues. In this chat we talk about how green growth is not possible, EVs are not the answer, and he makes a numbers-crunched case for how to live once collapse occurs, what he calls the “Great Simplification”. This is a big one. It changes (mostly) everything, including my own ideas about the climate crisis.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s the link to vote for Wild in the Podcast Awards. I promise it only takes a few seconds

You can learn more about Nate's work here and listen to his podcast here

I also mention previous episodes with Tyson Yunkaporta, Douglas Rushkoff and Gaya Herrington

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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ADAM MASTROIANNI: Do we need to make the world great (and kinder) again?

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:06:26 GMT

Adam Mastroianni (experimental psychologist, Substacker) recently published a study in Nature that hit headlines. The paper, co-published with happiness expert Daniel Gilbert, demonstrated that everyone (literally) thinks the world is in moral decline, that we are less honest, and less kind, and that we need to return to the golden days of yore. The controversial bit? Everyone has ALWAYS thought this. And ALL of us are wrong.

Adam and I talk through the mad cognitive biases that steer us to this error and cover a bunch more that explain why being smart doesn’t make you happy, why we forget what we've learned and why we all (again) think the general public is stupider than us (we can’t all be right!?). I was overdue for a confrontation on my biases and my moral despair…you?

SHOW NOTES

Follow Adam's Substack - Experimental History

Read The illusion of moral decline

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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EMILY M. BENDER: AI won’t kill us any time soon (don’t believe the bro’ hype!)

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 19:03:44 GMT

Emily M. Bender (ChatGPT expert) is a linguist, a scholar of the societal impact of language AI and a professor at the University of Washington where she’s director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory. She recently became internet-famous for her no-nonsense, almost comical, papers that criticise the hype around large language models (LLMs) and ChatGPT. Her message is: Don’t believe the tech bro’ hype; it’s spin!

In this chat we cover whether AI can take over the world; the real motives behind Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s excited calls for an “AI pause”; where longtermism, the singularity, effective altruism, pro-natalism and transhumanism (I’ve covered these in previous eps and on my Substack) all fit into the palaver; plus what we really should be terrified about. This is a thoroughly important and correcting conversation.

SHOW NOTES

I flag this explainer that I wrote on my Substack: Say it isn’t so: Human Eugenics

You can read Emily’s papers “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots” and the “Octopus Paper”

Here’s the Statement from the listed authors of Stochastic Parrots on the “AI pause” letter

Emily also wanted to point everyone to this paper on AI Safety vs. AI Ethics

And if you want to do more of a deep dive into all this, check out her podcast

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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IAN LESLIE: Why your future depends on getting curious

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:04:18 GMT

Ian Leslie (British journalist, curiosity expert) is worried the world has become too fixated on absolutes and predictability just as our life circumstances are swinging the other way. The fix, he says, is to cultivate curiosity. He got curious about curiosity and wrote a book called, yep, Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It and we met in London at the WeAre8 offices to talk about why some people are incurious, what’s stopping us from being more curious, the role of cities and travel and the need to engage in mysteries instead of puzzles.

In this conversation we get quite urgently to this very wild point: To survive going forward we need to reclaim our curiosity. And we share ways to go about this.

SHOW NOTES

You can get hold of Ian’s book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It

Follow Ian’s curious ramblings on his Substack The Ruffian

Here’s the Wild episode with Dr. Jud Brewer on curiosity as the fix for anxiety

I mention my chat with the poet David Whyte about asking beautiful questions

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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DR GLADYS MCGAREY: “I’m 102, here’s how to spend your energy wildly”

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 19:01:42 GMT

Dr Gladys McGarey (102 years old, founder of the “holistic” medicine movement) has lived a big, wild life and joins me to chat through her secrets for doing it (life) like you really only have one of them. Recognised as *the* pioneer of alternative medicine, Dr Gladys is a founding diplomat of the American Board of Holistic Medicine and cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association.

In her long life, Gladys practiced as a general practitioner for seven decades, had six kids, lived with dyslexia (before it was a supported thing) and almost died twice. At 86 she went to Afghanistan to work in a war zone; at 94 she says she finally “found her voice”; and at 100 she did her first TED talk. Today, nudging 103, she’s still a practicing doctor and has just published a new book, The Well Lived Life.

We talk through her daily step count, recovering from divorce at 70 and hone in on her #1 tip for living longer – “Spend your energy wildly”.

SHOW NOTES

The Well Lived Life is available here

You can follow Glady on Instagram

You might like to listen to the interviews with Julia Cameron, Margaret Atwood and Sister Helen Prejean

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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JONATHAN ROWSON: Welcome to the “metacrisis”. Now what?

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 19:01:26 GMT

This is a big chat, but I think you’ll find this new and wild idea a helpful navigational tool for, well, “all the things”.

SHOW NOTES

As I flag, my UK friends can preorder This One Wild and Precious Life here.

Follow the Perspectiva community and their various events here.

Jonathan is also on Substack and Twitter.

His latest book The Moves that Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life is out now.

I mention a bunch of previous wild episodes that you might like to listen to:

Sensemaking with David Fuller, Indigenous Knowledge Systems with Tyson Yankaporta and the Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor episode.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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GAYA HERRINGTON: Complete global collapse by 2040? The prediction is “right on track”...

Tue, 22 Aug 2023 19:00:52 GMT

Gaya Herrington (Club of Rome adviser, “global collapse” expert) hit headlines when she showed that a world-stopping 1972 MIT study and bestselling book predicting the collapse of civilisation by 2040 was…right on track. She was a KPMG economist and financial advisor to the Dutch government when she released the report in 2021. I read it and was left speechless.

SHOW NOTES

Get hold of the book Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse

Feel free to read the now-famous 1972 paper The Limits to Growth

I mention the chat about the indigenous knowledge system with Tyson Yunkaporta, you can listen to it here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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LUKE BURGIS: How humans “want”: Mimetic desire explained

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 19:02:38 GMT

Luke Burgis (ethical entrepreneur, mimetic desire expert) reckons none of us knows what we want. We like to think we are incredibly original creators of our artfully curated lives. But, in fact, we only ever mimic others’ desires. Luke’s thesis draws on the work of philosopher Rene Girard who coined the term “mimetic desire” and who has become an obsession among Silicon Valley bros. I was keen to find out why Girard’s idea has become so hot and asked Luke to join me to put things straight.

Luke is a veteran entrepreneur, the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, named by the Financial Times as one of the most important business books of 2021.

In this chat we cover how the social media pile-on is not so much about difference, why women are so often scapegoats and how Lamborghini cars came about due to a mimetic rivalry with Ferrari (and their bad clutches).

SHOW NOTES

Wanting is available to purchase here

You can follow Luke’s writing over on his Substack: Anti-Mimetic

Follow Luke on Instagram

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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CLANCY MARTIN: How not to kill yourself

Tue, 08 Aug 2023 19:02:06 GMT

Clancy Martin (professor of philosophy, multiple suicide survivor) has tried – unsuccessfully, obviously – to depart this mortal coil a dozen-plus times and has just published a book, How Not to Kill Yourself, that explores the complexity of one the most fundamental question we can ever ask – why live?

Clancy teaches philosophy at the University of Missouri, is a Guggenheim Fellow, bestselling novelist, a father and… “suicide addict”.

In the wake of having lost one of my closest friends to suicide, I reached out to Clancy to get his insights and wisdoms on this challenging topic. He shares the mindsets that can change a despairing person’s mind, how to deal with the sense of betrayal and anger after a loved one takes their life and how his own “suicidal addiction” started at 3. This beautiful conversation is mostly a reminder to live fully and wildly and… to care (particularly for those who care so deeply they despair).

Get hold of Clancy’s book How Not to Kill Yourself: My life in suicide.

If you or someone you know is struggling, the suicide and crisis lifeline can be reached by dialling

In Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 and the Suicide Call Back Service on1300 659 467
In the US, call 988 and you will be connected to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
In the UK, contact the National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 0800 689 5652

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my “about” page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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SUSAN NEIMAN: Left is not woke!

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:02:54 GMT

Susan Neiman (world-leading moral philosopher, socialist, Einstein Forum director) joins me to clear up a wholly frustrating and destructive dialogue stopper – wokeism.

Susan is the Director of the Einstein Forum, in Potsdam, Germany. She has a doctorate in philosophy from Harvard and has written big, influential tomes on German guilt, the value of evil and how we all need to grow up, all through a philosophical lens. Her latest book is titled Left is Not Woke and in this episode, she explains why woke has become a loaded term, weaponised by the Right and has inverted to contradict Left or progressive principles. Susan plants the wild idea we need to abandon wokeism and become truly awake to the threat so much infighting is distracting us (sigh) from the rise of fascism. Much as Left infighting enabled Hitler to rise to power in the 1930s.

The Show Notes

Left is Not Woke is available now
Susan mentions Paul Robeson’s performance at the Sydney Opera House
I mention my Substack post listing centre-right writers, you can read it here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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FRANCES HAUGEN: In which I speak to the Facebook whistleblower

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 19:15:50 GMT

Frances Haugen (globally renowned whistleblower, author of The Power of One) singlehandedly created social media’s Big Tobacco moment.

In 2021, the algorithms specialist exposed 20,000 internal documents to media and lawmakers that showed Facebook consistently and knowingly prioritised profits over public safety. A few months later, and at great personal risk, she “outed” herself on 60 Minutes and has worked tirelessly since to change laws on social media transparency around the world.

What sees a 37-year-old woman do what hundreds of thousands of employees before her did not? Courage? Blind optimism? What fuels her commitment to truth? And what do we – the rest of us – need to do once we are armed with the truth?

Frances also shares insights on The Zuck and what we should be doing instead of having an AI pause.

Get hold of her book The Power of One.

Frances and her team are building a movement to create social media that works for humanity, you can sign up here to hear about upcoming ways to get involved.

If you want to learn more about the AI pause, and why many (women) oppose it, check out my post on substack 'Why we should NOT have a pause on AI'.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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PICO IYER: The spiritual case for travel

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 19:05:53 GMT

Pico Iyer (bestselling travel writer; author of The Art of Stillness; Leonard Cohen’s close mate) studies the paradox of our desire to go out and explore foreign lands…and our need for stillness, the delicate dance between our outer and inner lives.

Pico has spent 50 years writing about travel for more than 250 publications, but he also spent three decades living in monasteries and 48 years as a friend and travel companion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And he concludes a bunch of things we cover off in this beautiful conversation: we move to feel moved; the benefits of global travel outweigh the carbon miles (understanding humanity is more important right now); and paradise is mostly lost. He also shares insights into how Leonard Cohen wrote Hallelujah, arguably the most stunning song ever recorded.

Get hold of Pico’s new book The Half-Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World.

Read more of his work via his website and you can also find Pico on Twitter.

Listen to Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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TYSON YUNKAPORTA: Indigenous knowledge can save the world!

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 19:00:17 GMT

Tyson Yunkaporta (Indigenous knowledge expert and renegade) is an Aboriginal scholar and founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Melbourne’s Deakin University. His prize-winning book Sand Talk explains how Indigenous methods are best calibrated for resolving the complex global crises we face today and it’s attracted fawning attention in sensemaking, complexity and integral circles globally.

Tyson’s wild approach tips a stack of Western thinking on its head. He challenges…not just with ideas, but with the way, the how, of his knowledge sharing. We talk the IDW, wokism and red-pilling, but mostly how we in the West have forgotten how to read the patterns of the universe, which has seen Emu energy (narcissism) flourish, which then renders us unable to navigate complexity in an increasingly complex, multi-crisis world. This chat is big and challenging…so you know.

You can buy Sand Talk here and Tyson’s new book Right Story Wrong Story is out in October.

Discover more about the IK Systems Lab.

Listen to the Douglas Rushkoff interview I reference.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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WILL STORR: How to play the status game (a fresh way to fix the world!)

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 19:00:45 GMT

Will Storr (award-winning UK journalist and author) writes about humans in fun ways, and goes to lengths to do this, including joining holocaust denier David Irving (undercover) on holiday. His books The Heretics, and Selfie, are about how self-obsession changed the culture.

Will's latest book is The Status Game and it argues that “Everyone alive is playing a game whose hidden rules are built into us and that silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions. This game is inside us. It is us.” Will chats through how his thesis can explain the rise of Nazi Germany, how the world might deal with dangerous humiliated men (Putin, Trump, gun massacrists) and how it can produce more empathy in the world.

I mention my WILD episode with Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority Gap which you can listen to here.

The Status Game is available to purchase now.

Join Will on Twitter and read more about his work via his website.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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TIM WINTON: On wild colonial boys + Big Daddy Gas

Tue, 30 May 2023 19:05:25 GMT

Tim Winton (author + climate activist) is a four-time winner of Australia’s most prominent literary award, the Miles Franklin, several of his books (Cloudstreet, Breath, Blueback) have been turned into movies, he has an Australian fish named after him(!), and he has been declared a “living treasure” by the National Trust. Notoriously private,

Tim now only emerges to do press to speak out on big issues – toxic masculinity, fossil fuel sponsorship of the arts (and the “nippers”) and saving Western Australia’s Ningaloo Reef.

In this conversation we talk this wild idea: Is Australia’s colonial past and capitalist fixation holding us all back from being adults?

Ningaloo Nyinggulu is screening on ABC iView in Australia and as Ningaloo Nyinggulu: Australia’s Ocean Wonder on Now TV for Sky Nature in the UK, Germany and Italy, and on Love Nature in Canada and 130 other countries.

Here’s the excerpt from the toxic masculinity speech Tim gave during the book tour of The Sheperd’s Hut.

Here's the speech he made at the Perth Writers Festival.

I mention getting involved in Save Our Marine Life

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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INGRID NEWKIRK: The PETA founder challenges my meat eating

Tue, 23 May 2023 19:04:11 GMT

Ingrid Newkirk (founder of PETA, radical stuntwoman) is one of the most controversial – and wild - humans on the planet. After founding People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 1980 she campaigned to change animal cruelty laws, halted cosmetic and crash testing on animals and has largely rid the world of fur fashion.

She didn’t take the mild, collaborative route, though. Ingrid has hung naked among pigs’ carcasses in London’s Smithfield market, famously raided Vogue HQ to protest their use of fur, along with a KKK meeting to stop the shooting of pigeons. Ingrid is now 74, her hobbies include Formula One racing (Michael Schumacher is a mate) and she is cited as a “hero” to countless celebrities, including Bill Maher (on her board) and Joaquin Phoenix (bought the film rights to her book Free the Animals). Ingrid reached out to me to chat on Wild. I’m not vegan and I wear wool. Our chat was both robustly challenging and moving.

You can buy the 30th Anniversary Edition of Free the Animals here and read more about PETA Australia here.

