Podcasts about animated movies

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Get in, losers, we're going to Laputa! This week we take flight with Pazu, Sheeta, and a gang of pirates with some seriously questionable motives to find the mythical land in the clouds where cool robots take care of birds (and shoot lasers). It's the first true Ghibli film, and, man, does it set the bar pretty high. Also... what the hell is going on with the English dub of this film? Next week, it's our very first Takahata film, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. Join the conversation on our Discord at https://discord.com/invite/RssDc3brsx and get more Eye of the Duck on our Patreon show, After Hours https://www.patreon.com/EyeoftheDuckPod References: Special Features Creating Castle in the Sky Scoring Miyazaki Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation by Helen McCarthy Starting Point by Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History by Rayna Denison Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man by Steve Alpert The Works of Hayao Miyazaki: The Japanese Animation Master by Gael Berton Miyazakiworld by Susan Napier Credits:  Eye of the Duck is created, hosted, and produced by Dom Nero and Adam Volerich. This episode was edited by Michael Gaspari. This episode was researched by Parth Marathe. Our logo was designed by Francesca Volerich. You can purchase her work at francescavolerich.com/shop The "Adam's Blu-Ray Corner" theme was produced by Chase Sterling. Assistant programming and digital production by Nik Long. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd or join the conversation at Eye of the Discord. Learn more at eyeoftheduckpod.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this week's Frankly, Nate discusses his long-running attempt to understand non-duality, and why this concept has remained just out of his grasp despite years of conversations with teachers, thinkers, and podcast guests. He begins with a personal reflection on the possibility that his difficulty understanding non-duality does not stem from lack of intelligence or a short attention span, but from the particular cultural operating system that Westerners seem to inherit from birth. This operating system – which appears everywhere from language to economics to institutions – reinforces separation between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed, the self and the world. It trains us to experience ourselves as isolated individuals standing apart from the living systems that sustain us.  The latter part of this episode turns toward identifying moments where this separation starts to soften: experiences with music, grief, nature, and deep presence, to name a few. Nate connects these insights to the metacrisis as a whole, suggesting that humanity's treatment of the biosphere might be rooted in the same underlying assumption of separateness. Rather than arriving at an outright definition of non-duality, Nate closes with the possibility that loosening our grip on certainty may itself be a large part of the work.  Have there been moments in your own life when the boundary between yourself and the world briefly dissolved? Why does non-duality seem so difficult to define within modern Western culture? And what does it mean to consider separation from nature to be the foundation beneath many of today's global crises? (Recorded May 28th, 2026) Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Most responses to civilizational crises focus outward – policy levers, energy systems, geopolitical actors, and material flows – with little focus on how the humans inside these systems might change and grow in parallel. At the same time, the minds that built this complex and fragile world are also the instruments we must use to navigate its unraveling, making them a critical factor in defining humanity's future. With that said, who will we be as simplification unfolds, and how do we prepare our inner terrains for what's coming? In this episode, Nate is joined by meditation practitioner, Andrew Holecek, for an exploration of the concept of dark retreats, periods of extended time in complete absence of light, as a practical path toward reflection and reconnection with ourselves and others. Andrew draws on decades of study in Tibetan Buddhism and non-dual wisdom traditions to explore how the external complexity of modern life is mirrored in the internal complexity of the modern mind. Central to his work is the concept of non-duality: a return from the fragmented display of self-versus-world toward a more unified, less suffering-prone relationship with reality. Andrew and Nate also explore the misleading entanglement of happiness and consumption, arguing that satisfaction arises not from acquiring what we want, but from the cessation of wanting itself.  What would it mean to practice darkness as a needed reprieve from constant light and stimulation, rather than deprivation? If the coming decades hold a forced reduction in external, material complexity, how could a deepening of our internal worlds make us more resilient, compassionate, and grounded? And could confronting fear – by learning to move through it rather than avoid it – be one of the most practical preparations for navigating future uncertainty and social fracture? (Conversation recorded on April 28th, 2026)    About Dr. Andrew Holecek: Andrew Holecek is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner in Tibetan Buddhism and other nondual wisdom traditions who has spent over thirty years helping people transform life's greatest challenges into opportunities for awakening. A dedicated meditation practitioner who completed the traditional Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat, Andrew is known for making profound contemplative practices accessible and practical. He is actively involved in scientific research on dark retreat with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies where he serves as Resident Contemplative Scholar. Andrew is a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the author of several scientific papers on lucid dreaming, and was also the host of the now-concluded Edge of Mind podcast, where he interviewed guests to explore ancient teachings and modern topics about the nature of mind and reality. Andrew's newest area of focus is dark retreat, the ancient Buddhist practice of extended meditation in complete darkness. His most recent book, Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation, draws on more than thirty years of personal dark retreat experience. True to his approach, Andrew teaches dark retreat – and the more accessible gray retreat practice of weaving in and out of darkness – as a genuine path to healing, creativity, and self-understanding.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Calling all Tolmekians: it's a series premiere!!!! Today we take flight with the Princess of the Valley of the Wind for our new Studio Ghibli series. What a dream (of madness)! For the next few months we'll be fully devoted to the works of Miyazaki, Takahata, and the entire Ghibli collective. We hope you'll join us in the Sea of Decay! The water is fine (it's only mildly acidic and poisonous). Next week, it's the first true Studio Ghibli film, CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986). Join the conversation on our Discord at https://discord.com/invite/RssDc3brsx and get more Eye of the Duck on our Patreon show, After Hours https://www.patreon.com/EyeoftheDuckPod References: Special Features Nausicaä Continues On Behind the Microphone The Works of Hayao Miyazaki: The Japanese Animation Master by Gael Berton Starting Point by Hayao Miyazaki Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man by Steve Alpert Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation by Helen McCarthy Hideaki Anno Wants to Remake Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind The Sydney Morning Herald Mai Fujisawa Interview A Real Glider A Real Glider Part 2 Credits:  Eye of the Duck is created, hosted, and produced by Dom Nero and Adam Volerich. This episode was edited by Michael Gaspari. This episode was researched by Parth Marathe. Our logo was designed by Francesca Volerich. You can purchase her work at francescavolerich.com/shop The "Adam's Blu-Ray Corner" theme was produced by Chase Sterling. Assistant programming and digital production by Nik Long. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd or join the conversation at Eye of the Discord. Learn more at eyeoftheduckpod.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this week's Frankly, Nate offers the third episode in his series on staying human, this time focused on presence. Nate shares a personal reflection on presence, and its importance in a reality where we are constantly living in anticipation of the future. What begins as a missed moment of coffee and a birdsong unfolds into an examination of the brain's "default mode network" – one of the most studied structures in neuroscience, which supports functions like memory, future simulation, self-narrative, and wandering thought. Drawing from neuroscience, contemplative traditions, and his own decades spent modeling civilizational risk, Nate examines how the modern world – especially for those immersed in the metacrisis – pulls attention away from lived experience and into endless internal simulations about collapse, uncertainty, and what comes next. He also reflects on the emotional burden carried by people who are deeply aware of ecological decline, social instability, and systemic fragility, while questioning the widely held assumption that constant preoccupation is equivalent to care. Through stories, research, and practical reflections, Nate offers five pathways back to embodied awareness through using sensory attention, taking pause, single-tasking, remaining open to beauty, and embracing the finitude of life itself. Ultimately, this episode asks whether protecting the future requires us to stop abandoning the present – and whether presence itself may be one of the most necessary forms of resilience in the years ahead. How does the brain's default mode network shape our experience of dread, distraction, and time? What do we lose when awareness of the metacrisis becomes a form of absence from our own lives? And how can people engaged in difficult, world-facing work use strategies to remain emotionally present for the relationships and moments directly in front of them? (Recorded May 18th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Over the past century, standardized testing evolved from a wartime sorting tool into the defining feature of how we measure children's worth and potential, fundamentally altering the mental health and learning outcomes of an entire generation. Now, as global crises mount and our leaders struggle to navigate staggering complexity, a growing number of researchers are asking: what if the root cause of civilizational dysfunction is something as upstream and innately human as the way we educate our children? In this episode, Nate is joined by developmental psychologist Dr. Theo Dawson alongside returning guest and philosopher of education Dr. Zak Stein to explore the history of educational testing and show how we've progressively narrowed our definition of learning while stunting the very mental capacities we most need. Together, they make the case that without restoring the developmental health of the next generation, no amount of policy reform or technological innovation will be sufficient to change humanity's current trajectory. At the core of this argument, they discuss the need to pivot our testing and developmental measurements toward those that foster mental complexity, individual growth, and fundamental human skills, ultimately leveraging change through the entire educational system. Both guests emphasize the central importance of cultivating an "earned sense of competence" – the deep, embodied confidence that comes from learning through genuine engagement with the world – which they believe is the most powerful resource a civilization can regenerate. What are the effects on critical thinking and development as a result of years of memorization and high stakes testing? How might reframing the goals of our educational systems toward cultivating human flourishing help both average citizens and those in power make better decisions for the whole of society? And if education truly shapes everything from geopolitics to economic behavior, what would it require of us to treat the next generation as civilization's most precious resource as we continue to face more societal and ecological turbulence? (Conversation recorded on March 25th, 2026)   About Theo Dawson: Dr. Theo Dawson is the founder and executive director of Lectica, a nonprofit organization that develops evidence-based developmental assessments and builds knowledge about learning and its role in the future of society. She received her master's and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and is widely published in the field of cognitive developmental psychology.   About Zak Stein: Dr. Zak Stein is a philosopher of education and co-founder of Lectica. He is also co-founder of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, the Civilization Research Institute, and the Consilience Project. He is the author of dozens of published papers and two books, including Education in a Time Between Worlds. Zak received his Doctor of Education from Harvard University.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

In this week's Frankly, Nate offers the second episode in his series on staying human, this time focused on dread. Opening with a personal reflection on his own relationship to dread, Nate describes how the chronic anticipation of collapse affects the human nervous system long before any single crisis fully arrives. He walks through how the neuroscience behind the body's threat response was wired for more immediate risk, rather than the slow-moving and abstract risks of the more-than-human predicament. The latter part of the episode turns toward response. Nate outlines five practical pathways for metabolizing dread, drawing on insights from a wide variety of thinkers across neuroscience, trauma research, and contemplative traditions. These pathways include tools like mental reframing, somatic practice, reclaiming agency, community and co-regulation, and what Nate calls "befriending the darkness." He closes the episode with five concrete steps individuals can take when dread arises in daily life in order to move from dread into presence amidst widespread transformation.  Where in your body do you actually feel the weight of what you know about the future? What is one action within your reach today that is small but real? And who in your life can sit with what you carry, without trying to fix it? (Recorded May 14th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

The last pre-war shipments of oil products from the Strait of Hormuz have arrived at their destinations as of early May, meaning the promise of an energy crisis as a result of the Iran war is fast approaching. Leading experts are now forecasting energy disruptions ranging from rationing to severe shortages in import-dependent economies, with roughly 11% of global oil supply already offline. This leaves us with the question: even if this war were to end today, what sort of system-wide effects are locked in given the current loss in production, and what will be required of us to cope with the fallout?  In this episode, Nate welcomes back petroleum geologist Art Berman to break down the timeline of the looming oil shortages stemming from the Strait of Hormuz crisis and just how severe they could become within a tightly coupled, complex global system. Art explains why, even if the war were to end today, the inherent lags in our industrial supply chains mean shortfalls are already baked into the coming months. The resulting rise in energy prices will reach far beyond the pump, rippling out into the cost of virtually everything and confronting much of the world with conditions not seen in over five decades. Ultimately, Art sees this as a forcing mechanism that could compress decades of needed adjustment into months. The outcome will rely less on policy than on whether societies can absorb the shock without breaking. Amid all the speculation about oil prices in the wake of the Iranian conflict, what do these numbers actually mean in physical terms? If this conflict signals the beginning of a long-term decline in energy availability, are we already past the peak of the global material economy, with the financial layer not yet caught up to the physics? And if this conflict signals the beginning of a long-term decline in energy availability, what lessons from our deep past might help us find our way forward? (Conversation recorded on May 6th, 2026)   About Art Berman:  Art Berman is a petroleum geologist with over 40 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Oscar and Carl continue “VS Month” and set their sights on the Pixar classic A Bug's Life.A Bug's Life follows Flik as he tries to recruit a bug PMC to help defeat the invaders. We follow along as they attempt to weaponize fear against the enemy. Not only are we trying to figure out who would watch this, but also whether this or Antz is better.It's A Bug's Life… but why! That's the hour.If you have any questions or requests, send them to askwwwtpodcast@gmail.comFind us through:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whowouldwatchthisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whowouldwatchthis/TikTok: @podcastwhowouldwatchthisLetterboxd:Carl: https://letterboxd.com/carlllllllllll1/Oscar: https://letterboxd.com/oscarfart/More links: https://linktr.ee/whowouldwatchthis  

Hello and welcome to this week's show.  We are joining our LIVE show this week and take part in the Disney Animation Movie Countdown that's been going on over there for the last couple of shows.  We are at a crucial part of the Tourney as most of so-so movies are gone.  It's only the best from here on out.  https://www.thedisneynerds.com/ is the place to go to cast your votes for the next round!

