Podcasts about water knife

Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they delve into a mini-masterclass on Deep Worldbuilding with award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi. During the episode, Paolo delves deep into worldbuilding, laying out how to create immersive worlds, his worldbuilding process, deep vs. broad worldbuilding, keeping track of details, lived-in worlds, worldbuilding in YA and short stories, “stacking” world/plot/character and more. NOTE: This is part two of a two-part chat with Paolo. Click here to check out part one. OUR SPONSOR: The Dryad's Crown is a multi-generational epic fantasy tale of love and loss, an emotional, coming-of-age debut and the first volume in a gritty saga set in the immersive world of Efre Ousel. Purchase The Dryad's Crown by David Hopkins ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠ in paperback, eBook and audiobook. For more information, follow David on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to David for supporting SFF Addicts at $40 on Patreon. SHOUTOUT TO THE 'SFF ADDICT' PATRONS: Thank you David Hopkins, Luke F. Shepherd, Daniel Ryan, Zach Parker, Christopher R. DuBois and Luke A. Winch for supporting us on Patreon at $10+. SUPPORT THE SHOW: - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (for exclusive bonus episodes, author readings, book giveaways and more) - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (for a selection of tees, tote bags, mugs, notebooks and more) - Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FanFiAddict YouTube channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or check us out on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where this and every other episode of the show is available in full video - Rate and review SFF Addicts on your platform of choice, and share us with your friends EMAIL US WITH YOUR QUESTIONS & COMMENTS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sffaddictspod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ABOUT OUR GUEST: Paolo Bacigalupi is the award-winning author of The Windup Girl, The Water Knife, Pump Six and Other Stories, Ship Breaker and much more. His newest release is Navola, which you can purchase ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Find Paolo on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠his personal website⁠⁠⁠. ABOUT OUR HOSTS: Adrian M. Gibson is a podcaster, writer and illustrator. His debut novel, Mushroom Blues, is available now to purchase on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ in paperback, eBook and hardcover. Find Adrian on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠his personal website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. M.J. Kuhn is the author of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Among Thieves⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, her debut novel, and its sequel ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thick as Thieves⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find M.J. on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠her personal website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FOLLOW SFF ADDICTS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FanFiAddict Book Blog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MUSIC: Intro: "⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Into The Grid⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠" by MellauSFX Outro: “⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Galactic Synthwave⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠” by Divion Ad: "⁠⁠⁠⁠Ensom Lokk⁠⁠⁠⁠" by Sissel Morken Gullord / "⁠⁠⁠⁠Ancient Life⁠⁠⁠⁠" by wildsound159

Renowned as a pioneer of climate fiction, Paolo Baccigalupi's novels The Windup Girl and The Water Knife earned him a reputation as one of the essential speculative novelists of our time, with a prophetic gift akin to established genre masters like William Gibson and Magaret Atwood. His new novel Navola is part of a different tradition: a fantasy novel where historical realism takes precedent over the overtly imaginary, exploring the relationship between family, money, and power in a lightly disgused version of Renaissance Italy. His protagonist Davico di Regulai is the reluctant heir to a Medici-inspired banking empire and the coming-of-age story Baccigalupi tells transports us to another world where contemporary themes reasonate deeply within a thrilling, escapist narrative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and M.J. Kuhn as they chat with award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi about his new novel Navola, his breakout hit The Windup Girl, Renaissance Italy, languages and cultural immersion, reading resonance and education, near-future settings and climate fiction, research and lived experience, transitioning into fantasy, burnout, discovery writing and much more. NOTE: This is part one of a two-part chat with Paolo. Stayed tuned next week for his mini-masterclass on Deep Worldbuilding. OUR SPONSOR: The Dryad's Crown is a multi-generational epic fantasy tale of love and loss, an emotional, coming-of-age debut and the first volume in a gritty saga set in the immersive world of Efre Ousel. Purchase The Dryad's Crown by David Hopkins ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠ in paperback, eBook and audiobook. For more information, follow David on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thank you to David for supporting SFF Addicts at $40 on Patreon. SHOUTOUT TO THE 'SFF ADDICT' PATRONS: Thank you David Hopkins, Luke F. Shepherd, Daniel Ryan, Zach Parker, Christopher R. DuBois and Luke A. Winch for supporting us on Patreon at $10+. SUPPORT THE SHOW: - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (for exclusive bonus episodes, author readings, book giveaways and more) - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Merch shop⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (for a selection of tees, tote bags, mugs, notebooks and more) - Subscribe to the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FanFiAddict YouTube channel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or check us out on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, where this and every other episode of the show is available in full video - Rate and review SFF Addicts on your platform of choice, and share us with your friends EMAIL US WITH YOUR QUESTIONS & COMMENTS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sffaddictspod@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ABOUT OUR GUEST: Paolo Bacigalupi is the award-winning author of The Windup Girl, The Water Knife, Pump Six and Other Stories, Ship Breaker and much more. His newest release is Navola, which you can purchase ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Find Paolo on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠, ⁠Facebook or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠his personal website⁠⁠. ABOUT OUR HOSTS: Adrian M. Gibson is a podcaster, writer and illustrator. His debut novel, Mushroom Blues, is available now to purchase on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ in paperback, eBook and hardcover. Find Adrian on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠his personal website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. M.J. Kuhn is the author of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Among Thieves⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, her debut novel, and its sequel ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thick as Thieves⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find M.J. on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠her personal website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. FOLLOW SFF ADDICTS: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠FanFiAddict Book Blog⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ MUSIC: Intro: "⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Into The Grid⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠" by MellauSFX Outro: “⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Galactic Synthwave⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠” by Divion Ad: "⁠⁠⁠Ensom Lokk⁠⁠⁠" by Sissel Morken Gullord / "⁠⁠⁠Ancient Life⁠⁠⁠" by wildsound159

The distinguished Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Award winner Paolo Bacigalupi joins us this week to talk about his forthcoming historical fantasy Navola, as well as the challenges of shifting from a focus on environmental SF to epic fantasy, the liberation that comes from being able to invent a world (and partly a language) that echoes Florentine history without being bound by it, the importance of following one's own choices and needs in writing fiction, and his own earlier classics like The Windup Girl and The Water Knife. We run a bit longer than usual, but that's a measure of how fascinating it is to chat with Paolo.

0:08 — Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the center for antiracist research at Boston university, where he's also Andrew W. Mellon professor in the humanities. His newest book is for kids: it's an adaptation of his memoir, now entitled How to be a (young) antiracist.  0:33 — Paolo Bacigalupi, Hugo-, Nebula-, and Locus Award-winning sci-fi author, discussing his 2015 book The Water Knife, a dystopian novel set in the midst of a devastating drought afflicting the Colorado River Basin.   The post Ibram X. Kendi on “How to Be a (Young) Antiracist”; Plus, Paolo Bacigalupi on “The Water Knife” appeared first on KPFA.

