Wild with Sarah Wilson

Olivia Lazard (peace mediator; rare minerals expert) exposes missing chunks in the “green” energy transition that many of us assume to be the “fix” to the climate crisis. Via her work as a fellow at Carnegie Europe and advisor on global security, she explains how the mining and extraction of rare earth metals like lithium, graphite and cobalt - to make the batteries etc for the new green “economy”...

A cracking Ask Me Anything question this week that gives us a chance to talk about crazy-making tech bros and their antics. My answer sees me dive into p(doom) numbers, Freud, techno-optimistic manifestos and fertility collapse. Fun!  Join the conversation over on Substack and post your own Ask Me Anything here . If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my " about " page For more such...

Kate Raworth (“renegade” economist; inventor of the “doughnut” systems model) has one of the most dynamic and controversial theories for “fixing” or adjusting to the planetary mess we’re in. Back in 2017 she released her book  Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist  and it became a cult read – the Pope, Extinction Rebellion and the UN General Assembly...

On today's AMA, I share my hacks and my “mindset” for sifting through, retaining and managing all the data inflow (amino supplements, tilting, biting off more than I can chew as a tactic and advice gleaned from systems thinkers). And I wade into when to speak out and when not to wade into a rally and take the mic (and the responsibility that comes with being a privileged white woman who looks as t...

Johann Hari (bestselling author Stolen Focus and Lost Connections) has written another system-rattling book, this time about the new weight loss drugs that everyone is both talking about AND not talking about. I’ve been wanting a wild mind to come chat about the phenomenon for over a year. Johann happened to reach out and tell me he’d been experimenting with Ozempic, had travelled the world interv...

As we become aware of climate collapse and its ripple effect on the financial and energy systems, and as houses become uninsurable and fossil fuel markets get wobbly, do things like investing, mortgages, and retirement savings become moot? A Substack reader asks me how I’m personally prioritising these things, and I answer candidly. The chat moves into prepping and homesteading considerations. Bac...

Annabel Abbs (English novelist; author of Sleepless) was crippled with insomnia. Rather than fight it she looked for its productive plus side and discovered that many incredible creatives have needed to stay awake to access their best selves – their Night Selves. Particularly women, as it turns out. Annabel chats to me about how famous writers, painters and Hollywood stars have used their sle...

Isabelle Reinecke (founder Grata Fund) is leading a super exciting landmark legal case that could force the Australian Government to actually stick to its climate commitments and stop approving fossil fuel projects immediately. By as early as the end of this year. Seriously!  It’s called the Uncles Australian Climate Case (it’s being brought by two Torres Strait Islander elders) and it’s...

Anna Funder (international bestselling author of Wifedom) pens books about power. She is the author of the international bestsellers Stasiland , about the Stasi, which is being made into a TV series starring Elizabeth Debicki, and All That I Am , about the Nazis, which won the Miles Franklin Award. Her latest book, Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life , sees Anna...

In last week’s interview with a Palestinian and an Israeli Father, I promised to share how we met, a story that involves a famous actor, an Irish author and a bizarre email chain that starts in the Australian outback. Here it is. For some fun. And to remind us all of the power of story and of reaching out to humanity. SHOW NOTES Catch the original interview here Read Apeirogon by Colom Mcann Learn...

Helen Lewis (The Atlantic columnist, BBC podcaster, pop culture decoder) has become a darling of the heterodox podcasting community (and this podcast; catch my previous Wild chat with her about THAT GQ interview with Jordan Peterson here ), and, relatedly, a pet target of the extreme Right and Left’s ongoing cancelling zeal. In this interview, I invite Helen to talk through several very online eru...

Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan (peace activists with Parent’s Circle) are the two protagonists from Colum McCann’s Booker-Prize-longlisted book Apeirogon. Both lost their daughters to the conflict, ten years apart. Yet in spite of – or because of - this horror they became dedicated friends, or “brothers”, committed to opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestine and working with “th...

