(Conversation recorded on October 3rd, 2024) While humans, like all animals, are subject to certain fundamental realities, we also possess the unique ability to shape the world around us through physical infrastructure, laws and institutions, and our economic and social systems. And yet, it’s important to remember that, as today’s guest would say, what we design designs us back. In short, the systems and structures we build influence our cultures, values, and identities. Today, Nate is joined by...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 37 min
(Conversation recorded on September 16th, 2024) Where have all the elders gone? As the world grapples with its unfolding economic and energy crises, it can often feel like we lack capable guides to help our societies navigate these transitions. How can we cultivate ourselves as individuals to become balanced, true adults who are fully equipped to contribute to our communities, the planet, and the massive changes ahead? In this episode, Nate is joined by eco-depth psychologist Bill Plotkin to exp...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 37 min
(Conversation recorded on September 25th, 2024) There has been much discussion lately of Planetary Boundaries – the 9 biophysical systems and processes that regulate the functioning of life support systems on Earth, and ultimately the stability and resilience of the Earth system as a whole. But how close are we, today, to pushing these systems past their ability to function and recover? In this special release episode, Nate is joined by Kari Stoever, Chief of Strategic Partnerships & Policy at t...
Oct 13, 2024•25 min
(Recorded October 7, 2024) In a polarized and fractured society, those who draw attention to the ecological devastation wrought by human activities, and those who champion the importance of protecting non-human life, increasingly face the label of being ‘anti-human.’ In this Frankly, Nate reads a poem he wrote 20 years ago this month “The Lament of the Bigfoot” which highlights the disproportionate role humans have on the ecosystems they inhabit and reflects on how his attitudes have both change...
Oct 11, 2024•18 min
(Conversation recorded on September 5th, 2024) The deeper we dive into the complexity of the metacrisis, the more it becomes apparent that the changes we desire in our communities, governments, and societies must start with individual mindsets and behaviors. But what practices can help us cultivate this shift in consciousness? Today, Nate talks with Erik Fernholm about The Inner Development Goals, a framework designed to foster the skills and capacities needed to tackle the existential challenge...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 41 min
(Conversation recorded on August 6th, 2024) The damaging effects of humanity’s disconnected relationship to Earth’s ecosystems are broad and deep. Yet, despite targeted efforts to address these issues and mitigate risks, our insatiable appetite for fossil hydrocarbons continues to grow at an alarming rate. What will it take to reframe our relationship with nature to move forward in a symbiotic, life-supporting path? In this episode, Nate is joined by longtime colleagues Tom Murphy and D.J. White...
Oct 06, 2024•1 hr 31 min
(Recorded September 30, 2024) Nate’s work tends to focus on systems-level analysis of the current (and future) global macro/ecological situation. But peering beneath the surface of that system lies the deeply personal, emotional experiences of individuals, locally and around the world. In today’s Frankly, Nate navigates the delicate balance between systems thinking and the profound emotional weight of the realities we face. The Superorganism and the Self coexist in a recursive dance: while the S...
Oct 04, 2024•17 min
(Conversation recorded on August 13th, 2024) Humanity’s relationship with Earth’s forests is long and complex. While some societies have preserved their understanding of the intricate connections within woodland ecosystems, others have lost sight of their importance as modern life has deepened the disconnect between humans and nature. How is science helping our modern, industrial culture reconnect with the intricate relationships that build Earth’s invaluable forests? In this episode, Nate welco...
Oct 02, 2024•1 hr 18 min
(Recorded September 22, 2024) 14.8% of Americans do not believe in climate change. Recently, a study mapping a 485-million-year history of Earth’s temperature and CO2 levels has been misinterpreted by some who downplay urgent climate concerns. Their argument suggests that, since the Earth has experienced much higher temperatures and CO2 concentrations in the past, the current rise of a few degrees won’t significantly affect us - and that climate concerns are being over exaggerated What if climat...
Sep 27, 2024•12 min
(Conversation recorded on August 5th, 2024) While the global crises we face are on a larger scale than anything before, there is rich wisdom to glean from past civilizations who have faced existential challenges and survived – or even thrived. What lessons might we learn from history that could offer guidance for our future? In this episode, Nate is joined by social philosopher Roman Krznaric to discuss ways we might govern or lead during moments of crisis, using the lens of former and current c...