This week's Frankly is another edition of Wide Boundary News, where Nate invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. He begins with the misleading framing of recent oil production statistics by the United States, which blurs distinctions between crude oil and broader petroleum products. Nate uses this as a case study in how data can be technically correct, yet structurally misleading – particularly when used for political storytelling. The lens widens as he considers whether the peak of the carbon pulse could pass without clear public understanding, especially as access to the underlying data becomes more restricted and fragmented. Nate then moves into the geopolitical and physical consequences of energy strain, focusing on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz as a critical chokepoint in global oil flows. He connects ongoing disruptions not only to price spikes, but also to how energy functions as a security commodity. These disruptions also extend into cascading effects on food systems, as things like fertilizer supply and cooking fuel reverse in access and affordability. Moving closer to home, Nate discusses the opening of Minnesota's Boundary Waters for copper-nickel mining, highlighting the tension between ecosystem protection and demand for mineral inputs to power any magnitude of energy transition. He also touches on the rapid expansion of AI data centers and the large share of electricity they use, framing this trend as the economic Superorganism diverting massive energy flows toward its cognitive layer, rather than only its muscular layer. Finally, Nate closes with a reflection on industrial livestock productivity as another expression of a system optimized for high output, but operating under energy conditions that may no longer hold.  Why do we need to think about energy as a security commodity? How much of our future depends on being told the truth? And what have we bred for – in cows, seed varieties, supply chains, cities, and financial systems – that we will not be able to feed, medicate, or transport on the backside of the carbon pulse? (Recorded May 5th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

