Wide Boundary News: Peak Oil (Not!), Peak Dispatchability, and WEF Risks

Wide Boundary News: Peak Oil (Not!), Peak Dispatchability, and WEF Risks

This week's Frankly is another edition of Nate's Wide Boundary News series, where he invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. Today's edition features reflections on a new peak in crude oil production, the growth of non-dispatchable electricity, and a report recently released by the World Economic Forum assessing global risks. Nate ties each topic to the larger story of the Great Simplification, updating listeners on what pathways might be available to pursue the long-term stability of humanity in the biosphere.

What factors have contributed to the new peak in oil production? How does dispatchability play into the current electricity landscape? And when global experts outline the future risks facing our world, who do we call on for action today?

(Recorded February 4th, 2026)

Show Notes and More

Watch this video episode on YouTube

Want to learn the broad overview of The Great Simplification in 30 minutes? Watch our Animated Movie.

---

Support The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future

Join our Substack newsletter

Join our Hylo channel and connect with other listeners

Jaksot(361)

11 Discoveries That Changed My Worldview | Frankly 113

11 Discoveries That Changed My Worldview | Frankly 113

In this episode, Nate weaves personal reflections into an exploration of the human predicament, unpacking a series of chronological insights that have reshaped his worldview. What began years ago as a...

14 Marras 202537min

Will We Artificially Cool the Planet? The Science and Politics of Geoengineering with Ted Parson

Will We Artificially Cool the Planet? The Science and Politics of Geoengineering with Ted Parson

Global heating continues, despite the increased use of renewable energy sources and international policies attempting otherwise. Even as emissions reduction efforts continue, our world faces more extr...

12 Marras 20251h 21min

Hacking Human Attachment: The Loneliness Crisis, Cognitive Atrophy and other Personal Dangers of AI | RR 20

Hacking Human Attachment: The Loneliness Crisis, Cognitive Atrophy and other Personal Dangers of AI | RR 20

Mainstream conversations about artificial intelligence tend to center around the technology's economic and large-scale impacts. Yet it's at the individual level where we're seeing AI's most potent eff...

5 Marras 20251h 53min

The Quadruple Bifurcation | Frankly 112

The Quadruple Bifurcation | Frankly 112

In this week's Frankly, Nate outlines four bifurcations that are likely to underpin the human experience in the near future. While the broad biophysical realities of energy and ecology underpin our ci...

31 Loka 202522min

Terror Management Theory: How Existential Dread Has Shaped the World with Sheldon Solomon

Terror Management Theory: How Existential Dread Has Shaped the World with Sheldon Solomon

Many of us wrestle with the unsettling truth that everyone – including ourselves and those we love – will one day die. Though this awareness is uncomfortable, research suggests that the human capacity...

29 Loka 20251h 46min

The Three Most Important Words We're Taught Not to Say

The Three Most Important Words We're Taught Not to Say

In this week's Frankly, Nate considers the ways in which our social species overvalues false-confidence rather than the more honest and inquisitive response of "I don't know." He invites us to conside...

24 Loka 202526min

Challenging Monopoly Power: Why Local Business is Better for People, the Planet, and Your Wallet with Stacy Mitchell

Challenging Monopoly Power: Why Local Business is Better for People, the Planet, and Your Wallet with Stacy Mitchell

Monopolistic business practices have been illegal in the United States for more than a century. Yet, monopoly power continues to accelerate in our modern commercial landscape. Large, powerful corporat...

22 Loka 20251h 27min

What Sloths Teach Us About the Superorganism

What Sloths Teach Us About the Superorganism

In this week's Frankly, Nate reflects on the multiple metaphors brought to mind via a single photograph, which depicts a sloth climbing a barbed wire fence in Costa Rica. Beyond evoking compassion for...

17 Loka 202517min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

tiedekulma-podcast
rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-poliisin-mieli
docemilia
radio-antro
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-ammamafia
rss-sosiopodi
utelias-mieli
ihanat-ipanat
mielipaivakirja
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-bios-podcast
rss-tiedetta-vai-tarinaa