Here’s that Australian perspective data I mention, outlined in The Conversation essay and here’s a rebuttal written by another academic, also published in The Conversation.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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GENEVIEVE BELL: Will AI wipe out humanity?

Tue, 16 May 2023 19:06:44 GMT

Genevieve Bell (“superstar” Silicon Valley futurist, cybernetician) is possibly the world’s best-placed human to tell us what the future of AI holds for us. She is a Stanford cultural anthropologist, the Vice President of Intel, has been dubbed “technology’s foremost fortune teller” and has been inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame. Oh, and she has been South Australia’s thinker in residence. And holds a lazy 13 patents!

Genevieve is now based at Australia’s ANU where she’s the head of the School of Cybernetics and in this episode, we wrangle with the idea of whether AI will kill us, do we need a global “pause” and how indigenous systems thinking could save us.

Catch up on the Wild episode with David Whyte that I mention here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram

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ROY BAUMEISTER: How the female orgasm shapes the world

Tue, 09 May 2023 19:08:49 GMT

Roy Baumeister (infamous willpower psychologist + NYT bestseller) is one of the world’s most prolific and influential psychologists. He has published 700-plus scientific works, including more than 40 books, and has received the highest award given by the Association for Psychological Science for his lifetime achievements. He is the guy who coined the term “negativity bias” and “decision fatigue”, and writes about why we do stupid things, the psychology of heartbreak and S&M. Roy also, somewhat notoriously, wrote the book Willpower, which saw life-hackers worldwide take up morning routines and inspired Barack Obama to wear the same two suits for the entirety of his presidency.

In this episode Roy, who’d been based out of Queensland until the pandemic took him back to the States, talks about all of the above and how it feeds into chocolate, radishes and the economic power of the female orgasm…and the tragedy of male sex drive.

If you want to catch up on the episode with Joseph Henrich talking about the WEIRD phenomenon of psychological studies, here it is.

Read the Pew Research about young people having less sex.

Buy Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength

You can follow Roy Baumeister’s work here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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THOMAS MAYO: The beautifully wild Voice to Parliament, explained

Tue, 02 May 2023 19:01:34 GMT

Thomas Mayo (maritime union worker, author, official advocate for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament) joins me to answer your questions regarding the upcoming referendum to amend the constitution to recognise a Voice. It’s a big, historic and profoundly important moment for every Australian voter. We talk through the basics and drill down into the counterarguments – is there a need for more detail (short answer = no, it’s constitutionally inappropriate to provide more), does it veto laws (no, it advises only), does it give First Nations Peoples more rights (no, it grants no rights). I’ve designed things so you can be best prepared for the vote at the end of the year and for the conversation leading up to it. Also, as an episode to share widely!

I encourage you to read the Uluru Statement from the Heart

Here’s the referendum question: A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.

Do you approve of this proposed alteration?

Get hold of Thomas Mayo’s books, including The Voice to Parliament Handbook written with ABC journalist Kerry O’Brien, and his children’s book about the Uluru Statement, Finding Our Heart.

Check out my Wild conversation with Prof Megan Davis and my interview with The Ethics Centre’s Simon Longstaff who talks about the ethical way to view your vote.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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ANGELA SAINI: How men came to rule the world

Tue, 25 Apr 2023 19:05:28 GMT

Angela Saini (One of the “World’s Top 50 Thinkers”, a leading UK Science Journalist + Author) is a misinformation expert whose intellectual range is truly wild.

Angela has a masters from The Department of War Studies at Kings College London; she’s made documentaries on the climate crisis, birdsong (!) and eugenics; her previous books have tackled race science and gender inequality; she founded “Challenging Pseudoscience” as part of London’s Royal Institution and sits on a bunch of other esteemed British and global scientific boards. Of course, she was named one of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers by Prospect Magazine in 2020 and in 2018 she was voted one of the most respected journalists in the UK!

In this WILD episode, we talk about the theme of her latest book The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule. We smash the patriarchal idea that patriarchies have always existed; show how matriarchies tended to be cooler with gender fluidity; and how we ALL have a part to play in keeping the status quo propped up.

Purchase The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule and read more of Angela's work here and join her on socials here.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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ETHAN KROSS: How to tame your head chatter

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 19:03:00 GMT

Ethan Kross (University of Michigan neuroscientist, author of bestseller Chatter) is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the mind. I came across his work while researching anxiety and found his perspectives on when and how to tame our relentless head chatter (or monkey mind) refreshing. And wild. Ethan is all about appreciating the “beast” that is the fretty voice in our head, while modulating it artfully.

We chat through some seriously effective tools such as talking to ourselves in the second and third person, temporal distancing, sorting your sock drawer and, yep, going for a hike. A life-hack-ish episode, but with scientific grunt.

Check out Ethan’s new book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters and How to Harness It

You can catch up on his work here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BO SEO: How to fix polarization? By disagreeing…more!

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 19:12:30 GMT

Bo Seo (world champion debater, author of Good Arguments) knows how to argue really very well.

The Australian immigrant, now based out of Harvard, is the two-time world debating champion and his new book applies his secret debating sauce to the meatloaf that is this polarised, bifurcated, relentlessly bickering world we now live in. Bo’s wild point is that the problem of polarization isn’t that we disagree, it’s that we need to disagree more. But I need to learn how to do it way better and kinder.

He talks us through how to make killer points; how to combat bullshitters, neg’ers and bullies; when to walk away; plus how to argue with your partner and not lose your shit. He also warns against not arguing. “The cost of being too agreeable is a small life,” he says. At a broader level, the cost is a world unhinged.

Connect with Bo’s work here

Get hold of his book Good Argument

Catch up on my interview with Sara Ness: How to “win" difficult conversations

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MARCUS BUCKINGHAM: What do the “happiest women in the world” get right? They tilt!

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 19:00:31 GMT

Marcus Buckingham (British pop trend researcher, New York Times bestselling author of Standout Strengths) has researched the paradox of female unhappiness - which sees women get more miserable the more freedoms and choices they have - for several decades now (and used to contribute to Cosmopolitan magazine back when I was editor).

Specifically – and inversely - Marcus has worked to determine the thing that the happiest women are doing right. The results are jolting. Far from trying to find balance in their lives, they explicitly seek imbalance. They embrace the chaos, and the competing responsibilities and choose to “tilt” toward the stuff that strengthens them, or that brings them joy and love.

In this chat, we establish how to work out what you love, how to tilt and why it’s imperative that we do so. As Marcus says, “Your brain on love is smarter”.

You can read more about Marcus’s work here and join him on Twitter.

Purchase Love & Work here.

I mention other, wise wild people that I have “hunted down” after writing about their wisdom in one of my books:

The Lady in Red

James Hollis

Sheena Iyengar - discusses the paradox of choice

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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STEPHEN JENKINSON: How to die well

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 19:00:47 GMT

Stephen Jenkinson (Harvard-trained theologian, activist and elder) is an expert in dying. During his 20 years working in “the death trade” he counselled more than 1500 people to their death. He is also the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house for the skills of deep living, he's the subject of the documentary Griefwalker and author of Die Wise: A Manifesto For Sanity and Soul.

Stephen's wild idea is that we must learn to die well…so that we can live well. This is a challenging and poetic conversation. We cover euthanasia (it's death-phobic), elderhood (current boomers have failed at it) and not being “too late” to work it all out.

Stephen reads from his book A Generation’s Worth and we reference his recent books Die Wise and Reckoning

You can get hold of all three at Orphan Wisdom

Stephen is touring his Nights of Grief and Mystery show internationally

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF: Navigating the sad “Mindset” of the billionaire tech bros

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 19:00:12 GMT

Douglas Rushkoff (author, cyberpunk OG (!) and documentarian) is named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, and studies humans struggling to live in an increasingly unhuman world. Which is to say most of us in 2023. I tracked down this big, excitable mind to continue an earlier WILD chat about billionaire apocalypse preppers (August 2022, with Mark O’Connell).

Rushkoff has a wild theory – which he spells out in his latest book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires - for why it is all such a “thing”. It’s The Mindset. He also has an antidote, equally wild: we just need to be more human. We get chatting circular economies, Timothy Leary and how fleeing to Mars is fear of the feminine. Also, stay tuned for a follow-up bonus episode (for my Substack subscribers) in which Rushkoff bangs out intimate life hacks.

Do listen to Douglas' podcast Team Human

Get your copy of Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

Listen to my previous chat with Mark O'Connell

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DR MICHAEL E MANN: There is a new climate war and you need to get armed

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 19:00:12 GMT

Dr Michael E. Mann (super notorious climate scientist; El Niño expert) is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (and more such academic titles). But he is best known for bringing the world the “hockey-stick graph” back in 1999, which showed a sharp “uptick” in global temperatures since the industrial age and signalled to the world “humans did it!”.

This conversation, however, goes to a new chapter in the climate fight. We cover two doozies: the role of Russian interference in the Australian carbon pricing fight and the terrifying El Niño event set to hit as early as July. I also push Michael to be honest - does he have hope, or is it a professional front…

Michael is touring Australia with Think Inc. in May/June 2023

Pre-Order a copy of Michael’s book The Climate War here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MARGARET ATWOOD: The Doyenne of Dystopia turns to creating climate utopias

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:00:37 GMT

Margaret Atwood is best known for her mega-bestselling dystopian fiction, including the Booker Prize-winning novels “The Blind Assassin” and “The Testaments”, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and, most recently, the essay collection “Burning Questions”.

The Canadian firebrand imagines future societies, specifically the worst scenarios in these future societies, worlds of genetic modification, pharmaceutical and corporate control, human-made disasters and theocracies where women’s bodies are controlled by capitalist overlords. And this is the thing – her dark fantasies have a horrifying habit of coming true, Exhibit A: “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a portent for the new abortion laws in the US, the erosion of American democracy, even the January 6 insurrection.

However, at age 83 Margaret, dubbed “the prophet of dystopia”, is turning her vibrancy and wild care to creating… utopias. Or rather, she is trying to find a way to save the world via an online program where participants work with experts to develop solutions to all the wicked problems we’ve created.

Today we discuss how the subordination of women and theocracies follow particular economic cycles, why she’s not quitting Twitter (yet) and what hope will need to look like.

We mention Rebecca Solnit’s book Hope in the Dark and Paul Hawken's book Drawdown, as well as Martha Gellhorn: A Life

Follow Margaret on Substack

Check out Practical Utopias here

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HELEN LEWIS: On slaying Jordan Peterson + declining Andrew Tate

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 19:00:49 GMT

Helen Lewis (internet famous for her GQ interview with Jordan Peterson, pop culture expert) is a British journalist, BBC broadcaster and currently a staff writer for Atlantic magazine. Her work covers the rise of TikTok tics in teenagers, Harry-and-Meghan, Andrew Tate, the absurdities of US and UK politics…you know, all the chunky bits of life in 2023. She also wrote the best bestseller Difficult Women, A History of Feminism in 11 Fights and just released the BBC podcast series The New Gurus. However, Helen is probably best known for her 2018 GQ interview with Jordan Peterson, the controversial Canadian psychologist and messiah of the manosphere (the video version has been viewed 60 million times).

My conversation with Helen was fast and intense and we cover the IDW, Andrew Tate (she declined an invitation to debate him), tactics for arguing with Galaxy Brains and why we don’t use pronouns in our bios. This episode is extra-long because Helen’s riff is that good.

**BONUS ** Join Helen and I over at my Substack, (this is precious) as we talk through our tips for remaining sane amid the noise – a productivity tip, a writing tip, two podcasts, two Substack follows, the book to read and the journalist to follow. Available only on Substack, Friday 3rd March.

Subscribe to Helen’s Substack The Bluestocking – it's a good place to follow her writing and projects

The New Gurus series can be downloaded here

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REBECCA GIBLIN: Chokepoint capitalism is screwing creatives…and you!

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 18:38:19 GMT

Rebecca Giblin (author Chokepoint Capitalism, media academic) joins me to explain how the Big Tech squillionaires are choking creatives – musicians, authors, screenwriters etc – and their customers. And in so doing, killing culture. Hmmm….

Rebecca is a Melbourne Law School professor specialising in creators’ rights and the director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia. Her new book Chokepoint Capitalism (co-written with LA-based bestselling science fiction writer and Boing Boing website owner Cory Doctorow) was awarded a Financial Times' “best books of 2022” gong and is one the most talked about polemics doing the podcast rounds.

In this chat, we discuss the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle, “chickenization” (how the lock-in tactics used by Monsanto are now applied to live music), whether Spotify playlists are part of the problem, and what we can all do to win back culture again! A must-listen for creatives, music lovers, concert-goers.

Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow is out now.

Follow Rebecca on Twitter. She does good twit!

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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NICK RIGGLE: A philosophical case for being awesome

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 19:00:38 GMT

Nick Riggle (Ex-pro skater, philosophy professor at the University of California, YOLO expert) has become known for dissecting contemporary phenomena in a distinctly Socratic manner.

In this chat, we delve into the philosophical significance of awesomeness (and its antonym, suckiness), the existential imperative of YOLO (!) and the aetiology of the high five. Nick’s theses on these cliched expressions ultimately lead to a wonderfully wild answer to the quandary of what makes life worth living in such a fraught era. To flesh it all out we draw on sporting analogies, the poetry of Mary Oliver and each other’s really rather near-death experiences.

We mention philosopher Kieran Setiya, here you can listen to Kieran’s Wild episode featuring his take on how to love living a hard life.

You can read more about Nick via his website and follow him on Twitter

Nicks books can be purchased via the below links:

On Being Awesome

This Beauty: A Philosophy of Being Alive

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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DR SIMON LONGSTAFF: The world needs ethical heroes (here’s how to be one)

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:00:19 GMT

Dr Simon Longstaff (Philosopher, Festival of Dangerous Ideas, The Ethics Centre) is one of Australia’s most ethical thinkers. He mindfully stokes the national debate on cancel culture, corporate conduct, mask-wearing and psychedelic drugs (via his role as chair of Mind Medicine Australia). Simon guides contemporary moral thinking as the ethics commissioner for Cricket Australia, the executive director of The Ethics Centre, which advises corporates on how to make better decisions, and as a fellow of CPA Australia, the World Economic Forum and…oh, the list goes on. Simon also co-founded the contentious Festival of Dangerous Ideas!

In this wonderful conversation we discuss his harrowing childhood experience with an ethical decision made by his mother and how it shaped his moral journey, how to counter “Free Speech at All Costs” evangelists and whether it’s ethical to quit Twitter... and much more!

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Simon mentions 10 videos to help you navigate ethical quandaries…you’ll find them here

You can join The Ethics Centre community here

Learn more about the Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Simon also recommends Ethi-Call. You can call for free ethical advice here

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YAEL STONE: On loving the messiness of wokism and being wrong

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 04:53:33 GMT

Yael Stone (Star of Orange is the New Black, Founder of Hi Neighbour, Climate Activist) and I have been IG friends, supporting each other’s climate work, for some years.