If your idea of a perfect weekend involves a high-energy 3D concert experience where the audience is literally moshing in the cinema aisles, we have the ultimate recco from a global pop icon.We’re also talking about the heartwarming adaptation of a best-selling novel featuring a very sassy, very smart sea creature and a retired cleaner with a mystery to solve.Finally, we unpack a quirky new film about a flock of woolly detectives that features one of our favourite leading men, and has been crowned Em's favourite movie of the year (so far).Love binge-watching TV? The Spill has launched a new podcast called Watch Party where we deep dive into the shows everyone’s talking about. Follow the feed on Apple or Spotify now. Plus remember The Spill drops the tea twice a day in this feed so follow us for all the latest entertainment news… OR you can WATCH our show in full length video on the Apple Podcast app - make sure your phone is up to date and enjoy the watch! Link here. Read more weekly watch recommendations from the Mamamia entertainment team here. THE END BITS Find and follow us on socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespillpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thespillpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thespillpodcast/ Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia: https://mamamia.com.au/entertainment/ Support Independent Women’s Media: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe/ Your subscription helps us continue to tell the stories that matter to women. Want to join the conversation? Have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss? Send us a voice message or email us at thespill@mamamia.com.au and we’ll get back to you ASAP! Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran Audio & Video Producer: Michael Kean Mamamia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which we have recorded this podcast. You're listening to a Mom with mea podcast. 00:11Speaker 2 From Mom and May. I welcome to this bill, your daily pop culture fixed. I'm em Vernon and I'm Anihaiswarren, and we are doing we can Everything with my voice gone as well. It does not sound as nice as my previous weeks, because previous weeks does sound quite nice. 00:29Speaker 1 You've got a nice little husk going though. I feel like it's quite sexy. 00:32Speaker 2 I kind of hope it stays like this. 00:35Speaker 3 You're doing a bit of scar jokes and make my throat very dry though, so not good for you, but good for the people. 00:43Speaker 2 Yeah, good for everyone else. Anyway. It's our weekend Watch episode where we give you our favorite movies and TV shows to watch this weekend. On the show today, we have a movie that you can dance to in your living room or on the cinema stage. And we also have a movie that you can vibe with, laugh with, investigate. 01:05Speaker 1 With, talk with. You went on a real journey with that movie. 01:08Speaker 2 Oh my god, I have so much to say, spillers, But first, mon, you have a movie that's been on your radar recently. 01:14Speaker 3 Yes, so there's a movie that's coming out today and I haven't seen it yet because it only drops later tonight. 01:20Speaker 1 But I'm really excited about it because I've read the book. 01:22Speaker 3 Oh so I think a lot of people would have heard of this, because I think a lot of people are reading it right now. Literally went to the park the other day and I saw a woman get out of a book and it was this book. It's everywhere. You might recognize it as the bright yellow book with the octopus on it, yes, but it's called Remarkably Bright Creatures. 01:38Speaker 2 I've heard very, very good things about this book. 01:40Speaker 3 Yeah, it's spent more than sixty four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It's written by this lady called Shelby van Pelt. 01:48Speaker 1 I don't know any of her other work, but she wrote this book. 01:51Speaker 3 And I actually read it from my book club and I aced the quiz, so it did really well, And I want to free your. 01:56Speaker 2 Book club has quizzes? 01:58Speaker 1 Shall we do a quiz? We take it very serious, not one of. 02:00Speaker 2 Those meant to be fun and enjoyed. 02:03Speaker 1 It's fun and you learn things. Emily. 02:06Speaker 3 So the plot is basically the main character is called Tova Sullivan. She's this woman in her seventies she's retired, but she doesn't fully want to retire, so she still has this part time job cleaning the aquarium and the aquarium the town aquarium. Yeah, it's the aquarium of the town. And she forms a bond. Nothing weird, but she forms a bond with this octopus called Marcellus. 02:29Speaker 2 Is it like a sexual book. 02:30Speaker 3 It's not a sexual pod. It's more of a deeper emotional connection. 02:34Speaker 1 He just gets her. 02:35Speaker 2 Octopuses are meant to be very smart creatures. Isn't it octopi not octopuses. 02:39Speaker 1 I don't think it's octopi. Well, there's no plural in this because it's only one o. 02:43Speaker 2 Well, this octopus seems like he is he or she he muscles, is very smart. So this we have an octopus that would guess who would win the fief for World Cup. 02:52Speaker 3 Yes, so there's all these videos of octopus octopi that. 02:56Speaker 2 Go viral and she doesn't take it seriously. 02:59Speaker 1 But okay, well I'm pretty sure that's what it is. But the woman who wrote. 03:03Speaker 3 This book got inspired by one of those viral videos of the octopus doing something smart. She was like, oh, they're so smart, and then she like wrote this book and there's. 03:10Speaker 1 Parts that are from the octopus perspective. 03:12Speaker 2 They love crazy imaginations. I know, I watched that video and I was like, cool, that made like a massive career out of writing this, Like she's a. 03:21Speaker 3 Seller book, actually great character inspoke, So there's little parts of book that are from the octopus perspective. And he's quite like, I'm sure it's a good book. He said that he's quite disdainful of humans. He's always like, I don't know, he's always kind of like looking down on them. 03:36Speaker 1 It's kind of comic relief in the book club. 03:38Speaker 3 People were divided over whether he's very annoying or very lovable. 03:42Speaker 1 Ah, but anyway. 03:44Speaker 3 It premiered at Sundance earlier this year and was very well received, very warm reception, so I'm very excited to see it. Sally's Field is playing Toba, and Lewis Pullman is in it. He's playing Cameron, who's this other character, Who's this. 03:56Speaker 1 Guy who's like thirty. Honestly, he really annoyed me in it. 03:58Speaker 2 He's just kind of like thirty. 04:00Speaker 1 He's just trying to like, he just has nothing figured out. He just has he's always like. 04:05Speaker 2 Him a break, he's down thirty everything's always breaking. 04:08Speaker 1 His camper van's always breaking. I think it's it is. 04:12Speaker 3 If you read it, you do mean everything goes wrong and it's sort of his fault and you just get it together cameraon. 04:18Speaker 1 But anyway, he's also a lead character. So very excited to see it. I think it'll be quite a heartwarming watch. It's quite emotion I. 04:24Speaker 2 Think, do you think I should read the book before I watch it? 04:27Speaker 3 Yeah? Maybe if you can be bothered. But it's going to come out tonight, so I don't know if you want to be part of the cultural movement, and yeah, maybe I'll just watch the movie. 04:34Speaker 1 Maybe just watch it. 04:35Speaker 3 So it's out on Netflix, I believe around five pm tonight, remarkably Brian creatures. 04:40Speaker 2 I'm excited. 04:42Speaker 3 Okay, So I went to see a movie this week where I have to say, I haven't been to a movie where the atmosphere in the audience was like this crazy for a while. It was the Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, like the live concert experience in three D. 04:58Speaker 1 The day of a show, it just feels like any day at all. 05:02Speaker 4 I just feel like I'm like going to hang out with my friends. 05:05Speaker 2 Here I go. 05:08Speaker 4 To see the scrapes on my hands that is from the fans. I want to feel like it's me and them. You love that. 05:20Speaker 1 I love that. It was really good. 05:24Speaker 3 And I've never gone to a stadium tour of hers, like I didn't go to this tour. I've seen her at festivals when she was on the way up, like it grew in the moon and stuff, but. 05:31Speaker 1 I have never cared. 05:32Speaker 3 I've never seen her well after this, I really want to because she's amazing. I feel like I went to the concert because the crowd were like super fans, so everyone was there dressed in their like caps and kind of like dressed like her and were full like singing along. It was kind of like with the Ears tour with Taylor Swift, how people would go down to the front and like marsh in. 05:51Speaker 2 The like was there a marsh in your cinema? 05:53Speaker 1 There was a mosh in my cinema. 05:55Speaker 3 And the guy next to me was honestly, he brought a lot of the vibes like I wish I could recommend this movie. Sitting next to this particular man, he was like every time she did like a vocal run, he'd be like, yeah, he's kind of like do it along, and then he'd follow along every now and then be like, WHOA, I killed that anyway, So he was very invested. Would you consider yourself a Billie Eilish fan? 06:16Speaker 2 I would consider myself like, yeah, I would say I'm a fan of her music, but I don't know much about her as a person, and I don't think I would like when she came to Sydney. I think it was like a year ago she came to Sydney. I wasn't a big fan enough then to be like, Okay, I'm going to fork out for a concert ticket because concert tickets are expensive. 06:36Speaker 1 They are really expensive. 06:37Speaker 2 As you guys mentioned on the spill, this is. 06:40Speaker 1 A prime example of it. So I would say the same. 06:43Speaker 3 I really like a music, definitely not like a hardcore fan. So I went into it being like, oh am I going to be like a big enough fan to really enjoy this movie. But I really did. And I will say there were probably only like two songs I didn't recognize, like she has so many bangers. 06:56Speaker 2 Yeah, just keep going, and she's an excellent performer and live singer. 07:00Speaker 3 Because she obviously has so many deep emotional, moody songs. Me and my friend who went, We were like, whoa kind of like, you know, feels right now, but then it will suddenly be like bad guy and the whole cinema goes crazy. And it's obviously such a good way to get to experience that if you didn't go to the concert as well. I was thinking before the only concert films I can remember seeing other than this are the Eras Tour and then like never say never, the justin Peoble. 07:21Speaker 2 One, Oh yeah, oh did you ever you know which one I went to which when I was like quite young, like I was in primary school. The Hannah Montana concert me Miley Cyrus. 07:33Speaker 1 I did actually watch that too, and that was crazy. 07:36Speaker 2 Every time one of the Jonas brothers came on screen, every young girl in the cinema would just scream ahead off And I was like, because I was quite a mature young person, so I was like, they're not really there, They're not there. 07:48Speaker 3 I'm so glad you were there to clarify that I was such a looser. 07:51Speaker 2 I was like scolding these kids my age. 07:53Speaker 1 Yeah, like, thank thanks everyone. 07:56Speaker 3 So I feel like this one was different to sort of like the Ears to where it's just the concert films because they had these little behind the scenes interview bits with her as well on the day of the concert, and she it was done in collaboration with James Cameron, like he was one of the directors. 08:10Speaker 2 Oh wow, kind of friend. 08:11Speaker 1 I'm like in between avatars. 08:12Speaker 2 Yes, he's I need to show people the length of my work, not like blue people. 08:17Speaker 1 I'm more than that. 08:18Speaker 2 I'm more than avatar. 08:19Speaker 3 And the way it's shot is great, like the way she has such hypnotic eyes and the way she sort of stares down the camera. 08:25Speaker 2 And the way she does her makeup. I remember one of her I think it was Vogue where they do like the celebrities and how they do their makeup, and like her video went completely viral because of the way she does the eyeliner is so intense. 08:36Speaker 3 They show that in this too, where she sort of tweaks it on the end. She does all her hair and makeup for the tour herself. 08:42Speaker 2 That's crazy. And she's so good at makeup because her face always looks beat. 08:47Speaker 3 Yeah, she looked really great, and she talked about some really interesting things in the interview bits that he did with her, so she sort of explained her reasoning for why she dresses in the kind of basketball jersey and like baggy shorts for the concert, and she sort of spoke about how there's not that many female pop stars who don't do the whole like dress up and look really sexy kind of thing. Obviously we see that more with like Taylor Swift, Sabrina carp and to take and prey all those people, and she was like, I just didn't really want to have to do that because when I was growing up watching rap artists and they would just run around the stage being so comfortable and free, I just wanted to be like that, and she didn't see other women doing that, so she really wanted to be that for like the next generation of girls. 09:24Speaker 2 That's so cute. 09:25Speaker 1 Yeah, So I thought. 09:26Speaker 3 They showed really interesting things like that, a lot of interviews with the fans, and then also sort of showed how she is as a creative, like she's really involved in the lighting, she's really involved in everything to do with the stadium more than just like getting up there and singing. And then one thing I thought was really cute is that every town that they go to, they kind of connect with a rescue dog center and they bring in dogs for the crew and the other band members to like. 09:49Speaker 1 Have us like little therapy dogs and they play with them. 09:51Speaker 2 Shut up, why do we do that here? 09:53Speaker 1 And we should bring that. 09:55Speaker 2 We just had a dog in our studio just sleeping over there. 09:57Speaker 1 I think the podcast would be better. 09:58Speaker 2 Yeah, let's put that in our next like quarterly review. I want to do this, improvements to me for yourself, And I was like, improvements for everyone else bringing dogs. 10:10Speaker 3 So yeah, Billy Eilish hit me hard and soft. The tour live, it's out in cinema's now. Probably a good one if you have kids as well. I feel like all the like there were a lot of children there and they were really getting into it too, so. 10:20Speaker 2 Yeah, good family experience. Okay, I need to talk about a movie that I saw over the weekend. I was very lucky. I got to go to the Sydney screening of this movie. And when you know it's a weekend screening, it means there's going to be a lot of kids there. Because kids can come out in the weekend. 10:39Speaker 1 They're like vampires at night on the weekend. 10:41Speaker 2 We never see them throughout the week. We only see them on the weekend. So I went to the screening much similar to you, chaotic crowd, vibe vibes, a lot of children. And I was sitting next to Tina Burke and a few of us, and someone was like, Oh my god, look at all those kids over there. Look how many there are. And I was like, Oh my god, that's crazy. And then I realized those kids, all of them belonged to exact producer Georgie Page, all eight all millions of kids. There's like a million kids in that theater. Whoever went to Sheep Detectives in the weekend? All those kids you saw, all Georgie Pages kids, every single one of them. It was such a fun movie. Oh sorry, it's called Sheep Detectives. I should have lived with that. 11:22Speaker 1 The movie you've been talking about, a wee movie. 11:25Speaker 3 Of the year. 11:26Speaker 2 I reckon. I think Tina Burke agrees with me. Georgie, do you agree with me? She says, best movie ever. 11:33Speaker 5 If there's one secret to happiness in. 11:35Speaker 3 My life, it's taking care of the kindest creatures on earth, sheep. 11:42Speaker 4 I'm keeping them well fed, well groomed, and. 11:45Speaker 2 Each day read out loud to them mysteries who've done it? I know who the killer was. 11:51Speaker 1 Our shepherd was murdered and we shall solve the crime. I am George Hardy's lawyer. 11:57Speaker 5 He wrote and will in the night Time stories that people and the will are always the suspects. 12:01Speaker 2 That man had nothing. 12:03Speaker 1 Well, actually there is thirty million dollars and we have our motive. 12:09Speaker 2 It is so good. I regret not bringing more people because I want everyone to watch this. 12:15Speaker 3 You're like, why didn't they shut down the street at the State Theater like for dettlewors Prada. 12:19Speaker 2 I actually reckon, Hugh Jackman should have done like a big premiere here, Like, the reception for this movie is huge? 12:25Speaker 1 So is he in it quite a lot? 12:27Speaker 2 He's yes, he's in trailer. 12:29Speaker 1 Didn't make it seem that way. 12:30Speaker 2 Because his character dies very early on in the movie, which is also shown in the trailer, but he comes back during like flashbacks and stuff like that. So he's in like the whole length of the movie as an actor. Okay, but it's the highest rated movie he's ever done. 12:43Speaker 1 That's so unfortunate for him. What about the Greatest Showman? I thought that the guy's literally Wolverine. 12:52Speaker 2 Sorry, Hugh, but it is what it is anyway, sheep detective what it's about? So yes, Hugh Jackman is I would say the main character. He plays a shepherd who owns like this flock of sheep, and they're not like you know how when you see a flock of sheep, how they all look the same. 13:08Speaker 4 Not. 13:10Speaker 2 I think he like collects him throughout his life, so they're all like kind of like sheep who have just all come together. Anyways, he loves his sheep so much. She lives in just like a little caravan on his like field. And every night he reads detective stories to his sheep, and they say and he thinks he's just having a good time reading stories to his sheep, and then when he goes inside, it's shown to the audience that the sheep actually understand everything he's been saying, and they get really into the detective stories. His I was gonna say, the main sheep, his main sheep, the top sheep. His name is Lily. 13:46Speaker 1 Oh, it's a woman. It's a woman. 13:48Speaker 2 And she is played by Julia Louis Dreyfuss. Oh, very very good. She is like so well done. The other main character sheep is Sebastian and he's played by Brian Cranson, also really well done. 14:00Speaker 3 They played by just the voice, the voice voice. They're not there the voice. The sheep are very much Cgi sheep, and they're very very cute anyway, So what happens. Hugh Jackman murdered. I forgot his real name in the movie. We're calling him Hugh Jackman. 14:17Speaker 2 But you're not spoiling because he's in the trailer. It's in the trailer. He gets murdered, and then the sheep decide to investigate his murder because they know so much about murder because he's been reading them all these detective stories. 14:28Speaker 1 It's almost like he knew it was gonna happen. 14:30Speaker 2 Ah nice, And it's really hard for the sheep because they've never left their flock and they've never left the field, so even just crossing a road, they've never seen a road before. The Steaks couldn't be high of the sheep leaving their field to get into the town because the stupid humans don't know what they're doing. Nicholas Braun is the main police guy and the only police guy of the town. He has no idea what he's doing. He's busy taking orders from Emma Thompson and she's just the lawyer. She has no idea what she's doing, so the have to keep giving the humans clues so they can help investigate Hugh Jackman's death. 15:05Speaker 3 Do you know there's actually a lot of parallels to this in the Octopus book, because the octopus. 15:08Speaker 1 Helped solve a mystery. I forgot to say that. 15:10Speaker 3 So there's a running commentary that humans need to listen to animals more. 15:14Speaker 2 Okay, whatever, No, it's true. I think humans need to listen to animals more. And in the end, they do listen to them. I mean not physically. They still can't understand what they're saying, but they do listen to them. But there was a lot of good analogies in this, So, like the sheep do this thing where they all come down to three to forget what they just experience. So it's all about like kind of like living in your trauma, not always like pushing things aside and trying to forget it. 15:41Speaker 1 So what but count down to three to forget what they're just seeing because they were. 15:44Speaker 2 Like, Hugh Jackman just died. Everyone, let's forget this. This was so terrible. One, two, three, And then they forget it. But then they were like, no, we deserve to remember Hugh Jackman. He did so much for our life and for our flock. But then, but then I looked into this, this is not a thing that sheep do. Sheep have actually very good memories and remember everything. 16:02Speaker 3 Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't expect so that was kind of a PLoP hole in the movie. 16:06Speaker 1 I thought this was steeped. 16:07Speaker 2 In real sheep yess. Yes, what is a real sheep? Fact though, is that there's a cute little lamb in the movie that's like really like muddy and dirty, and the other sheep want nothing to do with it because it's the winter lamb and usually when lambs are born in the winter gets rejected by. 16:24Speaker 1 The flock so they die. 16:26Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, this one didn't die spoilers, but like Hugh Jackman's the only one that really loves it, and he died. He dies, And now who's gonna love the lamb? 16:36Speaker 1 I'm gonna want you to forget that? 16:38Speaker 4 What? 16:39Speaker 2 Two? 16:39Speaker 4 Three? 16:40Speaker 1 What lamb? 16:41Speaker 2 What is this place? Where am I? But anyway, okay, I do want to say that this movie, although it's like marketed towards kids and family, it is such a good movie and it's also has really deep themes that I didn't expect from a kid's movie, kind of like int like where like you know how adults like draw so many like parallels to it. It's one of those really good movies. It's also much sader than what I expected. And because the whole thing's in a mystery, it's kind of like a Sherlock's Home vibe where you're like trying to guess who the killer is A body kid next to me guessed it in two seconds. 17:19Speaker 1 We like, don't spoil it. 17:21Speaker 2 Well, the person came on screen and the kid next to me was like, that person did it, And I was like, kids are so stupid. And then as I was watching, I was like, oh, maybe they're just I think that might be And then yeah, that eight year old kid next to me just spoiled the whole movie. But you know what, kids are smart. I guess. 17:38Speaker 3 Well, it's really good though, when they do those movies that parents can also genuinely enjoy, not just like you know some like Duck. 17:44Speaker 4 Well. 17:45Speaker 2 Everyone from our team were just like full adults. We didn't besides Georgie, we all bought other adult people. 17:50Speaker 3 You guys decided Saturday, this is what I'm doing and watching some sheeps of. 17:54Speaker 2 The Murder and I'm so glad I did. I really want to watch it again. 17:57Speaker 1 Now you have really sold it. I want to see it now. 17:59Speaker 2 Oh my god, it's so good. Anyway, that's sheep detectives in cinemas. Yes, you can take your family, but I promise you you will enjoy it more than your kids. 18:07Speaker 1 Thank you so much for listening to this spill. 18:09Speaker 3 We have another super exciting episode dropping this afternoon, a brutally honest review of a film that you absolutely don't. 18:16Speaker 1 Want to miss. Emma and Laura are unpacking all of it. 18:19Speaker 3 This fill is produced by me Minishiuslawn with a video production by Michael Keene and we'll see you this afternoon. 18:25Speaker 5 Bye see ya, Mamma. Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of the land. We have recorded this podcast on the Gatigol people of the eorination. 18:42Speaker 1 We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us were taught that humans have been the dominant force shaping the modern world through sheer grit, ingenuity, and innovation. While true to an extent, there are also deep, embedded laws of energy that have both constrained and enabled human cleverness and our influence over our surroundings. What exactly are these laws, and what happened in the past few centuries that allowed for an explosion of technology and consumption? Perhaps more importantly, how can that knowledge help us understand how the decades and centuries ahead might be different? In this episode, Nate is joined by earth scientist and thermodynamicist Tad Patzek for a deep dive into the mathematics and physics driving humanity's energetic and material predicament. Tad walks us through the six great flows of power and materials that keep civilization running, and explains why our public conversation about all of them is dangerously detached from physical reality. He argues that planetary breakdown is not merely a side effect of an economic system built on growing these flows – it is a direct mathematical consequence of overshoot. He rounds out this picture by pointing out that every energy transition in history has been additive, not subtractive – increasing total power in the system – and the current push toward renewables is no exception. What if we were to truly see ourselves through the lens of all the energy we consume – for Americans, the equivalent of a 40-ton whale – would that change how we live? How do technology, population, and per capita energy consumption amplify each other, creating an exponential demand for power? And if we were to acknowledge the inseparability of our ecological crises and our energy blindness, would it help us change our behavior in accordance with the kind of world we'd want our grandchildren to inherit? (Conversation recorded on March 11th, 2026)   About Tad Patzek: Tad Patzek is Professor Emeritus of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering at the Earth Sciences Division and Director of the Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Center in KAUST, Saudi Arabia. Formerly, he was the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, he was previously a Professor of Geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, he was a researcher at Shell Development, a research company managed for 20 years by M. King Hubbert. He is also a full Presidential Professor in Poland, which is the highest honor, and also served as a member of the DOI Macondo Well Advisory Committee. Patzek's current research involves mathematical and numerical modeling of earth systems with emphasis on fluid flow in soils and rocks that can be hydrofractured. He is working on the thermodynamics and ecology of human survival, and food and energy supply for humanity. His current emphasis is the use of unconventional natural gas as a fuel bridge to the possible new energy supply schemes for the world. Patzek is a coauthor of over 400 papers and reports, and most recently, he has cumulated his research into his upcoming book Thermal Power and Climate Change: A Data-Driven Analysis of Cause and Effect, 1800-2100 (Preprint available now)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