Sep 25, 2024•1 hr 40 min
(Recorded September 18 2024) Over past decades, abundance and peace have become the prevailing narratives in modern societies. The reality, as usual, is both more nuanced and more complex. Today, our financial and material wealth exists in parallel with declines in natural and social capital. Similarly, recent decades have caused us to become uber dependent on global ‘just-in-time’ supply chains. The unexpected exploding pager incident in Lebanon earlier this week throws the durability of, and t...
Sep 20, 2024•10 min
(Conversation recorded on July 30th, 2024) The science surrounding our planet’s dynamic and complex climate can be difficult to understand, and perhaps even more challenging to decipher what the actual realities and trajectories are among so much media coverage. Yet the study of Earth’s systems has been ongoing for decades, with a majority of scientists reaching a consensus on the realities of human-driven global heating. In this episode, ocean and climate physicist Stefan Rahmstorf joins Nate f...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 141
(Conversation recorded on September 3rd, 2024) As the United States continues to play a major role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the risk of a direct engagement, possibly leading to a nuclear exchange, may now be higher than ever. In this episode, Nate is joined by Professor Jeffrey Sachs to discuss the escalating tensions between the United States and other world powers - and whether there are possible avenues towards a more peaceful world order. Has the U.S. taken on the characte...
Sep 11, 2024•51 min•Ep. 140
(Conversation recorded on July 24th, 2024) In the past century of abundant energy surplus, humanity’s globalized, large-scale approach to problem-solving has yielded remarkable benefits and innovations. However, as we face a future with reduced energy resources, mounting waste, and a biosphere in danger, the negative impacts of this approach are increasingly overshadowing its gains. How should we evaluate and change these tactics as we look to build future societies that can better attune with t...
Sep 04, 2024•1 hr 46 min
(Conversation recorded on May 8th, 2024) Without a systems lens, the full reality of the human predicament will never be understood. It is only when we adopt this kind of holistic, wide-boundary thinking that we are able to see the complexity and nuance of how the biosphere, geopolitics, economics, energy, and many other systems interplay with and influence one another. But historically, the scientific community didn’t utilize the power of systems thinking until a few groundbreaking individuals ...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 3 min
(Conversation recorded on July 17th, 2024) Addressing the risks we face on a global scale is a challenge that can feel both enormous in execution and personally daunting. When it comes to finding the motivation and inspiration to do such work, one of the best sources of insight comes from the visionaries and activists who have come before us, who know what it takes to battle – and successfully transform – entrenched systems of power. What advice and wisdom can we learn from their stories and exp...
Aug 21, 2024•1 hr 23 min
(Recorded August 11, 2024) The content of The Great Simplification (on Youtube and in real life) can be complex, nuanced and multi-faceted. In today’s Frankly, Nate offers reflections on a selection of viewers’ direct questions about the myriad topics covered on this channel. The goal of this podcast is to integrate the head, the heart and the hands by building a generative conversation between many more humans. The learning process about upcoming constraints and opportunities will continue to b...
Aug 16, 2024•40 min
(Conversation recorded on July 25th, 2024) Show Summary: Human overpopulation is often depicted in the media in one of two ways: as either a catastrophic disaster or an overly-exaggerated concern. Yet the data understood by scientists and researchers is clear. So what is the actual state of our overshoot, and, despite our growing numbers, are we already seeing the signs that the sixth mass extinction is underway? In this episode, Nate is joined by global ecologist Corey Bradshaw to discuss his r...
Aug 14, 2024•2 hr 1 min
(Recorded August 5 2024) As a problem-solving species, technology is an embedded part of the human experience – we assess, innovate, invent and adapt. But as we move out of the anomalous era we have just lived through and into less stable economic, social, geopolitical and ecological circumstances, humanity will require different kinds of innovation for a livable future. In this Frankly, Nate offers preliminary guidelines for what might be termed ‘Goldilocks Technology’ – not too hot (dopaminerg...
Aug 09, 2024•20 min
(Conversation recorded on June 25th, 2024) Although artificial intelligence tends to dominate conversations about solving our most daunting global challenges, we may actually find some of the most potent ideas hiding in plain sight in the natural world around us. In this episode, Nate is joined by Janine Benyus, who has spent decades advocating for biomimicry – a design principle that seeks to emulate nature's models, systems, and elements to solve complex human problems in ways that are sustain...
