Kim Stanley Robinson on “Utopian” Science Fiction

Kim Stanley Robinson on “Utopian” Science Fiction

One of the premier writers of thinky sci-fi, Kim Stanley Robinson opened his book “The Ministry for the Future” with an all too plausible scenario: a lethal heat wave descends on India, with vast, horrifying consequences. It’s a sobering read, especially after July, 2021, was declared the hottest month on record. And yet Robinson tells Bill McKibben that his work is not dystopian; his central concern is how the globe could respond to such a disaster and begin to halt the momentum of global warming. “That whole dystopian postapocalyptic strain—it doesn’t serve as a warning, it doesn’t make you change your behavior,” Robinson notes. “I reject all that. I write as a utopian science-fiction writer.” But, “at the moment we’re at right now in world history,” he admits, “I have to set a pretty low bar for ‘utopia.’ If we dodge a mass-extinction event in this century, that’s utopian writing. That’s the best we can expect from where we are right now. Having put that story on the table as being possible, it suggests that we ought to be trying for it.”

Jaksot(150)

Sara Nelson on the Drive to Unionize Delta Flight Attendants

Sara Nelson on the Drive to Unionize Delta Flight Attendants

Before the pandemic, Sara Nelson had emerged as one of the most visible leaders in the labor movement. The Association of Flight Attendants represents some fifty thousand workers and nearly twenty air...

6 Kesä 202213min

Why a Weakened N.R.A. Still Gets What it Wants

Why a Weakened N.R.A. Still Gets What it Wants

The National Rifle Association has been one of the most feared groups in Washington, D.C., for decades. It profoundly reshaped the conversation around guns in America through a combination of financia...

2 Kesä 202224min

What Makes a Mass Shooter?

What Makes a Mass Shooter?

In America, unthinkable violence has become routine.  In the wake of the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings, David Remnick speaks with the researchers Jillian Peterson and James Densley, whose book “Th...

31 Touko 202219min

Normalcy Returns to Kyiv as Russia Doubles Down in Eastern Ukraine

Normalcy Returns to Kyiv as Russia Doubles Down in Eastern Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds on into its third brutal month, with no end in sight. But, in ways large and small, the conflict has shifted. At the start of the war, the Russian military hoped to...

26 Touko 202228min

The Attack on Gender-Affirming Medical Care

The Attack on Gender-Affirming Medical Care

Across the United States, conservative politicians are leading a backlash against L.G.B.T.Q. identity, framing legal restrictions as protection of children. Several states have introduced laws to ban ...

23 Touko 202227min

The Other Kind of Racism in Buffalo

The Other Kind of Racism in Buffalo

Last weekend, an eighteen-year-old white man killed ten people and injured three in a Tops grocery store located in Buffalo’s majority-Black East End. It was a deliberately planned attack, motivated b...

19 Touko 202235min

The Battle After Roe v. Wade

The Battle After Roe v. Wade

Assuming that Justice Samuel Alito’s final opinion in the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gets majority support, there will be profound social, political, and he...

16 Touko 202219min

How COVID Strengthened Authoritarianism in China

How COVID Strengthened Authoritarianism in China

China’s “zero COVID” strategy has brought the bustling metropolis of Shanghai to a standstill, with many of its twenty-five million residents sealed in their homes. These exceptionally strict measures...

12 Touko 202228min

Suosittua kategoriassa Politiikka ja uutiset

uutiscast
aikalisa
politiikan-puskaradio
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
tervo-halme
rss-pinnalla
rss-vaalirankkurit-podcast
the-ulkopolitist
otetaan-yhdet
rss-podme-livebox
rss-tasta-on-kyse-ivan-puopolo-verkkouutiset
rss-asiastudio
et-sa-noin-voi-sanoo-esittaa
aihe
rss-polikulaari-pitka-kiekko-ja-muut-ts-podcastit
rss-kaikki-uusiksi
rss-50100-podcast
rss-ulkopoditiikkaa
rss-hyvaa-huomenta-bryssel