In this new episode of Anime Lost Translation Recommends : Arthur recommends Street Fighter the Movie and why people should check it out.Any questions , concerns or suggestions: AnimeLtpod@gmail.comBianchini3743 on InstagramFollow us on twitter or x @AnimeLtpod Follow us on bluesky @losttranslation.bsky.socialShare, Rate and Download us :Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anime-lost-translation/id1715239030Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4ss3yYbF0Dlkxlmqbq4qQP?si=AO08xCoDQ8-FuyaNGdiLWgAmazon Musichttps://music.amazon.com/podcasts/bc4ea837-7b57-402c-8efc-0c47a7e2c97a/anime-lost-translation?ref=dm_sh_DF9Sn9PsMghdwOA6Lh2TYRVIZBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/anime-lost-translation--6000784/support.

It's “VS” month, and instead of doing “guy vs. other guy,” we've decided to do “movie vs. a kind-of-similar movie” month!We're starting with the only two ant-based movies: Antz and A Bug's Life, kicking things off with Woody Allen's DreamWorks Antz.Antz follows Z, basically Woody Allen if he were an ant, as he accidentally sparks a revolution.Which one is better? It's probably A Bug's Life.If you have any questions or requests, send them to askwwwtpodcast@gmail.comFind us through:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@whowouldwatchthisInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whowouldwatchthis/TikTok: @podcastwhowouldwatchthisLetterboxd:Carl: https://letterboxd.com/carlllllllllll1/Oscar: https://letterboxd.com/oscarfart/More links: https://linktr.ee/whowouldwatchthis  

In this week's Frankly, Nate steps away from analysis and reflects on a call that reframed his thinking. He shares a recent conversation with a close friend living in Lebanon, who amid ongoing daily violence and loss has been hosting displaced families and leading meditation practices in her community. Nate notes that her grounded presence, alongside the trust she carries from a centuries-old lineage in her village, reveals the ways in which social capital and contemplative practice can hold someone steady as the world around them changes. From that conversation, Nate distills the wider work of this platform into three questions he believes may matter more than the macro-analysis he usually offers. Who are we going to be when comfort and convenience start thinning out? How are we going to live with a biophysical haircut on the horizon? And what are we willing to protect, even at a cost? He notices how many people watching from the relative safety of the Global North live in a constant low-grade state of stress, even without immediate cause, while his friend remains grounded despite being surrounded by actual danger. Nate suggests that separating our internal responses from the external world is the primary work ahead of us, and closes by naming the recent shift in his own curiosity toward the question of who we might become as humans sitting at the precipice of a species-level transition. When comfort and convenience start thinning out, who are you going to be? How do you separate your internal fight or flight response from what is actually happening around you? And what are you willing to give some of your life's energy to protect? (Recorded April 30th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Send us Fan MailWelcome, welcome, welcome, foolish mortals!On this episode of The Disney Life Happy Wife Podcast, I talk about the baddies of the Disney world ... the Disney villains. My top 10 Disney villains to be exact! What makes them so bad and why do I like them?Now, you may not agree with my list ... but it is my opinion. So check it out and let me know what you think!Sit back, relax, listen to this episode ... and I'll see you real soon!Support the showFollow along with me on social media:- Facebook (@disneylifehappywifepodcast)- Instagram (@disneylifehappywifepodcast)Do you have any questions, comments, or concerns?  Do you have a topic to recommend?  Is there something Disney-related that you want to talk about?  DM me on social media OR email me at dlhwpodcast@gmail.com.Would you like to contribute to my podcast financially?  This could go to better equipment or even towards the next Disney trip.  Check out my new page on Patreon.

Over three-quarters of the global population has never lived through a major global energy crisis, such as those of the 1970s. In early 2026, that is about to change as the world faces the largest energy disruption in history, measured by the daily loss of oil output. This crisis won't be evenly distributed but will be felt everywhere – and is guaranteed to have ripple effects we won't see coming. How much oil remains in circulation, and what level of damage has already been inflicted on our global energy infrastructure? In this episode, Nate is joined by oil market analyst Rory Johnston to discuss how the Strait of Hormuz closure has led to the largest oil supply shock in history, and what the exact numbers and cascading effects are. He also breaks down the primary strategies countries will have to use to adapt to energy losses, including resorting to demand destruction, and what the disastrous risks are if shortages are allowed to persist. Rory also explains the lag between the closure, the real world impact of oil not being able to enter global circulation, and the market's response. Ultimately, Rory and Nate explore the impact of this situation on international trust and cooperation, and what that might mean for a global market system predicated on interdependence and free trade.  Who are the energy winners and losers in this war so far, and how are our global leaders accounting for the exponential risks of continued warfare? In what way can average people prepare for the energy shocks soon to ripple out across the globe? And lastly, if we do recover from this scenario, how might we treat these disruptions as a dress rehearsal for a future of lower material throughput by building greater resilience and interconnection at the local level? (Conversation recorded on April 23rd, 2026)     About Rory Johnston: Rory Johnston is a Toronto-based oil market researcher, the founder of Commodity Context, a lecturer at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, host of the Oil Ground Up podcast, as well as a Fellow with both the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. He is a leading voice on oil market analysis, advising institutional investors, global policy makers, and corporate decision makers.  Prior to founding Commodity Context, Rory led commodity economics research at Scotiabank where he set the bank's energy and metals price forecasts, advised the bank's executives and clients, and sat on the bank's senior credit committee for commodity-exposed sectors.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

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This week's Frankly is part two of the series How to Think About the Future. Today, Nate expands on the case for holding a distribution of possible futures rather than a single preferred one, and walks through a structured scenario-building exercise. He begins with the two-by-two grid that he has used for years, which indicates whether the economy will expand or contract and whether this happens within ecological limits or in overshoot. The four quadrants this produces represent possible directions toward the future: toward green growth, Mordor, Mad Max, or the Great Simplification. From there, Nate layers three more grids on top of this economic foundation. A grid focused on power – military, political, financial, and technological – asks how concentrated each is and where the gains flow. A grid regarding geopolitics maps cooperation and adversarial relations against interdependence and self-sufficiency, using the Strait of Hormuz closure as a live example of an adversarial and interdependent geopolitical makeup. Finally, an Earth systems grid tracks climate stress and biosphere integrity, taking into account that we are operating from an already compromised baseline. Nate also describes the role of technology as a modifier across all these grids, which amplifies whatever direction the surrounding system is already moving. He emphasizes that the real future will always come as a composite across these layers, and that the same economic headline produces radically different lived realities depending on the power, geopolitical, and ecological conditions it sits inside. Where do you find yourself already settled on a particular view of the future, and what gets filtered out when you are? Of the four grids Nate lays out, which feels most defining in your thinking, and which do you tend to underweight? What other grids might matter for anticipating the future, and how might they interact with the ones here? (Recorded April 20th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

For many of us, our instinctual response to rising conflict and instability might be to recede further into pragmatism as a way to survive. Yet, if our cultural values and ways of life are what got us here, rooted in narrow-boundary, cold, and logical thinking – then perhaps moments of turbulence like these actually call on us to change our way of thinking entirely. Is this moment our opportunity to pivot toward worldviews that emphasize the intangible qualities of life, and could that shift cause a cascade through our actions and decisions, leading to more balanced decision-making for the betterment of everyone?  In this episode, Nate is rejoined by philosopher and neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist for discussion on how our left-brain dominance obscures our sense of value, especially for abstract qualities such as truth, goodness, and beauty. As a way to reclaim an appreciation for these things, he urges us to slow down, create spaciousness, embrace silence and deep listening, and resist the mania for productivity in our modern culture. Nate and Iain also discuss consciousness, panpsychism, and panentheism, exploring the thread that there might be some form of universal current running through everything, uniting us all. Bringing everything together, Iain calls for a recovery of humility, compassion, awe, and wonder and insists that even a small percentage of people genuinely living differently could begin to shift cultural consciousness.  How do the things we choose to pay attention to affect our ability to see what's important in the world – and subsequently what we value and prioritize? What would it feel like to treat each day as a gift rather than a problem to solve, and how might that shift our relationship with time, mortality, and meaning? Most of all, is it possible for some subset of humans to reground ourselves and our behavior in the interconnectedness of life, and could those small changes add up to meaningfully alter humanity's current trajectory?  (Conversation recorded on March 24th, 2026)   About Iain McGilchrist:  Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and former Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Director at the Bethlem Royal & Maudsley Hospital, London.  Iain has been a Research Fellow in neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch. He has published original articles and research papers in a wide range of publications on topics in literature, philosophy, medicine and psychiatry.  Iain is the author of a number of books, but is best-known for The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (2009); and his book on neuroscience, epistemology, and ontology called The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World (2021).   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

