What is the best approach to solving the climate crisis? Should we leverage science and technology to ‘produce’ our way out of the problem? Or aspire to live in Hobbiton and radically reduce our human footprint?
Charles C. Mann is the New York Times bestselling author behind 1491, 1493 and The Wizard and the Prophet and a regular correspondent for The Atlantic, WIRED and Science Magazine. Today, Charles joins Ross to discuss the two major schools of thought he identified in the environmental movement—wizards and prophets—and introduce us to the scientists he uses to represent each camp in his book.
Charles walks us through the fundamental differences between the two groups, describing their values, blind spots and radically different ways of seeing the world. Listen in for Charles’ insight on a third school of thought that dismisses both wizards and prophets and find out where he falls on the wizard-prophet spectrum in light of the current global health crisis.
Connect with Ross
Nori
Nori on Patreon
Email podcast@nori.com
Resources
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World
Charles on Twitter
Norman Borlaug
Road to Survival by William Vogt
Jared Diamond
Naomi Klein
Paul Ehrlich
Bill McKibben
Ted Nordhaus
Hans Rosling
Jesse Ausubel
Ramez Naam
Emma Marris
Planet of the Humans
Nathaneal Johnson in Grist
‘The Call of Cthulhu’ by H.P. Lovecraft
Dr. Vandana Shiva
Adam Smith’s Parable of the Poor Man’s Son
Lynn Margulis

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