Episode Summary Brooke and Margaret recap the passed year of horrifying events, from climate collapse, to inflation economics, to developments with Covid, mass shooting, why the police continue to suck, culture wars, bodily autonomy, why capitalism ruins everything, as well as a glimpse of what could be coming this next year both hopeful and dreadful in This Year in the Apocalypse. Host Info Margaret can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. Brooke is just great and can be found at Strangers helping up keep our finances intact and on Twitter or Mastodon @ogemakweBrooke Publisher Info This show is published by Strangers in A Tangled Wilderness. We can be found at www.tangledwilderness.org, or on Twitter @TangledWild and Instagram @Tangled_Wilderness. You can support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. Next Episode Hopefully will come out Friday, Jan. 31st. Transcript This Year in the Apocalypse 2022 Brooke 00:15 Hello and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm Brooke Jackson, your co-host for this episode, along with the indomitable Margaret killjoy. Margaret 00:27 Hiiii Brooke 00:28 We have something extra special for you. Hi, Margaret. You might be familiar with the monthly segment we started in 2022: This Month in the Apocalypse, and today we will take that into a sub segment: This Year in the Apocalypse. But, first we have to shout out to another member of the Channel Zero network of anarchists podcasts, but playing a little jingle from one of our comrades, Boo doo doo doo, doo doo. Brooke 01:18 And we're back. So, before I tell people about this extra special episode, I want to officially say "Hello," to my co host, Margaret. Hi, Margaret. Margaret 01:36 Hello, how are you? Brooke 01:38 I'm doing okay. How are you doing? Margaret 01:42 I'm doing terrible, and I'm not going to talk about it. Brooke 01:45 Okay, that's fair. That sounds like me most of the time. Okay, well, speaking of terrible, how did the last year treat you now that we've flipped the calendar? Is there anything you would like to say to the year 2022? Margaret 01:59 You know, it's fine. It's just the year 2020 part three. As far as the other parts of the year 2020, it's been...it was chiller, then parts one and two. Not from a climate point of view, but from a fascism point of view. Brooke 02:21 Oh, okay. That's a good point. Well, I feel like 2022 as with most years....Sorry. What, Margaret? Margaret 02:30 Everything's fine. Nothing bad happened. That's the end of the episode. Brooke 02:33 Always. Margaret 02:34 Everything's good. Brooke 02:35 Okay, cool. Well, this has been a fun recording. Yeah. Well, as with most years, in the last decade, I say, "Fuck you to 2022," and would like to burn it all down. So, we have that going for us. Margaret 02:51 Alright, fuck you, 2022. I do that when I leave a state. Brooke 02:58 You say, "Fuck you," to the State behind you? Margaret 02:59 Yeah, yeah. Brooke 03:01 Even even Oregon, even when you came to visit us out here? Margaret 03:05 Why would I? Why would Oregon be any different? Brooke 03:08 Because some of the people you love are in Oregon. Margaret 03:16 Whatever, fuck you too....I mean, many of the people I love were also in the year 2022. Brooke 03:21 Okay, all right. You got me. Margaret 03:24 Okay. Brooke 03:24 One point: Margaret , zero points: Brooke. Margaret 03:26 Yep, that's what I was saying. Brooke 03:27 Yeah. So. So, I was thinking about how we do this extra fun, special episode of This Year in the Apocalypse. And being typical Brooke, I was like, let's come up with a very orderly fashion in which to do this. I shall take all of the months and pick one thing per month, and we shall be organized. And spoiler alert for the audience. Margaret and I came up with separate lists. We haven't seen each other's lists. We don't know what each other shittiest things are. Margaret 03:53 Wait, I didn't pick the shittiest things. I just picked stuff. Brooke 03:56 Oh, damn, I pick the shitty stuff. Margaret 04:00 Okay, well, I tried to go with a little bit of, there's not a lot of hope in here. There's a little bit of hope in here. Brooke 04:08 It's funny, because when I was thinking about this, I was like, oh, Margaret should do the happy stuff, because Margaret does Cool People. And I can be the the Roberts Evans, everything's bastards side of the simulation. Margaret 04:20 Okay, well, it's a good thing we're figuring this out right now, on air. Brooke 04:23 Right? Margaret 04:24 Okay. So, we'll start with your month by month and then I'll interject? Margaret 04:28 That's fine. Brooke 04:28 Super fun. Yeah. And like a disclaimer on the month by month is that not all months were created equal. So, it's like, whatever the shittiest thing in one month, maybe, you know, way shittier than next month. That's annoying to like, try and compare them in that way. It was a silly way for me to do it, but.. here we are. Brooke 04:30 All right. flashing back 12 months to January, 2022: America hit a million COVID cases with Omicron surging, so Good job America. COVID ongoing and bad. Margaret 05:04 We're number one. Brooke 05:06 Yeah. The other the other real shitty, horrible thing in January was inflation, which technically was pretty crappy in 2021, as well. But we started feeling it more in January like that's when it started hitting and then was kind of ongoing throughout this year as businesses responded to the inflation, had to start raising prices and stuff. Well, had to...some had to, some chose to because they could get away with it. Margaret 05:34 Should I? I wrote down all the inflation numbers for the end of the year. Brooke 05:39 Yeah, baby. Margaret 05:41 The OECD, which stands for something something something, it's a group of 38 countries that sit around and talk about how great they are, or whatever economic something, something. You think I would have written it down. They do. They calculate inflation for their member countries, based on the Consumer Price index. It averaged. This is as of October, the report in December, talks about it as of October, it averaged about 10.7% overall inflation across these 38 countries in the last year. Food averaged at...I wrote down 6.1%. But, I actually think it was slightly higher than that. I think I typo-ed that. Brooke 06:22 In the US was closer to 8%. Margaret 06:26 Yeah, and then, okay. More developed nations saw this all a little bit lower the G7, which is the Group of Seven, it's the seven countries who have the elite cool kids club, and try and tell everyone what to do. Their overall inflation was 7.8%, as compared to the 10.7%. Inflation in the US actually tapered off most than most other countries, probably because we fuck everyone else over, but I couldn't specifically tell you. Inflation is a bit of a black box that even the people who know what inflation is don't really understand. And, energy inflation in general was the most brutal. Italy saw 70% energy inflation in the last year. It was 58%. In the UK, it was 17% in the US. So energy, inflation is actually outpacing even food inflation. And most of the food inflation, as we've talked about, at different times on this is caused by rising costs of fertilizer and like diesel and things like that. Yeah, that's what I got about inflation. There was a lot of it. It's technically tapering off a little bit in the United States. Just this moment. Brooke 07:41 Yeah, I was actually listening to a economics report about that yesterday about how it's tapering off a little bit. The extra shitty thing that happened in February, which added to the drastically increasing fuel prices and food prices, was that fucking Russia invaded Ukraine,and started bombing shit there. Margaret 08:04 Boo. Brooke 08:06 And that that might win as...if we're taking a poll here of all of the worst things that happened in the last year, I kind of feel like that, you know, that's got to be one of the top three. Margaret 08:16 It's, it's up there. Yeah. Even in terms of its effects on the rest of the world, even like, if you're like, on a, well, what do I care about what two European countries are doing? Because, but it affects the shit out of the global south. Ukraine in particular, and also Russia providing a very large percentage of the grain and wheat that goes to, especially Africa. So, yeah, a lot of the energy inflation in the rest of Europe is also a direct result of Russian imperialism. Brooke 08:47 Yeah, it's pretty...it's fucked up a lot of stuff. There was another shitty thing that happened before that happened in February, which is what the Olympics began. And you know, Boo the Olympics. Yeah. So then we then we moved into March and there was this thing called COVID. And then there was this bad inflation happening and then this war over in Ukraine, but then we also, in Florida decided to pass a bill, the nicknamed 'Don't Say Gay' bill. Margaret 09:18 Yeah. I can't believe that was less than a year ago. That was like eight culture wars ago. Brooke 09:26 I know, because I got some of the other ones coming up here. And it was like, oh, fuck, that's still a thing. And then moving into April, so, there was like this war going on, and inflation was bad, and people were dying of this pandemic that we were living in, and then also, the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial began. And that might not seem like one of the shittiest things, but for like anyone who's been a survivor of domestic violence, and the way that trial it seemed like you know, every social media platform like you were getting like ads for it. Right? I know, other people talked about this, like everyone was seeing all these ads for news reports on it. It was like way at the top of the list. And, you know, again, domestic abuse survivor, like, I don't, I don't need to be reminded about, you know, this awful ongoing domestic abuse trial. Margaret 10:19 Yeah, yeah, that was, um, I like try to avoid everything that has to do with celebrities, but realizing how much that that like, ties into, I don't know, how we all talk about all of this shit. I have nothing really clever to say besides like, oh, my God, it's so fucked up. And I don't trust mainstream discourse around any of it. Yeah, Brooke 10:39 For sure. We also saw because of climate issues, Lake Mead was dropping to dangerously low levels, starting all the way in April. And I feel like we could have done this whole episode on climate catastrophes that happened in the last year, like This Year in the Apocalypse could have just been climate change. It was a lot. Margaret 11:00 Yes, well, fortunately that will start overriding everything else over the next couple of years. So, you know....One or the other just to Lake thing on my note, Lake Powell, which provides power to 4.5 million people could reach minimum power pool status by July [2023]. So that's a that's an upcoming thing to look forward to. Brooke 11:29 Yay, for the year ahead. Yeah, I don't even know what the status of Lake Mead is right now. I'm sure it's not doing great. And we'll probably start hearing about it again in the spring as it's at dangerously low levels, find more bodies and boats and whatever else. Margaret 11:46 And they're both. Both are on the Colorado River. Yeah, they're both on the Colorado River. Brooke 11:51 Yeah. And if you're not familiar with why Lake Mead matters, John Oliver actually did a really good piece on it on his show that talks about the water rights and stuff. I think it was John Oliver. Maybe it was John Stewart. Margaret 12:07 And if you want to read a terrible...a very good, although misogynist dystopia about what's coming in terms of water rights, there's a book called "The Water Knife" by Paulo [Bacigalupi], whose name last name I don't know how to pronounce. It's an Italian name. I think yeah, Brooke 12:21 I actually have that on my to-read-shelf. Margaret 12:23 Yeah, it's, um, that man should not be allowed to write sex worker characters ever again. Brooke 12:29 Thank you for the notice there on what to expect on that aspect. Margaret 12:34 But other than that, other than that, it's very interesting book. Brooke 12:40 Okay. May brought us a couple of big bad shootings, which is, you know, not again, not to diminish any other school shootings or shootings that happened or the fact that they're going on, you know, all the time in schools, but they were the ones that like, hit the news, really big. There was the Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting that happened. And then the towards the end of the month was that just God awful Robb Elementary School shooting in Texas, that I don't know how everyone else experienced it. But I, as a parent, you know, whose child who's only slightly older than that. It was absolutely horrifying for me and enraging, and I had a lot of feelings about it. And you know, school shootings are always hard to see, but that one in particular... Margaret 13:29 This is the coward cops one, where they kept parents out who were the parents who were trying to like save kids? Brooke 13:33 Yeah, for like 72 minutes or something like that, more than that they were outside the door where the guy was actively shooting on children. Margaret 13:41 This is...the character of American law enforcement was laid bare on that day, is how I feel. I mean, I have many feelings on all of it, but... Brooke 13:53 And that was in Uvalde, Texas, where they have two separate police systems. There is a police system just for the schools there in addition to the town's police. Margaret 14:07 There was that, uh, there was that lawsuit 10,15,20 years ago, something, where a man who was like, I think it was someone who's like stabbing people on the train, you know, just like, just just doing that thing. And, and a man stopped him, stopped the stabby guy while the cops cowered in behind, like they went into, like the driver's compartment of the train, and they just hid from the stabby guy. And the the guy stopped the stabby guy sued...I might have the details of this wrong. Sued and was like, the police have a duty to protect people. And it came back, the judge is like, "Actually they don't, it is literally not the jobs. The police's job is not to protect you. That is not their job." And, the sooner we all realize that the safer we'll be, because the more people will realize that safety is something that we're going to have to build without the infrastructure that pretends to offer a safety, but absolutely does not. And legally is not required to. Brooke 14:21 Yeah, I didn't know all the backstory of that. But, I know that that one went to the Supreme Court. And that became, you know, the national standard, because I remember reading about that part of it that, yeah, they don't, they don't have they don't have a duty to protect. Margaret 15:27 I think it was the stabby guy on the train. But I, you know, I'm not like a classic thing rememberer, it's not like my skill set. I didn't put my points in character creation in memory. Brooke 15:41 Well important thing there is was the the outcome of that. The other big bad shooting I remember making the news pretty loudly this year was also the Highland Park Parade shooting that actually happened in July. So that was a couple of months later. But yeah, good times. Guns. Margaret 15:58 Hurray. [sadly] Brooke 15:59 All right. So, we moved into June. And a couple of things are going on, on the global stage. Flooding began in Pakistan. And that flooding continued for a couple of months. We talked about this on one of our This Month, episodes, and even to right now, there is still flooding. And that flooding that did occur, you know, has displaced 1000s, if not millions of people. And it's really, really fucked things up and continues to fuck things up in Pakistan. Margaret 16:25 And I would say that flooding in general, is one of the things that we're seeing more and more of all over the world. And it's one of the things that like...I think a lot of people and maybe I'm just projecting, but you know, I grew up thinking of floods as sort of a distant thing. And then actually where I lived, most recently, we all had to leave because of constant flooding as climate changed. And I think that floods need to be something....It's the opposite of quicksand. When you're a kid you think about quicksand is like this thing to like, worry about, and then you grow up and realize that like quicksand is like not...don't worry about quicksand. That's not part of your threat modeling. And, so I think that flooding is something that whether or not it was on something that you were really worried about, wherever you live, it is something that you should pay attention to. It's not like, a run out and worry, right. But, it's a thing to be like more aware of, you know, there was recent...New Years in San Francisco and Oakland, there was really bad flooding. And then again, a couple of days later, might still be going on by the time people listen to this, but I'm not actually sure. And you know, there's the footage of people running out with like boogie boards or surfboards or whatever into the streets and, and playing in the flood. And, I'm not actually going to sit here on my high horse and tell people to never go into floodwater, you shouldn't, it is not a thing you should do, but it is a thing that people do. But I think people don't recognize fast moving currents, how dangerous they are, just how dangerous floods are, no matter how they look. And, if there's more than a foot of water, don't drive through it. Brooke 17:58 Yeah, if you're not experienced with floods, those are things you wouldn't know. So I have, you know, you said, that wasn't a big thing in your childhood, but because of where I live, it you know, I don't know if this is true of all the Pacific Northwest, but certainly, in my town, flooding is a big concern, we''re right on a river, and when there was bad rainstorms back in 96', like most of downtown got flooded. I mean, I was I was a kid then. I was I was a youth. And that experience, you know, kind of informed some of my youth, you know, we had a lot of lessons learned about how to manage flooding, what you do and don't do inflooding. So that's something that's been in the forefront of my mind. And yeah, as I see other people dealing with flooding for the first time in the news, it's like, oh, no, no, you don't. No. That's bad. Don't do that. Don't go in those waters. But it's their first time. They wouldn't know. Margaret 18:53 Yeah. Unless you were like, directly saving something or someone, especially someone, and then even then you have to know what you're doing. You know, they're a bigger deal, even smaller ones are a bigger deal than you realize, I guess is the thing to say about floods. Anyway, so Okay, so where are we at? Brooke 19:10 We're still in June, because there was, you know, in addition to the inflation, and the flooding, and the heat waves, and the war going on, and people dying of a pandemic, this little thing happened in the US where the Supreme Court's overturned a little a little old law called Roe v. Wade. Margaret 19:29 That was about two different ways of interacting with water? [joking] Brooke 19:33 Yes, exactly. Ties, ties, right and flooding there. Yeah. It was just a minor... Margaret 19:39 Yeah, that's my joke about people losing their capacity to control their own bodies. Just a little light hearted joke. Very appropriate. Brooke 19:48 As a person with a uterus, I genuinely can't...i can't joke about that one. Like, it's just too close to home. Margaret 19:54 Yeah, fair enough. I'm sorry. Brooke 19:57 No, it's I'm glad that you are, because it is good to laugh about these things that are actually very upsetting. It's how, it's part of our, you know, grieving process, how we deal with it as being able to laugh a little bit. Margaret 20:08 Yeah. Yeah, although and then, you know, okay, so we've had this like, fight, you know, America's polarizing really hard about a lot of very specific issues: people's ability to control the reproductive systems being a very major, one people's ability to control their hormonal systems and the way they present being another one, I'm sure I'll talk about that more. And, you know, the, the weirdly positive thing that happened this week that I started writing notes about, but didn't finish, is about how there's now...they're changing the laws about how the accessibility of abortion pills and so that they're going to be available in more types of stores for more people in the near future. This will not affect people who are in abortion ban states. So it's this polarization, it's becoming easier to access reproductive health and control in some states, and it's becoming harder and illegal to access it in other states. My other like, positive...It's not even a positive spin. It's the glint of light in the darkness is that abortion was illegal for a very long time in the United States, and people did it, and had access to it and not as well, and it is better when it is legal. Absolutely. But underground clinics existed. And people did a lot of work to maintain reproductive health. And now we have access to such better and safer tools for reproductive health, whether you know, it's access to abortion pills, or just everything about reproductive health has...we know a lot more about it as a society than at least medical and Western, you know, methods of abortion. We know a lot more about than we did a couple decades ago. And then, the other big thing that I keep thinking about...so there was the Jane Collective, right, in the US is I'm just like moving into history mode. Is that annoying? Brooke 22:06 Go for it. Margaret 22:07 Teah. It's my other fucking podcast, all history and so like there's the Jane Collective in the US. And they were really fucking cool. And they provided all these abortions to people in Chicago, and they actually pioneered a lot of methods of abortion and pushed forward a lot of important shit, right? In the 1920s, in Germany, anarchists ran more than 200 abortion clinics. Basically, if you wanted an abortion in 1920s, Germany, you went to the syndicalists, you went to the anarcho syndicalists. And because they sat there, and they were like, "Oh, a large amount of crime needs to be done on an organized fashion. And what is anarcho syndicalism? But a way to organize crime?" In this case, usually it's like class war against bosses and illegal strikes and stuff. But, "How do we organize that on a large scale?" And the anarchists were the ones who had the answer answers to, 'How do you organize crime on a large scale,' and I want to know more about that information. I haven't found that much about it in English yet. But, that kind of thing gives me hope. It gives me hope that we can, it's better when it is legal, I'm not being like, this is great, you know, it's fucked up, but we can do this. And, you know, on this very podcast, if you listen to one of the Three Thieves, Four Thieves? Some Number of Thieves Vinegar Collective, Margaret, famous remember of details, they they talk about their work, developing reverse engineering or making accessible, different abortion drugs and how to basically like, create them, and get them to where they need to be, regardless of the legality of those things. But, you might have more to say about this, too. I just wanted to go into history mode. Brooke 23:50 No, I I liked that. And yeah, you did those episodes in a few different ways about it that are super important. I mean, I don't think I need to rehash why Roe is so important. We we know that, you know, and it's not just about reproductive rights for people with uteruses, either. It's about the trends towards you know, bodily autonomy and regulation of bodies. And you know, what that signals as well, it's an issue for everybody. Margaret 24:17 Yeah. And remember, like at the very beginning, some people were like, they might be coming for birth control next, and everyone's like, Nah, they're not coming for birth control. And now you can see the same, the same right wing people who are like, "We should probably just kill the gay people." They like say it and city council meetings. They're also being like, "And birth control on my right, like, fuck that thing?" Brooke 24:36 Yeah. Frustrating. Margaret 24:39 Yeah. Get it out of someone's cold dead hands. Brooke 24:45 Yeah, this is one of those things where the months don't necessarily compare. Yeah. Margaret 24:49 There's that meme....Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go. Brooke 24:52 We...you know there were historic heat waves going on. Continued flooding and droughts. And all kinds of climate nastiness. And then in, in Tariff Island, we saw a whole bunch of British officials resign, and then Boris Johnson resigning, which, you know, fuck the government and all of those kinds of things, and fuck that guy. But, it did also lead into this, what has been kind of a lot of turmoil in the UK as they've gone through now a couple of different prime ministers and just like, you know, just the the, the sign of the crumbles of how just overwhelmingly corrupt political leaders are, you know, at this point in so called, you know, democratic and stable democracies, that, you know, they're falling apart too. Margaret 25:39 Now, that's a good point. Um, what year did that lady I didn't like die? What day? What month? Queen? Brooke 25:48 I didn't put down the month because that's a happy thing that happened, not a shitty thing. Margaret 25:51 I know. Remember positive things about 2022. And like, stadiums full of like, Irish folks being like, "Lizzie's in a box. Lizzie's in a box." There's like some positive things. Brooke 26:08 I might rewatch some of those after this, just for a little pick me up. Margaret 26:11 Yeah. The people dancing in front of the palace, anyway. Yeah. I don't like colonialism or monarchy. I don't know if anyone knew this about me. Brooke 26:20 Yeah. No, same. I've been trying to explain to my kid about why Queen Elizabeth was bad. And she's having a hard time. Because, you know, children and fantasies and stories and kings and queens, and blah, blah, blah. Margaret 26:32 Yeah. Which is the fucking problem. Brooke 26:34 Yeah, a similar kind of thing happened in August in terms of like, you know, unstable, so supposedly stable governments, in that the the FBI had to raid Mar-a-Lago and Trump which, again, fuck Trump and the FBI and the federal government and all of that, but as a sign of, you know, our democracies actually not being very sound, and how just grossly corrupt politicians are and stuff, the only way they could get back a bunch of confidential documents and like, nuclear related stuff was to fucking invade a former president. Yeah. Also in August Yeah. monkeypox started hitting the news, which of course, speaking of culture was, right, that led into a whole bunch of stuff about, you know, a bunch of anti-gay stuff and reminders of what the AIDS epidemic was like, and just a whole bunch of fucking nonsense up in the news because of that. Margaret 27:32 God, I barely remember that. Brooke 27:34 Right, I think we did it on an episode, a This Month episode. Margaret 27:38 I mean, I remember it now. It's just there's so much. There's so much. Yeah. Yeah. Brooke 27:44 So September brought us protests starting to erupt in Iran. Finally. There was a woman, Masha Amini, who was arrested, you know, they had been doing caravans, were doing these crackdowns and the morality police and stuff. And so that was the start of a bunch of turmoil there that went on for at least three months. It's finally settled down some last month. But that was going on, and then also towards the end of the month hurricane Ian hit in Florida. So, not to make it all about the climate. But again, historic hurricanes and flooding and stuff. Margaret 28:19 Yeah. And these things are related to each other. I mean, like, as you have global insecurity caused by climate, it's going to show all of the cracks in the systems and like, it's hard, because it's like, overall, you know, I see the the attempted revolution, the uprising in Iran is an incredibly positive thing and like reminder of the beauty of the human spirit. And also, like, what happened, the end result of that, that, I don't even want to say, 'end result,' though, right? Because like, every social struggle is going to ebb and flow. And, our action is going to cause reaction. And you know, and whenever people have uprisings, they remember power. They also remember fear, right? And the system is hoping that people remember fear. And the people are hoping that they remember power, you know, and, and it seems impossible to predict which uprisings will lead to fear and which ones will lead to power in terms of even when they're crushed, right? Whether that is the fertile soil for the next rising or whether it you know, has salted the earth to try and keep my metaphor consistent. Brooke 29:43 Nah, mixed metaphors the best. Okay, yeah, it's not a bad thing that people were protesting against what was going on there. It's it's awful that they had to get to that point that the morality police were so bad that they had to start protesting and ongoing conflict and unrest in the Middle East, never ending. Margaret 30:06 And I want to know more. I haven't done enough research on this yet, but another like hopeful thing about, you know, sort of global feminist, radical politics, there's been a recent movement of men in Afghanistan, who are walking out of exams and walking out of different positions that only men are allowed to hold, you know, in schools and things like that, in protest of the fact that of women's disinclusion. Brooke 30:33 Okay, I hadn't heard anything about that. So that's, yeah, We'll have to add that to a This Month, because I want to know more about that too. That sounds really positive. Margaret 30:40 Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know whether it's, you know, happened three times, and it's caught headlines each time or I don't know enough about it to talk about it as a movement. But it matters. That kind of stuff matters. And yeah, it's hopeful. Brooke 30:57 Well, we moved into October and the fall season, and y'all might remember this little one, some South African asshole named Elon Musk, Mosh, Mosk, whatever that guy's name is, Margaret 31:10 He's named after the rodent, the muskrat. Brooke 31:13 Okay, that'll be easy to remember. That guy officially took over at the only social media platform that I don't mostly hate, which is Twitter. A lot of his fucked-up-ness...Nah, he did some of that the first week, that was still in October. And then definitely more came after that. But, he's destroying the microblogging site that we all love so much. Margaret 31:36 Yeah, I will say, my favorite meme that come out of that was basically like, you know what, I've decided that I am okay with Elon Musk being in charge of the exodus of all the rich people to Mars. [Laughs] Brooke 31:50 Yes, winning. Do that quickly. Margaret 31:53 Yeah. He'll fuck it up. Like he fucks everything up. You've seen Glass Onion? Brooke 31:58 Yes, I did. Margaret 32:00 I don't want to like spoil it for people. But, I'll just say that movie did a really good job of pointing out that Elon Musk is just a fucking...is not an intelligent person, is not doing genius things. And it was pointed out really well. Brooke 32:15 Can I point out something embarrassing? Margaret 32:17 Absolutely, it's just you and I here. Brooke 32:21 No one will ever know. I didn't realize when I watched it that that guy was supposed to be a parody of like Elon Musk specifically. I thought it was just like generic, you know, rich people are terrible. And then it wasn't till like after I watched it, and everyone else started watching it and commenting that it was Musk and I was like, "Oh, damn, obviously it is." Margaret 32:42 Yeah, it's the like, the car thing and the space thing are the main nods. I mean, it's at the same time. It could be Bezos it could be any fucking, like tech billionaire asshole. But I think it was, I think it was intentionally Musk. Brooke 32:56 Yeah, I've got to rewatch it with that in mind. I was too busy going, "Oh, it's that guy. It's that actor or actress. Someone I know that person. Enjoy the characters. Yeah. That was a thing that happened in December, but we haven't done November, so November, Powerball made some poor asshole into a billionaire. So I feel bad for that guy. Yeah. So the Powerball, nobody had won it for like three months, and the pot got up to like $2 billion. And a single a single person had the winning ticket when it was finally pulled. Which, if they take the cash payout, which I think most people do, it's actually only $1 billion. And then, probably the government takes that. So you're only half a billionaire, probably by the time all is said and done. But still, that's, you know, what a way to fuck up the rest of your existence by suddenly having that much money. Margaret 33:51 I'm like, I'd take a shot. Brooke 33:56 I like to think, you know, I have this list of all these nice things that I would do and people I would support and love, but the evidence bears out that anyone who's ever won something like that doesn't make all the great choices. Margaret 34:09 No, no. Okay. Yeah, I think you need to have a council of people who direct...I think that any anarchist who's like, possibly going to end up rich, like, whether through inheritance or becoming the next Stephen King or whatever needs to, like, seriously consider how the dealing with that money should be a collective effort and not an individual effort. Anyway. Brooke 34:35 I agree. Yeah. Margaret 34:36 I went through this when, at one point, I did not get...I did not become a millionaire. But, at one point, Hollywood was interested in one of my my books, and we had long conversations about it. I had conversations with the Hollywood director around it, about whether or not they would adapt a certain book of mine into a TV show. And it didn't work out in the end. But, I like sat there and mathed it out and was like, oh, if they make it TV show out of my book, I will become a millionaire. And like, what would that mean? And, and so that's when I started having these, like, which just totally the same as winning the Powerball and having a billion dollars, and also not just not my weird...I don't know, whatever. Now everyone knows this. Brooke 35:16 I don't think that's a unique thing. Yeah, so that happened in November. And that sucks. And it didn't make the news the way it should have. So I just wanted to highlight that horribleness. And then, also that orange clown douchebag potato that lives in Florida, said that he's going to run for president again. So, we have that to look forward to. But, then the third thing that happened, which isn't just isolated to November, but the World Cup started, and I have nothing against football, love football, the World Cup as a concept. Fine, but there are so many problems, much like the Olympics, with the way they do it. And what happens around all that. Margaret 36:00 Yeah, yeah, I love...I love that I should be able to like a lot of things. And then the way that they're done by our society precludes me from really deeply enjoying them. Brooke 36:10 Why do you have to take such a nice thing and ruing it. Margaret 36:13 All things. All things. You could name anything, and we could talk about how capitalism and fucking imperialism ruined it. Brooke 36:20 Yeah, pretty much. Down with those systems. Alright, so now we're finally getting into the end. You'll remember this one, because it was only like a month ago that there were some targeted attacks in North Carolina on power stations. 40,000 people without power for several days, in fact, it wasn't like a quick fix thing. They really fucked some shit up there. One that I didn't hear about, but that has some pretty big implications is that the country of Indonesia banned sex outside of marriage, even for foreigners living in their country, and stuff. Brooke 36:54 Yeah. So, I don't know if the ramifications for that are. I didn't dig deeper into like, what is the consequence of you doing that. But you know, Indonesia's massive. I mean, that populations huge. Margaret 36:54 I had no idea. Margaret 37:05 Yeah, Lousiana just banned, as of I think January 1, you're not allowed to access porn on the internet from Louisiana without showing a government ID to the website. Which, means that now everyone, basically they passed a law saying you have to install a VPN in order to access porn in Louisiana. Brooke 37:27 That's madness. Margaret 37:29 Yeah, and it fucks up sex workers, right? Like any of this stuff, any of this bullshit, it always just fucks sex workers. Brooke 37:39 Yeah, they become the victims of the law, even though they're not, they're not the bad guys here. And in porn, they're never the bad guys, Pro sex workers. My last horrible thing that happened in December was that China decided to just completely give up on all of its COVID protocols that it spent the whole year continuing to be super restrictive, and have lock downs and all of that. And then all of a sudden, it's just like, "No, we're not gonna do any of that anymore." Oh, just a great way to change policy is just to stop completely all of a sudden. Yeah. Margaret 38:15 I just think it's really funny, because it's like, what? Sometimes people like really talk about how they want like a multipolar world where there's like, it's like what people use to defend the USSR, right, is that they're like, well, at least, there was someone competing with the US or whatever. But, when I think about COVID response, there was always like the US response, which was absolute dogshit. And then there was the Chinese response, which was like, too authoritarian and caused a lot of suffering and all of these things, but, was not a non response. And now, that one has fallen as well. And there's just like, I mean, there's more countries than the US and China. I'm reasonably sure. I couldn't promise. So, hurray, we're in it. We're just in it. That's...this is just COVID world now. It's COVID's world. We just live in it. Brooke 39:13 Yeah, exactly. So I think you had some, like bigger overarching trends of things that happened in 2022. Margaret 39:21 A lot of the stuff I have is a little bit like what we have to look forward to. Brooke 39:26 Oh, nice. Margaret 39:27 Just some like nice, light stuff. The National Farmers Union in the UK says that the UK is on the verge of a food crisis. Brooke 39:35 Great. Margaret 39:36 Yields of tomatoes and other crops, especially energy intensive ones like cucumbers and pears are at record lows. And there's already an egg shortage in the UK, and a lot of places where there were stores are rationing sales of eggs, you can only buy so many eggs at any given time. And, it's not because there's no chickens. It's that rising costs of production have convinced more and more farmers...it's a capitalism thing in this like really brutal way. It's the markets logic, right? If it costs too much to produce a thing, don't produce it. But, when the thing you do is produce food, there's some problems here. Brooke 40:13 Are there? Margaret 40:14 And I mean, I'm a vegan. And I got to admit, when I hear things like, they're cutting back beef production, because it costs too much. I'm like, that's good. That is good for animals. And that is good for the climate. However, that's not being replaced with more of other types of foods. So it's not necessarily good. Brooke 40:33 And if Casandra were here, and she has very restrictive things on what she can eat, because of her health, she would be jumping in to say, "But protein!" because she needs to be able to have access to that. Margaret 40:45 No, totally. And I'm not trying to, I'm not like specifically pushing for a vegan world. And I recognize that everyone's bodies are different, and have different needs around a lot of things. But, I do think that data shows fairly clearly that the level of animal agriculture that we do, especially in centralized ways, across the world is a major driver of climate change. And, it is a major driving of a lot of really bad stuff. It's just a very inefficient way to produce food for a large number of people. This is different at different scales. And I am not, I'm not specifically trying to advocate for...Yeah, I don't think a vegan world is a good or just idea. I think it is perfectly natural for people to eat animals. However, I think that there's both needless suffering that can be cut back and as well as like, just specifically from a climate change point of view. So... Brooke 41:39 I hear you. Margaret 41:39 That said, UK, dealing with egg shortage. Basically, farmers might stop selling milk because of production...that it cost so much to produce the milk. Not like, I'm sure there's still farmers who are going to produce milk. But, more and more farmers are stopping. Beet farmers are considering the same. There's also just literally about 7000 fewer registered food production companies in the UK than three years ago. Brooke 42:04 Wow. Margaret 42:05 Because at least in the UK, fertilizer costs have tripled since 2019. And diesel costs are up at about...both feed and diesel costs are up about 75% from what they were before. Shortages. The infant formula shortage might last until Spring according to one major formula producer. We very narrowly avoided a major disruption as a result of a diesel shortage in the United States recently. Basically, they like brought more diesel plants...I don't know the word here, refineries? Refineries, like online kind of at the last minute, like because there was going to be like really major disruptions in the way that we move food and other things around the United States because of diesel shortages. Let's see what else... Brooke 43:00 Have...I'm super curious here, have food shortages in the UK ever caused problems of any kind? It seems like that's not a big deal. Like they're...they can deal with that. Right? That hasn't killed anyone, right? Margaret 43:10 Ireland's not part of the United Kingdom. [laughs] Yeah, yeah. No, it's okay. I mean, it's interesting, because like, modern farming has really changed the face of famine. Famine used to be a very common part of...I can actually only speak to this in a very limited context, it's like something that came up in my history research, like Napoleon, the middle one, or whatever. I can't remember. Probably the second, maybe the third I'm not sure. The Napoleon who like took over and like 1840...8? Someone is mad at me right now. In France, who modernized Paris and made it like, impossible to build barricades and shit. Brooke 43:52 We can FaceTime, Robert, real quick and find out. Margaret 43:55 Yeah, yeah, totally. And, but one of the things that he did, or rather, that happened under his reign as a part of 19th century development, is that famine had been a very major common regular part of French life. And it ceased to be, and famine is something that the modern world, developed parts of the modern world, have been better at minimizing as compared to like, some historical stuff. Obviously, a lot of this just gets pushed out into the developing world. And you know, famine is a very major part of a great number of other countries' existence. But, I think that people get really used to the idea that famine doesn't really happen. And it does, and it can again, and it's similar what you're talking about, like we have this like, kind of unshakable faith in our democracies. But, they are shakable they, they they shake. Brooke 43:56 They've been shooked. Margaret 44:48 Yeah, they're They are not stirred. They're shaken. Okay. Okay, so other stuff: Pfizer's currently working on an RSV vaccine. I consider that positive news. My news here is about a month old. It's been given the like, go ahead for further studies and shit and, and that's very promising because we're in the middle of a triple-demic or whatever. But there's actually been as a weird positive thing. I mean, obviously, we've learned that society does not know how to cope with pandemics. But, one thing is we have learned a lot more about a lot of health stuff as a result of this, you know, and the types of new vaccines that people are able to come up with now are very, they're very promising. And a fun news, as relates to the climate change thing that's happening, more and more Americans are moving to climate at risk areas. Specifically, people are leaving the Midwest. And they're moving to the Pacific Northwest and Florida. And these are two of the least climatically stable from a disaster point of view areas in the United States. Brooke 46:04 Okay. Margaret 46:05 Specifically, specifically because of wildfire in the Pacific Northwest, and hurricanes in Florida. Also earthquakes on the West Coast and things like that, but specifically wildfire. And also within those areas, a thing that causes...humans have been encroaching into less developed areas at a greater rate. And this is part of what causes, obviously the fires are getting worse out west as a result of climate change, but it's also the way in which new communities are developed out west that is causing some of the worst damages from fires. So yeah, everyone's moving to those places. That's not a good idea in mass. I'm not telling individuals who live in those places to leave. And there's actually, you know, the Pacific Northwest has some like stuff going on about fairly stable temperature wise, and for most climate models, but this is part of why disasters are impacting more and more Americans as people are leaving the places to move to places where it's greater risk. Yeah, there's this map, just showing where people are leaving and where people are going to. And it's actually, there are other places that people are going to that would have surprised me like, Georgia, North Carolina, parts of Tennessee, like kind of like Southern Appalachian kind of areas, like more and more people are moving towards, and more and more people are leaving upstate New York, which really surprised me. But, and more people are leaving North Texas and moving to Southeast Texas, or like the general eastern part of Texas is growing very rapidly. Okay, what else have I got? Taiwan has set up a set group called the Doomsday Preppers Association, which is just sick, because it's called the Doomsday Preppers Association. And it's like, not a wing nut thing. And they have a wing nut name which rules, I'm all for it. There's about 10,000 people or so who are organizing together to prepare for natural disasters, and also to prepare for the potential invasion from China. Which, China's back to threatening to, to do that. And it's but, it's like people just like getting together to like, build networks, learn radios, and just like, be preppers, but in a, like, normalized way, and it's fucking cool. And, I'd love to see it here. Okay. What else? I don't have too many notes left. Florida, is expected to have major wildfires starting in 2023 according to the National Interagency Fire Center report, as well as Georgia, New Mexico and Texas. I'm willing to bet that New Mexico and Texas in particular, and probably Georgia, that's probably...those are very big states with very different bio regions within them. And, so I couldn't point you, if you live in one of those places, you might want to look for the National Interagency Fire Center Report, and read more about it. Brooke 48:56 Speaking of moving, it's a great time to get the fuck out of Florida. With like, I could have done almost every month something just atrocious happened in Florida. Margaret 49:06 Yeah. And one of the things that, you know, we talked a little bit about the culture war stuff. One of the things that's happened in 2023, overall, is that we've started to see more political refugees from within the United States to the United States. We have seen a lot of trans families, or families of trans children, have had to leave states where their providing medical care for their children has become criminal. Obviously also with the end of Roe v. Wade, a lot of people have had to change which state they live in. Although, I don't like doing this like comparison thing, because it's just fucked for everyone, but you can you can vacation your way out of pregnancy. You know? Brooke 49:50 I don't know that I've heard it described that way, but... Margaret 49:54 But if you want to be a 13 year old on hormone blockers, or whatever that you need in order to stay safe, a lot of people are moving, and a lot of people can't move. And there's really complicated questions that we all have to ask ourselves right now about like, stay and go. And like, like stay and fight, versus get the fuck out. And everyone's gonna have to make those questions differently. Okay, another positive thing a weird, like positive tech thing... Brooke 50:20 Yay positive. Margaret 50:22 So like I own, and I recommend it to people who spend a lot of time off grid or out outside the range of cell service. I own like a Garmin satellite communicator, it's a little tiny device, it looks like a tiny walkie talkie. And it can talk to satellites. And I can like text from anywhere in the world, I can see the sky, whether or not I have cell service. And more importantly than that, I can send an SOS. And these are fairly expensive things, they cost a couple hundred dollars. And then you have to sign up for service. And they make sense for people who are like backpacking a lot or driving in areas where there's no, you know, service or whatever, right? New new phones, specifically the iPhone 14, I hate to be like, I'm not telling everyone to run out get new phone, but as a trend is very positive, that some new phones have this already built in. So you won't need to have a separate device. And I think that is a very positive thing from a prepper point of view, to have access to a way to communicate when cell service is not there. Yeah, that is really important. And I have one final thing and it's very positive. Brooke 51:29 Okay, I'm ready. Margaret 51:30 It's actually a double edged sword. On January 5, I'm cheating. This was in 2023. On January 5, 2023, this current year, like last week, yesterday, as we record this, two assholes in Bakersfield, California tried to set an Immigration Services Center on fire, like it was a center that like, um, I mean, ironically, it helped undocumented folks or like immigrant folks pay income taxes, and like helped people navigate the paperwork of being immigrants, you know, because there's actually something that people don't know, all these like, right wing pieces of shit, is that like, undocumented people, like, many of them pay taxes. I don't know. Whereas a lot of the people who like to talk all kinds of shit about undocumented people, don't pay taxes. Anyway, whatever. What were you gonna say? Sorry. Brooke 52:16 Oh, just this, that as an economist, as a group, undocumented people pay more into the system than they as a group take out of the system. Margaret 52:25 That makes a lot of sense. So, there's an Immigration Services Center. Two assholes, tried to set it on fire. They set themselves on fire, fled the scene on fire and left their cell phone at the scene. The reason it's double edged is, because one it sucks that people attack this and they actually did do damage to the center as well, mostly to some equipment used by someone who ran I believe a carwash out of that shared some space or whatever. But yeah, they like poured accelerant everywhere. And then a guy just like, knelt down over the pool of accelerant and like, lit it. And then just like, his, like, his leg was on fire. So, his friend ran over to help and like got caught on fire too. And then, they just both like, ran out of range of, because it's all caught on camera, you know? And fuck them. And I hope that their fucking wounds are horrible. And by the time you listen to this, they were probably caught because they left their fucking phone there. And fuck them. That's my light news. Brooke 53:36 I'll take it. Margaret 53:37 Okay, what are you excited for, looking forward? Go ahead. Sorry. Brooke 53:40 Well, hopefully more fascists are gonna light themselves on fire and other types of right wing assholes. I mean, I would be very happy about that happening in 2023 Margaret 53:48 Yeah. May this be the year of Nazis on fire. Brooke 53:54 Yes. Agreed. That would be lovely. I don't know about...I don't know if I have a lot of global stuff that I thought about being positive. I have. I have like personal stuff, like I am going to be doing...hosting more these podcast episodes. I've got one coming up. Maybe this month, we're releasing it? But I did it all by myself. Yeah, more lined up to come out in the next couple of months and some really cool topics and people that I get to chat with. So I'm stoked about that. Margaret 54:21 That is also something I'm excited about for 2023 is that this podcast is increasingly regular and it is because of the hard work of me...No, everyone else. Is the hard work of everyone else who works on this show are like really kind of taking the reins more and more and it is no longer, it's no longer the Margaret Killjoy Show and I'm very grateful and I believe you all will too. And if you're not grateful yet, you will be, because there'll be actual other voices, like ways of looking at things and and more of it because, you know, one person can only do so much. So I'm really grateful for that. Brooke 55:03 I'm excited about this book that's coming out next month, that... Margaret 55:06 Oh, yeah? Brooke 55:07 Some lady I know, wrote it. And, and I got to do some editing work on it. And, it's hilarious and the cover is gorgeous. Margaret 55:17 Is it called "Escape from Incel Island"? Brooke 55:19 Yeah, that one. Margaret 55:22 Is this my plugs moment? Brooke 55:24 Did you know If you preorder it right now, you can get a poster of that gorgeous cover that comes comes with the preordered one? Margaret 55:31 And, did you know that if you preorder it, I get a cut of the royalties when the book is released for all the preorders, which means that I can eat food. Brooke 55:43 Oh, we like it when you get food. Margaret 55:44 And I like having food. Yeah. So, if you go to tangledwilderness.org, you can preorder "Escape from Incel Island" and get a poster. And it's a fun adventure book. You can literally read it in a couple hours. It's very short. It's a novella. It's, to be frank, it's at the short end of novella. But that makes it good for short attention spans like mine. Brooke 56:08 Yeah, that's dope. I'm looking forward to that. And there'll be some other books coming out from that Strangers Collective one, one that I just started editing, that I don't know how much we're talking about it yet or not. Margaret 56:20 It's really cool. Brooke 56:20 So, I won't give too much away here, but just sucked me right in as I was editing, and it's cool. I'm so excited to read the rest of it. And then for us to release it. Margaret 56:29 Yeah. All right. Well, that's our Year in the Apocalypse, 2022 edition. And I know...wait, you're doing the closing part. Brooke 56:40 Yeah, sure. Margaret 56:41 I'm just the guest. Brooke 56:43 No, you're my co host. Margaret 56:45 Oh, I'm just the co host. Okay. Brooke 56:47 Yeah. Yeah. So I'm curious what other people think the worst things are that happened in 2022, if it's something that was on one of our lists, or something else that you know of, and reach out to us like on Twitter at tangledwild or Instagram, or you can reach out to me personally on Mastodon @ogemakwebrooke, if you can find me there. And the Collectiva Social, I think is my whatever, I don't remember how it works. But I'm yeah, I'm curious what other people would have to say is the worst which thing they want to vote for, if they have their own. So hit us up? Let us know. Margaret 57:22 Yeah, do it. Brooke 57:29 So, our listeners, we thank, we appreciate you listening. And if you enjoy this podcast, we would love it if you could give it a like or drop a comment or review or subscribe to us if you haven't already, because these things make the algorithms that rule our world offer our show to more people. The podcast is produced by the anarchist publishing collective Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness. Like I said, you can connect with us on Twitter, Instagram, or me personally on Mastodon, or through our website tangledwilderness.org. The work of Strangers is made possible by our Patreon supporters. Honestly, we couldn't do any of it without your help. If you want to become a supporter, check us out patreon.com/strangersInatangledwilderness. There are cool benefits for different support tiers. For instance, if you support the collective at $10 a month, one of your benefits is a 40% off coupon for everything we sell on our website, which includes the preorders for Margaret's new book, we'd like to give a specific shout out to some of our most supportive patreon supporters including Hoss dog, Miciaah, Chris, Sam, Kirk, Eleanor, Jenipher, Staro, Cat J., Chelsea, Dana, David, Nicole, Mikki, Paige, SJ, Shawn, Hunter, Theo, Boise Mutual Aid, Milica, paparouna, and Aly. Thanks so much. Find out more at https://live-like-the-world-is-dying.pinecast.co

