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
.....
If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page.
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversations.
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?
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
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Hamish & Andy
The Howie Games
Motley Fool Money
Just the Gist
The Briefing