Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
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My guest this week is Rachel Donald.
Rachel Donald investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. She's the creator of Planet: Critical, a podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis with more than 23,000 subscribers in 180 countries. She recently launched Planet: Coordinate with her partner, a film series telling stories from the frontlines of communities who dare stand up against cruelty, injustice and indifference—and build a better world. Alongside these projects, her exclusive investigations into climate corruption have been published in major papers around the world, and her newsletters investigating the relationship between resources and genocide have been read millions of times. She's a sought after speaker on the big picture, and is currently writing her first book on the connection between violence against the earth and violence against women.
Why is the world in crisis? This is the question that Rachel kicks off every episode of her superlative podcast, Planet: Critical, which has been a big inspiration and source of learning for me and my work here on Urgent Futures. I love this intro question because it cuts right to the heart of things, and if you compiled the various answers to this question from her show, you’d have a pretty clear sense of contours of the polycrisis.
A podcaster is oftentimes a special kind of subject matter expert—an expert generalist. They are out researching and learning in public all the time, bouncing off of and commingling the various ideas they encounter in their work. Rachel lives up to this archetype powerfully—few have a more rigorous thousand-foot view of the big picture. In addition, Rachel has carved out a career as the first-ever climate corruption journalist, connecting dots and uncovering stories that powerful people would prefer stay in shadows. She has also just announced Planet: Coordinate, a film series that will bring her up close with these stories, and I’m excited to see what comes of that initiative sometime this year.
We discussed all of this, the unique challenges of being an independent journalist, how to instigate change—including her critique of Luigi Mangione’s alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson—and much more.
Some other episodes you might like:
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Guests on Urgent Futures are experts across art, science, media, technology, philosophy, economics, mathematics, anthropology, and more. We live in complex times; these are the voices who will help you orient to emerging futures.
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CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.
Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent episode with Neuroscientist Jyoti Mishra on climate trauma and ‘fire brain’:
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