In this week's episode, host Daniel Raimi talks about drinking water with Gregory Pierce, the codirector of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles. Pierce discusses who has and who lacks clean drinking water in the United States, what factors have contributed to differing levels of access to clean water, the potential policies and investments that can help expand access to clean water, and the challenges that climate change and pollutants may pose to this expansion. References and recommendations: “Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirty Secret” by Catherine Coleman Flowers; https://thenewpress.com/books/waste “The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237233/the-water-knife-by-paolo-bacigalupi/

The vast majority of the world's fossil fuels have been expended, leading to a climate and economic catastrophe. In the aftermath, calories from food become the world's most important energy source, not only for human consumption, but also to power industry and technology. A few mega-corporations produce almost all the world's food, and have become the most powerful entities on earth, thriving by genetically engineering new foods, while also trying to destroy the competition by biohacking diseases to attack other sources of nutrition they don't control. The novel is set in a future version of Bangkok. Thailand is one of the few countries that has maintained its sovereignty from the calorie companies, but it has it's own troubles, and is plagued by corruption, rent-seeking, and factions struggling for control over the kingdom. The cast of characters is complex and full of deeply flawed people, all trying to get a piece of the pie in this land of relative prosperity. We can't remember ever reading a book so thoroughly populated by people who feel both real and so ruthlessly self-interested - it's brutal, but also so refreshing to read something so out of the ordinary! This book calls for a trigger warning - there are two fairly brutal sexual assault scenes that are quite disturbing. If you are reading a chapter with some bad things happening at a sex club, know that it will get worse before it gets better - you can skip to the next chapter to avoid those scenes.As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar books if you are looking for more great books to read:The Water Knife by Paolo BacigalupiOryx and Crake by Margaret AtwoodThe City and the City by China MiévilleOr you can choose to watch this episode on YouTube here instead.

I en ikke så fjern fremtid er det sydlige USA tørkelagt af klimaforandringerne. Den perfekte realistiske dystopi som advarsel... ødelagt af triviallitteratur? Musik: Ketsa "Night Flying"