In 2021 Yael Stone gave up her Green Card to combat climate change and committed to offsetting future overseas gigs by donating 50% of earnings to climate charities. Now she runs Hi Neighbour, a community platform that assists in the “just transition” for fossil fuel workers into low-carbon jobs.

I have admired Yael's wildness from afar but decided it was time to meet IRL. For this conversation we sit in her garage in the small town of Bulli and discuss how much we love “wokism” intricacies, the complexities of the Geoffrey Rush case and how getting arrested as “a middle-class white lady” does no one any good. Be warned, this episode gets raw.

Follow Yael on Instagram. This is best.

And it’s worth watching Yael’s explainer for donating to climate charities here

Here’s a link to her awesome Hi Neighbour platform, with materials for rolling out her concept in your neighbourhood.

You might also like to listen to the Saul Griffith episode I mention – about how to electrify your home.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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BEST OF: TIM BROWN. This chat with my meditation teacher is one of the most

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 20:00:12 GMT

It’s the time of year when we all need some inspiring, expansive perspectives and I reckon this chat with Tim, which I recorded a little while back, might be a great listen as you go about your summer road trips and making 2023 commitments.

Tim trained with the Vedic tradition and has taught meditation to elite athletes, jail inmates, billionaires and kids for more than 20 years. The guy’s been part of my spiritual journey for 12 years and has guided me with my career, love life and various calamities. We meet for coffee and peanut butter toast most weeks…this episode we bring a recorder and discuss: trusting in the logic of the universe (the wild idea for the week) and how (and why) we should render ourselves choiceless (it's the ultimate freedom!). We also talk about the spiritual brilliance that is the movie Groundhog Day… which he likes to watch again. And Again. And again. Ha!

The movie we mention, Groundhog Day

You can learn to meditate (and more!) with Tim here

For more wonderful insights follow Tim on Instagram

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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BEST OF: OLIVER BURKEMAN. Because his 4000 weeks theory became very hot.

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:00:38 GMT

This interview got a lot of (shocked!) feedback, so I figured I’d run it again as we start thinking about heading back to work. Again. And contemplating “what it’s all about”.

British writer Oliver Burkeman has investigated pretty much every productivity hack, mindfulness trick, list-making system and happiness boost we've ever been fed. He concludes, almost none work. Ha!

I followed Oliver's column in The Guardian, which he wrote from his home in Brooklyn, New York, for about 10 years and he is definitely my favourite anti-self-help self-help writer!

It's been a few years since his last book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, and just as I found myself asking where Oliver Burkeman was at since quitting his popular column last year, I noticed he had a new book out that makes the startling point - we have a very short time on this planet, about Four Thousand Weeks (also the title of the book).

This is the wild idea we discuss in this episode. Oliver asks, given life is short, what are you going to do about it?

Oliver’s books that we spoke about:

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

Four Thousand Weeks

The Pomodoro timer app here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

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BEST OF: DR JILL BOLTE TAYLOR. Learning to live in the right brain – possibly the best New Year hack ever.

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 20:00:01 GMT

I discovered Jill's story in her viral TED Talk from 2008 (it became the most-watched TED talk ever!) in which the brain scientist describes watching the left side of her brain deteriorate over the course of four hours on the morning of her stroke and how she used her right brain to stay present and get help.

I was transfixed. Ever since I've wondered, whatever happened to Jill Bolte Taylor? Did she go back to normal? Is she still living in her right brain and able to experience the “oneness” that spiritualists and quantum physicists can only point to? If so, is she lonely?

This chat is one of my favourites in the Wild series and the wisdom Jill shares, I think, is perfectly placed to guide those of us seeking fresh thinking into the New Year.

In this chat we get into her how stroke stripped her of her relationships and emotions, understanding the power of each hemisphere of the brain and techniques we can all use to go right and be legitimately and neuroscientifically wilder!

You can purchase Jill's books

Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Watch her TED Talk here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: DAVID POCOCK. Want to know more about the Australian Senator making waves in Canberra?

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 20:00:25 GMT

He was the captain of the Wallabies, the only Australian player to be included in World Rugby's team of the decade, but - wildly – retired at the height of his career to devote his life to climate activist projects here in Australia and in Africa.

I recorded this interview shortly after David quit rugby and several months before he decided to run as an independent Senator in the Australian Parliament. He won the ticket and has gone on to become an extremely powerful and highly regarded political voice in this country and a bit of a figure of intrigue…how did such an introverted, considered WEAPON OF A FOOTBALL player wind up here? It seemingly makes no sense. This is why I figured many of you would love to listen to this chat (perhaps for a second time) in which he wrestles with how he can best make an impact. It provides some wonderful insight into the thinking that preceded his decision to enter politics.

Dave and I became friends talking about activism, Jungian psychology and the meaning of life over Instagram some time back. In this chat, he talks with me about grief, why Australian men aren't waking up, the sadness of facing the climate reality, and – yeah – how to make a wild decision.

Dave promised to send a list of the books that have shaped his wildness. He's a man of his word;

Living Between Worlds - James Hollis

Food Fix - Mark Hyman

Finding Resilience - Brian Walker

Everything is Spiritual - Rob Bell

The Will to Change - bell hooks

A Life on Our Planet - David Attenborough

Call of the Reed Warbler - Charles Massy

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BEST OF: SIA.The chat where I make the artist cry.

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:00:18 GMT

Sia is one of the most gifted and wild creatives on the planet, best known for the hundreds of hit pop songs she's written for herself, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kanye West, and for being notoriously private, rarely doing interviews. This is why I remain so damn chuffed that she agreed to be my FIRST guest here on Wild. I recall being soooo nervous and out of my depth. But also thoroughly enjoying this incredible human’s quirky company.

In this chat, Sia gets intimate with me about fostering, why she uses medication to support her art (and keep her alive), and her wild idea - how she, as an artist, “runs with an idea” without apology. Oh, and I make her cry.

You can find the details of Sia's film Music, her music and art here.

Follow SIA on Instagram

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I FOUND MAMMOTH DUDE: Special episode

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 20:00:17 GMT

I share a glorious, wild, life-affirming story in this special episode. Some of you might have read my book This One Wild and Precious Life and remember the bit where I wind up in Mammoth in the Sierra Nevada and rant at a young guy sitting in a vegan smoothie café about his single-use plastic cups (he was drinking several vegan beverages). He takes it well and asks to read a few pages of the book (I was working on the draft of the climate chapter as we spoke). "Wow! Can you put that mind-blasting stuff in dot points?" he asks. I said I would if he quit his stinking single-use habit. I kept my end of the deal (I shoehorned the whole climate catastrophe into bullets!!). And, it turns out, so did he!!

It was an adventure to find “Mammoth Dude” because - wait for it - he’s now quit consumption altogether(!), lives off-grid in a trailer in the forest with his dog and... had read my book! This chat brought me so much joy. We cover capitalism, loneliness, leaning into people, the magic of meeting strangers and those margins I put in my books for writing notes in. But the story gets even better…following our chat, Mammoth Dude (Avi Pell is his name) went on to live out one of the life dreams he flags in our conversation.

If you want to see the video version of our conversation, and the details of the epic Mammoth Lakes hike I did, as well as the beautiful email convo between Avi and I (clue: he's started a hiking company and I'll be joining him on one of his tours!) I'll be sharing this with my membership community. Join the family at sarahwilson.substack.com

You can grab your copy of This One Wild and Precious Life here.

I mention Sylvain Tesson's book Consolations of the Forest, you can get it here.

And don't forget to favourite Wild on Apple and Spotify.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AZIZ ABU SARAH: A radical Palestinian peace broker on how to solve wicked conflicts

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 20:00:27 GMT

How to find peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in one podcast episode? Ha! You 210% can’t. But if there is someone who can provide a vision for it, it’s Palestinian peace broker Aziz Abu Sarah. Aziz grew up in East Jerusalem and lost a brother to the conflict when he was nine when the Israeli military stormed his home in the middle of the night. At 18, however, he turned his hatred around and today Aziz is one of the world's most powerful and connected peacebuilders and cultural educators.

He’s a National Geographic Explorer and Ted Fellow and has founded and led countless global conflict resolution organisations including Bereaved Families Forum and the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University and co-founded (with an American Israeli-Jew) the first dual narrative tour company (led by a guide from each “side”). We recorded this episode in Tel Aviv a few days before the recent Israeli election and we cover boycotts, Jerusalem (capital or not) and two wild strategies that *actually* work for most conflicts. Added bonus: Our chat cuts to the very heart of what it means to be human.

Aziz’s dual narrative tour business is Mejdi Tours and he ran this tour with Impact Safari

He’s also written a book that shows how to travel as a force for peace

I ran a bunch of other interviews with peacebuilders while I was there, which you can find on my substack

And here are the organisations employing the dual narrative approach that I promised to list:

Combatants for Peace

Bereaved Families Forum

Interact International

Hands of Peace

Healing Across the Divides

Creativity for Peace

Tech for Peace

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

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SETH GODIN: Ratcheting up the climate fight...with capitalism!

Tue, 06 Dec 2022 20:00:01 GMT

Seth Godin never does anything the normal way. The prolific marketing guru and disrupter joins us here on Wild for a second time to chat about what he describes as the most important project of his life, a crowd-created Climate Almanac, created by a 300-person army of scientists, artists and teachers from 41 countries who turned around the 97000-word book in 120 days.

The wild idea we wrestle with in this episode is the very act of not doing climate activism the normal way. We talk about ditching activism and plastic recycling, ratcheting up capitalism (!!) and how to market discomfort as “sexy” (as many of you know, this is where I feel so much progress gets stuck – a resistance to leaving the capitalist cocoon of convenience). Activists and the Concerned ‘n’ Frustrated – this is an episode for you. It is peppered with pithy elevator pitches and helpful factlets about leaf blowers and patio heaters.

Connect with the whole Carbon Almanac project here or purchase the book here

Listen to the Kim Stanley Robinson episode that we reference here

You can listen to my first Wild chat with Seth here

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

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BAYO AKOMOLAFE: The times are urgent, let’s slow down and become a fugitive

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 20:00:58 GMT

This week’s guest will “shock you into noticing the world differently.”

The glorious Bayo Akomolafe is a Nigerian-born Yoruba poet, author and teacher at universities and institutions across the UK, the US, Canada and India. He has also won the 2021 New Thought Walden Award which honours empowering spiritual ideas and philosophies that change lives and make our planet a better place. Bayo uses “trickster philosophy” and intense metaphors to present truly wild – but intuitively sound - ways to cope with the complex, existential challenges that we face.

This is a madly challenging conversation and we touch on relaxing into our entanglement with the world, and how to be a fugitive. Bayo invites us to abandon "solutionism" and to ask different questions: What is climate collapse asking of us? What if the way we’re responding to the crisis is part of the crisis? What if the “answer” is to join the chaos and give in to nature?

Bayo is a sage for our times and I truly encourage everyone to experience his wild mind and words…and to learn how to become a fugitive!

You can connect with Bayo via his website and Twitter

Here is the poem I ask Bayo to read out

And here is the essay What Climate Collapse Asks of Us

He references Ursula K Le Guin’s book The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

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HOLDEN KARNOFSKY: The most important century is now. Blimey

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 16:00:48 GMT

This episode continues the fascinating-slash-frightening journey I’ve been on with you, to understand what we should prioritise as we face potential existential end times. Today’s guest, Harvard researcher and philanthropist Holden Karnofsky, brings the AI, effective altruism, longtermism and anti-growth debates together with the clarion call: “This is our moment, this century is make-or-break, pay attention people!” It’s not an idle or hysterical call, it’s one that Holden has researched extensively and is backed by global leaders in the space.

As some background: Holden founded Givewell, the charity evaluator that has raised more than $US1billion for charities that have saved more than 150,000 lives (Bill Gates, Sam Harris and the now disgraced billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried use it) and Open Philanthropy investigates more speculative causes. So if this is the most important century, what does it mean for us? What are our responsibilities? What’s going to happen? Buckle up, says Holden, because, “we live in wild times and should be ready for anything to happen”.

Here’s the "most important century" blog post series we talk about.

I also flag Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. As well as this Vice article about how scientists can’t explain how AI works.

You might also want to go back and listen to the episodes with Peter Singer on effective altruism, Will Macaskill on Longtermism and Elise Bohan on misaligned AI and transhumanism.

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation.

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CLARE PRESS: There is no such thing as sustainable fashion. Now what?

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 16:00:09 GMT

The fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater and more carbon emissions than ALL international flights and ALL maritime shipping COMBINED. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget.

Ex-Vogue journalist and founder of The Wardrobe Crisis (the book, podcast and academy) Clare Press joins me to wrestle the quandaries: Is vegan leather ethical? Are recycled plastic leggings green? What labels are legit carbon neutral? Does the stuff I donate to St Vinnies just go to landfill? (Yup.) Is it true when I return something online it goes to landfill and not back on rack? (Double yup!). I wanted to do this episode to set the truly shocking facts straight and share the tangible better options, but also to posit the wild idea of redefining fashion style in a new, far more creative way. Dig in!

Check out The Wardrobe Crisis, the book, podcast and academy of courses

Follow Clare on instagram

We discuss an Atlantic article about returning online purchases, you can read it here.

Clare’s Recommendations:

The scorecard/resources for finding “good” brands: The Or Foundation, Oxfam’s Naughty or Nice, Fashion Revolution and Baptist World Aid Guide.

The book to read: Loved clothes last by Orsola De Castro

The recycling app: Upparel

The influencer to follow: Maggis Zhu

The documentary to watch: 'Slay'

The label: The Social Outfit in Newtown based in Sydney, or check out the sister organisations in Melbourne and London.

I mentioned that Kay Montano in London had recommended a 1951 film The Man in the White Suit

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JENNIFER ROBINSON: Public educated kids speak out!

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:00:48 GMT

There’s a young Australian human rights lawyer and barrister who has been at the centre of the most era-defining legal cases in the world. She has represented Julian Assange since 2010. She led the Amber Heard case. She worked on the case against the CIA’s drone strikes in Pakistan and a case against the Catholic Church over child sex abuse. She was also a legal adviser to The New York Times in the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal and regularly fronts up to the International Court of Justice and various UN human rights bodies representing the poor, oppressed, the maligned. Her name’s Jen Robinson, and she grew up in a low-income family in the small rural town of Berry, proudly schooled in public education and went on to be a Rhodes scholar and to work alongside Geoffrey Robertson and George Clooney’s wife Amal.

Jen and I get mighty fired up about …speaking up...speaking up as an act of vitality and antidote to depression. We also cover why we want our friends to send their kids to public schools, the inside take on the Assange case, what we need to know about the Amber Heard case (big slap in face for me) and her new book, How Many More Woman, which shares how women can beat the legal system at its own game (and speak up!).