In this week's Frankly, Nate opens a new series called How to Think About the Future. He begins with some comments he's heard repeatedly on this platform: why cover nuclear, plastics, renewables, or climate when something else is the real issue? Nate observes that these questions come from people who have already settled on a single storyline about what's coming, and are filtering everything else through it. Our actual reality is much more complex and unknowable, and even the most well-informed perspectives may only be able to capture pieces of the bigger picture. Nate emphasizes that even his own base scenario – that the global economy is likely to hit a wall in the relatively-near future – should be held with humility. Nate introduces the idea of "scenario thinking" as a practical strategy to reflect on and prepare for several versions of the future, keeping one engaged and grounded in what matters. He also names why this line of thinking is hard in practice – 1. our nervous systems want resolution, 2. our careers and identities are attached to particular futures, and 3. cultural incentives reward confident stories over honest uncertainty. The episode closes by introducing shortfall risk, which is the danger that something essential, like topsoil, social trust, grid stability, or the nuclear taboo drops below a threshold from which it cannot easily recover. This concept will act as connective tissue across the rest of the series, which is an attempt to expand perception instead of picking the right future, and to identify what is coupled, what is irreversible, and what kinds of responses stay robust across many possible worlds. Where in your life have you quietly settled on a single story about the future? Which of the essentials you rely on would be hardest to rebuild if they fell below a threshold? And how might the decisions you make this week change if you held more than one plausible future in mind at the same time? (Recorded April 11th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

On the heels of Artemis II, our cultural obsession with space colonization continues, even as we face increasing global resource constraints and planetary health declines. Techno-optimists, including some of the wealthiest among us, dream of a future where we mine, travel to, and colonize other planets – all in the hopes of bypassing the problems we now face on Earth. But from the perspective of physics and ecology, how feasible is space colonization – and are these interplanetary ambitions blinding us to the miracle of the planetary spaceship we already inhabit? In this episode, Nate welcomes back astrophysicist Tom Murphy and eco-interventionist DJ White, two longtime friends with deep roots in both space science and ecological reality, to examine the surging cultural fascination with space mining and off-world colonization. Drawing on decades of experience with NASA missions, lunar laser ranging, and biophysical research, Tom and DJ outline the economic impossibility of asteroid mining, the physiological brutality of long-duration spaceflight, and the absurdity underlying dreams of Mars colonization. Both guests also argue that space colonization has, at its core, become a convenient story that lets humanity off the hook for the damage being done here at home.  What if the real tragedy isn't that we can't reach the stars – it's that we've stopped paying attention to the planetary home we're already on? If the most brilliant minds drawn to space exploration redirected that energy toward the living systems collapsing around us right now, what might become possible? And what if we could recognize that the complexity, beauty, and intelligence we hope to discover elsewhere in the cosmos is, improbably and urgently, still here? (Conversation recorded on February 24th, 2026)   About Tom Murphy: Tom Murphy is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Physics and the Department Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California San Diego. He retired in 2023 and moved to Washington State to focus more on the predicament of modernity and its ecological incompatibilities.  He is the author of Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, creator of the Metastatic Modernity video series, and continues to explore long-term human success through his Do the Math blog.   About DJ White:  DJ White is a co-founder of Greenpeace International and founder of EarthTrust. He has played a leading role in protecting dolphins, whales, sea turtles, and countless other marine animals, including successfully stopping a national dolphin drive kill and breaking the deadlock in capping the Kuwait oil fires. Additionally, he helped end the world's largest and most destructive global fishery – pelagic driftnetting – and created the lab which first demonstrated self-awareness in the universe outside the great apes.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Today's Frankly is the final installment in a three-part series on the role oil plays in modern civilization, prompted by the recent flow disruptions and geopolitical conflict surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. Nate frames the entire arc of this series through the concept of the carbon pulse: a one-time inheritance of ancient stored sunlight that humanity is burning through in a few hundred years. He highlights how modern economies, now roughly a thousand times larger than five centuries ago, are built on the assumption that the energy abundance at the top of this curve is permanent, when in reality it is not. Nate traces how money functions as a claim on physical work, not a substitute for it, and how the financial scaffolding that made shale oil viable depends on cheap capital that may not last. He connects this directly to what he calls energy blindness: the absence of biophysical reality from mainstream economic and political analysis. Nate also draws a direct line between the energy crisis and the ecological crisis, framing them as two faces of the same predicament. The carbon pulse created both the unfolding ecological damage from burning too many fossil fuels, and the depletion crisis from drawing them down too fast. He outlines how forests, wildlife, and food systems all face increasing risk from both climate disruption and human desperation, and how geopolitical alliances are fracturing along lines of energy access rather than ideology. The episode closes with Nate's framing of the Great Simplification not as collapse, but as a potential reorientation, as well as an invitation to consider what actually produces human wellbeing: connection, purpose, community, and service. These are satisfactions that predate the carbon pulse, and do not require a barrel of oil. What does it mean to build a civilization on a one-time energy inheritance, and then plan as though it will last? How might individuals and societies begin to reorient around what actually matters, before external circumstances force the issue? And as the carbon pulse peaks, who do we want to be on the way down? (Recorded March 31st, 2025)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

This week's Frankly is the second in a three-part series on the role oil plays in modern civilization, prompted by the recent flow disruptions and geopolitical conflict surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. This installment explores how modern society has been built on the assumption of cheap and abundant energy, and what happens when that assumption breaks down. Nate describes the ways our built systems, including food production, water treatment, manufacturing, and global trade, are calibrated to cheap energy inputs, and how processes that look economically efficient are often deeply inefficient in physical terms. He walks through the staggering degree to which the modern food system runs on fossil hydrocarbons, noting that roughly ten calories of fossil energy now go into every calorie of food on the plate, and that the Haber-Bosch process for synthetic fertilizer is what allows the planet to feed roughly half of its current population. Nate then traces the accelerating depletion of conventional oil fields and the turn towards shale, which behaves as a fundamentally different resource than the conventional wells it has been masking. He considers the alternatives often proposed as replacements, highlighting why energy quality matters as much as energy quantity, and why solar and wind are better described as 'rebuildable' rather than 'renewable.' The episode closes with Jevons paradox and the historical pattern that humans have never actually transitioned off an energy source, only ever adding new ones on top of the old.  Why can't we simply swap in alternative technologies for fossil hydrocarbons? What does the turn toward shale mean for systems built around cheap and stable energy inputs? And how might oil supply disruptions reshape the things you do, consume, and think about in your daily life? (Recorded March 31st, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

This week's Frankly is the first in a three-part series on the role oil plays in modern civilization, prompted by the recent flow disruptions and geopolitical conflict surrounding the Strait of Hormuz. This initial installment covers some foundational concepts of The Great Simplification platform, including what oil actually is, what it does for us, and why most of us never see any of it. Nate begins by describing how oil formed from the compression of ancient marine phytoplankton over millions of years, framing it as a solar battery that took geological time to charge and that humans are draining in centuries. From there, he outlines the sheer amount of human labor that's contained within a single barrel of oil – around 5 years' worth – and scales this to a global level. Nate uses this framing to show how the explosion of population, wealth, and per-capita consumption over the last 150 years was underwritten by an invisible workforce of ancient sunlight. He closes with the metabolic reality that the average American consumes roughly 200,000 calories a day when heating, transport, food systems, and supply chains are considered and assesses why we have become so "energy blind" to it all. If energy is the invisible labor force underlying every product and service in your life, does that change the way you see the economy? What would it mean to live, even briefly, at a metabolic rate closer to what your body actually requires? And if the work performed by a single barrel of oil is worth orders of magnitude more than its price, what does it say about the systems we have built on top of it? (Recorded March 30, 2026)   Show Notes and More Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Between global crises and personal problems, modern life is overflowing with things to worry about, including many issues that feel too big to even address. Yet, our ability to influence these problems and how much we worry about them are not equal to each other – and in fact, getting lost in thoughts of anxiety can reduce our ability to act. Given the direct line between individual inner states and civilizational dysfunction, what global change might be possible if we train ourselves to observe thought, rather than be unconsciously consumed and paralyzed by it? In this episode, Nate is joined by philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris to explore how cultivating inner awareness could help us – both as individuals and a society – navigate civilizational crises. Sam argues that virtually all human suffering flows from one source: the mind's incessant, largely unnoticed identification with thought. Sam makes the case that, at scale, these distracted minds cumulate into people who are helplessly identified with their own inner worlds, their tribes, and their identity rather than able to hold a broader view. He offers a deep dive on the foundations of meditation, mindfulness, and awareness techniques as a way to help navigate our thoughts and remain grounded in the present. Ultimately, he suggests that in order to steer toward better futures, we might need to invest in cultivating both saner individuals and wiser systems in parallel. Whether the threat is a cancer diagnosis or civilizational overshoot, the question is the same: how much suffering do you have to carry between now and the future? What if the inner work of moving through grief toward equanimity is actually a precondition for effective action? And if the most consequential decisions in human history are being made by people who have never once examined the nature of their own minds, how will their own mental states reflect onto the reality of our shared outcomes? (Conversation recorded on February 18th, 2026)   About Sam Harris: Sam Harris is the author of five New York Times best sellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz). The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics – neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality – but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. He also hosts the Making Sense Podcast, which was selected by Apple as one of the "iTunes Best" and has won a Webby Award for best podcast in the Science & Education category. Sam received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA. He has also practiced meditation for more than 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. Sam has created the Waking Up app for anyone who wants to learn to meditate in a modern, scientific context.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

In this episode we review THE DRAMA and THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE + discuss the Greatest Animated Movie of All Time - with Guest Hanna Zook!Join the ReelTok Patreon for weekly exclusive podcasts, the Patron Discord, early access to episodes, merch discounts, giveaways, & so much more: https://www.patreon.com/reeltokpodcastGrab some new ReelTok merch: https://reeltokpodcast.comFollow ReelTok everywhere:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reeltokpodcastTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reeltokpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/reeltokpodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/reeltokpodcastLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/reeltokpodcastPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/reeltokpodcastListen and Rate Us 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3V214vWwkO823aa4OaeDrOApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reeltok-podcast/id1644680412George CarmiLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/georgecarmiTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moviesandstuff14YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moviesandstuff14Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgecarmiTwitter: https://twitter.com/georgecarmiTyler WhitmoreLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/TylerCWhitmoreTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tylercwhitmoreYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tylercwhitmoreInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/tylercwhitmoreTwitter: https://twitter.com/TylerCWhitmoreSeth's Film ReviewsLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sethsreviewsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sethsfilmreviewsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SethsfilmreviewsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sethsfilmreviewsTwitter: https://twitter.com/sethsfilmreviewCam WalshLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/cjwalsh27TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@camwalsh27YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@camwalsh27Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camwalshTwitter: https://twitter.com/CamWalsh27Guest: Hannah ZookLetterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/hannahzookpopTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hannahzookpopInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahzookTwitter: https://twitter.com/hzookAll of our podcast and channel graphics are done by Nalbis. Reach out to him for any and all of your graphic design needs:https://x.com/nalbis Shoutout to Mateo Bekick for editing social media clips and the ReelTok Awards footage: https://www.instagram.com/mateobekichNew episodes every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday reviewing the latest releases, covering the latest trailers and movie news, talking Oscars and awards season, as well as plenty of film drafts, rankings, & games. Every Saturday, an exclusive movie review is released on Patreon and Patreon only.Our one and only goal is to become your favorite movie podcast.#moviepodcast #podcast #moviereviews