Episode Notes Episode summary Guest info and links . The guest Jason Sauer can be found on twitter @jasonrsauer. He is involved with another podcast, Future Cities, that you can find wherever you listen to podcasts. The host Margaret Killjoy can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. You can support this show on Patreon at patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. Transcript Margaret Hello and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the times. I'm your host, Margaret Killjoy, and I use she or their pronouns. And this week I'm talking to Jason about what is involved in building resilient cities, like not just resilient homesteads or whatever, but like what—what are the actual sort of engineering steps that cities can and usually aren't taking to mitigate the effects of climate change? And we talk a lot more about other things besides and his take on how climate change is going and what we might do about it or not do about it. And I think you'll get a lot out of it. I really enjoyed this conversation. This podcast is a proud member of the Channel Zero network of anarchist podcasts. And here's a jingle from another show on the network. Hi, could you introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns, and then a little bit of your background in what we're going to be talking about today? Jason Sure, so my name is Jason Sauer, pronouns he/him, although I'm not picky, and I—my background is in—it's like, somewhere between climate change and, like, adaptation research is how I would describe it. So most of my work is focused on adapting cities to extreme weather events, either in the present day context, or looking at the future of the climate for the region. And figuring out how—what we need to change and how best to change it in order to keep places livable. Margaret And I'm so excited to ask you about all that stuff. Because so much of what people talk about preparedness or even, like, mitigation kind of forgets this level of scale. Either people talk about, like, saving the world, like stopping climate change, which I do in the past. Or people talk about, like, how to, you know, either you have your, like, bunker mentality people who are like, oh I'm just gonna hold up the food, or you have even the people who are like, you know, well, me and my 10 friends on the farm are going to somehow ride it all out. And I think that there isn't enough that talks about this level that you're talking about on this sort of, like, community or city-wide level. And so, I guess, I think my main question is like, what do you resilient cities look like? How do we build resilient cities? Jason So, I mean, good question. It's somewhat like a temporal issue, like thinking about, are we looking for resilient cities for now, given the present conditions, which we're still not great at managing? Are we looking at it for like 20 years in the future? Are we looking at it, you know, in the more deep, uncertain—or deeply uncertain—like, you know, by 2080 2100, whatever, or even beyond, although I've never really heard anyone seriously engage anything sort of growth beyond like 2080. I don't know why that's the limit, but that is the limit. So I actually had to pull up the academic definition of resilience. That's probably that I think it's probably the most accurate version of what myself and my colleagues are kind of looking at. And since this is behind a paywall anyway, I figured it might be kind of interesting to even bring up what the academic definition is, in this context. And so this comes from a paper by one of my colleagues here at Arizona State University where I'm a PhD candidate, hopefully soon a doctor but we'll see. So one of my colleagues Sarah Miro and two other authors, Joshua Newell and Melissa Stoltz, wrote this paper on defining urban resilience in particular. So resilience in the city in urban context. And so, the specific definition they use is, like, urban resilience refers to the ability of an urban system and all its constituents socio-ecological and socio-technical networks across temporal and spatial scales to maintain or rapidly return to desired functions in the face of a disturbance, to adapt to change, and to quickly transform systems that limit current or future adaptive capacity. There's a lot of, I don't know, generations of resilience thinking that have kind of impact into that sort of definition. But it's kind of just looking at making cities—or making it so that the people in cities and the systems in cities, once impacted by like an extreme weather event or from climate change, can respond appropriately in terms of, like, the type of response and then also, like, the amount of time it takes for that response to sort of happen. And then also to allow for sort of this concept of, like, transformative change of, like, you can build a city that is relatively resilient now, but it's not necessarily going to be resilient in the future. So you need to, when you're building these systems, allow for the possibility of the thinking to change or for climate change, you know, the effects to become more fully realized and be like, okay, so we did not plan for the sort of contingency, we need to be able to adapt to that, basically. And so every city, it looks different, you know. So I live here in Phoenix, Arizona. Most of my research isn't focused here but, I mean, this is a desert city. And we are kind of juggling the dual problems of extreme heat in the summer and, of course, like major water limitations, which are increasingly becoming a problem. And so resilience here is largely focused on basically counteracting, like, the, the extreme heats that we're facing. I mean, it gets up to like 120 degrees a couple days, a year, sometimes, and what does it—actually, I can give some quick stats on that. Margaret Yeah. Jason I think we are currently over 100 days a year where we have have a maximum temperature of above 100 degrees, and then by, like, 2050, 2060, something like that, it's gonna be 180 days a year of over 100 degrees. Which is like, I mean, we're already at 100 now, so I guess it's not like that on the thinkable. But, you know, it's really tough to imagine, like, what that's going to be like. And then of course, like, you know, average temperature is going to rise, but then also potentially the extreme temperatures are going to rise. So the city is really concerned about keeping this place viable in many different respects, given our current extreme heat, but then also the projections of extreme future heat. And so, like, you know, for example, I think the city of Phoenix is planning on increasing its tree canopy cover, you know, to like, provide increased shade, particularly in like critical areas, by which I mean, like, public transportation network—so like, you know, there's not a whole lot of structures for shade out here. And so, you know, like, a job of someone like me working in resilience would be, like, okay, so you want to increase shade, like, here's where you need to do it. And that's along like public transportation networks, things like that, where people are relatively exposed to, like, this extreme heat and sunlight during the worst months. And you can either do that through like built structures, or you can do it through tree shade. And if the city of Phoenix wants to pursue tree shade, then they also need to balance that with their, like, water needs. So more trees means more water. And so then you start getting into this discussion about, like, well, which trees provide the most shade and the least amount of water? You know, this is the sort of, like, nuanced discussion that the city and people in the academy are kind of having about this sort of issue. Margaret This is kind of an aside, but if you read The Water Knife, this novel about Phoenix? Jason It's on my shelf. Yeah, the author, what is it, Paolo Bacigalupi, I think? Margaret I don't know how to pronounce his last name, unfortunately. Yeah. So I— what was his previous one? He had this one that was like— The Wind Up Girl. Jason Yes. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, that was a dodge of saying no, I haven't read it. It's on my shelf. I haven't actually looked at it. Margaret Okay, well, there's a book in it that it references all the time. It's about Phoenix becoming unlivable due to heat. And I mean, it's also about like assassins and like water mafias and stuff, right? But it's, it's about a society collapsing because of lack of water. And the people who go around and basically, like, enforce water law and things like that. But there's a book in it that everyone references called Cadillac Desert. Jason Yes, yeah. Okay. Margaret So I don't know anything about this book. But all of the characters in this other book are obsessed with this book, Cadillac Desert, basically being like, this is the writing on the wall. This is how we all should have known that Phoenix needs to be abandoned. Jason Yeah. Margaret But your job is to make sure that people don't have to abandon Phoenix. Well, I'm—yeah, I mean, I have I have more complicated feelings on that, you know, like, there's a term in like resilience and resiliency like adjacent fields called "managed retreats." And that's like also just an accepted term in a lot of, like, disaster management and so forth. Like, I think it's mostly surrounding. I mean, I think, I don't remember exactly where the origins are. But I used to see it mostly applied to like flooding from, like, rivers that are getting, like, extremely flooded because of weird precipitation, and because of processes of development and urbanization or whatever. But you just have, like, these homes that are too close to the rivers that are like behaving pretty erratically or flooding more often than the city, you know, wants to provide aid for. And so they're just like, we got to move these people back away from the river. But I mean, it's also something that's happening in coastal areas like Miami, where you have people trying to move a little farther back onto higher elevation. But in a place like Phoenix where you just, it's hot everywhere, you know. Like, there's parts of the city that are hotter than others, and we have some controls over it. But yeah, I mean, it's tough to really figure out what the long-term plan is here. And water being, you know, correctly identified in those books as being such a major limiting factor here. I mean, what are we—what's the long-term plan? Like, I've read strategies that include canal systems from like the Mississippi, you know. Like this—which would be a scale of engineering and water delivery, that would just be, you know, enormous. We already get water from the southern Colorado River, which we shouldn't be getting water from, in terms of its natural flow. But, you know, we're doing that anyway. Right. Jason Yeah. So I guess, short-term I'm certainly focused on that. But, you know, I'm sort of agnostic as to whether or not it's going to keep people here or keep things viable. But it's just like, well, what are the problems that we have? What can we do about, you know, this situation, given our current limitations and so forth, and trying to square the circle, basically. Margaret My own, um, before I lived—I moved to a house in the mountains. But before that, I was living in a cabin in the woods. And one of the main reasons that we all moved off of the property that we were living on is that we are next to this creek. And it was 100-year floodplain. And it became a five times a year floodplain. We'd have engineers come out and they'd be like, well, it's not supposed to do this. And then we'd be like, what do we do? And they're like, well, it's just gonna get worse. Climate change is just going to make it worse. And, basically, I mean, I had one of the only houses that was physically safe from it up on the up on the hill but then, like, you know, my driveway, and, you know, my access in and out would be waist-deep and water sometimes, and all kinds of stuff coming down the creek that turns into this massive river several times a year. That's not supposed to. So I the managed retreat, that's what, you know, 10 of us just did so. Yeah, I mean, it can happen at the individual scale, it can happen at like the city planning scale, you know, there's there's a bunch of different ways. "Coerced retreat," you know, maybe another description. I don't know that that exists in like the literature but, you know, like, there's good argumentation for moving because it's physically becoming too difficult to live in this area. Yeah, I mean, to be clear, I'm not from Phoenix, I'm originally from, like, the—I'm from a suburb of Kansas City, Johnson County, which is like a, you know, wealthy, middle class neighborhood. So I'm, you know, not even from this area, I came here for graduate school. And I mostly came here for graduate school because there was an opportunity to work abroad in southern Chile. So, you know, my relationship with Phoenix is like, yeah, I don't know what you're gonna do here. I certainly wouldn't have chosen to be here under normal circumstances, I've come to like it, you know, in some ways, and can certainly, you know, empathize with my neighbors and so forth down here. But my stance on Phoenix is a little more complicated because just like, yeah, you've got some problems. And I don't know what to tell you about 120 degree weather and, like, the number of 100 degree days that are increasing, and you're—this place has already like an engineering, like, it's only possible because of extreme hydrological engineering. And now there's no additional water sources to pull from so, you know, what are you—what are you really trying to do here? Yeah, no, there's like a—there's like moral questions. I don't quite know how to untangle about like, you know, I'm not trying to judge anyone, but I don't think I would move to Phoenix. I don't think I would move to a city that probably certainly shouldn't exist at the scale that it's at currently. But I, you know, I understand that—but that's—then you get into this idea of, like, why everyone has different reasons to be different places. And it's really easy to be like, oh, you can't go do that. And you're like, well, I'm from here, or this is where the school is that I need to go access or, you know, there's a million reasons why someone may need to go somewhere, so. Yeah, I mean, the majority of people moving here is probably just because real estate in California got too expensive and cost of living in Phoenix which is also like a right to work state, you know, so there's cheap and unprotected labor here. You know, there's a lot of less noble reasons or less understandable reasons for, like, why the city is growing. And you look at how like water usage is, you know—currently, what water usage looks like here on the grounds. And there's definitely, you know, like, some movements toward like, get all the grass out of your lawn, like, plant species—it's called xeroscaping here, where you actually just like plant cacti and brittle bush and, you know, various species that are actually native to the region, or do really well with very little or no water input and can handle the heat. But, I mean, there's pools, and fountains, and golf courses, and all these other things where you're like, yeah, I mean, I don't know how long this is gonna go. And there's a lot of people who live here because they can golf, like, year round. So, you know, is that the worst thing to get rid of? No. So resiliency means get rid of the golf course. Well, you know, this—if I say yes to that I can guarantee I won't get a job here. Okay. Okay, so—but to move away from from heat stuff, some of your work has been around flooding, right, which obviously is an interest of mine, for some strange reason. It's absolutely part of why I picked a house on the top of the hill. Like, I bought a house on top of a mountain, because I'm like, no, I'm good. This is where—Maybe, I mean, I'm sure there's all kinds of other problems like wind or something that I just—and there's like no soil here, it's all rock. There's a reason it was cheap, you know. But so, some of your work, let's see, you talk about how you use natural landscape features to make cities more resilient to flooding. I'm really interested in that, like, what does that look like? How do—like, what are the practical steps that communities and cities are taking to protect themselves from climate change? Jason Yeah. And I'm glad that you kind of divided that into two potential sources for that. There's, you know, like individual preparation, and then there's like city-wide, you know, or city-sponsored preparation. And so there's been a movement in the, like, engineering and urban planning spheres toward what's known as green infrastructure. And there's a bunch of different terms for it. But green infrastructure is basically, like, either designed, adapted, or incorporated natural landscape features, or natural-esque landscape features that can do many of the same jobs that more traditional, like, constructed infrastructure would do. Plus, it looks nice and provides habitat and potentially has all these other sort of, like, co-benefits to it that, you know—like, the LA canal is kind of like a good example of a traditional infrastructure sort of approach toward dealing with flooding issues. And so it's this huge canal where you can dump all this water, and it moves water through the system really quickly. But of course, it's like this giant chunk of concrete that's dry most of the year and, number one, it's not aesthetically that attractive. Number two, it's also like a major source of heat, you kind of get all this concrete in urban areas and it absorbs sunlight during the day, admits it at night, and contributes to, I mean, high heat during the day, but especially heats a major issue in cities across the country because of night temperatures in particular have increased. And it's basically because you have all this, you know, concrete infrastructure that's free radiating the heat, you know, for hours and hours and hours. So nights just become like more uncomfortable, and there's a lot of morbidity and mortality stuff associated with that. But then, like here in Phoenix, and there's a funny example, there's this area called Indian Bend Wash. And so something like Scottsdale to Tempe was having like major flooding issues, particularly during the monsoon season. Yeah, we get monsoons out here that come up from like the Sea of Cortez or the Gulf of Mexico. And so during the summer months, which is when we get the majority of our rainfall, it just comes in these like huge sheets and these, like, you know, burst events of extreme precipitation that totally overwhelm the ability of, like, soils to allow for infiltration and for the, like, drainage system at the city to deal with it. And so they were like, we got to put this water somewhere and it's kind of got to be a zone that can regularly flood or whatever. And the Scottsdale-ites, you know, who have some amount of wealth and therefore power in the city were just like, no, we're not going to build a canal like LA. It's really ugly and unattractive. And so designers came back with this idea called Indian Bend Wash which is this sort of multi-use, like, greenway, I think is how it be described. So it's like in parts it's like a golf course, but then in other parts it's just, like, straight up a park. And, like, place where you can take your dogs, do picnics or whatever. And then just, you know, for a couple of weeks out of the year, it's flooded. That's just how it is. And but at least it's like multi-use The community really likes it. And it's green, you know, which is nice in a sort of desert city. I'm holding any judgment on green versus not green out here, of course, but yeah. Margaret So it's gonna keep it watered when it's not monsoon season. Jason Yeah, I mean, yeah, exactly. And so that's kind of an example of more of an engineered or sort of created green infrastructure practice, but at least it provides aesthetic, you know, aspects to it that the sort of other infrastructure doesn't. I primarily work on like wetlands and other things that are—there's like a whole bunch of other structures designed to deal with flooding that also potentially increase, like, biodiversity in cities, that can remove pollutants through natural processes, provide habitats, and things like that. So the majority of my research is actually focused on wetlands in particular, and I was looking at this city in southern Chile that has just—they had an earthquake in 1960. It's the greatest magnitude earthquake ever recorded. The city is called Valdivia, if anyone wants to look it up. And so like portions of the city just sunk, like, several meters, I think like 10 meters in some portions. And so just—and, like, they're on the coast, they get like 98 inches of rain per year. They're at like the confluence of these like three rivers. So those things just filled up with water and became this wetland system. And so instead of just like paving over the wetlands and pretending like everything was going to be normal forever after that, once they rebuild, they just decided to keep the wetlands around in most cases. There's been some wetland loss, but not a whole lot. And it actually serves as a natural drainage system for the city. So a lot of just, like, the urban areas, and the suburban areas drain into these wetlands. And the wetlands have definitely been affected by it. And we're still studying, like, the effects of doing something like that to a wetland system. But they certainly provide a lot more biodiversity and kind of keep this sort of endangered habitat, a wetlands, alive in the city. So I've studied the utility of constructed and natural wetlands and modified wetlands toward increasing flood resilience and cities, basically. Margaret And it works. Jason Yeah, yeah. They're wetlands work incredibly well. I mean, probably in part because they're not engineered. So like, if you have a city that's, like, thinking about building a wetland or something like that, then they have a budget, and they—and the budget is going to require some, like, design constraints and stuff like that. But these like natural wetlands are just, you know, whatever size they were naturally. And they themselves, like, just don't really flood under even like 100-year return period storm event, which is just like a storm that's so large that you only get one of them, like, once every 100 years or something like that. And they work great. And the wetlands are like part of the urban identity as well. Like they support a lot of charismatic species, like swans and these like particular kinds of birds. Theoretically they support otters, but I've never seen an otter like that far into the city. Maybe they exist. I don't know. But, yeah, so they do all these things that like traditional infrastructure that we, you know, started doing since, like, the 1940s, just doesn't do well at all. Margaret I mean, it's funny because it's like, there's a move within scientific fictions—I have to think about everything point of view of fiction—but there's like a movement within science fiction right now to move towards, like, solar punk, and towards these ideas of—I guess, I would say that, like, in many ways, science fiction got everything backwards and wrong, right? It was imagined these, like, positive societies where we, like, control everything. Jason Yeah. Margaret But it sounds like from what you're saying, and from everything else I've, like, read across things, the secret is to instead, like, integrate the things that we make into the natural systems, rather than, like, go out and like recreate all of the systems ourselves. Jason Yeah. Margaret But then it does lead to the logical conclusion that the best way to be resilient against climate change is to not have already destroyed everything. Jason Yeah, and cities definitely struggle with that. Margaret Yeah. Because most have already destroyed everything. Jason Yeah, I mean, particularly with wetlands too. I—the estimate keeps changing, so forgive me, you know, I think it's like safe to say we've destroyed like 70% of wetlands in the US since, like, the mid-1800s. And those are industrial processes, those are agricultural processes, which are all, you know, ultimately, you know, issues of urbanization, and meeting urban needs and so forth—in a lot of cases, not necessarily all of them. But yeah, I mean, so like, you're telling like a city, hey, just have some wetlands, you know. Like, historically it's like, you mean the thing that they drained in order to, like, build the city in the first place? Like, that's? And it's just kind of silly being like, well, step one is don't do everything you've done for the past, like, 150 years and you're gonna be spending a lot of money reversing that, actually. Margaret Yeah. Jason Yeah, there's a concept in infrastructure called, like, safe to fail. And I don't want to, like, get too much into it, because I don't have the definition on hand for me, but it's basically the idea of, like, this sort of, like command to control concept of like infrastructure and, like, perfect knowledge and so forth, just doesn't work. It's not true in the present day, there's always, like, you know, freak storm events and things like that. But it's certainly not going to be true in the future where the climate is changing and models are so uncertain about it. So the best thing you can do is allow for a lot of flexibility with your design, and to figure out, you know, like, areas where, like, this sort of like quote/unquote failure, or like flooding in particular, like with Indian Bend Wash, is totally acceptable. Like society's just like, yeah, you can't use that area a couple of times a week, but like, no one's really being impacted by it in any sort of, like, major way. You're just, like, yeah, that's just, that's just how it goes. Margaret So is there, like, because this—this concept really excites me, right, because like a lot of my, you know, political understanding, a lot of my understanding philosophically and all these other ways, is based on this idea that, like, trying to have absolute control as a losing game, and probably one that we should just admit we're losing, and instead find ways to, like—I'm going to use words that have scientific meaningss that I'm not using correctly—more chaotically. Like, accept that all of this natural, organic, or chaotic processes are going to happen, and take those into account in our engineering, like, in how we build cities and things like that. For me, this also applies, like, socially. Like recognizing that we can never have a system of complete control of people, and instead—so it's not, like, let everyone go do whatever they want, therefore. But instead this, like, way of engineering, or structuring things, that takes that into account is, like, something that I'm very excited about. So I'm really excited about this the safe to fail concept, then. Jason Yeah, it's something that's definitely taking hold in engineering, and actually seems to be getting through to a lot of design people. So engineers—or at least in the world of academia—certainly get the idea of it. And you can get—you can convince cities also to adopt it, but it's sometimes an uphill struggle. And then also you just have, like, competing construction interests, like maybe there's been a design firm or something like that, that hasn't adopted it, but like gets the majority of contracts in a city or something like that, that they've already got a relationship with. So there's like some amount of inertia on that point. But it certainly has hold within academia and research, and my experience working with some cities has been, they're certainly open to it and thinking about it more. Because they're certainly paying a lot for disaster relief and disaster, like, repairs and so forth every year, and they're, frankly, you know, like desperate to lower that part of their budget. So, you know. Margaret Yeah. So besides planting trees for heat and increasing wetlands for flooding, what are other simple steps? "These five simple tricks to make your city immune to climate change!" Like, what else are people doing or thinking about to respond to crisis? Jason So like, I'm trying to think of how to answer this question. So there's—like, I could go into, like, other engineering structures and so forth that we're kind of using to do a lot of this sort of management, like, more locally and through like natural systems—like bioswales, I don't don't know if you've ever heard of it. Margaret So a swale is like a thing that moves water in a field, right? Jason Yeah. And so, like, a bioswale, like an urban area it's just, like, so you have water that's on the street or whatever, and then you just kind of like divert it to the side area, basically, that's usually like soil and some plants and maybe there's a tree in there too. And the soils and the plants and so forth filter the nutrients out of that storm water before it hits—by nutrients I mean pollutants too—I come from a background where everything is like a nutrient, not necessarily like a pollutants—but I mean, stuff like nitrogen— Margaret That's kind of awesome. Jason Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can maybe go into that in a second. But like, so you have all these things that are flowing off of yards and off streets. And if you try to treat that before it gets to the water system, or like the canals, or whatever that you're using to evacuate water from the city, that's a lot of stuff to have to filter out. And so, but if you build these things kind of around the city, these like bioswales, they do a lot of the filtering, like, on site. And so, you know, over time, they sequester a lot of like nitrogen, phosphorus, organic carbons, whatever, heavy metals too also can get filtered out of that. And then, you know, like, I don't know, I don't know what the repair system is like for that. But I mean, you just swap those soils out eventually, like, because bacteria and so forth can treat some of that locally. And plants can also, you know, use some of that locally, too. But then you just have like soils or something like that, that you're kind of like swapping out because maybe they're too heavy in metal support the plant life or something like that. But that ends up being like a cheaper and sort of, like, more innovative solution then, you know, send it all to a central processing plant, and then spend all this money like filtering out through chemical and mechanical processes. Yeah. And then also, you get some like green stuff in your neighborhood. In terms of, like, things that individuals are doing, a lot of it is just, like, swapping out—I mean, like, here in Phoenix, I talked about the sort of xeroscaping process by which people are replacing, like their grass lawns, you know, which they were used to in the, you know, like, northern Michigan or something like that, you know, wherever they move to escape the cold that was, you know, the reason they left in the first place, but they still want some of, like, the feel of where they lived, they'll plant grass or whatever. And then, you know, there are now—there's movements across the city, at least in the less extremely wealthy places to do this sort of xeroscaping process where you take out your lawns and replace it with, like, either like gravel or something like that and then plants, like, naturally come up through that, or I mean, just literally leave it as the normal dirt surface here—that promotes like, infiltration locally as well, dirt ends up being, you know, or at least the natural soil here—I should use proper terms—ends up, you know, allowing a lot of infiltration that would otherwise just like go to runoff or things like that, basically, are what people are kind of doing locally. And but, I mean, a lot of these issues, like flooding in particular, is—it's like a city-wide sort of issue. And a lot of it just has to be treated kind of in a centralized way because there's, they own most of the substances—I mean, you know, there's buildings and roofs and stuff like that, that cause runoff, and, you know, houses are on top of soil. And so, because they're on top of soil, they're blocking infiltration that would naturally happen in the region. So homes are contributors to flooding