United States Australia Brazil Canada Germany India Ireland Japan Mexico New Zealand Philippines South Africa United Kingdom
Nature in Crisis podcast artwork
Science

Nature in Crisis

by London Review of Books
Share this ranking Is this your show? Claim it
Listen on Apple PodcastsRSS feed

Chart positions today · United States

Not on the United States charts we track today.

If you like Nature in Crisis, try…

Latest episodes

  • ‘Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism’ by Thea Riofrancos

    October 21, 2026 · 23 min

    Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the transition away from fossil fuels. But lithium, like the copper, cobalt and rare earths that renewable technologies also require, has to be mined. ‘Everywhere that mines are dug up to provide…

  • ‘The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right’ by Alex Roberts and Sam Moore

    September 23, 2026 · 15 min

    ‘The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right’ is a different kind of book from the others Meehan and Peter have discussed so far in their series, even as their focus has shifted from biology to society. Its authors, Sam Moore…

  • ‘Lessons for Survival’ by Emily Raboteau

    August 24, 2026 · 11 min

    Over the past twelve years, the walls and shop shutters of Upper Manhattan have been gradually filled by giant paintings of climate-threatened birds, inspired by the species depicted by the artist John James Audubon, who lived in the area…

  • ‘Impasse’ by Roy Scranton

    July 26, 2026 · 15 min

    At Chaco Canyon in the New Mexico desert lie the ruins of a once vibrant and extensive Ancestral Puebloan civilisation. Sometime in the 12th century the society fell into decline, as a fifty-year drought may have helped to push the…

  • ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer

    June 28, 2026 · 15 min

    Through folktales, memoir and hard science, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s 'Braiding Sweetgrass' argues for the intertwining of Indigenous knowledge systems and empirical science, to support ‘mutual flourishing’ between humans and the environment…

Show 7 more episodesShow fewer episodes

  • ‘Is a River Alive?’ by Robert Macfarlane

    June 3, 2026 · 14 min

    The idea that a river is a living being has important legal consequences. But it also has imaginative consequences, which can, in George Eliot’s words, ‘enlarge the imagined range for self to move in’. In ‘Is a River Alive?’ (2025), Robert…

  • 'Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth' by James Lovelock

    May 4, 2026 · 28 min

    In ‘Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth’ (1979), James Lovelock proposed that the Earth is something like a single living organism, capable of manipulating its circumstances and the environment to suit its needs. While many scientists reject…

  • ‘The Burning Earth’ by Sunil Amrith

    April 6, 2026 · 12 min

    The ‘great acceleration’ is a term used to describe the dramatic surge in the 1950s of both human and earth systems indicators that marked a shift from a relatively stable planetary state to one that's characterised by increasing…

  • ‘Blue Machine’ by Helen Czerski

    March 9, 2026 · 14 min

    In Blue Machine (2024), Helen Czerski refigures the ocean as an enormous planetary engine, converting light and heat into motion. Her book invites us to see the ocean not as an ‘absence’ but an intricate series of operations that makes…

  • ‘The Light Eaters’ by Zoë Schlanger

    February 9, 2026 · 15 min

    In The Light Eaters (2024), Zoë Schlanger reports from the frontiers of botany, where researchers are discovering forms of sensing, signalling and responding that challenge our ideas of plants as passive life forms. Meehan Crist and Peter…

  • ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson

    January 12, 2026 · 15 min

    After following up a lead from a birdwatcher, Rachel Carson drew a web of connections that led to one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Silent Spring (1962) investigated the synthetic pesticides that proliferated after the…

  • Introducing ‘Nature in Crisis’

    January 1, 2026 · 4 min

    In a time of climate breakdown and mass extinction there is a new urgency to environmental writing, both as literature and as science. So In their series, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith consider some of the most significant books…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

In a time of climate breakdown and mass extinction there is a new urgency to environmental writing, both as literature and as science. So In their series, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith consider some of the most significant books published in the last few years, along with classic texts by Rachel Carson, James Lovelock and Robin Wall Kimmerer – tracing a loose arc from biology to society via questions of plant intelligence, biodiversity loss, the rights of nature, ecofascism and green capitalism. Meehan Crist is writer in residence in biological sciences at Columbia University. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney Non-subscribers will only hear an extracts from the episodes. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ture In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsna⁠⁠⁠ture Books featured in the series: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring Zoë Schlanger, The Light Eaters Helen Czerski, The Blue Machine Sunil Amrith, The Burning Earth James Lovelock, Gaia Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass Emily Raboteau, Lessons for Survival Roy Scranton, Impasse Alex Moore and Sam Roberts, The Rise of Ecofascism Thea Riofrancos, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism Venomous Lumspcuker by Ned Beauman and Helm by Sarah Hall