You can now purchase Jen’s book, How Many More Women here

Follow Jen on Twitter

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

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BEAU MILES: become a backyard adventurer.

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:00:11 GMT

We crave adventure to break up the ho-hum of our everyday lives. But busting ruts doesn’t have to be all about conquering Everest or ticking off bucket list challenges. We can get the same result as a “backyard adventurer”.

Beau Miles, a Patagonia and Outward Bound ambassador, author and YouTube star, used to be a mad explorer – he’s indeed conquered Everest base camp, became the first person to run 650kms across the Australian Alps, kayaked Bass Strait and the rest. But a few years back he made the switch to exploring the world closer to home and now inspires a league of fans who froth over his mad-as videos of running the length of the old Warragul-Noojee Railway line to learn its history (dressed in a train driver uniform, carrying a shovel and three jars of dried pasta, just to chuck a hardship bomb into the equation), eating his body weight in beans (to see what happens), and spending a night in the tree outside his front door. This is a more of a fun two-way chat where the two of us compare notes on flipping your day-to-day life into a flirtation, getting out of life ruts, playing and loving being weird.

Grab Beau’s book The Backyard Adventurer: Meaningful and pointless expeditions, self-experiments and the value of other people's junk

Stay up to date with all his adventures via Instagram

You can watch Beau’s films here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

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KIERAN SETIYA: How to love living a hard life

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 16:00:11 GMT

Life is hard. And yet so much of contemporary life compels us to fight this fundamental reality. We are meant to be happy! We are meant to live our best, most #blissful, potential-stacked life! But I talk with Kieran Setiya, a professor of philosophy at MIT, who argues we should #NotLiveOurBestLife. It’s better to aspire to a life that is, well, good enough. Kieran has appeared on Sam Harris’ podcast, written for the New York Times, the London Review of Books etc bringing a philosophical argument to pop issues such as the Dave Chapelle quandary, baseball and the worth of having a midlife crises. In his latest book, Life is Hard, he draws on Aristotle, Wittgenstein, and Simone Weil - as well as Groundhog Day and Joan Didion – to guide us to a good life, which entails embracing pain and hardship. In this chat we cover: How to make friends; what if the whole world turned sterile; the beauty of chronic pain and Kieran’s thesis for “the meaning of life” (it’s a cracker, and it’s not 42!).

Grab Kieran’s book Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way

Read some of his essays and connect with him via his website

He mentions he came across Wild via this interview with Katherine May

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

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KIM STANLEY ROBINSON: The greatest living sci-fi author goes hiking

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 16:00:57 GMT

He is regarded as the greatest science fiction writer alive and his most recent book, set in the climate catastrophe-wracked near future, The Ministry for the Future, is recommended widely by Barack Obama and Ezra Klein and such is the accuracy of his futuristic depictions Kim Stanley Robinson is now called upon to consult on climate solutions by the Pentagon and at COP26.

But Kim is also a mad hiker and his latest book The High Sierra: A Love Story is a hiking guidebook-slash-meditation-slash-dedication to what he calls psychogeology (the way places shape the ways we think). I’ve been busting to have this chat. The Ministry for the Future blew my mind when I read it at the end of 2020, and we cover a bunch of expansive and wild ideas: how moving your desk outdoors can restart your career, geoengineering, donut economics and what your hiking gear says about your lack of critical thought (Kim is an ultra-lighter; wait until you hear how much is backpack weighs for a week’s trek!). Kim is 70 now and in many ways I find this chat to be inspirational fodder for mapping a life well-lived.

Grab a copy of The Ministry for the Future

Kim’s latest book is The High Sierra: A Love Story

We also mention:

Nan Shepard: The Living Mountain

Thomas Piketty: Brief History of Equality

Kate Raworth: Doughnut Economics

And here’s a link to Network for Greening the Financial Systems

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MATT BROWNE: The rise of the bro-caster guru (it’s a thing!)

Tue, 11 Oct 2022 16:00:44 GMT

Do you listen to Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, Russell Brand or maybe a bit of Lex Freidman? They are the biggest names in podcasting (and beyond) and they started out as progressive voices, robustly questioning the status quo and challenging dominant interests and often bringing alternative spiritual or psychological perspectives to the big debates. But a trend has emerged among this crew of “bro-casters”.

My guest in this episode, Australian psychology academic Matt Browne, argues that as their fame rises, many slide into taking on “guru” status. Matt is cohost of DECODING THE GURUS, a somewhat controversial podcast that does as it says on the packet, and I get him on to dissect this pop cultural phenomenon for us.

We talk: the intellectual dark web (IDW); “galaxy brain”; what’s the deal with their all-meat diets and love of MMA; why young men flock to these gurus; and what it all says about the world, specifically our need for good, humble leadership. It’s a bit of a “meta” chat this one, but wild and intriguing too. I challenge everyone to determine their own take as they listen to Matt and I dissect the topic (he and I don’t agree on it all, BTW).

Listen to Decoding the Gurus here

Follow Matt on twitter

Matt mentions two non “pseude psychological bullshit” podcasts to look out for: Very Bad Wizards and Two Psychologists Four Beers.

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation.

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MARY ANN SIEGHART: Smash the authority gap!

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 16:00:31 GMT

There is a massive “authority gap” that exists in the world today, where women are taken way less seriously than men and still treated as less competent. They are interrupted four times as often as men and are overlooked for not being as confident as a bloke (while studies show that men’s perceived additional confidence is mostly “bullshitting”). And, yet, as my guest London-based journalist and broadcaster Mary Ann Sieghart explains, there are only wins to be had by closing this authority gap.

Mary Ann both coined the term and wrote the book by the same name and she shares with me that when gender parity is achieved men experience less divorce, less suicide, less addiction, their chances of dying a violent death are almost halved and their happiness increases; while nations with female leaders have less corruption, better health outcomes and experience a spike in GDP. I find this chat wild in its dispelling of the misconception that making the world more balanced is a zero-sum game (that as women achieve gains, men lose out). Quite the opposite!

Our chat comes on the 10-year anniversary of former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech…Mary Ann leaves us with a super interesting insight on this, too.

Grab Mary Ann’s book, The Authority Gap

Follow her on Instagram and Twitter

Here’s the data on the gender gap in Australia that I refer to.

And here’s Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech in full.

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ELISE BOHAN: Ah shit, transhumanism….

Tue, 27 Sep 2022 17:00:51 GMT

What if we could bioengineer our bodies to live forever, would we and should we? What if we could avoid all the awkward bits of sex and just neatly copulate with a robot? And what if we never had to go through the bother and pain of pregnancy and could instead use artificial external wombs? Would we? And should we?

Transhumanists say these are moot questions because the superhuman or post-human train has well and truly left the station. We’re only decades from these altered, souped up realities. Oxford transhumanist scholar Elise Bohan and I roll our sleeves up to discuss the litany of moral questions that arise from this, like why the hell were we not consulted on this before the train took off? Has anyone stopped to ask if this is what humanity wants or can handle morally? We chat about the singularity, the particularly worrying effects on men and dating and Elise posits a timeframe for AI intelligence taking over from human smarts (!). If ever there was a conversation in history to get us talking about what matters and makes for a flourishing existence, this is it. Take a deep breath…

Grab Elise’s book, Future Superhuman: Our Transhuman Lives in a Make-or-Break Century

I refer to the book Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

And we reference previous podcast chats with William Macaskill

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

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JOELLE GERGIS: How an IPCC lead author does climate grief

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 07:57:52 GMT

You know the latest IPCC* Assessment Report? The one that came out at the end of 2021 that the UN secretary general dubbed “Code Red for humanity”? Australian climate scientist Joëlle Gergis was one of its lead authors responsible for its 3 million words of truly stark wake-up-call content.

This episode I catch up with her at the Byron Writer’s Festival (where she was launching her new book on climate grief) and volley her with questions compiled by my Substack membership community.

What does the report predict for Australia in 20 years? What can I tell my Dad when he says “we’ve always had climate warming cycles”? Is carbon capture and storage a furphy? Joelle rallies off the facts, but also shares a beautiful wisdom on climate grief, or “solastalgia” as it’s often called.

* International Panel on Climate Change

Grab Joëlle's book now Humanity's Moment: A climate scientist's case for hope

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JOSH SZEPS: In which the Joe Rogan regular interviews ME!

Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:00:32 GMT

Right, we’re doing something different this episode. Uber-talented radio/TV/podcast host and contrarian Josh Szeps has me on his Uncomfortable Conversations podcast to chat sugar, cannonau wine, class wars, woke-speak, ethics, the decline of innovation in wealthy countries, how men around the world behave on dating apps and the perils of looking like could be on an insurance ad.

For some context: Josh is currently the host of afternoons on ABC Radio Sydney and you might also have heard him hosting a bunch of other TV, radio and podcast shows here and in the US where he was a regular on NBC’s Today Show, or the time – earlier this year – when he ‘annihilated’ Joe Rogan during a rambling frustrating chat about vaccines.

Check out Josh’s podcast Uncomfortable Conversations

Follow Josh on Twitter and Instagram

That Harvard study I mention? Check it out here

I also mention my podcast ep with Lech Blaine. You can listen here

As well as the Will Macaskill chat on Longtermism…listen here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

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A.C. GRAYLING: How to have your own life philosophy

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 17:00:16 GMT

If only we all learned to think more we might solve the problems of the world. This is a thesis British philosopher A.C. Grayling has devoted much of his life to via his 40-odd books, the philosophy college he founded in London and his engagement in global debates on euthanasia, the existence God, Brexit and beyond. In his latest book, For the Good of the World, he applies it to the challenge of achieving global agreement to solve the various global catastrophes we have created.

In this fun chat we talk “Graylings Law”, the “hard problem” of consciousness and why tech bros and young men love stoicism; I present him with the ethical quandary of putting lentils in SUV tyre valves as an act of global good; and he shows us how to develop our own life philosophy…by loving, engaging in and wrestling with thinking. He also leaves us with some wild quotes and reads and wisdoms with which to start the process.

Purchase your copy of For the Good of the World: Is a Universal Ethics Possible

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversation.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.

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ANDREW QUILTY: “I chose to live in a war zone” (possibly the most intimate pod chat so far)

Tue, 30 Aug 2022 17:00:05 GMT

This episode is an intense one. It’s with multi-Walkley Award-winning Australian photographer Andrew Quilty who has spent the past eight years living and working in the Afghanistan capital Kabul, documenting the conflict for publications around the world. We talk about the details of the decades-long occupation and go into the story of that day - one year ago - when the Taliban arrived at the gates of Kabul as the allied forces and tens of thousands of Afghans tried to flee in scenes of chaos and tragedy (which he shares in his new book August in Kabul).

But, really, this conversation is more about meaning. And what makes life worthwhile when the standard accoutrements are stripped away by destruction and human ugliness? I recommend looking up Andrew's photographs as you listen to him in this episode share his very raw account of life in a war zone, his take on the morality of capturing and sharing images of humans in their worst moments, as well as his very intimate reflections on finding meaning in “homecoming”.

Andrew’s book, August in Kabul is out this week

Scroll his photographs as you listen

We mention Sebastian Junger’s Tribe… you can grab it here

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

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MARK O’CONNELL: Meet the apocalypse preppers

Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:00:06 GMT

In exclusive pockets around the world rich, white (mostly) men are prepping for end times. They are hoarding resources and building bunkers, putting billions into funding their place on Mars. They could be funding renewable energy projects, or putting their efforts into restoring political stability, you know, finding ways for humanity to survive on our beloved Earth. But no.

Irish author and journalist Mark O’Connell conducted something of a perverse pilgrimage of these pockets for his book Notes from an Apocalypse and in this episode I talk with him about how we should feel about such a dividing phenomenon. And, importantly, what we can learn from it…before it becomes our future.

Follow Mark on Twitter

Grab Mark’s book, Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.

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WILLIAM MACASKILL: On “longtermism” and moral responsibility

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 23:34:32 GMT

Our existential risk – the probability that we could wipe ourselves out due to AI, bio-engineering, nuclear war, climate change, etc. in the next 100 years – currently sits at 1 in 6. Let that sink in! Would you get on a plane if there was a 17% chance it would crash? Would you do everything you could to prevent a calamity if you were presented with those odds?

My chat today covers a wild idea that could – and should - better our chances of existing as a species…and lead to a human flourishing I struggle to even imagine. Longtermism argues that prioritising the long-term future of humanity has exponential ethical and existential boons. Flipside, if we don’t choose the longtermism route, the repercussions are well devastating.

Will MacAskill is one of the world’s leading moral philosophers and I travel to Oxford UK, where he runs the Centre for Effective Altruism, the Global Priorities Institute and the Forethought Foundation, to talk through these massive moral issues. Will also explains that right now is the most important time in humanity’s history. Our generation singularly has the power and responsibility to determine two diametrically different paths for humanity. This excites me; I hope it does you, too.

Learn more about Will MacAskill’s work

Purchase his new book What We Owe the Future: A Million year view

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.

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ROB HENDERSON: Woke “luxury beliefs” are the new Birkins and Bentleys

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 21:59:16 GMT

The wealthy elite once signalled their status with expensive handbags and super yachts. Now they do it with what Rob Henderson calls “luxury beliefs” - so-called politically correct pronouncements that, in reality, only the rich can afford to live by and thusly differentiate them from the rest of us. We’re talking about such wokenesses as “defund the police” and calls for drug legalisation, death to marriage and putting “polyamorous” on your dating profile. Of course, defunding the police is all very well if you can afford to live in a gated community with low crime and security guards.

It should be said, Rob, now a moral philosopher at the University of Cambridge, comes at this wild idea from a very unique perspective. He grew up poor, a foster kid who was doing drugs at the age of 9 and who had to learn to decode elite signalling as an outsider once he hit the liberal US university scene. This is a super juicy and confronting thesis, evidence of which I can’t stop noticing everywhere and I loved the way Rob applies the wild idea to online dating, cancel culture and conservative politics.

Follow Rob on Twitter

Check out Rob's Website

And you can read the New York Times op-ed we talk about.

His book Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class will be published in the European fall of 2023.

We chat about Joseph Henrich’s WEIRD theory and class myths in Australia from my Lech Blaine chat, both ran a few episodes back.

If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram! It’s where I interact the most.

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Ask Me Anything: In which British National Treasure Melissa Hemsley fires your questions at me

Tue, 02 Aug 2022 23:59:13 GMT

Breaking things up a bit this episode with an AMA from London where I'm staying with my good friend Melissa Hemsley, cookbook author, sustainable food advocate and humanitarian. Mel kindly reads out a bunch of juicy questions: Do you have botox? How do we stay hopeful in the climate crisis when giving up and just enjoying the few remaining "normal years" is easier? Should 16 year-olds be allowed to vote? What about trying mushrooms for anxiety? How do you make friends as an adult?