in cities, but, you know, there's not much you can do about that. Margaret Are there like ways to, like, encourage infiltration into the soil? Like, I'm imagining little like, little holes you dig, like, almost like that holes or something to, like, allow more percolation or something? Jason You know, I've never actually thought about, like, local retention, you know, like, if we just built divots in everyone's like front yard for, like, you know, like a small pond that's dry most of the year, I wonder how much that would actually do it. I don't think I've ever seen a study that's even considered that. That would be interesting as like a thought experiments. And I'm sure, you know, like a modeling experiment. Margaret Well, thank me in the acknowledgments when this study— Jason Yeah yeah. Green roofs are kind of another way that this stuff is being retained and dealt with locally. And that also has impacts on, like, the amount of heat that your home absorbs from the sun. And so that's, you know, if you own your house, or if you have like a tenants association with enough power to, like, pressure your building owner to install these sorts of things, those are certainly things that will benefit the flood risk in your city and also potentially deal with heat too. But the majority of places that are contributing to, like, extreme heat and flooding, it's like parking lots, roads, all this sort of like hard infrastructure that businesses and development practices and cities themselves have to kind of manage. So the pressure ends up being with them in a lot of ways. Margaret I mean, that makes sense. Like, that's like one of—I feel like the current sort of generation of, like, people maybe under 40 or so, like, one of the things we're railing against—I say as someone who's barely under 40—is this idea that we were told we could stop climate change by like changing our lightbulbs while, you know, while being forced into car culture and while watching the US military, like, pollute more than anyone and, you know. So it—I get excited about individuals—they're not even like solutions, right—but like individual approaches to like mitigate certain effects? Jason Yeah. Margaret But I think you're right that, like, the larger infrastructure is something that needs to be controlled in a way that actually is useful for mitigating climate change. Jason Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I've also—we're probably same generation—so I, like, I just grew up with the whole idea and, like, the, like, the needs for, like, personal lifestyle change and so forth, in order to effect these sorts of, like, change. And of course, you know, like, I've been doing this for, you know, since I was like 17 or 18. And so I've got a lot of years into this sort of individual, like, behavioral change and, you know, emissions are up, like, what do you—what else am I supposed to do at this point, you know. I ride my bike most places but, like, there's got to be this sort of, like, systematic sort of change to it. And like, I say that but I'm also—so I'm also a vegan and so, like, my— Margaret Me too. Jason Oh, cool. My general thought with it is just like, I know it's not a systemic change, but like, the amount of suffering that I'm causing through my actions is less, you know, as a result of it. And ultimately that is important to me, at least for, like, living with myself, you know. Margaret Yeah, totally. Jason Like, maybe it's not having this sort of large structural change. But also, you know, theoretically I'm, you know, some extremely small decimal point of less meat consumption in the US. And that, you know, that's— Margaret Which affects water. It's not just an animal issue. Jason Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's many, many, many reasons to go vegan for—but I mean, it's the same thing with, like, carbon emissions and so forth too, where I still, even though I'm like, it's a systemic thing. I'm like, well, yes. But, I mean, if I get in my car and drive, that's carbon that's in the atmosphere. And it's going to be there, you know, as part of the collective problem to eventually have to deal with in the future. And so, like, I still feel like I got to do something, in spite of the fact that I don't—I in no way think that I'm solving the problem. Margaret No, that's such an interesting perspective towards it. Like, I think about it a lot of, like—like, I drive a giant pickup truck, and I defend it out of, well, I used to live in a cabin built myself, and, you know, I live really rurally. And like, I use my giant pickup truck for giant pickup truck stuff all the time, right? But I also get 14 miles to the gallon. And like, that doesn't feel good, right? And I mean, I would love to have an all-electric one. But you know, I also have, like, you know, don't love coal or all these other things, right? But it does, it seems like it's less about, like, beating up on people to, like, make individual changes as much as, like, maybe like everyone kind of looking at their own circumstances and saying, like, what can they pull off? Like, if you're in a good place where you can just mostly ride a bike, mostly ride a bike. If you're, like, in a place where like—like, I don't know, I spend all my time thinking about, like, whether I'm going to start DIY turning plastic into diesel fuel. Because because it can be done and recycling seems to be fake right now since COVID hit. It was always a little bit fake, but like, it seems extra fake right now. And I'm like, well that's sucks. I still want to recycle, even though I know it doesn't save the world, you know. So I guess it takes both. Jason I'm totally with you. And recycling was like another huge blow, like, you know, it was just like, I trusted that the system was like doing this well. And then, you know, probably along with a lot of people in the last like, two years or whatever there's been, you know, more writing and probably documentaries about it. And you're just like, come on, like, that was, that was the thing that I was like really good at and I made a point to, like, rinse my stuff out. And it's just a lie. You know? Like, it's in the clothes, it's getting in through, you know, like, my washing machine and my dryer, like, decomposing the plastics out of there. You know, it's just like, okay, if it's not—if it's not a systemic change, when, or how is it going to happen? You know, like, I was doing the thing that I was supposed to do, and it's still, you know. Yeah. Margaret I mean, that brings us back to the resiliency stuff, right? Because like there's—we're not going to win. Like, I mean, we should keep trying to stop the worst effects of climate change. And like, there's probably a difference—we're probably facing a tipping point between like, you know, life on earth and no life on earth at some point. Well, okay, actually—that is actually one of my main questions for you. It's actually how I first ran across you is I basically asked the internet being like, who can I ask about climate change? Like, I mean, obviously, everyone's thinking about it right now. But who can I ask who thinks about it in ways that are useful for this show in this audience? And I know you don't specifically—you're not like whole thing is not studying climate change and its effects in a grand scale. But I think you have more of a sense of the grand scale of climate change than, say, I do, or most people who are listening to this might. So, the fuck is about to happen? What's the—even if it's not your research, like what are people say? Like what? You know, is it, like—there's a version of the world that, like—I've always been a little bit doom and gloom—I see a version of the world by like 2045 where we're living underground and growing food in controlled environments because the earth is uninhabitable. And I don't think that that's, like, the thing that's going to happen. But that's like at one end, right? Then there's the, like, oh, well, just there's gonna be, you know, some coastal cities are in trouble and we'll have a little bit more hurricanes and flooding than we used to, but overall, the, you know, everything will keep on going on. Like, what do you think is about to happen? Or what do people think is gonna happen? Jason Yeah, I mean, the—so I mean, just to be clear about this, so, you know, of course, these are my views and certainly not the views of Arizona State University or any of my, like, colleagues or whatever. Because, I mean, there's a lot of variation, even within the community that, you know, does climate change studies, or that works with climate change data. And what I was going to be clear about was that I am someone who works with climate data, I'm not like a climate change expert. I don't know all the models that get used for atmospheric circulation, or oceanic circulation, or whatever. So I'm the person who like looks at the data and then, like, looks at the city, and tries to, you know, figure out what can we do to match the goals of the city with the reality of potentially what we're going to be facing. And so, I mean, but even then, you know, I'm probably less gloom and doom than I think some people that I've run into who are more lay on the subject, like, but there's so many caveats to say with this one. So my life personally, you know, like, if things probably are going to get weird in terms of how the climates going to look, and how we end up having to respond or whatever, but I perhaps, you know, incorrectly feel like I'm going to be somewhat more insulated from the effects than some other individuals or whatever, you know. Like, have money? Then you can throw it out the problem and it won't necessarily, like, fix it, but it will make your life potentially a little more comfortable than it would be for people with less money. And that's how the—that's how it works. You know, like, that's just how the country and capitalism and so forth have worked. So, like, it's really the marginalized communities that are gonna, you know, really be facing the brunt of it. So I mean, like, Phoenix is a perfect example of this where, like, extreme heat, you know, who is it a problem for? And what are we defining as problem? So in a future where we're getting like 180 days a year where it's like over 100 degrees, the majority of people in the city have AC and the majority of deaths from extreme heat and dehydration and so forth, are usually from marginalized communities, particularly homeless people. And so, like, what a city is going to look like when it's over 100 degrees for 180 days a year for, like, the homeless population is absolutely devastating. And it's already hard enough to live here. Like, the relative dryness of everything, like, you're constantly drinking water and, like, Arizona is not a kind place if you don't have—I mean, it's not kind in general, like, if you don't have money, like, and it's, I don't know, this sort of conservative ideology here, it just really promotes, I don't know, like absolute amounts of—like, if you're having a problem then you're kind of the person who has to get you out of it, or like the immediate people around you are responsible for getting you out of it. And there's not necessarily this sort of, like, societal connection. So—sorry, this is a long way of saying, like, I don't know. It's gonna be weird for a lot of people. But in terms of, like, my faith and our ability to manage it is maybe the better question, because I don't think there's gonna be, you know, in some places with, like, ocean level rise and extreme heat or whatever, it's just going to be unlivable and unsustainable for some populations of people. But like, say you're living in a place that doesn't face one of the imminent, like, climate threats, like sea level rise or whatever that's just going to physically displace you, there's a lot to manage in terms of agriculture, in terms of people's daily lives, you know. Like, if we're pushing public transportation as a way to, like, cut emissions and so forth, then here in a place like Phoenix, where it's this hot all the time, then you also need to pair that with, you know, measures to make public transportation more usable and more accessible. So a lot of my answer is just, like, how much faith do I have in the systems to get us there, as opposed to like, is the planet just going to become like poisonous and ruinous, and, you know, unlivable? Because I don't necessarily think that's what's gonna happen. I'm more just like, well, you know, is the city going to step up? Is the country going to step up? Is, you know, as an international collective, is that going to step up? Or whatever, in order to make things more manageable. And I think my answer pre-COVID would have been different than than post-COVID where— Margaret I'm guessing you're more cynical now? Jason Oh, my God. Yes. Yeah. I mean, it's so cynical that, you know, me complaining about this administration. My parents are like, I didn't know you'd like Trump. And I'm like, I don't like Trump. I'm just this disappointed with like the Biden administration handling of it. Like, it's one of those things where I'm like, well, okay, like, these were the adults in the room. And like the best and brightest, this is what like the meritocratic neoliberal system has produced as, like, the people who should be running the disaster response, and who spent the Trump administration, you know, dunking on social media and whatever, and on television, and through all media accessible, and then just step up to the plate and it's like, what, what are you doing? Like, you're not even consistent with—I mean, like, it's just incredible. Like, I'm now just, like, I'm not listening to anything the CDC says ever again. Like, it's—I'm just so amazed that the CDC was, like, turned into the propaganda wing for the administration in power, you know, like, what does the administration want to do? It wants to reopen schools, it wants to get people back in the workplace, and the CDC is gonna say whatever the hell it is that's gonna, like, be necessary to get people in there. And it's not going to be scientifically informed. So like, you know— Margaret So what's the point of having this institution if it's not scientifically informed? Jason Yeah, that's—those are the professionals. Those are the public health officials, and like Fauci is being like, we got to consider the economic impact of having a 10-day quarantine. And it's like, that's not your job, that's somebody else's job on the economy side to, like, combat what you're saying about it. And so, like, you know, I can just imagine a climate person in the same position as like—you know, Miami is flooding and, like, New York City's getting battered by hurricanes or whatever—and being like, just like, you know, climate change is not a big deal and it's, like, personal responsibility, and so forth. And if you adopt—if you get your electric cars and change your personal lives and so forth, it's not going to be that bad or whatever. And, you know, it's just not. It's going to require sort of coordination and so forth. And I would say there's a lot of good research happening, and there's plenty of good stuff, you know, from academia, and from scientists and so forth coming out about, like, strategies, it's just like, are we going to pick them up? Are we actually going to follow through with them? Is there going to be money, you know, to actually, to do any of this? Margaret Have you seen—it's as pop culture thing—have you seen? Don't Look Up on Netflix? Jason It's on my list! I really want to. Margaret Well, one of the things that happens in it is you have this—because people have always used—well, you know, I mean, like Watchmen use this, a bunch of other things have used this—like, we'd all come together if we were facing this apocalyptic threat from outside, you know? Jason Yeah. Margaret That would be what finally brings everyone together is banding together for our own mutual interest or whatever, right? And then like—and what climate change and COVID show is that that's just not something we can count on reliably. And I think there would be ways to shift public discourse in ways that do have it. I mean, you have some countries where the vaccination rate is substantially higher without necessarily having, like, a higher, like, enforcement or whatever of it. To my understanding, I could be wrong with this. And yeah, I don't know, it just the sense of like, at the beginning of COVID it really felt like, oh, we're all coming together, and like, you know, mutual aid organizations are everywhere, and then instead all the sudden people decided to just become Nazis and then run around and, like, yell at everyone and—I don't know, and then it all just disintegrated from there. And then, yeah, watching the Democrats fail at the one thing that theoretically they were going to do. I mean, the main thing that they were going to do is, like, not be literal fascists, and I guess they successfully accomplished that. But the other thing that they were supposed to do is be, like, the adults in the room. Yeah, like you're talking about. Because like Trump and his are like petulant crying children and—actually, no offense to children—children have much better excuses. Jason I've known less spiteful children, certainly. Margaret Yeah. No, I don't know it. I don't know. Okay. Jason Yeah. So I haven't seen the movie. Sorry. I was gonna comment on. Yeah. And like—but I mean, I know what it's about. I read like the criticism, I follow David Sirota on Twitter, and have certainly read a lot of criticism. And I've certainly seen a lot of stuff about the presentation of the material. And like, maybe the metaphor being a little heavy-handed or whatever. But-and like maybe, yeah, it's not, it's literally like a meteor about to hit earth or comet or whatever. And, you know, it's the news being like, well, whatever, it's a bunch of different institutions coming together to tell you that it's not something you really need to worry about, or, you know, like, mobilize over, I guess, I haven't seen it, again. Margaret It's not a complex movie. You basically got it. Jason Yeah. And so, I mean, I can—certainly I won't claim, like, I'm above aesthetics of a film or whatever, a good film, you know, should accomplish that. But it's one of, like, the most wide-reaching climate change parables, you know, currently in existence. And I have to say, from what I've heard about a lot of it, it's certainly not too far off from what we're experiencing. And like, in a pre-COVID world, maybe it would have like, felt a little heavy-handed or something like that. But I, you know, I get the gist of it. I'm like, yeah, that's kind of what we're doing. Like, what do you—like, you know, they're not even telling us to turn the fountains off or like, you know, or anything like that around here into Phoenix, and we're literally in the middle of establishing water shortage measures. Like agriculture, out, you're done here in Phoenix. I think we are—we just upgraded this— Margaret No one needs that stuff. Jason Yeah, exactly. We don't need this local stuff. That's now Mexico is problem. Also, we're not delivering water to Mexico anymore. So, you know, like, there's so many things, we're just like, okay, so you're not handling this at all. And we're not supposed to be concerned about it, for some reason Margaret To go back to something you brought up at the very beginning. You know, you're talking about how climate change models don't really go past 2080 right now. Or like, you know, it's talking about what's going to happen best 2080. And you're like, I have no idea why. And I have two answers to that, and one is more cynical than the other. And one, the—I mean, the most cynical one is, like, that's because like, who knows if humanity is going to be around after 2080, certainly in a meaningful way. And then, but the other is, like, the just the, you know, everyone who's thinking about it assumes there'll be dead by 2080, even naturally. So why would we care about, like, what our children have to deal with, you know? Jason Yeah. Margaret Like, I was born in the early 80s. So I assume I'll be dead by around 2080. If I'm lucky. So, who cares about after that? I mean—actually, it's funny, one of the most cynical things my dad says on a regular basis—my dad has four kids and none of us have kids—and he's like, he actually does care about climate change—but he's like, I don't care about climate change. I don't have any skin in the game. I don't have any grandchildren. Family line's over whatever. Jason Yeah, exactly. Like, you're literally telling this to your children, being like, I'm not here. Margaret I'm gonna be dead before it's a problem. I'm like, I'm not. Actually, you're not either. Jason Yeah. Yeah, I mean, number one, he gave up already on living forever. And that's, you know, just—I'm not, I don't think I'm ever gonna do that. So, you know, I've got skin in the game, you know, as long as the planets around. Margaret Yeah, fair enough. Jason Yeah, I mean, that's literally the reason that people give on some of this investment stuff into, like, green infrastructure into, you know, dealing with climate change. It's just like, I mean, sure, that's like a theoretical thing that we, like, could have to deal with it. But like number one, I'm not even going to be here. And number two, you know, whatever goes in the other reasoning. But it's not an uncommon thing for someone to be like, mortality, I'm dead, like, what do you want me to do? So, yeah. And like, part of it is, you know, just the limits of modeling. Like, they're uncertain even as, like, 10 years ahead. And so you kind of like increase the amount of uncertainty, like, as you expand that time out. But like, honestly, I just think it's so horrifying to, like, look at it, and we're just like, okay, well, we used to think that population was going to peak, you know, by like, 2040 or 2060. I forget, like, what the actual peak date was going to be. And then like, you know, suddenly the models are just like, yeah, we don't really see a stop to that. And so it's like, okay, so we've got a changing climate, and we have a population that's going to keep increasing indefinitely, and no one's got a plan for like resource usage, for anything along those lines. And, you know, to be clear, this is not me being like, overpopulation is a problem. It's more like we need to plan, you know, like, there's not—we're not doing a good job with the number of people we have on the planet currently and, you know, management or not, people and our, you know, resource usage put major pressures on systems. And because I, you know, mostly think in terms of ecology and, like, natural systems, even though I'm in an urban area, I'm always thinking about, like, you know, regardless—I could do a million things in a given day—I'm already a vegan, I already tried to ride my bike as much as I can, I try to do all these things, but like, I'm still impacting the environments. And, you know, like, at the end of the day, me being here is impacting natural systems. And so now I'm always thinking about, like, biodiversity loss and the things that we're, you know, also contributing to just in, you know, even though I'm a relatively low hum of activity, compared to some people, but, you know, we got to really be thinking about that, because otherwise, you know, it's not going to resolve itself. It's not just going to be like, oh, it turned out to not be a problem. Margaret Right? Well, that's what I feel like some people are sitting around waiting for the, you know—I think it might almost help for them to realize that scientists at this point, engineers at this point, are less thinking, how do we stop climate change and instead how do we mitigate its effects? You know, I mean, I guess people thinking about how to, like, stop the worsening of it, right? But it's like, you know, people who are waiting around for this sort of magic bullet of, like, cold fusion power mixed with carbon capture or whatever, mixed with Mars colonization or, you know, whatever various things, like— Jason We'll mine comets. Greenly. Margaret Yeah, totally. Yeah. Jason Yeah, no. There's just a lot of things that need to be wrangled. And we need to actually, like, do planning for it. And, like, I—as someone who's done a lot of stuff in my personal life to really try to manage some of this stuff, I mean, I work on—I'm a systems thinker and I work on this as, like, a system whole. And it's like, I mean, what—how are we going to get people to, like, change behavior. Advertising, things like that? I mean, that'll get some people, but then, you know, like, it'll get perverted and politicized and whatever. So this sort of individual approach to dealing with everything is not going to be the case. And, I mean, the term "transformation" was in that definition of resilience, and I think a lot of transformation just needs to happen. And, you know, like, I'm anticapitalist and so, you know, my version of transformation is like, you know, what's a major problem for resiliency for a lot of people? It's money and not having enough of it, or not having a society that values them because they don't have enough of it. So we need to get rid of that. Because all these studies that talk about, like, who are the most vulnerable populations, all this stuff is tied to poverty. It's in poverty directly, or it's all tied to poverty. And so if I'm talking to a city person about, like, well, you know, what you can do is like add some wetlands to your city or whatever, you also have to, like, realize that's not going to be everything. Like, you've—there's going to be flooding, there's gonna be some amount of, like, unmanageability unpredictability to these systems. And the best way that you can deal with a lot of this is just deal with, like, inequality and this, you know, insane system of creating classes and things like that, and reinforcing them in subtle and less subtle ways. And until you deal with that, you know, you're—it's totally incomplete. The picture that you're, I don't know, the picture that you're seeing and that you're actually engaging with, like, you cannot leave out a lot of these issues of inequality in the way we consume things and everything. Margaret No, I really like that way of tying class and all of that into this as, like, all part of it. I don't know. One of the things that I think about, one of my better friends and engineer, whenever I talked to her about these issues, one of the things that always comes up is that I think about like—like when you talk about the concrete canal in Los Angeles, which of course makes for dramatic movie sets—I had no idea what that thing was, it's just in every movie and eventually figured it out it's a canal. But it's just bad engineering if you don't take into account all of the context that the thing that you're creating sits within. And so like, that's always been like my argument against a lot of the, like, quick fix technological stuff coming from engineers—and I say this as a lay person—but I'm like, it's just badly engineered. It does not work. It solves an immediate problem, but it doesn't work in the larger context. So it doesn't work. And the stuff that you're talking about, about like—so a resilient city is one that's, like, interfaced with nature, interfaced into its local context, and not just like assuming that the style of building that you use in the north is the style of building you should use in the south, and the style of greenery you have in Michigan should be what you have in Phoenix. But then also one that fights inequality, and that's how you build a resilient city. I like that. Jason Yeah, no. And that's a critical message that I've, like, tried to put into like book chapters and so forth, where it's like, look, we have a good idea of, like, what causes, you know, people to be vulnerable to climate change, and to extreme weather events. It's the same thing that's made them vulnerable for the last, you know, like, you know, since the 1800s, and like, you know, the major rise of capitalism and industry and so forth. Like, you have all these engineering and tech solutions to things, but, you know, at the end of the day—I mean, so I also do surveys and stuff like that, about flooding and communities too. And so I have some idea of how people are actually adapting and preparing to this sort of stuff. And, you know, it's a n- brainer. You get a wealthy person who has like flooding in their house, like, yeah, I paid a guy to pump it all out. And then I had, you know, my walls redone or whatever to deal with the flood damage. I replaced all the furniture that got damaged by the flood. Then you have like a person who doesn't even own the home that they live in, they're like a renter on top of it, and they could be facing eviction, you know, during the, the flood repairs, if it gets repaired, you know. And, like, it's—there are so many things where it's like, okay, so this person's like a temporary refugee within their own city because, you know, their home flooded, and there's like renovations or whatever. And that's not going to be solved, you know, necessarily by a tech solution. You might get statistically less flooding, either in terms of like depth or frequency. But like, it's gonna happen, like, there's just failures in these systems and people living, you know, hand to mouth, they're not going to be able to recover in the same way as, you know, wealthier people are, or people who have—who live in like a city or in a social governance system that actually cares about helping people recover, like, on an individual basis. Like, you just can't ignore that. I mean, certainly install more wetlands. I'm not going to tell you not to do that, but... Margaret Right, totally. It's like, it's good to ride your bike, it's good to eat less meat, it's good to you know, and increasing biodiversity is a very valuable thing. Like, it's a more valuable thing than riding a bike. But like, what, um—okay, well we're coming up on time. And I'm wondering if you have any final rousing thoughts or something that you wish I had asked, or any final thoughts. Uh, yeah, I mean, it's really tough, because I don't want to just be like, the problems are systemic, and the system sucks. It's not doing its job. So there's nothing you can do about it up until it happens. Jason Yeah. I mean, like, there's really good work at the community level, and, you know, tenant organizations and so forth, that have kind of like, pushed toward organizing and improving their own resiliency. And so I always, you know, try to remember those sorts of movements. And the fact that, like, academia is pretty responsive to that. Like, if nothing else, like the the push for novelty in academia, like, has kind of been like, oh, well, this is like another form of resilience. It's like understudied or whatever. And so it gets, like, proper attention and study and appreciation in academia. And then like, you know, the pipeline from there as we talk to city officials or whatever who we're partnered with, and then get them thinking about this sort of stuff. But it's like, it's kind of, it's not a definite sort of thing. It's like a tenuous relationship. It's not successful all the time. But like, it is cool that it exists sometimes and in some places, you know, like, there's work that I've done where I, you know, I can go point to an individual wetland that I'm personally responsible for, like, telling the city something about and they're like, I guess we got to protect it then. It's like, wow, cool. And, you know, I can go back and it will still be there, but it was already, like, getting zoned for housing and so forth. So like, stuff does happen, and there is good work on it. And you should do these sorts of, like, personal measures toward, like, reducing carbon footprint and all of that. But like, I don't know, I think you described it as, like, climate nihilism in a in a previous podcast episode, I think with a restoration ecologist maybe. Margaret That part's not true. Yeah, that sounds right. I have a terrible memory. But that sounds right. Jason Where, you know, it's kind of about a, you know, nihilism is a bad thing in that you're just like, everything's fucked, or whatever. But like, for me, it kind of takes the form of just, like, accepting that stuff is going to change and figuring out, like, wha