Aug 07, 2024•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 135
(Recorded July 23 2024) Description In this week’s Frankly, (coincidentally released the day after Earth Overshoot Day ), Nate breaks down seven factors contributing to humanity’s increasing overshoot – which is defined as the point at which species’ use of ecological resources and services exceeds what Earth can regenerate in a given time period – as well as some things that might engender a retreat from current overshoot levels. For the first time in Earth’s history, a species is able to acces...
Aug 02, 2024•16 min
(Conversation recorded on June 19th, 2024) Show Summary: While the mainstream conversation about our planet’s future is heavily dominated by the topic of climate change, there are other systems which are just as critical to consider when thinking about the health and livability of our world. Just like climate change, each of these systems has its own limits within which humanity and the biosphere can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. However, each also has a critical tippin...
Jul 31, 2024•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 134
(Conversation recorded on June 14th, 2024) Show Summary: There’s a growing understanding of the need for biodiversity across ecosystems for a healthy and resilient biosphere. What if we applied the same principles to the way we communicate and use language to relate to each other and the world? Today Nate is joined by Nora Bateson, Rex Weyler, Vanessa Andreotti, and Daniel Schmachtenberger to talk about the ecology of communication. This important conversation addresses some of the traps and pit...
Jul 28, 2024•1 hr 49 min
Recorded July 23 2024 In this week’s Frankly, Nate addresses the common desire for solutions to the human predicament - and why the championing of “solutions” is less clear-cut than we might perceive. To this end, he offers a three-dimensional model for thinking about a framework for responses. Effective responses greatly depend on the context of an individual - by highlighting specific ‘solutions’ we narrow the scope of the conversation and exclude creative and empowered humans with different i...
Jul 26, 2024•22 min
(Conversation recorded on June 12th, 2024) Show Summary: As we move through difficult cultural transitions and rethink our governance systems, it will be critical that we listen to voices that are rooted beyond the conventional Western thinking that has come to dominate our society. As such, it is always an honor when Indigenous leaders share their experiences and wisdom with the broader public. This week, Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation joins Nate to recount her decades of work in Indige...
Jul 24, 2024•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 133
Recorded July 16 2024 Description Following the attempted assassination of former United States President Donald J. Trump, Nate reflects on the dysfunctional social dynamics which have brought many of us to high levels of tribalism and mistrust toward others and divorced from the deeper challenges facing us in coming decades. As humans, we all - for the most part - share the same enjoyments in life - beautiful nature, autonomy, music, healthy, tasty food, clean water, friends, and family (whatev...
Jul 19, 2024•14 min
(Conversation recorded on June 27th, 2024) Show Summary: Artificial intelligence has been advancing at a break-neck pace. Accompanying this is an almost frenzied optimism that AI will fix our most pressing global problems, particularly when it comes to the hype surrounding climate solutions. In this episode, Daniel Schmachtenberger joins Nate to take a wide-boundary look at the true environmental risks embedded within the current promises of artificial intelligence. He demonstrates that the curr...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 47 min
(Recorded July 8 2024) There are many so-called ‘solutions’ out there that, upon first glance, seem like great ideas - yet when we look beyond the narrow scope of the immediate benefits, we discover a slew of unintended (and often counterproductive) consequences. Today’s Frankly offers a series of examples of modern issues using a “wide-boundary” lens - and in the process demonstrates the importance of asking “...and then what?” when thinking about our responses to future events and constraints....
Jul 12, 2024•24 min
(Conversation recorded on June 14th, 2024) Show Summary: If plants are considered the lungs of the Earth, cycling CO2 into oxygen for animals to breathe, then animals act as the heart and arteries, spreading nutrients across the Earth to where it’s needed most. This is the metaphor that today’s guest, conservation biologist Joe Roman, uses when describing his work studying how animals such as whales, otters, salmon, and midges provide vital ecosystem services, and how destruction of their popula...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 131
(Conversation recorded on May 16th, 2024) Show Summary: At the intersection between science and spirituality lies some of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves about the future - the answers to which could mean the difference between humanity’s mere survival or a flourishing. Today’s episode with Peabody-award winning broadcaster Krista Tippett is an exploration into what it means to be human in our modern world and engage as individuals in the inner work required to create outward tr...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 33 min
