The Sustainability Agenda - Episode 161 Interview with Indian Marxist historian Vijay Prashad –looking at today’s environmental problems through a Marxist lens.shad

Episode 161 Interview with Indian Marxist historian Vijay Prashad –looking at today’s environmental problems through a Marxist lens.shad

09/25/22 • 56 min

In this wide-ranging, hard hitting discussion, Vijay Prashad explores the environmental crises we are facing today through a Marxist lens. At the heart of this discussion, Vijay highlights the failings of capitalism, with a particular focus on environmental externalities, and also critiques capitalism’s impact on the development of the global south. Vijay believes a continuing colonial mindset is undermining the commitment to the “common but differentiated responsibilities” embedded in the Rio conference –-- and the subsequent stalling of the Green Climate Fund. Vijay takes inspiration from peoples’ environmental summits such as the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (2010), the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Defence of Life (2015), and the People’s Nature Forum (2020). As an activist, Vijay is inspired by the growing number of movements who are standing up for environmental and human rights –in South Africa, Chile, Columbia, in India—struggles that he hopes can be replicated in other parts of the world.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian and commentator. He's an executive director of the Tri Continental Institute for Social Research, the chief editor of Left World Books, and a senior non-resident Fellow at Chongyang, Institute for financial studies in China. He has written more than 20 books, including "The Darker Nations" and "The Poorer Nations."

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Episode 160 Author Ned Beauman talks about his satirical extinction novel, Venemous Lumpsucker

In this interview British novelist, journalist and screenwriter Ned Beauman discusses his latest novel Venomous Lumpsucker-a brilliant, darkly satirical and terrifying novel about endlings (the last of a species), the manipulation of extinction credit markets... the elusive Hermit Kingdom: described by The Times Literary Supplement as “a tale of capitalism, penance and species extinction.” Fascinating, broad ranging discussion on extinction, literary fiction and the climate crisis, environmental satire, and the commodification of nature.

Ned Beauman is a British novelist, journalist and screenwriter, the author of five novels; he was selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta magazine in 2013. His latest is Venomous Lumpsucker, “a darkly funny and incisive zoological thriller about environmental devastation and one very ugly little fish.”

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undefined - Episode 162: Groundbreaking nuclear scholar Professor Elaine Scarry shares her views on today’s growing nuclear threats – and discusses how citizens and communities can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.

Episode 162: Groundbreaking nuclear scholar Professor Elaine Scarry shares her views on today’s growing nuclear threats – and discusses how citizens and communities can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.

Nuclear scholar and social thinker Professor Elaine Scarry shares her views on today’s growing nuclear threats –the underlying problems with the nuclear architecture and governance, based on her groundbreaking book Thermonuclear Monarchy, lessons on how to deal with our global climate challenges, and discusses key ideasa in her book Thinking in an Emergency, on how citizens and communities can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.

Elaine Scarry is the Walter M. CaboT Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. She is the author of numerous seminal books including Thermonuclear Monarchy, where 'explores the political consequences of limiting the control of nuclear weapons to a select few, and the authority to launch them to even fewer. Her book Thinking in An Emergency Explores how in the face of governments that augment their authority in emergencies at the expense of democracy, citizens and communities, can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.