The latest film adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune is set to be a box office smash. But why has Dune, a sci-fi novel published in 1965, remained so famous and popular? And if you finished reading the novel and have a Dune shaped hole in your heart… what should you pick up next? Petra Mayer, an editor at NPR Books who focuses on genre fiction, joins us to discuss the lasting legacy of Dune and recommend some sci-fi novels that fans of Dune might enjoy. Mayer's recommendations include: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigulupi Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Dawn by Octavia Butler The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Grass by Sherri S. Tepper The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Paolo Bacigalupi Explores Climate Change and Corruption in Near-Future Sci-Fi, “The Water Knife” In today's episode, we visit with New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Paolo Bacigalupi, author of “The Water Knife.” In a world where water is scarce, Angel Velasquez is an assassin known as “water knife,” in which he sabotages the water supply of his employer's competitors. After his paths cross with climate refugee, Maria Villarosa, and award-winning journalist, Lucy Monroe, his loyalty is tested. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “The book's nervous energy recalls William Gibson at his cyberpunk best . . . But this is no pastiche; Bacigalupi weaves an engrossing tale all his own, crackling with edgy style.” Paolo Bacigalupi is an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction. He has won numerous awards. His work often focuses on questions of sustainability and the environment, most notably the impacts of climate change. In The Water Knife, he imagines a future without water that may not be that far off. Engage with the show here: https://linktr.ee/CharlotteReadersPodcast Detailed show notes here: https://charlottereaderspodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlottereaderspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottereaderspodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlottereader Charlotte Readers Podcast is a proud member of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and the Queen City Podcast Network. © Charlotte Readers Podcast and Authors on the Air Global Radio Network