This week's Frankly is another in a recurring series, Uncomfortable Questions in Unsettled Times, where Nate poses questions about our shared future. Today he focuses on the unfolding crisis in the Persian Gulf, unpacking hidden implications that aren't covered by the headlines. Nate opens by examining how behind-the-scenes geopolitical decisions at the highest level create a widespread ripple effect – influencing everything from oil production to water desalination to fertilizer and food systems. He considers the risk of continued geopolitical conflict as global alliances shift, as well as the potential impact on the global economic order. This week's main focus, however, is the deeper systemic change underway. Nate evaluates how energy access and shifting means of modern warfare could reshape the global power dynamics – he asks uncomfortable questions about the possibility of tactical nuclear weapons, the erosion of (inter)national trust, and what it even means to "win" in a global conflict in the first place. He then zooms out even further, describing a potential geographic bifurcation of the global economic Superorganism, where the East "decouples" from the Western financial and energy systems that have long been the backbone of the global order. Nate closes with a consideration of how future climate outcomes might be shaped by war-driven energy decisions today, as well as highlighting how individuals and communities might respond very differently than nations do in the face of energy disruption. What hidden risks in energy and supply chains are still going unnoticed? How might shifting alliances and energy access redefine global power? And if the Hormuz situation is a 'dress rehearsal' of the future, where might individuals and societies consider changing their expectations and actions today? (Recorded April 2nd, 2026)   Show Notes and More Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

As the war in Iran creates chaos in every domain of life, the already-fragile energy systems of many countries find themselves on the brink of crisis after spending decades investing in natural gas infrastructure, largely supplied by Middle Eastern countries. With projected natural gas prices now spiking across the world, a growing number of nations are re-prioritizing energy security over energy convenience – calling into question the types of electricity generation needed for their citizens as they look to the coming decades. Could this lead to calls for a nuclear power revival in the West, and if so, would Western countries have the capacity to build such complex infrastructure?  In this episode, Nate welcomes back Dr. Chris Keefer, president of Canadians for Nuclear Energy and host of the Decouple podcast, for an impromptu exploration of the possible role of nuclear power for energy security amidst destabilizing supply chains and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. Looking back to the energy shocks of the 1970s, Chris highlights how these disruptions reshaped electricity generation globally, including the rapid expansion of nuclear power for several countries, such as Europe, the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, and Pakistan. But without the energetic, material, and civic availability of fifty years ago, Chris calls into question whether most free-market based countries would be able to coordinate and effectively respond in the same way today. Ultimately, both Chris and Nate highlight how energy security is reshaping every aspect of our lives as we are forced to adapt to a world of lower material throughput.  Why is nuclear power such a potent piece of energy infrastructure – resulting in cheap, abundant electricity when built correctly? How are the health impacts of nuclear power accidents misunderstood, and do the risks outweigh the benefits? And ultimately, does society today possess the political, financial, technological, and institutional capacity required to build and sustain large-scale nuclear systems?   About Chris Keefer: Dr. Chris Keefer MD, CCFP-EM is the host of the Decouple podcast, where he explores the most pressing questions in energy, climate, environment, politics, and philosophy. Additionally, he is a practicing emergency physician in Toronto, a medical instructor, and a lifelong advocate for social and environmental causes. Chris is also the founder and president of the grassroots non-profit Canadians for Nuclear Energy, as well as the Director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

In this episode, Nate offers a personal reflection on the unfolding geopolitical tensions surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, beginning with an examination of how disruptions to fossil fuel flows propagate through the global economy, but with a time lag. He points out how many of the world's countries rely heavily on imported fossil fuels, as well as the potential impact on California's already high gas prices. Nate also contrasts the relative insulation of those in the United States with the far greater exposure of those living in Asia, Europe, and Africa, outlining how second- and third-order effects are already emerging in the form of conservation measures, rationing, and shifting daily behaviors. Alongside this structural analysis, Nate turns to the lived experiences of people navigating changing conditions in real time. He shares stories from listeners on this platform, highlighting how proximity and awareness shape the ways in which individuals and communities respond to the more-than-human predicament. Nate concludes by outlining the biophysical phase shift that is quickly emerging, in which financial systems, material realities, and human expectations begin to diverge and require new forms of adaptation at all scales. How might the impacts of current conflicts ripple into your own community, and on what timeline? Where might we shift our behaviors, mindsets, priorities, or attention to better respond as systemic changes continue to unfold? Have you considered time as one of our fastest-depleting resources? (Recorded March 25th, 2025)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

The conversation around artificial intelligence has been captured by two competing narratives – techno-abundance or civilizational collapse – both of which sidestep the question of who this technology is actually being built for. But if we consider that we are setting the initial conditions for everything that follows, we might realize that we are in a pivotal moment for AI development which demands a deeper cultural conversation about the type of future we actually want. What would it look like to design AI for the benefit of the 99%, and what are the necessary steps to make that possible? In this episode, Nate welcomes back Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, for a wide-ranging conversation on AI futures and safety. Tristan explains how his organization pivoted from social media to AI risks after insiders at AI labs warned him in early 2023 that a dangerous step-change in capabilities was coming – and with it, risks that are orders of magnitude larger. Tristan outlines the economic and psychological consequences already unfolding under AI's race-to-the-bottom engagement incentives, as well as the major threat categories we face: including massive wealth concentration, government surveillance, and the very real risk that humanity loses meaningful control of AI systems in critical domains. He also shares about his involvement in the new documentary, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, and ultimately highlights the highest-leverage areas in the movement toward safer AI development. If we start seeing AI risks clearly without surrendering to despair, could we regain the power to steer toward safer technological futures? What would it mean to design AI around human wellbeing rather than engagement, attention, and profit? And can we cultivate the kind of shared cultural reckoning that makes collective action possible – before it's too late? (Conversation recorded on March 5th, 2025)    About Tristan Harris: Tristan is the Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to align technology with humanity's best interests. He is also the co-host of the top-rated technology podcast Your Undivided Attention, where he, Aza Raskin, and Daniel Barclay explore the unprecedented power of emerging technologies and how they fit into both our lives and a humane future. Previously, Tristan was a Design Ethicist at Google, and today he studies how major technology platforms wield dangerous power over our ability to make sense of the world and leads the call for systemic change. In 2020, Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. The film unveiled how social media is dangerously reprogramming our brains and human civilization. It reached over 100 million people in 190 countries across 30 languages. He regularly briefs heads of state, technology CEOs, and US Congress members, in addition to mobilizing millions of people around the world through mainstream media.  Most recently, Tristan was featured in the 2026 documentary, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, which is available in theaters on March 27th. Learn more about Tristan's work and get involved at the Center for Humane Technology.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

This week's Frankly marks a turning point in the work of The Great Simplification. Having spent twenty years articulating the more-than-human predicament, Nate shifts from diagnosis to direction as current events – including conflict in the Strait of Hormuz – accelerate the timeline. Today Nate shares a first-pass framework for action and response that's organized around what to do now, which could be applied to various places and at multiple scales.  The framework begins with a personal foundation of inner work: stabilizing the nervous system, recapturing a sense of agency, doing grief work, and cultivating inner calmness as a precondition for effective action. Nate also emphasizes the need to build trusted networks and shared language so that when disruptions arrive, communities aren't starting conversations from scratch. These two layers set the foundation for six broad fronts of intervention: infrastructure and physical stock-and-flow planning, poverty and displacement, ecological defense and regeneration, civic resilience and governance, culture and meaning, and economic transition toward commons-based and post-growth models. Nate stresses that these fronts are interdependent and not contingent on a single scenario – they hold across various possible scenarios for the future.  Nate also introduces a timeline axis of three overlapping phases, which build upon each other to shape the conditions of our future: the current stability window where building is still possible, the period of triage and "bend not break," and the stable attractor that gives direction to the work of the first two. Nate closes with an observation about leadership: that modern systems select for dark triad traits, and that reluctance to lead may itself be a signal worth heeding.  What do you currently do with your time? Which of these six areas of engagement feels the most accessible to you right now? And where in your networks do you see the beginnings of shared language and trust that could support coordinated response? (Recorded March 17th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Welcome to Watch. Review. Repeat. Colton and Andrew return with the first installment of "Brews, News, & Previews" in 2026 to celebrate the lives and careers of those we've lost over the past few months and catch up on news and previews! 00:00:00 - Episode Teaser/Intro Music/Opening 00:04:29 - Andrew's Mythology Trivia Question of the Episode! 00:07:01 - 'Mortal Kombat' Actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Dead at Age 75 00:11:59 - 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Mask' Actor Peter Greene Dead at Age 60 00:13:47 - 'It' and 'The Wire' Actor James Ransone Dead at Age 46 00:15:40 - 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone' Actress Catherine O'Hara Dead at Age 71 00:18:39 - 'Dawson's Creek' Star James Van Der Beek Dead at Age 48 00:24:58 - 'The Godfather' and 'Apocalypse Now' Actor Robert Duvall Dead at Age 95 00:27:58 - Eric Dane, "McSteamy" on 'Grey's Anatomy', Dead at Age 53 00:33:14 - Paramount Skydance Poised to Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery After Netflix Bows Out of Bidding War 00:48:07 - Lucasfilm Announces Leadership Transition 00:56:36 - Original 'Star Wars' Theatrical Edition Returning to Theaters in 2027 01:00:07 - '28 Years Later III' Moving Forward at Sony, Alex Garland to Return as Writer 01:07:14 - Lars Eidinger Cast as Brainiac in James Gunn's 'Man of Tomorrow' 01:08:53 - Sebastian Stan in Talks to Join 'The Batman: Part II' 01:14:54 - 83rd Annual Golden Globes Winners 01:18:05 - Prime Video Unveils First Look at Sophie Turner as Lara Croft in 'Tomb Raider' Series 01:21:09 - Apple TV Lands Rights to Brandon Sanderson's 'Cosmere' Fantasy Universe 01:33:33 - 'The Last of Us' Co-Creator Craig Mazin Developing 'Baldur's Gate' HBO Series 01:36:29 - Sony Reveals First Look at the Fab Four in 'The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event' as Production Begins 01:43:39 - Kristen Bell to Voice Amy Rose in 'Sonic the Hedgehog 4' 01:45:39 - 'Venom' Animated Movie in the Works at Sony 01:48:49 - Amazon Releases First Look at Kratos and Atreus in Live-Action 'God of War' Series 01:53:19 - 'Andor' Writer Beau Willimon to Write 'Game of Thrones' Movie 01:57:28 - 'Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat' Official Trailer 02:02:44 - 'Pretty Lethal' Official Trailer 02:05:21 - 'Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice' Official Trailer 02:07:17 - 'The Drama' Official Trailer 02:09:46 - 'Lee Cronin's The Mummy' Official Trailer 02:13:42 - 'Mortal Kombat II' Official Trailer II 02:16:54 - 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' Official Trailer 02:21:00 - 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 Official Teaser 02:24:44 - Catching Up With Andrew (Magic: The Gathering, 'Task', 'Predator: Badlands', 'The Pitt' Season 2, Redecorating House) 02:38:04 - Catching Up With Colton ('28 Years Later: The Bone Temple', 'Send Help', 'The Muppet Show' (2026 TV Special), 'Scrubs', Hades II, The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan, Indie Music Recommendations - Dead Pony, Momma, Die Spitz, Nine Inch Nails - Tron Ares: Divergence)  02:52:28 - Conclusion/Outro Music Visit our website! Support us on Patreon! Thank you for listening! Got something to say? Send it our way to watchreviewrepeat@gmail.com! Produced by: Anna Mattis Intro/Outro Music: Mechanolith Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

