Dr Iain McGilchrist (neuroscientist, psychiatrist, polymath, author of The Master and His Emissary) devised a thesis that sets out how the two sides of our brains can affect the way we both interact and create the world. The left hemisphere is a narrow, extractive, problem-solving “machine” that divides and conquers things, fails to see our part in the world and to fathom beauty, awe and responsibility. Our civilisation, Iain says, has become ruled by a left-brain mentality, which is killing us and leaving us “wretched”; we need to put the right side back in charge!

Iain is an associate of Green Templeton College in Oxford and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Society of Arts. His 2009 book Master and his Emissary became a cult read and the recent follow-up, The Matter with Things took him 12 years to write (and is 600,000 words long!).

In this chat we cover why societies start out creative, happy and flourishing (right-brained!) but switch left and destructive as they expand; the secret to living a well and happy life and how to find meaning and beauty in a world we possibly can’t “fix” (in the left-brain sense of the word).

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about Iain's work via his website and watch his videos here.

Buy Master and his Emissary and The Matter with Things here.

Listen to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's Wild episode.

Here’s the link to the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival that I’m speaking at this month.

Here’s the starting point for joining my book serialisation project.

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

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Professor Corey Bradshaw (global ecologist; author) has spent a career studying species populations and biodiversity loss and has the starkest of messages for humanity: we are in our own mass extinction event. Debate rages as to whether humans have an overpopulation problem or are in a fertility collapse, and which is more likely to take us down.

The director of the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University talks us through the devasting finer points of this divide. We also cover why Australia has the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world, why we should be having one less child, what happens when bees die out, and the importance of supporting anyone trying to ban political donations. This conversation is a hard one, but like many in this space, Corey has a philosophy for living fully and joyously with the truth he feels compelled to share: Life is going to get far shittier than we can imagine; our noble obligation is to make it a bit less shitty.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s the chapter in my book where I explain in full how fertility collapse is playing out. A REMINDER!! Corey will be joining the comments and is happy to answer any questions you have. You’ll need to post them in the comment section of this post.

Here’s where you can get started with the Book Serialisation (Put Table of contents).

Here’s my Wild chat with Parag Khanna on the best place to live in the world going forward.

Read Corey's blog Conversation Bytes

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*(and that the wars, climate disasters, democratic upheavals etc today are VERY different to crises in the past)?

This episode’s question has been asked by too many of you to mention. Many of us have been in situations where we try to talk about the domino’ing of crisis - AI, nuclear, climate, food insecurity, democratic decline, political polarisation, fertility collapse - and get told we’re just being a big old Henny Penny, and that crises happen all the time and humanity survives. The belief is that tech innovation, price mechanisms, progress (!) and human ingenuity will find a way to save us. However, this time is categorically different to past near misses and calamities. There are reams of science that prove it (sadly). So how do you explain this in a calm, convincing way at the next BBQ? Sarah provides a comprehensive rundown of all the points that one can make that set out a picture of how the collapse of complex systems works.

SHOW NOTES

Here’s where you can start reading the first chapter of the Book Serialisation. And here’s the table of contents.

Here’s the Meg Wheatley episode from the recent Collapse Series.

Here’s the written version of the explainer (should you want a printable version on hand!)

Want to ask Sarah your question…post it here.

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If you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" page

For more such conversations subscribe to my Substack newsletter, it’s where I interact the most!

Get your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life

Let’s connect on Instagram and WeAre8

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.