Paolo Bacigalupi Explores Climate Change and Corruption in Near-Future Sci-Fi, “The Water Knife” In today’s episode, we visit with New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist Paolo Bacigalupi, author of “The Water Knife.” In a world where water is scarce, Angel Velasquez is an assassin known as “water knife,” in which he sabotages the water supply of his employer’s competitors. After his paths cross with climate refugee, Maria Villarosa, and award-winning journalist, Lucy Monroe, his loyalty is tested. The Los Angeles Times wrote, “The book's nervous energy recalls William Gibson at his cyberpunk best . . . But this is no pastiche; Bacigalupi weaves an engrossing tale all his own, crackling with edgy style.” Paolo Bacigalupi is an internationally bestselling author of speculative fiction. He has won numerous awards. His work often focuses on questions of sustainability and the environment, most notably the impacts of climate change. In The Water Knife, he imagines a future without water that may not be that far off. Engage with the show here: https://linktr.ee/CharlotteReadersPodcast Detailed show notes here: https://charlottereaderspodcast.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlottereaderspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charlottereaderspodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlottereader Charlotte Readers Podcast is a proud member of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and the Queen City Podcast Network. © Charlotte Readers Podcast and Authors on the Air Global Radio Network

In this week's Solidarity Fridays episode, everyone's back and so is the news. They cover California Senator Scott Wiener's SB 519 bill to decriminalize psychedelics statewide (which is the first time a decriminalize bill has been put through and passed by lawmakers instead of ballot initiatives), a 3rd Massachusetts city decriminalizing psychedelics, an article pointing out how the various flaws in our capitalistic world also thrive in the psychedelic world, and a TIME magazine article on ibogaine and Marcus and Amber Capone's VETS organization (that curiously didn't mention Marcus' 5-MeO-DMT use or iboga's endangered status). But there are 2 big articles that lead to the most discussion this week: first, Psymposia's article about Third Wave's Paul Austin stealing provider information (possibly including Kyle's) from Psychedelic.support and MAPS and the ethics of doing something like this, and second, Vice's article examining patents and ethics within the psychedelic world. How can companies be profitable while also being ethical? How can a company grow within a capitalistic society without falling into the greed traps of our Western ways? And although he doesn't call it out, this episode features the return of this show notes writer's favorite PT segment, Joe's Paranoid Update- this time about the chaos that could ensue if the Colorado River dries up. Notable Quotes “We can work on ourselves, but does that ultimately heal the society when these systemic issues are at play which continue to make us sick? It just feels like this endless feedback loop. ...If we’re just focused on our individuation and not actually engaging and participating in the community, in the society, then what are we doing the work for? Are we just doing it for our individual selves?” -Kyle  “Representation matters so much and it affects people’s self-esteem and self-worth when they don’t have it there, because they don’t think that that’s ever going to be a possibility for them. It just felt so good to be able to put that article out there and to represent some different types of people in this space and highlight their really important and often overlooked work. And we’re going to continue to do it.” -Michelle  “It really is just this cool new therapy for the affluent class [that] Compass [Pathways] wants, and that’s how you make the most money. But I think that if you were an ethical psychedelic company, that wouldn’t be the goal. That wouldn’t be the mission, and you wouldn’t dress it up all in this B.S. language.” -Michelle “I do feel like we’re in the middle of something really powerful and it can either really change everything or... not. I just hope that we, as a community, keep our eye on the prize, which is like- it’s more than psychedelics. It’s cultural change, societal change.” -Michelle Links Marijuanamoment.net: California Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Possession Of Psychedelics Like LSD, MDMA And Psilocybin Masslive.com: Northampton City Council votes in support of decriminalizing psychedelic drugs Psymposia.com: The Third Wave’s Paul Austin Has Been Accused of Stealing Information For His Psychedelic Provider Directory Womenonpsychedelics.org: Why Psychedelics (Alone) Won't Heal Us Theancestorproject.com: Psychedelic Anti-Racism: The Workbook How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi Time.com: Inside Ibogaine, One of the Most Promising and Perilous Psychedelics for Addiction Vetsolutions.org Psychedelicstoday.com: Comparing 18-MC vs. Ibogaine for the Treatment of Substance Use Disorder Vice.com: Is it Possible to Create an Ethical Psychedelics Company? The Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi Wikipedia.org: Colorado River Compact Psychedelicstoday.com: PT221 – Bennet Zelner – The Pollination Approach Mt. Tam Psychedelic Integration Jam Support the show! Patreon Leave us a review on Facebook or iTunes Share us with your friends Join our Facebook group - Psychedelics Today group – Find the others and create community. Navigating Psychedelics  

This episode of The Imagination Desk features science fiction heavy-weight Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Water Knife and Shipbreaker. We caught up with him in this bonus episode to discuss the changes in his writing process as well as his latest projects. 

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Emily Grubert, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Raimi and Grubert discuss how water is used in the energy system, a subset of the topic known as the “Energy-Water Nexus.” They also talk about a 2018 paper that Grubert coauthored with Kelly Sanders—research that provides intricate detail on the life cycle of water consumption for every major fuel source in the United States. Raimi and Grubert compare and contrast the different water profiles of coal, oil, gas, biofuels, and other sources of energy. They also talk in detail about water use in hydraulic fracturing. References and recommendations: “Water use in the United States energy system: A national assessment and unit process inventory of water consumption and withdrawals” by Emily Grubert and Kelly T. Sanders; http://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PREPRINT-Grubert-Sanders-Water-for-US-Energy.pdf “Who speaks for Crazy Horse” by Brooke Jarvis; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/23/who-speaks-for-crazy-horse “Gold Fame Citrus” by Claire Vaye Watkins; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318277/gold-fame-citrus-by-claire-vaye-watkins/9781594634246/ “The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237233/the-water-knife-by-paolo-bacigalupi/

In this extra special bonus episode Matthew and Anna talk about a spreadsheet for forty minutes. Seriously! They go through all of the *punk subgenres from Stonepunk to Whalepunk and everything in between. You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, or your favourite podcast delivery system. In this episode Anna Ferri | Matthew Murray  The Spreadsheet Timeline of *Punk fiction subgenres Media Mentioned This Episode The Flintstones The Far Side RRRrrrr!!! Krogslist Playlist of all Krog videos Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda Elfquest The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang  One Piece by Eiichiro Oda Carniepunk by Rachel Caine Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner  Wild Wild West Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic about Superman by Zach Weinersmith Fallout (series) The Scar by China Miéville Tank Girl Railsea by China Miéville Snowpiercer Why SNOWPIERCER is a sequel to WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Mad Max (franchise) The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi  Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig Dishonored Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld Links, Articles, and Things Göbekli Tepe Mathematics in medieval Islam Rococopunk is not only sillier than Steampunk, it's also more punk Aether (classical element) Kameron Hurley Suggest new genres or titles! Fill out the form to suggest genres or titles! Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email! Join us again on Tuesday, August 20th we’ll be discussing The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. Then on Tuesday, September 3rd we’ll be discussing the genre of Political Non-Fiction!

In which Pete and Connor discuss Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife.

Amanda and Jenn discuss baby shower books, true crime, short stories on audio, and more in this week's episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by The Vale by Brian D. Anderson and A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena.   Questions 1. Details: My mom is throwing me a book-themed baby shower which I am very excited about. She wants to give all the guests a book as part of the party favors. The guest list is an interesting mix of people; men and women will be there, but most of the guests will be women over 40 with a handful of people my own age (I'll be 30 when the shower happens). The men who will be there like Game of Thrones, but some like video games and comic books while others like military stories. I don't want my mom to spend too much on books, so I'm thinking paperbacks are the way to go. Question: Do you have any suggestions for books that can appeal to pretty much anyone? Or something for the men and something else for the women? Thank you, --Channell   2. Hey Ladies, This has been a wonderful week for me because I saw Black Panther TWICE and I just finished my second reading of "The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory . And I'm realizing I'd love your help in finding some new books, especially books that center black characters as joyful and thriving and not always dealing with the "struggle" of being black. Black Panther showed this amazingly beautiful world where black people are smart and strong. The Wedding Date was a story about a black woman who is desired, loved, and respected in her budding relationship with a white man. As a black women, I'm realizing that I need more books like "The Wedding Date" because I'm weary of books and movies that center the narrative around the hardships of being black. I'd love to see if you can suggest some books like "The Wedding Date". I'd love more chick lit with a black woman protagonist and extra points for multi-racial interracial relationships. In the past I've loved Nana Malone and Theodora Taylor. I've also read "Black Rainbow" by J.J. McAvoy I'm open to fantasy with black female protagonists too, just as long as there's a love story involved, too. --Whitney   3. I realized after listening to a few podcasts (Serial, Murder on Orchard Street, Dirty John), and watching TV shows (Making a Murderer) that I love True Crime. It is genre that I have never read before. Would love some recommendations. Thank you for this awesome show! --andrea   4. Hi Get Booked folks! I recently discovered your podcast and love listening to it on my drive. My TBR is getting uber long, which is great since I've got an extended holiday coming up in Nov and again in Dec! I've recently discovered dystopian and/or post-apocalyptic novels, and have to say I'm totally in love. Some of my favorites are Oryx and Crake, Brave New World, Wind-Up Girl, Water Knife, Handmaid's Tale, 1984, and right now I'm reading An Excess Male. I would love some recommendations that fall along those lines. --Neelam   5. Hi ladies! In the years since I graduated college, I’ve tried to make a concerted effort to continue educating myself. I’m particularly interested in women’s and gender studies, social justice issues, and using history to inform our current political moment. The problem is I’m finding it very difficult to get through the nonfiction books I’m picking up. I do most of my reading during my commute or lunch break, whenever I can fit it in. But when I’ve tried reading nonfiction in short bursts like this, I’ve found that I don’t retain anything I’ve read. I’ve tried books of essays (most recently Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist) and had more success, but the segmented nature makes it hard to keep up momentum; I’ll finish an essay, put the book down, and not return to it for weeks. So, I’m looking for suggestions for narrative nonfiction that will keep me more easily engaged. Any help is much appreciated! --Teresa   6. Hi. I want to read more books about and/or written by POC. I love fiction, YA, and sometimes non-fiction. No graphic novels please. I love books about culture and every day day. I also love fantasy and magic. Mostly I just want to expand my library to include POC, different cultures, and life through a different perspective. --Jessica   7. Thanks for the awesome recommendations on your podcast; I would like to "read" more audiobooks, but they don't fit well into my current lifestyle. I'm thinking that short story collections on audiobook would be a good way to go. Do you have any recommendations? --Kristin   Books Discussed Mem by Bethany C Morrow (May 22 2018) Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery Name That Movie by Paul Rogers The Awesome Girl’s Guide to Dating Extraordinary Men by Ernessa T Carter (rec’d by Jamie C) Bingo Love by Tee Franklin and Jenn St. Onge The Red Parts by Maggie Nelson I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara (recommended by Liberty), trigger warnings: rape and murder The Power by Naomi Alderman (trigger warning: sexual violence) Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon, Shana Knizhnik In The Country We Love by Diane Guerrero and Michelle Burford (tw: self harm, discussion of suicide) When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco Sherlock Holmes Back Talk: Stories by Danielle Lazarin (rec from Katie on the Audiobooks newsletter) Post: Short story audiobooks

Sicarios! We review and discuss "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi.

today we discuss the Water Knife, A great book by Pablo Bacigalupi

This week Dave Anthony, a stand up comedian and the co-host of "The Dollop Podcast," hears me the book "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi.  

