The Creative Process · Arts, Culture & Society: Books, Film, Music, TV, Art, Writing, Creativity, Education, Environment, Theatre, Dance, LGBTQ, Climate Change, Social Justice, Spirituality, Feminism, Tech, Sustainability

After 40 years of reporting on the world's most pressing ecological crises, you might expect Fred Pearce to be a cynic. Instead, he’s one of our greatest advocates for hope.
If you follow the news about the environment, it’s easy to feel a sense of impending doom. We hear about accelerating extinctions, collapsing water cycles, and climate tipping points. But my guest today, environmental journalist Fred Pearce, says that if you look at the "ground-truth"—the stories of nature and people he has encountered—there is a surprising, even radical, case for hope. His work has taken him to more than eighty countries, from the logging concessions of Borneo to the radioactive exclusion zones of Chernobyl. He is the environment consultant for New Scientist and a regular contributor to The Guardian.
In his latest work, Despite It All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls, he challenges the prevailing narrative of environmental collapse. He argues that the "population bomb" is being defused, that we are approaching "peak stuff" in developed nations, and that nature possesses a staggering capacity for resilience that we often ignore. He says that a "Good Anthropocene" is not only possible but is already beginning to take shape through a combination of ancient wisdom and modern technical fixes. We’ll talk today about his life as a journalist and why pessimism may be the greatest enemy of progress.
(0:00) The Radical Case for Climate Optimism
(2:46) Traveling the World to Find Environmental Resilience
(5:08) Fixing the Anthropocene and Escaping Despondency
(10:22) Indigenous Wisdom and Local Stewardship
(15:28) Rewilding and Trusting Nature's Adaptability
(21:10) The Renewable Energy Transition in China and Beyond
(23:56) Peak Stuff and Redesigning the Cities of the Future
(34:01) Defending Democracy and Environmental Protestors
(36:12) Drinking Radioactive Vodka in Chernobyl's Exclusion Zone
(41:29) When the Rivers Run Dry and Water Scarcity
(50:37) Why the Population Bomb is Defusing
(55:36) The Origins of an Environmental Journalist
(1:03:15) The Future of Journalism in the Age of AI
(1:13:27) Generational Hope and the Next Industrial Revolution
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Today, on Earth Day, we explore the Living World—a reality where we are not merely on a planet, but are a moving part of its very metabolism. We travel from the High Sierras with Paul Hawken to the forests of Costa Rica with Thomas Crowther. Guided by Merlin Sheldrake and David George Haskell, we explore ecology, policy, and music with guests Paula Pinho, Hans Bruyninckx, Bill Hare and Alice Schmidt. Alongside Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Tom Chi, Erland Cooper, Rebecca Tickell and Britt Wray, we ask what happens when we stop trying to dominate and start trying to collaborate with the Earth?
(0:04) TIOKASIN GHOSTHORSE (Founder, First Voices Radio)
(2:05) PAUL HAWKEN (Founder, Project Regeneration, Project Drawdown, Author) (24:25)
(4:57) THOMAS CROWTHER (Founder, Restor, Co-chair UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration)
(5:51) MERLIN SHELDRAKE (Biologist, Author, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds)
(8:23) DAVID GEORGE HASKELL (Biologist, Author, How Flowers Made Our World)
(10:43) HANS BRUYNINCKX (Fmr. Director European Environment Agency)
(11:39) REBECCA TICKELL (Director, Kiss the Ground) Soil Health, Bio-sequestration (26:27)
(13:32) TOM CHI (Founding Partner At One Ventures, Author, Climate Capital)
(14:44) PAULA PINHO (Chief Spokesperson, European Commission)
(16:08) BILL HARE (Founder,CEO of Climate Analytics, Physicist)
(18:03) ALICE SCHMIDT (Global Sustainability Advisor, Author)
(19:18) ERLAND COOPER (Composer) Earth as Collaborator
(22:38) BRITT WRAY (Author, Generation Dread)
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews.
Episode Website

Today, on Earth Day, we explore the Living World—a reality where we are not merely on a planet, but are a moving part of its very metabolism. We travel from the High Sierras with Paul Hawken to the forests of Costa Rica with Thomas Crowther. Guided by Merlin Sheldrake and David George Haskell, we explore ecology, policy and music with guests Paula Pinho, Hans Bruyninckx, Bill Hare and Alice Schmidt. Alongside Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Tom Chi, Erland Cooper, Rebecca Tickell and Britt Wray, we ask what happens when we stop trying to dominate and start trying to collaborate with the Earth?
(0:04) TIOKASIN GHOSTHORSE Founder, First Voices Radio
(2:05) PAUL HAWKEN Founder, Project Regeneration, Project Drawdown, Author (24:25)
(4:57) THOMAS CROWTHER Founder, Restor, Co-chair UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
(5:51) MERLIN SHELDRAKE Biologist, Author, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds
(8:23) DAVID GEORGE HASKELL Biologist, Author, How Flowers Made Our World
(10:43) HANS BRUYNINCKX Fmr. Director European Environment Agency
(11:39) REBECCA TICKELL (Director, Kiss the Ground) Soil Health (26:27)
(13:32) TOM CHI Founding Partner, At One Ventures, Author, Climate Capital
(14:44) PAULA PINHO Chief Spokesperson, European Commission
(16:08) BILL HARE Founder/CEO, Climate Analytics, Physicist
(18:03) ALICE SCHMIDT Global Sustainability Advisor, Author
(19:18) ERLAND COOPER (Composer) Earth as Collaborator
(22:38) BRITT WRAY Author, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis
To hear more from each guest, listen to their full interviews
Episode Website www.creativeprocess.info/pod IG @creativeprocesspodcast

“Algorithms are deciding whether you are eligible for a loan, a job, an apartment or insurance. They determine what you see online, who reads your social media posts and who connects with you on dating apps. They may even decide whether you get arrested or go to jail. Your very life hangs in the balance of prophecies.”
In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Carissa Véliz, an associate professor at the University of Oxford, about her new book,Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future—from Ancient Oracles to AI. Linking this work to her previous book, Privacy is Power: Why and How You Should Take Back Control of Your Data, Véliz writes: “ surveillance and prediction are digital technology’s original sins.”
In our wide-ranging discussion, we talk about how both massive and intrusive invasions of privacy at all levels of society and false claims to be able to predict the future erode democracy, are corrosive to ethics, and undermine people’s ability to think for themselves. Instead, we are conditioned to trust an unregulated band of “effective altruists” who claim to know better than we what kinds of lives we should prefer and the choices we should make. Véliz argues instead that we should embrace the uncertain to build resilience, to prepare for contingency but not be determined by what we cannot see, and to foster curiosity and imagination.
EPISODE CHAPTERS
(0:00) Digital Technology's Original Sins
(2:34) How Books and Prophecies Choose Their Readers
(5:50) The Link Between AI, Mass Surveillance, and Profit
(8:46) Why Ethics Is the Hidden Foundation of Democracy
(13:52) The Future Tense as a Tech Executive Power Play
(16:20) Predictions as Speech Acts and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
(22:04) Artificial Intelligence as the Ultimate Bullshitter
(26:38) Effective Altruism, Utilitarianism, and the Dangers of Infinity
(35:10) Losing Connection to the Analog World and Critical Thinking
(42:16) Family Stories and Absorbing the Shock of Life
(46:56) Cultivating Bravery and Defying Tech’s Probabilistic Vision
(49:19) Practical Advice for Everyday Life and Preparation
Episode Website
www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com Bluesky @palumboliu.bsky.social Instagram @speaking_out_of_place

Why does our economy treat environmental destruction as an inevitable side effect rather than a massive design flaw? How can shifting our focus from polarizing "talkers" to practical "builders" literally save the planet? We are repeatedly told that the climate crisis is too vast and volatile to solve, but what if the true obstacle is simply bad design?
Tom Chi is a physicist, designer, inventor, and investor whose work has shaped everything from Google Glass and rapid prototyping at Google X to some of the most ambitious climate technologies being built today. He’s now the founding partner of At One Ventures, where he invests in deep-tech companies focused on a bold goal: a world where humanity is a net positive to nature.
Tom’s new book, Climate Capital: Investing in the Tools for a Regenerative Future, reframes economics itself—not as a fixed law, but as a design discipline that can be reimagined to align with the physical realities of our planet. Drawing on science, systems thinking, and lessons from nature, the book offers a grounded, practical framework for moving beyond both climate doom and empty optimism—and toward real, regenerative solutions. Today’s conversation is about what Tom calls the 4Cs: Capital, Compassion, Climate, and Community—but also about agency, responsibility, and what becomes possible when we stop treating the future as something that happens to us and start designing it deliberately.
0:00) Build Integrity: Choosing Builders Over Talkers
Why prioritizing those who physically create solutions over those who merely debate them is essential for systemic change
(1:21) Overcoming Powerlessness Through Creativity, Critical Thinking, Community Compassion
Utilizing a specific framework of portable skills to move from climate anxiety into meaningful, iterative action
(2:22) Capital Misallocation: Taxing What We Want to See
A critique of current tax structures that burden labor while under-taxing capital and failing to serve societal needs
(3:47) The Volatility Gap: Why Average Temperatures Mislead
Understanding why increasing climate volatility—rather than just average temperature rise—is the true driver of human distress
(6:19) Economics As Design: Redesigning The Global Engine
Moving beyond "physics envy" in economics to treat the global market as a discipline that can be redesigned for better outcomes
(9:11) Depth Over Breadth: Reforming Education Through Experience
(13:30) Local Resilience: How Cities Can Lead The Transformation
Practical, block-by-block strategies for urban adaptation, from expanding tree canopies to improving household efficiency
(16:33) AI and Robotics in Agriculture
(19:12) Human-Centric AI: Flipping The Priority Of Automation
(20:18) Thinking In Pictures: A Language Beyond Words
Episode Website
www.creativeprocess.info/pod
IG @creativeprocesspodcast