Liv Boeree (world poker champion; astrophysicist; game theorist) is on a mission to explain why we are all trapped in a zero-sum, race to the bottom…with climate, AI, social media and politics. Why do we keep digging up resources, consuming carbon, getting stuck in nasty online spats and building robots that could kill us? Why don’t we just STOP?? Why CAN’T we just STOP?! It’s because of "moloch"...

Substack subscribers have posed some beautiful thought-provoking questions this week. Do I suffer from a broken heart and how do I cope with it at a spiritual level? Do I stand by my I Quit Sugar message all these years later, particularly given an awareness of the triggering effect of restrictive messages? And where do we draw the line when someone we love uses the “mental illness card” to justif...

Prof. Joel Pearson (Neuroscientist; AI and intuition expert) developed the first scientific test to measure intuition, dragging it out of the woo-woo realm and into a cognitive framework. He’s now written The Intuition Toolkit: The New Science of Knowing What without Knowing Why to show us how and when to use this mysterious superpower in our lives (not while rock-climbing on a date, not at a casi...

Peter Frankopan (Silk Roads author, Oxford historian) has just written a mega-history book called The Earth Transformed that reframes human history not via various major battles and legendary leaders but through a climate lens. Floods, droughts and, invariably, a volcano or two, dictated the fall of the Roman Empire, the fate of Cleopatra, the rise of gossip and beer halls, slavery and the di...

Today’s question has come in from many of you over recent weeks. It’s an important one to ask as we grapple with the horror in the Middle East and our sense of powerlessness, as leaders around the world seem immobilised by geopolitical interests. I’ve invited Palestinian peace broker Aziz Abu Sarah to help answer it. Aziz is one of the world's most powerful and connected peacebuilders. He’s a...

Dr Kelly Weinersmith (behavioural ecologist and space expert) and her husband Zach have just spent four years researching a subject that perplexes many of us – why all the fuss about moving to Mars? Which begs, can we actually build a human settlement on Mars? And, would we want to? They share their findings in their new book  A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space,...

Devin Moss (atheist chaplain and humanist) late last year ministered a convicted murderer to his death by execution in the state of Oklahoma. Significantly he provided the prisoner, Phillip Hancock, spiritual counsel for more than a year, and “prayed” with him in the execution room…all without drawing on notions of an afterlife or a forgiving God entity. Which begs, what does spiritual counsel loo...

I’ve been doing a bunch of Substack meetups around Australia over the past few weeks (the Sydney and Northern NSW ones are happening in March and you can register in the Substack post here ). And several people in the community have posed some related questions to do with balancing where the world is at with your need for creative freedom, our own mental health, our tendency to run from hard topic...

Maggie Jackson (award-winning author and journalist) has just written a book -  Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure – that argues that while humans crave certainty, we actually experience a less anxious, more productive, happier life when we embrace not knowing. Maggie is known for her writing on social trends, particularly technology’s impact on humanity. She’s written for ...

More than 43,000 studies have been done to show how and why walking in nature (hiking) has so many mental and physical benefits. In this episode, prompted by listener Stefan’s question that came through on Substack , I talk through my favourite explainers and how it plays out for me. Conservatively, I would say I have done more than 500 hikes in my lifetime…and can vouch for the fact… it just work...

Maggie Dent (the “queen of common sense”;  parenting expert) raised four sons, largely solo, and went on to write about her experiences and lessons learned. She soon became highly sought after for her candid and loving take on raising young men (she’s also known as the “boy champion”). Maggie is host of The Good Enough Dad  and  Parental As Anything  podcasts, and the...

Did you see the results of the survey published in the Financial Times that showed there is a growing political gap between millennial men and women? I was asked this week what my thoughts were, what’s causing the drift in both directions and other gaps, between young people, should we be worried and what to do? I reference lots of different articles and data and put all the links over at Substack...

Chris van Tulleken (doctor, TV host) is a London infectious diseases specialist known for his popular BBC health TV programs that he hosts with his identical twin brother (including the kids series Operation Ouch; they’ve won two BAFTAs). In his recent book Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop? , which has been a #1 Sunday Times bestseller fo...