Much of the chat comes back to pulsing between the either/ors we are confronted with, finding the "sweet spot" and making the struggle artful.

You can follow Melissa @melissa.hemsley and melissahemsley.com...she runs cooking courses and tutorials.

Some of the other names we mentioned:

@susanjanekitchen

@thehappypear

@clerkenwellboyec1

I mentioned the link to the beauty products I use https://www.nourishedlife.com.au/search.html?tag=sarah-wilson

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KATHERINE MAY: The power of “Wintering”

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 17:00:38 GMT

Wintering is the process of resting and withdrawing in dark, or fallow, periods, respecting the rhythm of the cycles of nature and the role of winter. A lost art in a summer-based culture. British author Katherine May writes: “There are gaps in the mesh of the everyday world, and sometimes they open up and you fall through them to somewhere else..into a sad and lonely and isolated place." These gaps may open from the loss of a loved one, difficult childbirth, illness, the loss of a job, failure in love and so on.

In this chat, Katherine and I go deep and gentle, on creating space (as opposed to time) to reflect, “enjoying” sadness and how to carve out a meaningful life when you have a chronic illness (and autism). Katherine’s wild idea is that returning to a cyclical - rather than forever-reaching linear – view of the human experience is how we can bring about the healing and guidance we need in such dark and sad times.

Learn more about Katherine here

Buy her book Wintering

Katherine's next book, Enchantment, will be published in 2023.

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DAVID FULLER: Sensemaking 101

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 17:00:31 GMT

We can’t make sense of the world anymore, right? How can we when our leaders lie, the media publishes non-truths, conspiracies spread faster than facts and the algorithms favour bullshit? Recently, I’ve started following a “Sensemaking movement” of philosophers, renegades, sociologists and psychologists who are trying to return the world to truthfulness. And it excites me no end! Sensemaking is a very fun and dynamic set of theories and techniques for sorting truth from lies and also for ensuring we live truthfully ourselves.

While I was in London, I sat down with BBC filmmaker David Fuller who founded Rebel Wisdom – THE international hub for this movement - to do something a little different. I got him to run us through a 101 on how to sense-make. We cover lies v bullshitting (and how bullshitting is more dangerous) the Boris/Scott/Donald travesty (all bullshitters), sovereignty and arguing with climate sceptics. Along the way he gives a brilliant overview of what really is the most exciting and wild “wisdom” movement to emerge in decades. I feel this is a really important episode for where I’ll be taking this Wild ride in the coming months.

Join the Rebel Wisdom community and look out for their upcoming Sensemaking 101 course

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DAVID WALLACE-WELLS: “The climate crisis might not be as bad as we thought” (a slight retraction)

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 17:00:27 GMT

He famously wrote the New York magazine essay that told us “it is worse, much worse than you think” and painted an apocalyptic picture of an “Uninhabitable Earth” by 2100.

The essay, which became the #1 New York Times bestseller 'The Uninhabitable Earth', singlehandedly shook the world into “OK, we’re officially freaked out” mode.

But five years on, is the climate emergency as bad as David Wallace-Wells initially portrayed? Will Manhattan be underwater? Will there be half as much food, twice as much war and hundreds of millions of climate refugees? David, now one of the most well-known climate voices in the world, joins me to adjust his initial prognosis. Strap in for this one…it’s an important and confronting (yet hopeful) ride.

Read the original The Uninhabitable Earth essay here

Or get The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future on Amazon

You can sign up for David’s New York Times newsletter here

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KYLIE MOORE-GILBERT: How to survive 804 days captured and tortured by Iranian militants

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 17:00:20 GMT

She spent two years and three months in a brutal Iranian prison. In solitary confinement for half of it. For a crime that was entirely made up. The Melbourne University lecturer was attending a conference in Iran when she was randomly captured at the airport and charged with “espionage” based on zero evidence.

How do you survive such horror? How do you cope with living in a cell with nothing but a scrap of carpet for a year? Not knowing if anyone knows your whereabouts, waiting to be hanged? What is the internal voice that gets you through?

Kylie Moore-Gilbert has one of the most incredible stories I’ve heard.

In this interview, she is generously open and raw about the mind techniques that can get a human through untold hardship, how she found joy and forgiveness amid it all, how she wrote her book in her head while in prison, and what is left when we lose it all.

You can follow Kylie on Instagram

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I highly recommend buying Kylie’s book The Uncaged Sky

The other book we mention in the chat is Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.

Listen to Dr Jud Brewer’s chat about curiosity.

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JOSEPH HENRICH: You are weird! Here’s the scientist who can explain why

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 17:00:38 GMT

I really love the wild theory we explore in this episode. About 1500 years ago some obscure Catholic pope declared we probably shouldn’t marry our cousin. And from here the “West” was born. A psychologically peculiar subset of humanity then rose to dominate the planet, namely western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic folk. You know, WEIRD people. You and I. Joseph Henrich is a Harvard professor in evolutionary biology who took 10 years to research this truly Zeitgeist-shifting theory. Today he explains how the arrogant assumption that we are the “normal” ones has led to some very bizarre stuff – whether we pay parking tickets, how much testosterone we have and whether we feel shame or guilt when we do wrong.

Connect with Dr Henrich’s work here.

Get hold of his fun book The Weirdest People In The World

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LECH BLAINE: The death of "blokes" (strap in for this one!)

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 17:00:12 GMT

I have been wanting to talk blokedom for a very long time: How and why it defines so much about Australia; how it excludes and masks the existence of class inequalities; and how it holds us back as a nation. The myth of the larrikin bloke is something writer Lech Blaine has been studying for some time. Hailing from a very working class background in Toowoomba, Queensland, he went on to be the first person in his extended family to go to university. He wrote a Quarterly Essay in September last year titled Top Blokes: The larrikin Myth, Class and Power (which I highly recommend reading). And in this month’s Monthly magazine he has written an epic overview of the election, which assesses Scott Morrison's demise as a reflection of the need to move on from the "top bloke" trope. The wild idea on the table this episode: Might it be time to kill off this sexist, racist myth...and move forward to better and fairer and kinder?

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JULIA CAMERON: How to live the artist's way

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 17:00:26 GMT

In 1992 Julia Cameron published a book that saw the whole world (it seemed) suddenly writing "morning pages", these free-from diary entries that unblocked creativity. The Artist's Way was the title and it became a global bestseller in 40 languages. Alicia Keys, John Cleese and Tim Ferris are fans; Elizabeth Gilbert wrote, “Without The Artist’s Way there would have been no Eat, Pray, Love.”

Julia has had a wild life – she wrote for Rolling Stone magazine at the height of New Journalism. She was married to Martin Scorsese and collaborated with him on several films and also struggled with a cocaine and alcohol addiction. Now 74, she’s written her 41st book, Seeking Wisdom, which brings in the spiritual act of asking for guidance as another tool for unblocking creativity.

Julia’s new book Seeking Wisdom is out now Purchase Here

You can check out her creative work via her website

In this ep I also mention my interview about curiosity with DR JUD BREWER and my chat with SETH GODIN about the artist process, if you want to go check them out.

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PROF GEORGE PAXINOS: Are our brains "good" enough to save the planet?

Tue, 07 Jun 2022 17:00:00 GMT

In this brain-bending ep we explore this wild idea: are there good brains and can we find a way to use them to save the planet. My guest is Professor George Paxinos AO, the world’s leading brain expert.

The 78-year-old Greek-Australian is the most famous scientist you’ve never heard of – he’s identified and named more parts of the brain than anyone in history. He’s also a climate activist (and cycling activist!) and spent 21 years writing his latest book, River Divided, a novel about (ready for it) a female scientist who clones Jesus. The resulting twin boys go on to wrestle the climate crisis via the moral compass of The Son of God. So wild!

You can order River Divided and read a free chapter here.

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SHEENA IYENGAR: How to choose the best option

Tue, 31 May 2022 21:00:43 GMT

Sheena Iyengar’s The Art of Choosing – the book and the wildly popular TED talk – posits a profoundly paradoxical idea. Despite what we might think, we don’t like choice, or at least not too much of it. Which is why arranged marriages lead to more lasting love than “romantic” marriages and ALDI stocks one version of everything. To make the best decisions in our lives, there is a “magic number” of options we should aim for…and it’s less than you think. The Columbia University pscho-economist is famous for conducting the original “paradox of choice” studies as - and this bit blows my mind – a fully blind woman. She and I talk through all the fun paradoxes of our odd relationship to choice and how to navigate them to make the best, most joyful decisions.

Get hold of The Art of Choosing

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 12, Last thoughts…with Betoota Advocate

Thu, 19 May 2022 17:00:41 GMT

THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 12, Last thoughts…with Betoota Advocate

It's been a wild ride but here ends our journey together. Wendell Hussey from the awesome satirical news site and I answer last questions about the election, who to vote for if you care about climate, what to do if there are no indies in your electorate, what if one of the parties directs my preferences (hint: they can't) and what do we think will be the ideal outcome for Australia (I don't hold back). We return to the normal format next week with some awesome guests. Meantime, please do rate this pod. To keep things going here, I will need some 5 star love! Love you all!

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 11, Why we must vote for a First Nations Voice, with Prof Megan Davis

Mon, 16 May 2022 17:00:34 GMT

For 15 years, successive governments have kicked the Indigenous Voice to Parliament can down the road. A referendum to enshrine a Voice into the constitution has been shown time and time again to be the most important first step to closing the yawning - and growing - gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Three quarters of Australians say they want it…and yet here we are again! Today Prof Megan Davis, a Cobble Cobble Aboriginal woman, human rights lawyer and co-architect of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, joins us to explain the importance of voting for candidates who support the Voice. My friends, it's time. As Megan says in our chat, this election is a sliding doors moment.

Please do read the Uluru Statement From the Heart and support the cause https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/

And if you'd like to contribute to the indigenous women's ranger program I'm involved with, please donate here https://womenrangers-sarahwilson.raisely.com

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 10, How will a hung Parliament work? Will it be chaos? Tony Windsor sets us straight

Thu, 12 May 2022 22:32:50 GMT

It’s looking very possible that this election will result in a hung parliament, where one of the parties must form a minority government with a bunch of independents. The implications of this are huge (and exciting!) and it’s worth knowing how it would work (and how it could be the right kind of shake-up we need). Former independent Tony Windsor was one of the crossbenchers who famously had to form government last time this happened in 2010. He talks us through the behind the scenes stuff and the scare campaign tactics that are being flung about the place.

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 9, Who has the best policies for women with Jane Caro and CheekMedia's Kristen Perissinotto

Tue, 10 May 2022 17:00:06 GMT

Australia has become a country with one of the worst records for gender equality in the world. A picture worsened by the misogyny we've witnessed from within Parliament in the past 18 months. And so women are rallying this election according to many polls. This ep we cover the policies and commitments to look out for that will change the system for all women and finish by answering your questions regarding the public v private school funding fiasco. I also provide a few widgets and hacks for navigating your vote.

Find out more about Jane Caro’s Senate campaign https://www.janecaro4reason.com.au

Follow Cheekmedia https://www.instagram.com/cheekmediaco/

This is the Fair Agenda site where you can get the score on your candidates https://voteforsafety.com.au

You might also like to check out https://www.safetyrespectequity.com.au

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 8, How to #voteclimate, with Richie Merzian

Sun, 08 May 2022 17:00:44 GMT

Climate is the #1 issue this election for Australian voters. And yet politicians are making a meal of it and hiding their lacking climate policies in misinformation. This ep I outline each party’s climate policy (or lackthereof in the case of the Liberal National Party) and I invite The Australia Institute’s climate director Richie to sift through the classic climate lines/lies that are bandied about so that we can all navigate things more clearly, you know the ones, that we’re meeting our commitments “at a canter”, that EVs can’t tow a boat, that renewable energy kills jobs…

You can learn more about the Richie’s work The Australia Institute https://australiainstitute.org.au/expert/richie-merzian/

Here’s the ACF report I mention

https://assets.nationbuilder.com/auscon/pages/20278/attachments/original/1651099093/The_truth_about_jobs_creation_-_ACF_report.pdf?1651099093

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 7, A dead simple guide to voting (tag and share!)

Thu, 05 May 2022 17:00:17 GMT

Here, all your granular questions about voting answered in one spot. A great 101 for first timers or a primer for everyone who would like to be on top of things this year.

What’s voting above vs below the line? How do I make my preferences work best? How do I know if my #1 vote won’t be passed onto another party? Are How To Vote cards dodgy? What if no one wins a majority of seats?

Evan Ekin-Smyth from the Australian Electoral Commission joins me to nut it all out and I share all the best hacks and links for getting the information you need.

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 6, What if Anthony Albanese becomes PM? with Karen Middleton

Wed, 04 May 2022 02:24:32 GMT

Who is “Albo"? The Labor leader has been in politics for 26 years and yet many Australians struggle to name the guy or pick him in a line-up. His opponents capitalise on this and paint him as meek and not upfront, even “not on the ball”. In this chat with Karen Middleton, chief political correspondent for The Saturday Paper who also wrote Albanese’s biography, we get a very different picture of a sensitve but gritty and strategic operator who “operates 10-steps ahead of anyone else”. We talk his childhood growing up in a council flat, That Gaffe, his relationship with, and policies for, women and why Labor is not banning fossil fuel projects (it’s a strategy). This ep runs a little longer, but it covers other issues many of you have been asking about and Karen is a font of political information…I figured you’d enjoy the lot!

Read Karen’s columns in The Saturday Paper https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/contributor/karen-middleton

Her biography of Anthony Albanese is called Albanese: Telling it Straight

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 5, Who actually is Scott Morrison? Sean Kelly explains

Sun, 01 May 2022 17:00:33 GMT

There’s a lot we don’t know about our current Prime Minister. And what we do know - daggy dad, makes curry on the barbecue, Sharkies fan - is crafted by the ex-marketing man himself, the bloke who gave himself the moniker “ScoMo”.

His biographer the Nine newspapers’ Sean Kelly joins me to talk through our PM'S past; the Hungry Jacks ad; how he left all previous jobs “under a cloud”; where his slogans and tactics came from; as well as his love of the Pentecostal church, whose followers believe that “end times” are nigh (but don’t worry, the believers will be saved while the rest of us…get to burn in the climate crisis hell left behind).

Sean explains how Morrison's faith and the fact that he uniquely treats politics as a game has shaped the political landscape and landed us with a leader who lies and bullies. Sean also unpacks what it likely says about Australia if we “buy into” Morrison's marketing and slogan-making for another term on May 21.

I think many of you will find this ep particularly revealing!