The number of couples struggling to become pregnant due to unexplained infertility is growing at an alarming rate across the globe. Alongside this concerning rise is the growing awareness of how endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) – particularly those found in plastics and personal care products – are negatively affecting our hormonal health and overall well-being. If we removed or reduced EDCs from the environments of couples struggling to conceive – dramatically reducing their exposure – is it possible their fertility would be improved?  In this episode, Nate is joined by Dr. Shanna Swan, an award-winning scientist, and Sian Sutherland, a plastics expert, to discuss Shanna's new Netflix documentary, titled The Plastic Detox, where she enacts a real-world 'plastic intervention' in the lives of six couples struggling with unexplained infertility – with the hope that they are able to get pregnant by the end of the study. Additionally, Sian shares the strategies her organization has been using to increase regulation of EDC-containing products and increase the availability of plastic-free options. Shanna and Sian also discuss how they're bringing their work together for the Plastic Free Babies campaign, which emphasizes why avoiding toxic chemical exposure during the first one-thousand days of a baby's life is so important to preventing generational effects on overall health and fertility.  How might reducing our exposure to EDCs such as phthalates, bisphenols, and parabens improve markers of hormonal health and create ripple effects on our overall quality of life? What is the reasonable responsibility of our governments to test and regulate the safety of products on the market – and are our current institutions fulfilling those expectations? Finally, could addressing the toxins and pollution related to declining fertility lead us down a path of broader systemic change for the entire web of life?    About Dr. Shanna Swan: Dr. Shanna H. Swan, PhD, is an award-winning scientist based at Mt. Sinai (New York, NY). Shanna has published more than 200 scientific papers and has been featured in extensive media coverage around the world. She currently serves as the Director of the Action Science Initiative, a program that conducts rapid interventions and larger, longer-term studies that look at the impacts of environmental pollutants on fertility and related markers of reproductive health. Additionally, Shanna co-authored the 2021 book, Countdown: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race.  Most recently, Shanna was featured in the documentary, The Plastic Detox, where she helped six couples dealing with unexplained fertility reduce their exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals in their environment in hopes of getting pregnant. The movie was released on Netflix on March 16th, 2026. Shanna's previous appearances include ABC News, NBC Nightly News, 60 Minutes, CBS News, PBS, BBC, PRI Radio, NPR, Andrew Huberman Lab, and The Joe Rogan Experience.    About Sian Sutherland: Sian Sutherland is Co-founder of A Plastic Planet, one of the most recognized and respected organizations tackling the plastic crisis. More recently, she also co-founded PlasticFree, the first materials and systems solutions platform, empowering the 160m global creatives to design waste out at the source. Sian was awarded the Female Marketer of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, and British Inventor of the Year. In 2023 at the UN Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC2), in partnership with Plastic Soup Foundation, A Plastic Planet launched the Plastic Health Council, bringing expert scientists to the negotiating process with the irrefutable proof of plastic chemicals' impacts on human health.  Most recently, in early 2024, Sian co-founded the Foundation for Visionary Science and Art with Alex Adams, working with the scientists to help fund their extraordinary research work on psychedelic therapies. Passionately pro-business and solutions focused, Sian believes the plastic crisis gives mankind a rare gateway to change both materials and systems to create a different future for next generations.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Fashion experts Zanna Roberts Rassi, Jenna Lyons and Elaine Welteroth break down the best looks from the Oscars alongside guest co-host Justin Sylvester. Jesse Tyler Ferguson stops by to talk about starring as Truman Capote in the one-man play “Tru." Jordin Sparks opens up about her role as Shimmer in the animated film “The Pout-Pout Fish." Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week's Frankly marks the second installment of Nate's recurring series, Uncomfortable Questions in Unsettled Times, where he poses questions about our shared future. While the first edition posed broad questions about civilizational trajectory, today's episode is prompted by the Iran situation and what happens when geopolitics stops feeling distant and starts arriving as supply chain disruptions, rising prices, fear, and renewed stories about enemies and allies. Nate walks through five questions that move from the practical to the interior. He begins with the gap between what is essential and what is merely familiar in modern life, asking listeners to identify what they depend on before scarcity makes the choice for them. From there, Nate turns inward to examine what the act of assigning blame actually does to our nervous systems and our capacity for response, and poses a larger geopolitical question about whether the collapse of U.S. global power would be net positive or net negative for the world. He then asks listeners to imagine their own town or community in 2050, and what actions they might take now with a few people around them. The episode closes with a reflection on fear as a force that narrows perception and collapses the potential for action, drawing on Frank Herbert's Dune and Nate's own honest response to watching a scenario he had long gamed out begin to move closer to reality. What fears about the future are quietly limiting your ability to act today, and which are actually helping you prepare? Is assigning blame increasing your capacity for meaningful action, or mostly giving shape to your distress? And if your future is going to become more local than you expect, what could you begin to do now with a few people in order to move toward the better end of the distribution? (Recorded March 11th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Nearly every mainstream conversation about humanity's future, our current global crises, and our place in the natural world shares one common theme: the quiet, unquestioned assumption that humans are the apex species on Earth. This belief is so woven into our systems and thought patterns that it rarely gets named, let alone challenged. But what if this invisible worldview – more than fossil fuels, overpopulation, or any single policy failure – is at the very root of the ecological crisis? In this episode, Nate speaks with primatologist and author Dr. Christine Webb about human exceptionalism – the deeply embedded belief that humans are separate from and superior to the rest of nature. Webb argues this worldview is not a universal human trait but rather a product of a few dominant cultures, and that it lies at the root of many of our most pressing global challenges. Drawing on her research with chimpanzees, bonobos, baboons, and other non-human primates, she illustrates how traits once thought to be uniquely human (like tool use, language, empathy, theory of mind, and culture) are in fact shared across species in various forms. Furthermore, Webb advocates for reimagining economic, legal, and educational systems to reflect the intrinsic value of all life. What, exactly, is the meaningful line between "us" (humans) and "them" (other species), and who benefits from drawing it? How are current scientific 'best practices' accidentally reinforcing the myth of human exceptionalism, and what can we do to change them? And finally, if we decenter human exceptionalism, what richness might we stand to gain in community, meaning, and wellbeing? (Conversation recorded on February 17th, 2025)    About Christine Webb: Dr. Christine Webb is a primatologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at New York University as a part of the Animal Studies program. Prior to joining NYU, she was a Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Her research follows two intersecting lines of inquiry: understanding the complex dynamics of social life in animals, especially other primates, and examining how the dominant narrative of human exceptionalism has shaped scientific knowledge of the more-than-human world. These two lines of research have cumulated into her 2025 book, The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters, which argues that human exceptionalism is an ideology that relies more on human culture than our biology, and more on delusion and faith than on evidence.

   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

This week's Frankly is another edition of Nate's Wide Boundary News series, where he invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. In this installment, Nate addresses the U.S. and Israeli military offensive against Iran and traces the reverberating effects that extend far beyond the conflict itself, starting with what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means for a civilization that routes a massive share of its physical economy through a single maritime corridor. Nate begins with the core misperception that oil registers as roughly 3% of GDP by cost, when in reality it underpins 100% of economic activity. Building off of that, he outlines a series of second- and third-order effects that rarely appear in headline coverage, including hidden dependencies on sulfur, liquefied natural gas, and nitrogen fertilizer that connect the Strait of Hormuz to mining operations, European energy security, and global food systems. He also explains the stock-and-flow imbalance between expensive missile interceptors and cheap drone warfare, and the difficult choices facing aging Middle Eastern oil fields if production is forced to shut in. Finally, Nate considers the religious narratives on all three sides of the conflict, where Christian, Jewish, and Shia Islamic end-times frameworks each cast the war as prophetic fulfillment, short-circuiting the feedback loops that normally slow escalation. What does the exposure of a single shipping corridor reveal about the deep energy dependencies of modern civilization? How might the second- and third-order effects of this conflict, from fertilizer to metals to food prices, reshape the global economy in ways that outlast the war itself? And when all parties in a conflict believe they are fulfilling divine prophecy, where do the off-ramps for de-escalation appear? (Recorded March 9th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

In this week's Frankly, Nate begins a new series called "Staying Human," which focuses on what he sees as a precondition for everything else: recovering a sense of personal agency. He opens against the backdrop of Operation Epic Fury and the broader turbulence of 2026, but rather than offering geopolitical analysis, he turns inward toward a question that has been reshaping his theory of change: why does growing awareness of the more-than-human predicament so often produce paralysis rather than action? Nate traces the gap between awareness and agency through several layers. He draws on the science of learned helplessness and self-efficacy research to explain how nervous systems learn whether effort leads to outcomes, and how a digital environment designed to fragment attention can train people to stop investing in their own follow-through. He frames this not as a personal failing but as a predictable consequence of living inside a Superorganism that advertises choice while eroding the conditions for it. Rather than prescribing a program, Nate shares practices he is experimenting with himself: voluntary speed bumps before reaching for a screen, small kept promises that rebuild self-trust, and protecting even one hour of intentional time. He argues that reclaiming agency at the individual level is not sufficient to address our entire predicament, but it is a precondition for the community-level and institutional work required to make the future better than the default. Where in your life has awareness of the world's problems triggered overwhelm or even paralysis? What is one kept promise, however small, that might begin to rebuild your sense of traction? And if agency is a precondition for everything that comes next, what would it look like to treat it as something you practice rather than something you wait to feel?   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

