Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be failing, but it is also devastating and cruel. The US is unwilling to impose a No Fly zone because Putin has nuclear weapons and no one is certain that he won’t use them. How did we get here? Who else has nukes? Why haven’t we taken steps toward nuclear sanity? I turn to JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, Distinguished Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and former head of the Ploughshares Fund. His books include BOMB SCARE: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS; and NUCLEAR NIGHTMARES: SECURING THE WORLD BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

 

DAVE PELL, the “Internet’s Managing Editor,”  has been writing about news, technology, and media since 1999. He just released his first book, PLEASE SCREAM INSIDE YOUR HEART: Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year that Wouldn’t End, a rollercoaster ride through 2020, leavened with humor and a good dose of perspective taken from the experience of his parents, who survived the Holocaust. You can learn more at NextDraft.com or Pleasescream.com

LARRY KOPALD, Co-Founder and President of The Carbon Underground, wants you to know that to successfully confront the climate crisis, it’s not enough to reduce or even halt carbon emissions. We also need to draw down accumulated carbon from the atmosphere. Nothing does that better or more simply than Regenerative Agriculture, by rebuilding soil organic matter. I don’t like talking about “theenvironment” as some separate entity out there. Our deepest goals in life must include a healthy relationship with the rest of nature and an effective response to the climate crisis. Regenerative Agriculture and the work of The Carbon Underground offer a pathway to both.

“Change the story to change the world.” If story actually has that power – and I believe it does – then it can change for better or worse. In his new book, THE STORY PARADOX, JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL declares storytelling the best method we’ve ever devised for manipulating each other by circumventing rational thought. As new technologies amplify the effects of disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and fake news, he calls on us to stop asking, “How can we change the world through stories?” and start asking – before it’s too late – “How can we save the world from stories?”

In the words of today’s guest, TIM JACKSON, Director of the UK’s Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity, “The finite planet we call home is being altered perhaps irreversibly by the massive human activity that parades under the seductive banner of progress.” But how do we replace the current model of not just commerce – but almost of reality – with a new one that is at least as inviting and more effective at fulfilling human and planetary needs? And how do we do it in time? Jackson’s new book, POST GROWTH: Life After Capitalism, lays out the problem and envisions a way of life beyond our addiction to material growth.