Follow Sean https://twitter.com/mrseankelly

And read his columns https://www.smh.com.au/by/sean-kelly-h1d26a

Grab hold of his wonderful book The Game, A Portrait of Scott Morrison

booktopia.kh4ffx.net/n1vEx7

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 4, Things have got dodgy, we need an ICAC with teeth, with Mike Seccombe

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:00:31 GMT

On today’s ep we pull apart the corruption, lies, the removal and defunding of crucial bodies that hold governments to account, the stacking of boards with fossil fuel executives and the dead crook behaviour that has defined the current Government.

Mike Seccombe is the national correspondent for The Saturday Paper and has covered this descent into what some political commentators have described as the worst era in Australian politics. It all explains why 81% of Australians want a federal anti-corruption body (or ICAC).

And, I guess, why some candidates and parties are pushing for one ...and some are not. If you’re baffled by it all, join us as we thrash the whole sorry issue out…as well as the best solutions for voters.

You can check out Mike’s columns at The Saturday Paper https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/contributor/mike-seccombe

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP3, So what are these independents about, with Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 17:00:47 GMT

This is where things get a bit fun! And, actually, this episode explains WHY i decided to do this election series.

So. The policy and ideas gridlock is real. And there’s a reason for it. But there’s also a solution and policy think tank The Grattan Institute has mapped it out with research. It’s to vote in a number of climate-focused MPs who do not belong to either of the major parties. As it happens, there are about 30 running across Australia this election, and if three of them (give or take) get voted in May 21, then they will hold the balance of power. And thusly Australia has the best chance of moving forward on those 5 Pillars of Care I keep banging on about: climate policy; a federal corruption body; women's equality; an indigenous voice to parliament; and addressing the growing divide between the haves and have nots. It might sound wonky and complex, but the Institute's Danielle and I break the whole thing down into simple - and super hopeful - terms.

That Gridlock report we talk about? It’s here https://grattan.edu.au/institutional-change-needed-to-reignite-policy-reform/

You can learn about the independents, and see if there’s one running in your electorate, here https://www.climate200.com.au

I mention a few “teal indies” I follow on Instagram:

Dr Monique Ryan for Kooyong https://www.instagram.com/mon4kooyong/

Allegra Spender running in Wentworth https://www.instagram.com/allegra.spender/

Zoe Daniel for Goldstein https://www.instagram.com/zoedaniel/

Kylea Tink for North Sydney https://www.instagram.com/kyleatink/

Hannabeth Luke in Page https://www.instagram.com/hanabethluke/

Kate Chaney for Curtin in WA https://www.instagram.com/chaneyforcurtin/

David Pocock in Canberra (senate) https://www.instagram.com/davidpocock/

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THIS WILD ELECTION: EP 2, You’re not imagining it, things have got pretty bad... with Jan Fran and Zara Seidler

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 17:00:19 GMT

In this episode, we lay out where things are at as we head into the election campaign proper. Consider it a primer (if you’re just starting to get engaged in all this election guff). I’m joined by cofounder of @TheDailyAus Zara Seidler and Walkley Award-winning journalist, comedian and activist Jan Fran to chat through the frustration and fatigue (why we’re feeling it), as well as what is actually mattering to us…particular policies and issues to look out for (they’re not what you expect). We also answer a question about how polls work.

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THIS WILD ELECTION: Ep 1, I’m doing an election mini-series for everyone who gives a sh*t about where Australia is heading!

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:00:09 GMT

Yep, a one-stop pod that shows how we can make our vote count toward a more caring, humane, vibrant Australia on May 21. To kick off, I explain why I think this election is the most important in recent history, why things feel so fractured and dismal (you’re not imagining it; the country has swerved well off track!), but most importantly how we can strategically shake things up election day and land a hopeful result. I’ll be posting twice a week over the next month or so, speaking to my old friends from my political journalism days, and covering off how to vote if you care about the following: a legit climate policy; stamping out integrity and corruption in Canberra; fixing the bloody gender violence and inequality mess (it’s 2022, fellas!!); installing a First Nations voice to parliament; as well as the growing social issues that are splitting the haves and have nots like I’ve never seen before. So…not your usual political podcast. Sound good? Tell your friends and remember to keep sending me voice messages in my Instagram messages if you want your questions answered along the way.

show notes:

Find out how to postal vote and how to vote if you’re interstate or overseas on election day: https://www.aec.gov.au

To find your electorate and all the candidates running in your electorate go to https://votecompass.abc.net.auA

And while you’re there, fill in the survey to find out which party your values are aligned with.

To have your question answered in the series, send me a direct message via Instagram @_sarahwilson_ . When you go to post your message, hit the microphone icon and record your question. Please state your name and where you live, and then fire off what you’d like addressed (1-2 sentences max!).

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SARA NESS: How to “win" difficult conversations

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 19:00:00 GMT

Frankly, if the world needs anything right now it's better, more authentic, and discerning communication. In so many ways we seem to have lost track of how and WHY we get into such polarised positions. Sara Nass is a world expert (and the unofficial organiser of) the global authentic relating movement. I invite her to share tips on how we can be more artful at relating. How do we RELATE to people who've gone down conspiracy rabbit-holes? How do we navigate teenagers who've been in a pandemic cocoon…? How do we ask for a pay rise? How do we combat gaslighters? And how do we inject more kindness?

Find out more about Sara Ness and Authentic Relating: https://www.authrev.org/

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PETE DAVIS: A scientific (and spiritual) case to quit flaking... and commit already!

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 01:11:00 GMT

It's time to give a shit. To fire up. To say yes — and mean it. Whether you're endlessly scrolling Netflix for the perfect movie or looking for a date online or wanting to make a “difference", it's time to commit. Global democracy expert Pete Davis says we've been hoodwinked into thinking we need to keep our options open. But our creative urges, our sense of humanity, our political system needs decisiveness, and all that flaking is eroding society (not just the dating scene!). We talk how to build our "psychological immune system”, the Grateful Dead, why good things take a long time and the loveliness of “long haul heroes”.

Read Dedicated by Pete Davis: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/mgkVDZ

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JASON HICKEL: Degrowth economics! It’s wild, it could save us…

Tue, 22 Mar 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel is possibly the leading voice in the degrowth movement that's bubbling about the place. Heard of it? Degrowth pivots around the wild idea that constant growth - and GDP - is the wrong goal. Instead, human, and planetary wellbeing should be our marker of progress. You know, if we want to survive. I drill Jason on the implications: the necessary end of capitalism, four-day work weeks, accepting renewable growth can't save us (eek!), the uncomfortable truth that our unchecked obsession with “more" is killing the poor (despite what Bill Gates will try telling you). Basically, all the talking points to chuck on the table at your next (too) comfortable dinner party!

Read Less is More by Jason Hickel: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/Gj1rqn

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PETER SINGER: How much should you be giving to charity to be a 'good person'?

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

The 'world's most influential philosopher' loves to whack us around the head with our own morality. Aussie-born Peter Singer, the guy who brought us vegetarianism (and is also dubbed the most “dangerous” man on the planet) has spoken out on euthanasia, abortion, bestiality, cancel culture and mandatory vaccinations. But this episode he gets us wrestling with the ‘effective altruism' movement he helped bring about. We go in hard. Can you be good if you don't give a chunk of your income away? Is it moral to send your kids to private school? And should we shame the rich who don't give?

Details about Peter's speaking tour: https://thinkinc.org.au/singer/

More about Peter's book and the organisation he founded — www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au/

Read the Journal of Controversial Ideas: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/

Recommended charities, analysis and research — www.givewell.org/

Looking to find a more meaningful career? https://80000hours.org/

The national animal advocacy organisation that Peter helped start: https://animalsaustralia.org/

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JOHANN HARI: THIS is why you're finding the world too much

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Author, Johann Hari reckons our ability to focus didn't just disappear — it was stolen! This is a crisis and it's not your fault. Johann explains why you touch your phone 2167 times a day, why the average office worker can only focus on a task for three minutes, and why our kids' attention is shot. But it's one thing to lose the joy of reading a long book, it's another to distract an entire society away from democracy, peace and, well, survival. This is what distresses me most - we've become a shouty-yet-consenting “society on fire”. Mercifully, Johann has fixes...

Read Stolen Focus by Johann Hari: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/9Wr9e3

More about Johann Hari: https://johannhari.com/

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AMY REMEIKIS: Decodes the sexual violence clusterf*** in Parliament House

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Political reporter for The Guardian and sexual assault survivor Amy Remeikis joins me for International Women's Day to give an insider's view on the vile situation for women in politics - and beyond - in this country. The national conversation has erupted over the past 12 months and accusations from inside Parliament House itself continue to unfold. Amy reveals why the usual political deflection tactics didn't work, why it's perfect we're all angry and the shocking statistics that put Australia at the BOTTOM of all the latest global gender gap indexes.

Read On Reckoning by Amy Remeikis: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/7mx96g

International Women's Day is Tuesday, 8 March.

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BRIAN KLASS: Why so many leaders in 2022 are dodgy, awful humans

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:00:00 GMT

Leading international political scientist Brian Klass answers the Big Questions we're all asking: Why does it seem everyone in charge is a narcissistic psychopath? Does power corrupt or is it just that dodgy people are really really good at weaselling their way into power? And how does our PM get away with brazenly lying? It's a great time in history to get Brian in; he interviewed 500 leaders around the world — presidents, cultists, war criminals, and even drank wine with the daughter of a cannibalistic dictator — to arrive at the (throughly wild) answer to our questions above. If nothing else, you'll better understand why your kid's netball coach is a hell-bent tyrant…

Read Corruptible by Brian Klass: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/EaVgDX

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SISTER HELEN PREJEAN: The radical (!) nun who wrote ‘Dead Man Walking’

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:00:00 GMT

Meet the 82-year-old radical Catholic nun who's the most prominent campaigner against the death penalty in the US. Sister Helen Prejean wrote ‘Dead Man Walking', which became the movie (Susan Sarandon played Helen). In this episode you'll hear about the horrifying close calls, when prisoners have been spared moments before their execution and other statistics that have us confront our humanity. But first, why did Sister Helen become a nun and… how do you handle a life without sex!?

Sister Helen's website: https://www.sisterhelen.org/

Read Dead Man Walking: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/OR5vAA

Sister Helen has a memoir, River of Fire: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/2rYLmD

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BONUS EPISODE 3: Tips and guided meditation for anxiety

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 13:01:00 GMT

This is the third in a series of bonus episodes of Wild for the holiday period, as inspired by my New York Times bestselling book ‘first, we make the beast beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety'.

I explore how I turn my anxiety into a superpower, something I practice daily.

In this episode I'm joined by Brooke McAlary from Slowyourhome.com and we explore ways I listen to my anxiety and use it to change direction to a better life. I use these techniques daily.

This episode reminded me of the interview I had with New York-based surfer, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Jud Brewer, who uses curiosity to steer anxiety. It's an awesomely effective technique grounded in good science.

Here's the link to the interview:

https://pod.link/1548626341/episode/183988cac79938b8b6d44c34c3f345f5

Get your copy of my book ‘first, we make the beast beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety' here:  https://amzn.to/3FcOtG0

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BONUS EPISODE 2: How to do a morning routine plus a guided meditation

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 13:01:00 GMT

Ahead of season 3 of Wild, here's another bonus episode for the holiday period, a time we tend to reserve for getting our lives in order for the year ahead. These bonus eps are inspired by my New York Times bestselling book ‘first, we make the beast beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety'.

In this episode I'm joined by Brooke McAlary from Slowyourhome.com and we explore some simple techniques to add to your morning routine for a less anxious life, along with a meditation to start your day.

For more helpful tips for a better day, revisit my interview Oliver Burkeman, possibly the world's most knowledgeable self help expert, from season 2 of Wild here:

https://pod.link/1548626341/episode/7447f7f0f918eac7f31be6324626cea1

And with Seth Godin from season 1 of Wild here:

https://pod.link/1548626341/episode/cf69db6c45c403273b15599dde06b5ac

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BONUS EPISODE 1: Tips and guided meditation for travel

Tue, 11 Jan 2022 13:01:00 GMT

Before we launch season 3 of Wild, here's a few bonus episodes for over the holiday period.

They're inspired by my New York Times bestselling book ‘first, we make the beast beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety' and the first one is a rundown of the best techniques and tricks to reduce anxiety while travelling, with a quick meditation, perfect to do on planes or on the bus or in a hotel room.

I'm joined by Brooke McAlary from slowyourhome.com

If you're new to meditation or think you're bad at meditation, you might want to listen to the episode from Season 1 of Wild with Tim Brown, my meditation teacher, in which we chat the benefits of struggling with meditation: https://pod.link/1548626341/episode/7d30b85f13ff7b5d784b1c329fb66878

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Wild with Sarah Wilson, season 3 announcement

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Wild is returning for season 3 February 2022, until then:
Follow Wild with Sarah Wilson: https://podfollow.com/1548626341
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2
Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_
Sign up to my Substack Newsletter for more thoughts and more on Wild: https://sarahwilson.substack.com/

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EMILY ATKIN: The best case ever for climate rage!

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 01:27:00 GMT

Emily Atkin is America's foremost climate journalist and founder of the Heated newsletter, awarded Best Environmental Journalism of 2020.. I remember first coming across Emily on Twitter when she posted about fossil fuel media campaigns. Her Tweet targeted Twitter. The then Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren subsequently retweeted Emily's tweet, tagging Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey …who then changed Twitter's policy around fossil fuel advertising. It was all just a bit meta. And super powerful. Emily and I then connected two years ago when she asked to repost a blog essay I'd written about Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's horrendous handling of the Summer bushfires which killed more than 3 billion animals and 37 people. It was a story of corruption, lies, ignorance and fossil fuel industry interests. The headline was Why we must rage at Prime Minister Sco Mo. Emily ran with a slightly different, but telling headline: Think American politics are bad? Wait 'til you hear about Australia.
The wild idea I discuss with Emily in this episode is that the climate crisis didn't just happen to us, it was done to us. And it was done to us by the fossil fuel industry. And so the most appropriate reaction is rage. The fossil fuel industry likes to distract us from this with campaigns that get us counting our carbon footprint and blaming ourselves. I have to say, until this chat with Emily I had been somewhat sucked in. This is a super timely chat, landing right on the two-year anniversary of the bushfires. I have reposted my original essay to my latest substack newsletter if you want to check it out subscribe to my Substack newsletter https://sarahwilson.substack.com/
And for more from Emily, check out her HEATED substack here: https://heated.world/

Follow Wild with Sarah Wilson: https://podfollow.com/1548626341

Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

Sign up to my Substack Newsletter for more thoughts and more on Wild: https://sarahwilson.substack.com/

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DAN BUETTNER: The Blue Zones guy shows us the trick to adding 10 years to our lives

Tue, 14 Dec 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Dan Buettner is a National Geographic Fellow and New York Times-bestselling author. He holds three Guinness records for various ludicrous long bike treks across the planet and he's also a bone fide explorer who has discovered things about ancient civilizations and, most notably, about cultures where people live the longest, called the Blue Zones.

