This July 4 weekend has the potential to be soul-crushing. On the East Coast, a brutal heat wave is reminding everyone that the climate crisis is not some future abstraction, but an extremely scary present-tense physical condition. In Europe, extreme heat has resulted in more than 1,300 deaths. Across the U.S., dozens of large wildfires are burning, drought is still gripping much of the Lower 48, and the powers that be are doing everything they can to ensure this is not only the hottest summer on record, but the coldest summer for the rest of our lives. So if your temptation is to give in to doomerism right now, I totally get it. But if you looking for a reason not to—and if you have some free time to dive into fiction over the holiday weekend—I recommend picking up Retro, a novel out last week by author Jessica M. Goldstein. The book’s main character, Ash, is a struggling actress dealing with similar feelings of despair and hopelessness about the future. And then she gets a job at Retro, a travel agency dedicated to taking wealthy tourists on highly-curated trips to the past. And slowly, her perspective begins to shift—but not perhaps for the reasons you’d expect. What I loved about Retro is that it doesn’t answer that feeling with some cheesy conversion to optimism. It offers something I find far more realistic and useful: the idea that you can be cynical, but you don’t have to be an a*****e. You can know the future is uncertain, and still refuse to abandon it. You can be furious, scared, and nostalgic for what we’ve already lost—and still say, basically: screw it. I’m going to try anyway. Bias alert: Jess is also one of my best friends. I don’t really know how to talk about fiction books as a critic, but I do know how to dish with my girl about climate dread, nostalgia, evil tech billionaires, and the romance and power of platonic friendship. That’s what today’s podcast conversation is: a tonic for anyone who wants to be hopeful about the future but is struggling to do it. We talk about why Retro wouldn’t exist without Jess’s own feelings about climate change, why doomerism can feel so seductive, and why the unknowability of the future is not a reason to give up on it—but the very reason not to. You can find our full conversation at the top of this newsletter, on any of your podcast apps, or on YouTube. Just a heads up, we start diving into spoilers about halfway through the conversation, but we give a pretty explicit warning beforehand. You can buy Retro here (or, for U.K. readers, here), or pick it up at your local public library. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heated.world/subscribe
