Kim Stanley Robinson – 5 years after Ministry for the Future
Last week, Kim Stanley Robinson was featured on this 55-minute podcast produced by Mongabay talking about his 2020 novel Ministry for the Future. If you’ve read Ministry, I recommend listening to the podcast as he reflects on how the book has held up now that we’re in 2025 – the year in which the book begins – and after 5-years of unprecedented events. And if you haven’t read the book, I encourage you to do so – and then listen to the podcast.
I was particularly struck by Stan’s discussion about repression – in various contexts including personal and political – repression of fears about a frightening future & repression of the rest of us by powerful people. I also found his discussion of capitalism, degrowth, trauma, Götterdämmerung, and “futurecide” thought provoking.
What Stan does so effectively is to make us think. What should our future be? What can we do? What should we do? What have we done already? Why should we have hope, but what do we have to do immediately to give a positive future for next generations?
So, take an hour to listen to a great discussion that will stimulate your thoughts, challenge your assumptions, and gain a more positive view of our future – if we take the steps we need to take.
By the way, you can also watch an interview with Stan by Naomi Boak for Stanford Alumni for Climate Action (SACA) a couple of years ago.
As always, please let me know your thoughts and comments, either on this podcast or other issues related to climate writ large. Also, if you find these roughly weekly articles interesting and think someone you know might also like them, please let me know so I can add them to my mailing list.
Cheers, Bill