Your co-hosts chat about the return of Veep and a new indie film under production by the rogue AI of the American Anthropological Association's panel submissions system, Being Chris Kelty. Then we welcome architectural historian Daniel Barber from Penn Design to the podcast to talk about the history of solar homes and what past ventures in solar design can teach us about our solar futures. Starting with his recent book, A House in the Sun: Modern Architecture and Solar Energy in the Cold War (Oxford UP, 2016), we discuss how the Second World War and early worries about peak oil spurred solar thermal home designs in the 1940s and 1950s. We explore the relationship of modernism to solar energy and how modernism's experimental capacity was harnessed and focused on homes to solve social problems. We also examine the role suburbanization played in this story and what we've forgotten about the environmental and cultural utopias that were once associated with suburban communities. Daniel explains how energy experimentation in the 1950s can be seen as alternative origin story for contemporary environmentalism, how the solar homes of the past have influenced solar homes today and how solar suburb projects in the U.S. were eventually redirected toward solar development projects in the Global South. We turn from there to Daniel's current book project, Climatic Effects, which explores climate-focused architectural design methods from the 1930s to the 1960s and how architects contributed to the emergent science of climatology. We close on Bacigalupi's The Water Knife, the true story behind the “arcology” and the amazing plan to move all of New Jersey into one building.

[…] Heureuse de profiter d’un long week-end consacré aux restes des soldats morts pour la France, la Salle 101 te propose plusieurs choses notables. Au-delà des murs, série télévisée très chouette, voire bien. Water Knife, roman comique de Paolo Bacigalupi. En sus, et en prime, Hippolyte te parle des sorties du mois, ce qui devrait [...]

[…] Heureuse de profiter d'un long week-end consacré aux restes des soldats morts pour la France, la Salle 101 te propose plusieurs choses notables. Au-delà des murs, série télévisée très chouette, voire bien. Water Knife, roman comique de Paolo Bacigalupi. En sus, et en prime, Hippolyte te parle des sorties du mois, ce qui devrait […]

Colorado author Paolo Bacigalupi, the New York Times bestselling author of The Windup Girl and a National Book Award finalist, reads from and discusses the new paperback edition of his critically acclaimed novel The Water Knife. “A fresh cautionary tale classic, depicting an America newly shaped by scarcity of our most vital resource. The pages […]

A 2016 interview with Paolo Bacigalupi about his novel The Water Knife.

A 2016 mini-interview with Paolo Bacigalupi about his novel The Water Knife.

Website ByaTeacher.com matches teachers seeking second jobs with employers who need help. Then, residents of Denver's Westwood neighborhood are part of a national movement to improve outdoor amenities such as parks and paths to encourage people to get outside. And, sci-fi thriller "Water Knife," by Colorado author Paolo Bacigalupi, takes readers to a water-starved West.

This podcast features *spoilers – so, please listen after you’ve read the book unless you are okay with hearing about major plot details and the ending of this amazing novel. Listen on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-water-knife/id897258118?i=1000367510106&mt=2 Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife looks at our use and manipulation of water and water rights in the US and brings us to an ultimate conclusion. In a Southwest decimated by climate change, with the Colorado River a trickle, local and state governments in the Southwest are employing any means necessary to secure water rights. Following several main characters in a desperate search for recently discovered senior water rights for the city of Phoenix. Is #PhoenixRising or is #PhoenixDownTheTubes? NPR, All Things Considered called the novel, “A noir-ish, cinematic thriller set in the midst of a water war between Las Vegas and Phoenix. . . . Think Chinatown meets Mad Max.” Join us as we discuss the plausibility of this near-future Phoenix and the dire straits it’s characters find themselves in. This discussion features Raphael Bostic, Omar Brownson, Lisa Collins, and Justine Dodgen. For links to some of the things we talk about on today's podcast, check out the showpage at: https://bedrosian.usc.edu/podcast/the-water-knife Sponsored by the USC Bedrosian Center http://bedrosian.usc.edu/    Recorded at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy http://priceschool.usc.edu

It's all happening in town at the moment -  It's a yearly celebration of writing, literature, non-fiction and the authors and ideas behind the covers of a massive range of genres. Here's a round-up of some of the interviews that I've conducted; they've been aired on as a part of ArtBeat and The Mag. ***** Sadly, more than a few of us have probably felt like we’ve lost a loved one before they’ve actually passed away and it’s a difficult thing to talk about. Not many people want to talk about topics like Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s disease, as they can be very scary topics.But that’s where good books can help.  has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and has a series of books on what life is like for people and families facing challenges such as autism or the possibility of Huntingtons – you might have seen the film based on one of her books, Still Alice. *****  is a prolific author, most known for a series starring detective Thursday Next, whose adventures in “BookWorld” reflect Fforde’s interest in literary allusion and the intricate craft of fiction.He’s the first Perth Writer’s Festival author in the studio this morning, here to tell us about his new book, panels at the Perth Writers Festival and how he’s managed to create much loved works - and how he's even got his very own Fforde Ffestival! ***** Evidence is a strange substance in modern Australian society and it's a challenge to get difficult scientific concepts across to a diverse audience.In 1996 pioneering research into how the immune system recognises virus-infected cells earned him the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine. He became the fourth Australian to win the honour and has since written a number of books  the importance of living in an evidence-based reality - his newest one is The Knowledge Wars. He's presenting at the Perth Writers Festival on science, climate change and more. *****  has published eight books, including Trace and Exhumed, and judged numerous poetry awards.She’s also held lectureships at The University of Melbourne, The University of Western Sydney and Deakin University, and interviewed a number of American intellectuals including Harold Bloom, Noam Chomsky, Stephen Greenblatt, and Howard Zinn. She's presenting poetry at the Perth Writer's Festival as a part of the celebrations of language and literature. ***** is a popular science fiction author who addresses pressing issues of today by showing readers what not dealing with them might mean for tomorrow.Dystopias where climate change, economic inequality and genetic engineering run rampant are the hallmarks of his work such as The Windup Girl - and The Water Knife - his latest - continues in the same vein. ***** is one of Australia's best known bloggers, launching her writing at "meet me at mikes" and wrote the bestselling book of the same name. She teaches craft and blogging and is the craft contributor for Frankie magazine. Craft for the Soul – How to Make the Most of Your Creative Life is her latest book.She's doing a number of panels at this year's Perth Writers Festival, on the art of crafting - and there's even some tips on making your own "recipe for happiness" ***** For local author, , romantic stories are a best-seller - she's written 23 contemporary romance novels, specialising in nature-based romantic suspense.She was the President of the Romance Writers of Australia and has presented to groups across Australia and in the UK - and now will be appearing at the Perth Writers Festival. ***** A quick note about supporting the podcasts! Check out  – and consider  Theme songs “Cosgrove” by Pogo, from and “Leap Second” by Milton Mermikides, of  Additional ambient music from Jukedeck – create your own at   – they include: Steven, Andrew, Dr T, Paul, Gerry, Josh, Kathy, Linley, Gold, Iggy, Lukas, Finch and Andrew. Thanks to everyone who contributes and please consider joining to help continue these shows at  Please leave positive comments and reviews on iTunes and consider supporting the show via visiting  – and I’d love to get your feedback via tokenskeptic@gmail.com. 

Here's a little preview of the Cultures of Energy Podcast! Look for episodes on iTunes and Stitcher as soon as all the tubes get connected and all the magic podcast elves work through their holiday shopping. Cymene and Dominic answer the question ‘why do an energy humanities podcast?' and confess their past radio sins. Then (9:14) Dominic interviews Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction writer Paolo Bacigalupi, author of the The Windup Girl and The Water Knife, about what science fiction can do in the era of climate change.

"The Water Knife" and "Seveneves" - Our Book Club reconvenes to cover two books that are both sort of about the end of the world: Paolo Bacigalupi’s “The Water Knife” and Neal Stephenson’s “Seveneves.” Regional apocalypses versus worldwide apocalypses! Plus, what else are we reading? Host Jason Snell with Scott McNulty, Serenity Caldwell, Lisa Schmeiser and David J. Loehr.

Fredrik och Kristoffer snackar sevärda filmer, strömmande och priset på att hyra över nätet och att titta på 4K-saker. Och ett boktips. Länkar Mad Max fury road Warboy Ex machina Transcendence Xbmc “Nya” Apple TV The martian The water knife - Paulo Guadalope(?) Pan - den nya Peter pan-filmen Danny Boyles Steve Jobs-film Crimson peak Next generation threats 2015 Biopalatset Titlar Hur många gånger ser man en film? Inte så dåligt som jag tror att det en gång var Framtidsosäkrat Peter begins

Para alegraros el verano, Los VerdHugos hemos sacado un episodio que os hará más llevaderas esas largas horas de caravana de camino a la playa.La Tabla de contenidos del episodio es la siguiente:La polémica de los “sad puppies” y los “rabid puppies” en la actual edición de los HugoLista de nominados en Sense of Wonder.Podéis leer los antecedentes en la edición anterior del premio en el artículo de El Fantascopio “Fachas del Espacio”, de Félix Garcia.Esto es lo que va a suceder con los Hugo, según Vox Day, si la gente vota "no award". De verdad, es una foto enviada por Vox Day himself.Podéis leer la extensa refutación de los argumentos de los Sad Puppies “Puppies” en este artículo de David Surridge (en inglés). El artículo fue publicado en Blackgate, que es precisamente una de las propuestas de los “rabid puppies” para la categoría de fanzine.Esta es la foto con la que Vox Day/Theodore Bale ilustraba lo que pasaría si la gente votaba “no award” en las categorías copadas por los “puppies”:Los ganadores de los Nebula 2015.Lista de premiados en Sense of Wonder.Reseña de Aniquilación de Julián DíezLos nominados a los Clarke Awards 2014.Lista de nominados y ganadora en Sense of Wonder.Podéis leer las reseñas de Station Eleven, de Emily St John Mandel, escritas por Miquel y por Josep Maria, respectivamente.Las recomendaciones literarias de los VerdHugos.Recomendaciones literariasLeti LaraAcademic Exercises, de KJ Parker.Johan y Pirluit, de Peyo (Dolmen Editorial).JMEarth Abides, de George R Stewart.Pronto Será de Noche, de Jesús Cañadas.PedroLa república pneumática, de Jaume Valor Montero.Nos mienten, de Eduardo Vaquerizo.ElíasThe Water Knife, de Paolo Bacigalupi.Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, número de Marzo/abril de 2015.MiquelChallenger, de Guillem López.Children of time, de Adrian Tchaikovsky.El episodio se puede descargar de archive.org y, en cuanto se propaguen los feeds, de iVoox e iTunes.Música: Bitches of your souls (The Saurs) - http://thesaurs.bandcamp.com/Logotipo: Javier Hansard

While the wealthy stay wet in lush high-rise cities, the poor are forced to pay $6.00-plus for a gallon of water, and struggle to find ways north through militarized state lines. That's the frighteningly-plausible future depicted in Paolo Bacigalupi's new novel "The Water Knife."

This week, Liberty and Rebecca discuss Our Souls at Night, The Water Knife, Tiny Pretty Things, and more new releases.

This week we are joined by the Hugo and Nebula Award winning Paolo Bacigalupi, who is just about to publish his first science fiction novel for adults since 2009s The Windup Girl.  Picking up from where his harrowing short story "The Tamarisk Hunter" left off, The Water Knife is lean thriller that asks important questions about how global warming will affect us all as seas rise in some places and drinking water becomes scarce in others. The publisher of the book describes  The Water Knife like this: In the American Southwest, Nevada, Arizona, and California skirmish for dwindling shares of the Colorado River. Into the fray steps Angel Velasquez, detective, leg-breaker, assassin and spy. A Las Vegas water knife, Angel “cuts” water for his boss, Catherine Case, ensuring that her lush, luxurious arcology developments can bloom in the desert, so the rich can stay wet, while the poor get nothing but dust. When rumors of a game-changing water source surface in drought-ravaged Phoenix, Angel is sent to investigate. There, he encounters Lucy Monroe, a hardened journalist with no love for Vegas and every reason to hate Angel, and Maria Villarosa, a young Texas refugee who survives by her wits and street smarts in a city that despises everything that she represents.  With bodies piling up, bullets flying, and Phoenix teetering on collapse, it seems like California is making a power play to monopolize the life-giving flow of a river. For Angel, Lucy, and Maria time is running out and their only hope for survival rests in each other's hands. But when water is more valuable than gold, alliances shift like sand, and the only thing for certain is that someone will have to bleed if anyone hopes to drink. The conversation is, as always, fascinating and provocative. We're very grateful to Paolo for making the time to return to the podcast and, as always, hope you enjoy the episode.

This week we return, without guests, to a topic with which we have annoyed listeners in podcasts for years—the idea of SF canon formation: who gets dropped from the canon, who gets added, and whether such things as Hugo nominations make any difference at all. The decade between 1985 and 1995 (20-30 years ago now), saw the deaths of many of the writers who helped establish much of the "classic" SF canon — Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, Frank Herbert, Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, John Brunner, Roger Zelazny, James Tiptree Jr, Cliffard Simak, Lester del Rey, Philip K. Dick, C.L. Moore, and more. Who among them are still being discovered by new readers, and which writers and books in the last 20 years are likely candidates for a future canon? Does it take 50 years or more to determine what is canonical? Are Hugos any sort of reliable guide? And what difference do canons make anyway, beyond collective lists of personal favorites? We also have decided, as announced in the podcast, to officially support the Helsinki in 2017 and Dublin in 2019 WorldCon bids. Coode St endorses these conventions, will be buying memberships to them, and will attend should they be successful. Both Gary and Jonathan are eager to be part of major international WorldCon events like 2014's Loncon. We hope you'll join us in supporting these great bids. We hope you enjoy this week's episode. Next week: Paolo Bacigalupi and The Water Knife!

This week Gary and Jonathan, aware that the Festive Season and more are in front of us all, sit down with the most recent 'Forthcoming Books' issue of Locus and do their best to assemble a quick, on-the-fly list of books we're looking forward to from October through to May next year. As Gary and Jonathan both say on the podcast, the list has been quickly assembled and certainly misses many worthwhile books. Still, it's a start.  Here's the list. These are books we'll be reading, discussing and possibly recommending in coming months.   October 2014Bacigalupi, Paolo, The Doubt Factory, (Little, Brown, nvl-ya, hc) Bear, Greg, War Dogs, (Orbit US, hc) Carroll, Jonathan, Bathing the Lion, (St. Martin's, hc) Gibson, William, The Peripheral, (Penguin/Putnam, hc) Leckie, Ann, Ancillary Sword, (Orbit US, tp) Newman, Kim, The English Ghost Story, (Titan, tp) Nix, Garth, Clariel, (Hot Key Books, nvl-ya, hc) November 2014Baxter, Stephen, Ultima, (Orion/Gollancz, hc) Herbert, Frank, Frank Herbert: Collected Stories, (Tor, cln, hc) Sherman, Delia, Young Woman in a Garden, (Small Beer Press, cln, tp) Williams, Sean, Crashland, (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, hc)  December 2014Ellison, Harlan, The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison, (Subterranean Press/Edgeworks Abbey, hc) January 2015 Morrow, James Galapagos Regained (St Martins, hc) Walton, Jo, The Just City, (Tor, hc)  February 2015Abercrombie, Joe, Half the World, (Ballantine Del Rey, hc) Gaiman, Neil, Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Discoveries •(HarperCollins/Morrow, cln, tp) Link, Kelly, Get in Trouble, (Random House, cln, hc) McAuley, Paul, Something Coming Through, (Orion/Gollancz, hc) Park, Paul, Other Stories, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) March 2015Robson, Justina, The Glorious Angels, (Orion/Gollancz, tp) Wilson, Robert Charles, The Affinities, (Tor, hc)   April 2015Bacigalupi, Paolo, The Water Knife, (Little, Brown UK/Orbit, hc) Baxter, Stephen, Remembrance: A Xeelee Collection, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) Bray, Libba, Lair of Dreams, (Little, Brown UK/Atom, hc) Liu, Ken, The Grace of Kings (Dandelion Dynasty) (Saga, hc) McDonald, Ian, Mars Stories, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) McDonald, Ian, Only the Best of Ian McDonald, (PS Publishing, cln, hc) May 2015Ashby, Madeline, Company Town, (Angry Robot US, tp) Blaylock, James P., Beneath London, (Titan, tp) Okorafor, Nnedi, The Book of Phoenix, (DAW, hc) Rajaniemi, Hannu, Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction, (Tachyon Publications, cln, hc) Robinson, Kim Stanley, Aurora, (Little, Brown UK/Orbit, hc) Invitation:  As Gary and Jonathan mention on the episode, please feel free to add your own recommendations in comments here or at jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp.