Episode description

The New Yorker staff writer Rivka Galchen joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss a class at the University of Chicago with a tantalizingly dark title: “Are We Doomed?” It’s in the interdisciplinary field of existential risk, which studies the threats posed by climate change, nuclear warfare, and artificial intelligence. Galchen, who spent a semester observing the course and its students, considers how to contend with this bleak future, and how to understand the young people who may inherit it. 
This week’s reading:

• “Are We Doomed? Here’s How to Think About It,” by Rivka Galchen 
• “It’s a Climate Election Now,” by Bill McKibben

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