Dan and I met when I wrote a blog post about his Blue Zones back shortly after the last ice age (2009) and he chimed in on the comments. We became long-distance friends with many common interests (we're both in the Guinness Book, we've both traversed the globe on our bikes, we love red wine and we are tireless nomads) and he wound up inviting me one of of his Nat Geo explorations in Ikaria in 2012, a wild Greek island not far off the coast of Turkey that has become a second home (some of you might recall the story of my goat herder lover?), and is one of the Blue Zones.

It was almost 20 years ago that Dan travelled the world to reverse engineer longevity and discover 5 five Blue Zones - pockets of the world with the most centenarians. He then Identified 9 principles or secrets to living long and well. He wrote 5 books and in the lates,t called The Blue Zones Challenge, he outlines a 4-week plan to add 10 years to your life, and the wild idea he puts forward after all this – Friends, Don't try to change your behaviour with diets and exercise plans, change your surroundings.

Which throws much of what we have been told about wellness on its head (I love it!).

More recently Dan has rolled out his Blue Zones blueprint to cities across the US. Municipalities employ him to “reverse-reverse engineer” the principles into the infrastructure of their cities, which has added years to life expectancy, and produced massive reductions in smoking and health care costs within years.

Get Dan's latest book, The Blue Zone challenge https://amzn.to/3ylQld3

Follow Wild with Sarah Wilson: https://podfollow.com/1548626341

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Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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ABBIE CHATFIELD: Millennial feminism, a mind blowing introduction.

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Have you heard Abbie Chatfield let rip? You must. The 26-year-old is a reality TV star and vibrator saleswoman with an irreverent podcast (400,000 downloads a month) who will put her boobs, STI treatment plans and beliefs on the public line to make an often controversial and important point, invariably in support of female sexual rights and voice. Oh, and getting vaccinated.

As a Gen X feminist, I find it a thing to behold. And I've been wonderfully challenged by the Peak 2021 Sensation that she is for some time. So many questions, so much to humbly learn from her ability to tread complex nuance, and to brazenly cut to awkward chases. In many ways she takes what feminists of my generation (and older) fought for (and struggled to land) and puts it back on the agenda, front and centre and says...right, deal with it, now, all of you!

For some reality TV mash-up context: Abbie was a controversial star of the The Bachelor, The Bachelor In Paradise and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here (which she won). She's recently online feuded with a Married at First Sight star (calling them out for supporting rape humour) and a Home and Away star (on their anti-vax stance). She's just finished gig as host Love Island After Party, about to host Below Deck, done a project for Real Housewives where she sings a duet with comedian Joel Creasey…and has just announced she's dating a recent Bachelorette contestant. All in three years. She has sold 100,000 of her vibrators since April and is an ambassador to various brands, including Levis, which she models with her cellulite un-airbrushed.

We talk all of the above, and drill down to what drives her, what it's like to be a young person wading into "Troll Territory" daily, and ultimately how she feels a responsibility to young women struggling to find their voice in the #metoo era.

On air, I challenge her to join the climate movement...we need Abbie Chatfield (feel free to prod her on her socials).
Her podcast It's A Lot has charted here in Australia and has 400,000 downloads a month.. A pretty good effort for a show made in her lounge room floor when she's “red wine drunk” with mates.
Listen to It's A Lot: https://pod.link/1500849438
Follow Wild with Sarah Wilson: https://podfollow.com/1548626341

Subscribe to my Subtack newsletter https://sarahwilson.substack.com/
My Live Nation tour is coming up, get tickets and info: https://www.livenation.com.au/artist-sarah-wilson-1318486
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2
Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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FEARNE COTTON: A chat with the British ‘It’ girl’ about the struggle for happiness

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Today we travel to the UK to chat with one of my favourite representatives of humanity. Fearne Cotton is British radio and TV royalty. She began her career age 15 as host of The Disney Club after winning some local competition…and then spent the next 25 years broadcasting to the nation, everything from Top of the Pops, BBC radio1 and 2, the Golden Globes, BAFTAS and a bunch of Royal family things.
She's published 10 chart-topping books, including kids mental health books, is on The Prince's Trust, has a 3.4 million following on Instagram and has a podcast, Happy Place, that's had more than 40 million downloads.

But I know Fearne only as a friend…and a social media pen pal type friend at that. We send VMs on WhatsApp late at night when we can't sleep and when we're troubled, and we talk about life and humans…not so much our lives…but Big Life.

Fearne has just put out a book about living honestly and so I thought it might be a good time to have one of the chats we have at lonely hours but in a visual volley out in the open with you lot.

Like me, Fearne is on that constant journey of managing her anxiety and the complexities of life. Which is why I trust her – she doesn't purport to have arrived. Oh, and FYI, in this chat we talk about EMDR, which is a type of therapy Fearne and I have both used.
Read more: https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/

Get Fearne's latest book Speak Your Truth here
https://amzn.to/3p5uRNn

Subscribe to my Subtack newsletter https://sarahwilson.substack.com/
My Live Nation tour is coming up, get tickets and info: https://www.livenation.com.au/artist-sarah-wilson-1318486
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2
Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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THE LADY IN RED: special episode

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Ok this is a little bonus we've thrown into the series. Going forward I'll do some random episodes where I go hunt down someone I mention in my books or travels broadly, someone you've got super curious about, to see where things wound up for them. A Where Are They Now with my nomadic encounters as dictated by your intrigue!

Many of you who have read This One Wild and Precious Life will recall The Lady in Red and some of you became pretty obsessed with her. ‘Tho, if you've not read my book, this story should have universal appeal.
Four years ago, while researching my book, I wound up in Ljubljana, the stunningly quaint capital of Slovenia and the world's only car-less capital city that's been voted greenest city in the EU several times over. I noticed this Lady In Red, a young woman sitting on her own who, for 45 minutes, just sat there with soft eyes in a chosen stillness.
She became a social media meme, a story that spread, an inspiration (I've put her image up in my feed again, as a reminder, and for those of you still wanting to get a visual).

Anyway, mid-pandemic lockdown I tracked down the Lady in Red (a fun journey in international connecting!) and got her update, asking her all the questions you've wanted to ask of her over the years….

I also flag that I'm taking requests to track down other people-of-intrigue via my NEW! Newsletter sarahwilson.substack.com ...this is where I now do the considered connecting I seek (please do subscribe!).

Find Lady in Red's image here (I'll also post video snippets of our recent chat)
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE6IIlcDdXq/?utm_medium=copy_link www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

If you want to do the hike I did in Slovenia, check out sarahwilsonhikes.com

Please rate Wild and leave a comment on Apple here
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here

https://www.listnr.com/podcasts/wild-with-sarah-wilson

Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here

https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2

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DAVID WHYTE: The insta-calm of poetry and asking beautiful questions

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 13:01:00 GMT

David Whyte is the guy who got me into poetry; Steven Spielberg has said the same of the Irish poet and philosopher who leads hiking/poetry tours around the world and works with Sam Harris on his meditation app.David trained as a marine biologist and was a naturalist guide in the Galapagos, the Amazon and Himalayas, before becoming a professional poet because, as I heard him explain once, the language of science wasn't largest enough to convey existence.
Not long after I first read David's writing, I was at a cafe in a small town where my nomadic journey had landed me, when a friend walked over and invited me to join him and his mate... it was David. Since then we've met up a few times and I hiked with him and his family in the Lake District in the footsteps of Wordsworth (I detail the hike in This One Wild and Precious Life). David's work taught me stillness and patience, and got me to love and honour my aloneness…and introduced me to the wild idea I discuss with David in this episode: One of the most important disciplines of a human life is to ask beautiful questions…to ask them in unbeautiful moments, to ask them courageously and vulnerably. Many of you have requested David joins my podcast and TBH, this is a very special episode.

David has just wrapped up his Sunday talking sessions he referred to in the episode, and he will be announcing more dates soon.
Keep an eye on his website for details: https://davidwhyte.com/

You can get a copy of David's book we reference in this episode Consolations here:
https://amzn.to/3FeKWGS

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
https://www.listnr.com/podcasts/wild-with-sarah-wilson
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here
https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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SAUL GRIFFITH: Biden’s renegade climate advisor from Wollongong drops the best ever climate bomb!

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Saul Griffith is a mad inventor, an official “genius” (as per the prestigious Macarthur Fellowship, um, wait for it, for his prodigy of service in the world community) and he has a fix for the climate crisis! Electrify everything! US President Joe Biden vibed with it so much he made the Australian his climate advisor.
I first came across Saul on one of my eternal searches for legit climate solutions that bring true excitement and hope to humans. For years I've wanted to pick apart his wild idea summed up in his new book, written for President Joe Biden, Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook For Our Clean Energy Future. The gist is this: We can get to those 2030 targets required for our survival on this planet, using technology that already exists and if he had to choose a country in the world where it can happen the fastest and with the biggest economic win he'd say, Australia!
Saul is a lot of fun, swears a touch (be warned!), rides a bike everywhere, barely wears shoes and rather infamously (according to the interwebs) pointed out the carbon footprint of his underpants in his 2006 TED talk.
The Electrify the lot and fast mantra is one I buy into…to a point. We still must consume less…way less. Saul agrees. We are going to talk further...
Watch Saul's TED Talk here
https://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_everyday_inventions?language=en

Saul's new book Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook For Our Clean Energy Future is available in the US now, find it here and getting an Australian version soon.
Saul would love for you to source a copy from his favourite local book shop in Thirroul:
https://collinsbooksthirroul.com.au/p/electrify-an-optimists-playbook-for-our-clean-energy-future-87f36d28-7c27-4d98-b406-c6fe0576ab68?barcode=9780262046237.

Explore the exciting world of Saul's inventions and ideas here
https://www.saulgriffith.com/

Listen to my Ask Me Anything on climate episode here
https://pod.link/1548626341/episode/39f6573570b3837e65f7a5897d50592f
Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world hereConnect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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OLIVER BURKEMAN: 4000 weeks…it’s all we got in this lifetime, folks!

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 13:00:00 GMT

British writer Oliver Burkeman has investigated pretty much every productivity hack, mindfulness trick, list-making system and happiness boost we've ever been fed. He concludes, almost none work. Ha!I followed Oliver's column in The Guardian, which he wrote from his home in Brooklyn, New York, for about 10 years and he is definitely my favourite anti-self-help self-help writer!It's been a few years since his last book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, and just as I found myself asking where Oliver Burkeman was at since quitting his popular column last year, I noticed he had a new book out that makes the startling point - we have a very short time on this planet, about Four Thousand Weeks (also the title of the book).
This is the wild idea we discuss in this episode. Oliver asks life is short, so what are you going to do about it?

Here are the references from our chat:
The Pomodoro timer app here
https://zapier.com/blog/best-pomodoro-apps/
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman here
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/1922147656/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=247&creative=1211&creativeASIN=1922147656&linkCode=as2&tag=sarahwilsonau-22&linkId=314bf030d7fd75b00831808ccfedfcfb

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
https://www.listnr.com/podcasts/wild-with-sarah-wilson
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here
https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

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Ask Me Anything...about climate change

Tue, 26 Oct 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Ahead of COP26, the most important climate conference of our times, I called out to listeners to ask me whatever is on their mind, or in the hearts, about the climate crisis we are living through.
My new producer Cassie (lives in Melbourne, interests include rock trivia, the beach and tea) chose some of your questions and played them to me cold. Me (interests include climate trivia!), well, I did my best to answer them based on my slightly obsessed layperson's knowledge and opinions. What is COP? What can I do to make a difference? How do I vote climate? It was pretty rapid-fire, but I promised to include back-up links and references here in the show notes. There are a few…knock yourselves out!

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_

What is COP26?
https://drawdown.org/solutions
Renewable energy is cheaper than running existing coal
Jobs in renewable energy
Savings in avoiding climate change
Markets moving economic costs, Australia's climate inaction
Lack of climate action cost over 50 years
Grattan report on gridlock records
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/big-deal
https://theyvoteforyou.org.au
Companies pledges to halve emissions by 2030

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CLARE DUBOIS: How victim consciousness is destroying the planet (fire up, people!)

Tue, 19 Oct 2021 13:01:00 GMT

Six months ago my friend linked me to an interview with British entrepreneur and troublemaking activist Clare Dubois because he reckoned “she talks your language, Sarah”. I was moved to my viscera from the moment she launched her gloriously, inspired riff.
Clare talks a profoundly wild idea that resonates for me: We are about to send ourselves, as a species, extinct. No one is going to come and save us, but trees might just.

Clare is a business coach and founder of the Treesisters reforestation charity and she now lives in California. She's a global leader in arguing that our salvation can be led by businesses embedding trees into every financial transaction. She argues that trees can fix many things... and can teach us how to be boldly human again.

Learn more about Treesisters: https://treesisters.org/

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here

References from this episode:
The Overstory - Richard Powers here
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World - Peter Wohlleben here
Martin Luther King Jnr speech about staying awake for the revolution here

This episode covers some pretty heavy stuff around sexual abuse. If that's something you're not comfortable listening to, I recommend skipping ahead to around the 10 minute mark.

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TIMOTHY MORTON: My favourite hobby is making sure people don’t feel like dying

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:01:00 GMT

British philosopher and environmentalist Timothy Morton is regarded as the most powerful figure in the contemporary art world. Tim - who goes by the pronoun “they" - has worked with Bjork, Jeff Bridges, Pharrell Williams, NASA and on Steve Coogan's series The Trip. They've also written more than 250 essays on ecology, Mary Shelley, gastronomy, Talking Heads, Heidegger and… concrete. They've also published 17 books; the latest is Hyposubjects: on becoming human. Me, I read Tim's work as a pleasurable brain sport and I draw on some of their ideas in my book ‘This One Wild and Precious Life', but Tim is also a deeply generous and compassionate human with an intimate understanding of why we struggle to solve the climate crisis and face our demise. We share our sadness around all this in this chat.
All of Tim's ideas are wild, so instead of focusing on one wild idea, I fired a bunch of questions, rapid fire.
My friends, be prepared for some genre-traversing calisthenics.
BTW I confess I struggled terribly with remembering Tim's correct pronoun in parts of the podcast. No disrespect is intended…change to language patterns can take time!

More info on Timothy Morton and purchase Hyposubjects: on becoming human: ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com
Read Pessimism of the Intellect Optimism of the Will: www.centreforoptimism.com/Pessimism-of-the-Intellect-Optimism-of-the-Will
The George Carlin skit referred to:www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
I write about Timothy in my book 'This One Wild and Precious Life' available:
www.sarahwilson.com/books

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Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

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TARA JUNE WINCH: Being Aussie is a mental health crisis

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 13:05:00 GMT

Tara June Winch is the Miles Franklin winning author of The Yield and a proud Wiradjuri woman.

I reached out to her after seeing her speak on an emotional, all-female panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival earlier this year where she brought the room to tears with her confronting and - to my mind - true comments about Australian identity; "being Aussie is a mental health crisis”.

In this conversation we explore accessing mania as part of the creative process, not having to be broken to be creative, questioning identity and we break down the real meaning of being Australian.

Tara is currently living in France working on her next book, unable to return to Australia due to the pandemic. We have been emailing each other - pen pal-style since our chat!

Get a copy of Yield by Tara June Winch here
More info on Tara June Winch: https://www.tarajunewinch.com/

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Tara June Winch's book recommendations from this episode:
Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams Anita Heiss
After Story, Larissa Behrendt
Ghost River, Tony Birch
How To Make A Basket, Jazz Money

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DR JUD BREWER: On curiosity as the fix for anxiety

Tue, 28 Sep 2021 17:00:00 GMT

Dr Jud Brewer is a New York-based surfer (yep!) and psychiatrist and neuroscientist specialising in habit change and he's helped thousands of people quit smoking and overcome binge eating. But his latest research treats anxiety like it's any other habit.

I reached out to him because I'd tried out his technique and it worked…substituting fretting for curiosity as a meta approach to life!

In this chat we unpack one of my own gnarly, ugly anxious thoughts (bit exposing!) using Jud's three-step solution (his alternative to willpowering our way through) and he gives practical advice for how we can all be more curious about our anxiety.

Try it!

Studies and books and things we mention:

Jud's latest book is called Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind and it's out now.

Read more about the Harvard study which found we spend 47% of the day ruminating: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/

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DR JILL BOLTE TAYLOR: The neuroscientist shows Sarah how to live blissfully in the right brain

Tue, 21 Sep 2021 17:00:00 GMT

I discovered Jill's story in her viral TED Talk from 2008 (it became the most watched TED talk ever!) in which the brain scientist describes watching the left side of her brain deteriorate over the course of four hours on the morning of her stroke and how she used her right brain to stay present and get help.

I was transfixed. Ever since I've wondered, what ever happened to Jill Bolte Taylor? Did she go back to normal? Is she still living in her right brain and able to experience the “oneness” that spiritualists and quantum physicists can only point to? If so, is she lonely?

Jill's latest book is Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life.

Her first book was My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

Watch her TED Talk here.

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Ask Me Anything - Part 2

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

What's good about having anxiety? Who do I vote for the climate in elections? How do you live with bipolar?

For part two of this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah answers your questions about her own wild ways of living. In this episode Sarah shares her experience living with anxiety and bipolar disorder, voting for the climate and being excited about the future in spite of uncertainty and fear.

To hear more questions and answers from Sarah, listen to "Ask Me Anything - Part 1".

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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Ask Me Anything - Part 1

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

How do I raise my kids as conscious consumers? What do you think happens when we die?

For this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah turned the tables on herself and asked for your questions about her own wild ideas and ways of living differently. In this episode Sarah opens up about her meditation practice, solo hiking and remaining confident in herself and her beliefs.

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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TIM BROWN: Sarah’s meditation teacher joins the show

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:57:00 GMT

Tim trained with the Vedic tradition and has taught meditation to elite athletes, jail inmates, billionaires and kids for more than 20 years. And me.

Tim has been part of my spiritual journey for 12 years and has guided me on my career, love life and various calamities. We meet for coffee and peanut butter toast most weeks…this episode we bring a recorder and discuss: trusting in the logic of the universe (the wild idea for the week) and how (and why) we should render ourselves choiceless (it's the ultimate freedom!). We also talk about the brilliance that is the movie Groundhog Day.

Tim makes regular appearance in Sarah's book First We Make The Beast Beautiful and helped her with her “path forward” in her latest book This One Wild & Precious Life. It's a pivotal moment about a third of the way in.

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JAMES HOLLIS: The Jungian take on 2021

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:00:00 GMT

James Hollis is one of the most respected Jungian psychoanalysts and teachers in the world and the author of 16 books about what matters most in life.

He famously writes – and this is the wildly a-ha-ish idea this episode - that our souls are calling us to an appointment with life. Together we break down how this can be applied to our lives right now. TBH, it's the mantra that has guided my the most the past two years.

I catch up with James for the first time since we spoke for This One Wild & Precious Life to discuss resilience, finding and serving our destiny in these crazy times, and what happens when we ignore the message our soul is trying to send us. (Be warned!)

I dig all James' books, but my favourite is What Matters Most, should you want to give his writing a go.

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RUTGER BREGMAN: Author of Humankind on how to trust each other

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Rutger Bregman reckons we're kinder than we think we are.

He's a Dutch journalist and international best-selling author of Humankind: A Hopeful History, a book that lights a fire under the idea that humans are inherently selfish and doomed to self-destruct.

Rutger and I chat about hope, calling out billionaires for not paying enough tax and what our society could look like if we simply - and wildly - chose to trust each other more.

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app, favourite here

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MARGARET KLEIN SALAMON: I know I’ll die from climate change

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Margaret Klein Salamon is a climate psychologist and Founder & Board President of The Climate Mobilization, a US organisation that has seen almost 2,000 governments worldwide declare a climate emergency.

Margaret and I spoke a few times when I was researching my book This One Wild and Precious Life. I followed her up for this episode to get her brutal-and-yet-hopeful take on the wild-but-true reality – we are the Sixth Extinction and kids born today, by some estimations, may not live a full-term life. She's in early thirties and I know many of her generation who feel the same. She brings her training as a psychologist to map a path through the grief for the future we won't have, how to move past grief into action and why learning from World War ll makes her feel hopeful about the climate emergency.

Warning: this is a confronting episode, but very, very real and important.

You can take part in Margaret's Let's Talk about the Climate Emergency project via www.ClimateAwakening.org

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here

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SETH GODIN: “Climate activists, you need to do this!”

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Seth Godin is a one of the world's most famous marketing gurus, a serial entrepreneur, the author of 19 bestselling books and believes in the ‘magical responsibility' – as he tells me - of being a creative who gives.

Seth and I chatted the first time 12 years ago and the advice he gave me shaped how I grew my business I Quit Sugar…and then sold it (and gave everything to charity). When I'm asked, “Of the hundreds of leaders and experts you've interviewed, who's the most legit?”, I say, Seth Godin.

For this ep, I hunt him down once more to see where he's at… and he shares a new wild idea: the climate emergency needs a marketing makeover. He outlines how it could go and it feels light and fun and just requires a slogganed Trucker cap.

Here is Sarah's article about first meeting Seth in 2010

Read Seth's blog about the problem with marketing global warming that he mentions in his chat with Sarah here

Listen to Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here

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DAVID POCOCK: World rugby legend quits; becomes climate activist. True story.

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 16:00:00 GMT

He was the captain of the Wallabies, the only Australian player to be included in World Rugby's team of the decade, but - wildly – retired at the height of his career to devoted his life to climate activist projects here in Australia and in Africa.

Dave and I became friends talking activism, Jungian psychology and the meaning of life over Instagram some time back. In this chat, he talks with me about grief, why Australian men aren't waking up, the sadness of facing the climate reality, and – yeah – how to make a wild decision.

Dave promised to send a list of the books that have shaped his wildness. He's a man of his word; here's his recommendations:

Living Between Worlds - James Hollis
Food Fix - Mark Hyman
Finding Resilience - Brian Walker
Everything is Spiritual - Rob Bell
The Will to Change - bell hooks
A Life on Our Planet - David Attenborough
Call of the Reed Warbler - Charles Massy

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SIA: In which Sarah makes the artist cry

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 19:00:00 GMT

Sia is one of the most gifted and wild creatives on the planet, best known for the hundreds of hit pop songs she's written for herself, Beyonce, Rihanna and Kanye West, and for being notoriously private, rarely doing interviews.

But in this chat, Sia gets intimate with me around fostering, why she uses medication to support her art (and keep her alive), and her wild idea - how she, as an artist, “runs with an idea” without apology. Oh, and I make her cry.

You can find the details of Sia's film Music, her music and art here

Listen to WILD with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR App, favourite here

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Wild with Sarah Wilson Trailer

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 05:11:00 GMT

Sarah Wilson speaks with the world's Big Minds about living a more beautiful and fired-up life.

Through deep conversations with philosophers, celebrities who live at the edge and leading gurus she's met on her 10-year nomadic journey, Sarah will explore the issues keeping us all awake at night, including climate change, loneliness, disconnection and capitalism. She and her guest will uncover new ways to radically love and save our “one wild and precious life” on this planet and learn practical techniques for doing so.

Because the time is now, right?

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Wild with Sarah Wilson

SAMANTHA SWEETWATER: How do we *actually* emerge our way into “the what comes next”?

WE’RE BACK! Series 2 of Wild is here

BEST OF: IAIN MCGILCHRIST - Our “wretchedness” is a left-brain issue

BEST OF: MARTHA BECK - Only the most nourishing chat I’ve had about anxiety ever

A Wild Live with Dr Sharon Blackie about… fairytales and collapse

A Wild Live with Ohh that’s RICH on "extinction burst"

A Wild Live with Grace Blakeley about neoliberalism and collapse

VANESSA ANDREOTTI: And now we have hospice modernity…(and a goodbye from Wild)

MARTHA BECK: Only the most nourishing chat I’ve had about anxiety ever

INDY JOHAR: The starkest collapse prognosis I’ve heard

LYNDSEY STONEBRIDGE: How would Hannah Arendt explain Trump?

LUKE KEMP: Will our global civilisation go the way of the Roman Empire?

AMA: A post on how I write a book about collapse on Substack

JOEL PEARSON: Do we have free will? Is anything our fault?

CHRISTIANA FIGUERES: On “stubborn optimism”

ELIZABETH OLDFIELD X ME: How to be Fully Alive in a collapsing world

BONUS EP: Nika Kovač the activist from the Slovenian gondola

IAIN MCGILCHRIST: Our “wretchedness” is a left-brain issue

COREY BRADSHAW: Are humans going extinct? (And how soon?)

AMA: How do I explain collapse to someone?*

NICK BRYANT: What has happened to America?

CLIVE HAMILTON: CONTENTIOUS CLIMATE COLLAPSE TRUTH - how the “Electrify Everything” message + private schools could be our downfall if we don’t change course

COLLAPSE SERIES: Jonathon Rowson - Welcome to the “metacrisis”. Now what?

COLLAPSE SERIES: Olivia Lazard - The big fat renewable energy blindspot NO ONE wants to talk about

COLLAPSE SERIES: Nate Hagens - On the “Great Simplification”

COLLAPSE SERIES: Margaret Wheatley - An episode on civilization collapse (warning: truly confronting)

COLLAPSE SERIES: Gaya Herrington - Complete global collapse by 2040? The prediction is “right on track”

JEM BENDELL: Oh gosh! Finding beauty in a collapsing world.

JEAN TWENGE: Do millennials and Gen Z have it harder?

AMA: How do I parent in the face of so much existential crisis?

GREG LUKIANOFF: Cancel culture – the *non-hysterical* reason why we should be very worried

JENNY ODELL: How to *not* save time (and *creatively* reject the productive, growth imperative!)

AMA: Sarah, what's your take on dating apps?

FRANK OSTASESKI: How to live fully when it feels like so much is dying

AMA: BONUS menopause questions answered, plus my BIG announcement

DR LOUISE NEWSON: A wild chat about menopause

AMA: What is the best gear to pack for a minimalist camping trip?

PARAG KHANNA: Where should we move to as climate collapses?

AMA: What is hypergamy? And explain why older women are dating younger men

OLIVIA LAZARD: The big fat renewable energy blindspot NO ONE wants to talk about

AMA: Is it doomist to talk about civilisational collapse?

KATE RAWORTH: Doughnut economics as the antidote to “death by growth”

AMA: How do you manage information overload PLUS should white women activists get out of the arena?

JOHANN HARI: Is Ozempic a miracle drug or something darker?

AMA: How do you plan your life financially in a collapsing world? Do you bother?

ANNABEL ABBS: The subversive, creative upside of insomnia (oh joy!)

The “Uncles” climate case that could change EVERYTHING

ANNA FUNDER: On Wifedom (and calling out Orwellian “doublethink”)

A FUN BACKSTORY: Because I promised it…

HELEN LEWIS: A heterodox update from TERF island

A PALESTINIAN AND AN ISRAELI FATHER: “We must all stop being victims; victimhood causes the violence!”

LIV BOEREE: Explaining Moloch, the mysterious game theory force breaking the world (plus a fix!)

AMA: How do you, Sarah, deal with a broken heart?

PROF JOEL PEARSON: Gut feeling is (scientifically) real; this is how to use it

PETER FRANKOPAN: How climate collapsed civilisations (and will it ours?)

AMA with a Palestinian peace broker: What should we be doing to help, not hinder, the crisis? Does posting on social media do ANYTHING?

KELLY WEINERSMITH: Why settling Mars is a really dumb idea

DEVIN MOSS: An atheist death row chaplain on how to die without God

AMA: Do we create art in the apocalypse?

MAGGIE JACKSON: Why “not knowing” is 2024’s survival superpower

AMA: Why does hiking “work”?

MAGGIE DENT: What to do about boys (‘cos you asked)

AMA: Why are girls flocking Left and boys are flopping Right?

CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN: Exposing the Ultra-Processed Food Trap

AMA: Do you regret not having kids?

ALAIN DE BOTTON: A philosophical fix for anxiety

BEST OF: BEAU MILES: How to be a backyard adventurer

BEST OF: TIM BROWN: Sarah’s interview with her meditation teacher

BEST OF: JULIA CAMERON: How to live the artist's way

BEST OF: AZIZ ABU SARAH: A radical Palestinian peace broker on how to solve wicked conflicts

BEST OF: BAYO AKOMOLAFE: The times are urgent, let’s slow down and become a fugitive

BEST OF: DAN BUETTNER: Sarah chats with her friend about all things Blue Zones

DAVID BROOKS: How to be humanist in cruel times

BONUS EPISODE: A Life More Wild

HANNAH BARNES: We need to think through the transgender kids debate

AMA: How should I (ethically) do a massive clean-out (to "Kondo" or to "Wilson”)?

CONNOR BEATON: The confronting reason why men watch porn

AMA: My climate activist son needs your help!

PAUL HAWKEN: We’re ending the climate crisis in one generation

SAMANTHA SWEETWATER: How do we actually emerge our way into “the what comes next”?

GREG LUKIANOFF: Cancel culture – the non-hysterical reason why we should be very worried

JENNY ODELL: How to not save time (and creatively reject the productive, growth imperative!)