Urgent Futures with Jesse Damiani

As soon as the cost of renewable energy drops to or below fossil fuel levels, we'll easily make the transition away from fossil fuels, right? ...Unfortunately, that's just not how things are playing out in practice. Even though wind and solar energy have seen remarkable innovation and rollouts around the world, fossil fuels remain dominant. What gives? Today's guest, Brett Christophers, believes i...

Bit of a different episode this week! It’s a recording of my Substack Live with Better Future w/ Michael Mezz , where we dive into all the topics listed in the title, plus a few surprises. It was a fun little experiment that ends up packing a punch—all thanks to Michael’s ability to sensemake such volatile, complex topics. He’s also a past guest of the show, and our conversation is a fantastic int...

What if the ongoing devastation of the biosphere and the ascendancy of complex AI are rooted in the same anthropocentrism? What if there were a new theory of mind that incorporated our biological kin and AI? What if such a theory foregrounded ecological relationality and a broadening of our idea of what cognition is—and what can be a cognizer? Today's guest, N. Katherine Hayles, proposes such a th...

Can feminism be African? The more you sit with this question, the more its complexities reveal themselves; as you emphasize different aspects of the question, new subtexts and assumptions come into view. This question is also the title of a new book by Minna Salami, today's guest. It's a remarkable read—I encourage you to pick up your copy now ! Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease...

What are the three types of eroticism? What is it like being someone who fetishizes foot fetishists? What is it like writing the script for an adult video in this genre? Speaking of fetishes, were you aware of the balloon ("looner") fetish? All that and more in this freewheeling conversation with today's guest, Noelle Perdue. A doubly fun episode because it marks the official launch of my "Riffs &...

Plato is among the most famous thinkers in all of Western philosophy. What if his notion of transcendence—of there being a reality "out there" that's "higher" than our earthly plane—underlies everything that's broken about modernity. If you can believe it, that's a core argument of an otherwise touching book about one ecologist's experience raising and ultimately freeing an orphaned screen owl. Th...

Conspiracy theories are all over the place, but...what are they, exactly? How do they work and what's their history? Who is susceptible to them? What do they tell us about the human condition? These are just a few of the questions that today's guest, David Guignion, examines in his research. He's also the founder of the popular Theory & Philosophy channel and podcast, so he knows a thing or two ab...

The Dark Gothic MAGA oligarchs are going for everything at breakneck speed. We are playing defense and cleanup—and badly. It's time for a switch-up. Let's talk about Canada—and the prospect of Blue States joining it. Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase d...

AI continues to be a major subject of debate—and for good reason. It’s a technology that holds incredible potential to shape and reshape power. This is why we have to remain more vigilant than ever to how AI models are built, who builds them, what their motivations and value systems are, and what we collectively demand from builders—and how we regulate them as a society. As with any emerging techn...

How bad is it going to get? This is the provocation today's guest Rupert Read makes in a recent keynote—and one that I found to be an excellent way to jump into our conversation—though it’s a bit of a decoy. It gives way to a deeper, more nuanced conversation about how we ultimately survive and even thrive in complex emerging realities. Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact o...

Decontaminating the air, soil, and water in Los Angeles in the wake of the wildfires is going to be a long road. But Centre for Applied Ecological Remediation Founder and President Danielle Stevenson has spent more than a decade refining her research in "ecological remediation"—integrated social and environmental practices that could be crucial in not only healing LA, but better aligning it with t...

Why is the world in crisis? How can we get a view of the bigger picture? My guest this week is Rachel Donald—and she's something of an expert in these questions. Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective C...

Los Angeles: have you been doomscrolling and unable to concentrate? There's a reason, & it has to do with how our brains respond to trauma. I spoke with Dr. Jyoti Mishra, a leading neuroscientist to make sense of it. If you appreciate the work I'm doing, make sure to subscribe here so you never miss an episode! Urgent Futures is also a video podcast, available on YouTube. Support the show by check...

Wim Carton and Andreas Malm are the co-authors of the superb, devastating new book Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown . Here’s a quote to give you a sense of its argument: "And when the third decade of the millennium dawned, the relationship remained firmly in place: the warmer the globe became, the more fossil fuels were poured on the fire. The higher the temperatures, the...

If you live in Los Angeles, I urge you to listen to this and share it with everyone you care about right now— especially if you/they live in or near ash zones. Even though the AQI is low again, the impacts of wildfire smoke are still here. Loads of nasty pollutants like asbestos, formaldehyde, lead, and other heavy metals, plastics, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are still in the air and as...

Is the Western world in the midst of a crisis of meaning? If so, how did we get here, and what can we do about it? What should we be thinking about as we develop artificial intelligence? These are just a few of the many questions I dive into with my guest this week, John Vervaeke. Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43...

The Los Angeles Fires—most notably the Palisades Fire and Eaton Fire—are the most destructive in California history. They are horrific, and they are teaching us hard lessons. Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy...

Oil defines our lives, but we actually understand so little about it—and moreover, so little about its role in driving what we call “progress.” The flip side of that, of course, is that we don’t grasp how utterly dependent modern civilization is on oil. Without it, everything we take for granted about energy, the economy, technology, agriculture, and medicine would change. We are, as this week's g...

What are the most extreme extinction events in Earth's history? And what should we learn from them to avoid a similar fate? Today's guest, Peter Brannen , is an expert in these extinctions, having written one of the key books on the topic, The Ends of the World . It’s an invigorating read, in part because you really confront the raw power and volatility of this planet—and because you can then more...

Humanity is in a state of ecological overshoot—put simply: we use more than the Earth can support. In many ways, this is the primary problem of modern human civilization. But driving this problem is a fundamental 'human behavioral crisis.' Understanding this is critical—and Phoebe Barnard, today's guest, can explain why. Support the show by checking out these Black Friday Deals : ZBiotics (Decreas...

We all know extinctions are bad—but extinctions aren't a yes or no question, they're a spectrum. That's why we need to understand the idea of 'defaunation,' a term coined by today's guest, legendary conservation scientist Rodolfo Dirzo. Support the show by checking out these Black Friday Deals : ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (50% off starter kits)...

What is the future of voice? Where does AI fit in? Listen on! Support the show by checking out: ZBiotics (Decrease impact of hangovers. Code: JESSEDAMIANI for 10% off), MUD\WTR (43% off starter kits), 1Password (simplify your life and increase digital safety), Mission Farms CBD (healthy, effective CBD for relief, sleep, and wellbeing—25% off with email), NordVPN (the simplest way to protect yourse...

Transitioning off of fossil fuels is critical for our survival, but what if the solutions we're racing to develop (solar, wind, etc.) aren't actually sustainable? What happens if we don't have enough minerals to service the energy demand our current projections say we'll need to? My guest today is Simon Michaux, and his proposal is that we ditch the 'Green Transition' in favor of the 'Purple Trans...

What does the election of Donald Trump mean for America and the world? And what can we do about it? This is not the post-election episode I’d hoped to do. I imagined I’d be doing an episode where I talked through the progressive ideals that didn’t make their way into the Harris campaign, and strategies + tactics we could use to hold the Harris administration accountable to them. Alas. There are so...

How can humans deepen our relationship(s) with nature without anthropomorphizing or flattening it? Seeing the natural world in all its messiness, contradictions, & wonder. Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos. My guest this...