As our governments, institutions, and the public become more aware of the increasing pressures on material and energy availability, we've simultaneously seen powerful ripple effects for industrial policy, economic planning, and geopolitical dynamics. Parallel to this story are evolving strategies unique to each nation as new lines of power emerge alongside the trends of artificial intelligence, competing demands for rare earth metals, and an increasingly unstable global power balance that underpins all of it. How have these seemingly disparate factors combined to influence recent international events – and how can understanding them help us forecast the future of global governance and power?  In this episode, Nate is joined by financial and economic analysts, Craig Tindale and Michael Every, to discuss the widespread implications of growing geopolitical tensions over scarce resources and the rapidly changing foreign policy and economic statecraft that countries are implementing in response. Importantly, Craig and Michael emphasize the centrality of China and the U.S. as the two superpowers reshaping global alliances, and how industrial capacity and material constraints underpin each move made in their pursuit for dominance. Ultimately, they emphasize the need for clarity and realignment of the goals for economic and industrial policy as we leave behind the era of growth and grapple with a simplifying world. What can the long overlooked story of rare earth metals, energy resources, and industrial capacity tell us about ongoing geopolitical events? How might continued AI development play a key role in the future of economic statecraft and the international balance of power? And finally, how should we re-think what economic growth actually serves in an era of resource constraints, geopolitical competition, and ecological crisis? In other words, what is GDP truly for? (And what is GPT really for?)   About Craig Tindale: Craig Tindale is a private investor who has spent nearly four decades working in software development, business strategy, and infrastructure planning, including in leadership positions at Telstra, Oracle, and IBM. Additionally, he has direct experience working in East-to-West supply chains, including as the CEO and Asia Regional Director for DataDirect Technologies.  He's now pivoted to investing in groundbreaking ideas such as drone reforestation through Air Seed Technologies, and uses his knowledge of Chinese industrial strategy and Western tech demand to identify the choke points in Critical Metals markets. Most recently he released the white paper, Critical Materials: A Strategic Analysis, which offers a systems synthesis on how the race for rare earths and the return of material constraints is shaping geopolitical relationships.    About Michael Every: Michael Every is Global Strategist at Rabobank Singapore analyzing major developments and key thematic trends, especially on the intersection of geopolitics, economics, and markets. He is frequently published and quoted in financial media, is a regular conference keynote speaker, and was invited to present to the 2022 G-20 on the current global crisis.  Michael has over two decades of experience working as an Economist and Strategist. Before Rabobank, he was a Director at Silk Road Associates in Bangkok, Senior Economist and Fixed Income Strategist at the Royal Bank of Canada in both London and Sydney, and an Economist for Dun & Bradstreet in London.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Send a textAwards season has entered the treehouse. This week, Andrea and Ryan break down the 2026 Best Animated Film nominees — first impressions, emotional reactions, and the only metric that truly matters: which character would make the best plush.We briefly visit each film, discuss what makes them awards-worthy (or chaotic), and make our official Grown-Ass Kids Club pick for who should take home the statue. Is it prestige? Is it vibes? Is it marketable stuffed animal potential? Yes.Follow us @grownasskidsclub

The Geekz are BACK this week with trailer discussions and breaking geek news!

In this week's Frankly, Nate explores the growing sense that many people feel disoriented and overwhelmed in a world increasingly saturated with digital content. Constant exposure to headlines, hot takes, summaries, and algorithm-driven feeds can erode our sense of clarity rather than strengthen it. The rapid rise of artificial intelligence has served to dramatically increase the speed of information production while also eroding accuracy, making it difficult to differentiate between content that simply sounds confident and content that's actually grounded in reality. Nate draws a parallel between today's information ecosystem and the modern industrial food system – just like fossil fuels helped create an abundance of cheap, calorie-dense but nutrient-poor food, AI may create an abundance of information that is fast and persuasive, yet has little "nourishment." In a world where digital tools increasingly do more of our thinking for us, Nate grapples with how to prevent cognitive atrophy and filter the flood of content we likely will face in coming months/years. How can we be rich in information and yet poor in wisdom? Why is it important for us to be able to tell the difference between content that's engineered for engagement and content that genuinely improves our judgement and our lives? Finally, what daily practices might help us stay grounded as AI increasingly reshapes our cognitive environment? (Recorded February 25th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Humans aren't rational. We don't evaluate facts objectively; instead, we interpret them through our biases, experiences, and backgrounds. What's more, we're psychologically motivated to reject or distort information that threatens our identity or worldview – even if it's scientifically valid. Add to that our modern media landscape where everyone has a different source of "truth" for world events, our ability to understand what is actually true is weaker than ever. How, then, can we combat misinformation when simply presenting the facts is no longer enough – and may even backfire? In this episode, Nate is joined by John Cook, a researcher who has spent nearly two decades studying science communication and the psychology of misinformation. John shares his journey from creating the education website Skeptical Science in 2007 to his shocking discovery that his well-intentioned debunking efforts might have been counterproductive. He also discusses the "FLICC" framework – a set of five techniques (Fake experts, Logical fallacies, Impossible expectations, Cherry picking, and Conspiracy theories) that cut across all forms of misinformation, from the denial of global heating to vaccine hesitancy, and more. Additionally, John's research reveals a counterintuitive truth: our tribal identities matter more than our political beliefs in determining what science we accept – yet our aversion to being tricked is bipartisan.  When it comes to reaching a shared understanding of the world, why does every conversation matter – regardless of whether it ends in agreement? When attacks on science have shifted from denying findings to attacking solutions and scientists themselves, are we fighting yesterday's battle with outdated communication strategies? And while we can't eliminate motivated reasoning (to which we're all susceptible), how can we work around it by teaching people to recognize how they're being misled, rather than just telling them what to believe?   About John Cook: John Cook is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne. He is also affiliated with the Center for Climate Change Communication as adjunct faculty. In 2007, he founded Skeptical Science, a website which won the 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for the Advancement of Climate Change Knowledge and 2016 Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education. John also created the game Cranky Uncle, combining critical thinking, cartoons, and gamification to build resilience against misinformation, and has worked with organizations such as Facebook, NASA, and UNICEF to develop evidence-based responses to misinformation. John co-authored the college textbooks Climate Change: Examining the Facts with Weber State University professor Daniel Bedford. He was also a coauthor of the textbook Climate Change Science: A Modern Synthesis and the book Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. Additionally, in 2013, he published a paper analyzing the scientific consensus on climate change that has been highlighted by President Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. He also developed a Massive Open Online Course in 2015 at the University of Queensland on climate science denial, that has received over 40,000 enrollments.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

This week's Frankly is another edition of Nate's Wide Boundary News series, where he invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. Today's edition features reflections on renewable energy and CO2 emission trends, updates on species adaptability, and a discussion about nuclear treaties and Iran. Nate ties each topic to the larger story of the Great Simplification, updating listeners on what pathways might be available to pursue the long-term stability of humanity in the biosphere.  What does ecological simplification teach us about resilience in human systems? When we celebrate "progress" in the form of rising renewable energy or flattening emissions, where might we be ignoring hidden system-level costs? And how has repeated exposure to "contained" geopolitical conflict changed our collective perception of risk, particularly in the West? (Recorded February 22nd, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   ---   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

In this week's Frankly, Nate looks at how aggregate human behavior changes as groups scale from small tribes to large and complex societies. He uses the framing of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde throughout the episode to illustrate how traits that once helped small groups survive can serve to destabilize complex societies when expanded globally. Rather than a moral failing of the human species, he frames the more-than-human predicament as a predictable outcome that emerges when human instincts operate at large scales. Nate also walks through the layers that make up the reality we experience. He starts with the major symptoms that increasingly draw our attention today like global heating, biodiversity loss, and geopolitical tensions. He then emphasizes that these surface problems are driven by recurring systemic patterns, which are kept in place by society-scale driving forces. The episode closes by asking the audience to reflect on what responsibility and agency look like in a world where powerful incentives shape collective outcomes. Where do we see societal thresholds when scale removes the natural limits that once kept us in balance? How can we be aware of reinforcing deeper societal forces while trying to solve for symptoms? And if our instincts helped us survive in the past, what might a system that works to balance human nature and biophysical reality look like? (Recorded February 11th, 2026)   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

With grocery prices skyrocketing and supply chain disruptions becoming more frequent, the average person has more and more incentive to get involved in growing their own food – but how does one even get started? For most people, the time, money, knowledge, and land remain out of reach in order to learn even the basics of agriculture. What kind of options are available for individuals who want to reclaim their food sovereignty – and subsequently become more connected with the Earth and like-minded people?  In this episode, Nate is joined by biologist and farmer Jason Bradford, to discuss his 'Farming Club,' which offers hands-on learning for ecologically based agriculture, where members also get to take home food and build a relationship with the land. Jason explains why industrial agriculture, optimized for financial returns and machine efficiency while ignoring ecological costs, makes it almost impossible to become a successful small-scale farmer in today's economy. The Farming Club's model provides a way for people to maintain their jobs while building the knowledge, skills, and community connections needed for a lower-throughput future.  How could reinvigorating farming culture provide an avenue to real skills and purpose to the next generation, especially for young men? How could the farming club model be replicated across the country, sparking small rural movements everywhere? And how could thousands of ideas and initiatives like these act as safety nets for individuals and communities as we transition to a more simplified society? (Conversation recorded on December 4th, 2025)     About Jason Bradford: Jason co-manages a Community Supported Agriculture program with the Organic Growers Club at Oregon State University, where he practices land stewardship methods and cultivates community rooted in ecologically-based agricultural practices. Prior to his switch to agriculture, he was a research biologist studying evolution, ecology, and global change. Additionally, Jason has been affiliated with the Post Carbon Institute since 2004, first as a Fellow and then as Board President. He is currently a co-host of the Crazy Town podcast, as well as a writer for Resilience.org. Additionally, in 2019, he authored The Future is Rural: Food System Adaptations to the Great Simplification.   Show Notes and More   Watch this video episode on YouTube   Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.   ---   Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future   Join our Substack newsletter   Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners  

Fill in the blanks of these ANIMATED MOVIE TITLES! Fact of the Day: A town in Texas has had a beer-drinking goat as mayor since 1986. Triple Connections: Allure, Elle, Glamour THE FIRST TRIVIA QUESTION STARTS AT 01:41 SUPPORT THE SHOW MONTHLY, LISTEN AD-FREE FOR JUST $1 A MONTH: www.Patreon.com/TriviaWithBudds INSTANT DOWNLOAD DIGITAL TRIVIA GAMES ON ETSY, GRAB ONE NOW!  GET A CUSTOM EPISODE FOR YOUR LOVED ONES:  Email ryanbudds@gmail.com Theme song by www.soundcloud.com/Frawsty Bed Music:  "Newer Wave" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://TriviaWithBudds.com http://Facebook.com/TriviaWithBudds http://Instagram.com/ryanbudds Book a party, corporate event, or fundraiser anytime by emailing ryanbudds@gmail.com or use the contact form here: https://www.triviawithbudds.com/contact SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL MY AMAZING PATREON SUBSCRIBERS, INCLUDING:   Samantha Wheeler Mark Kloppenburg Alan Kreisel Rich Sommer Joe Heiman Waqas Ali Bringeka Sam Nathan Stenstrom Brooks Martin Robyn Price Gee Brian Clough Lauren Schuette Evan Lemons AnneMarie Mattacchione Yves Bouyssounouse Kenny Zail York yates Gay Geek Fabulous Mollie Dominic Nathalie Avelar Natasha raina leslie gerhardt Diane White Youngblood Trophy Husband Trivia Lynnette Keel Lillian Campbell Jerry Loven Jamie Greig Jeremy Yoder Adam Jacoby rondell Adam Suzan Tiffany Poplin Bill Bavar Sarah Daniel Hoisington Keith Martin Sue First Steve Hoeker Jessica Allen Lauren Glassman Brian Williams Brett Livaudais Linda Elswick Carter A. Fourqurean Justly Maya Brandon Lavin Kathy McHale Chuck Nealen Courtney French Nikki Long Mark Zarate Laura Palmer  JT Dean Bratton Kristy Erin Burgess Trenton Sullivan Jen and Nic Michael Redman Timothy Heavner Jeff Foust Richard Lefdal Myles Bagby Jenna Leatherman Vernon Heagy Albert Thomas Kimberly Brown Tracy Oldaker Sara Zimmerman Madeleine Garvey Jenni Yetter Patrick Leahy Dillon Enderby James Brown Christy Shipley Clayton Polizzi Alexander Calder Ricky Carney Paul McLaughlin Willy Powell Robert Casey Matthew Frost Brian Salyer Greg Bristow Megan Donnelly Jim Fields Mo Martinez Luke Mckay Simon Time Feana Nevel