Wild with Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson chats wild ideas for a fired up life. The multi-New York Times bestselling author, activist, minimalist and former news journalist who founded the global phenomenon ‘I Quit Sugar’ travelled the world for 10 years (living out of one bag) to explore the freshest ways to live fully…and to save this one wild and precious life we have together. She riffs with philosophers, creatives, poets, scientists (and at least one nun!) on the Big Questions that haunt us. What goes through the mind of a prisoner on death row? How does Sia invent her art? Will we die from climate change and can our rage save us? Is being Australian a mental health crisis? Join Sarah as she wrestles a path to the answers… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 3d ago

    JOHN SEED: Is Deep Ecology the answer?

    John Seed (Deep Ecology OG, global rainforest steward) says we can’t save the world. And that the planetary crisis is not a failure of information or awareness; it’s a failure of human identity. We have the story, the mindset, all wrong. And we need to change it (from human chauvinism to deep ecological connection) if we’re to keep spinning in the Earth’s embrace. John is a globally respected Australian rainforest activist and one of the foundational figures of the global Deep Ecology movement. He collaborated for decades with the late Joanna Macy – they co-wrote How To Think Like a Mountain and developed a “re-earthing” technique called Council of All Beings. John’s activist work - via the Rainforest Information Centre he founded - has seen rainforests around the world receive various forms of protection status, including World Heritage listings. In this chat, John and I get to “the work that reconnects”, how to use our despair and numbness to lift into action and how to get around our fear of “woo woo”. SHOW NOTES Here is the Features of Narara Ecovillage that John mentions at the end of the episode.You can subscribe to John’s SubstackLearn more about the Rainforest Information Centre here, and follow him on Instagram and YouTubeYou can catch up on my episode with Meg Wheatley (in which we discuss “islands of sanity”) here --- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min

  2. Jun 16

    JEREMY LENT: Can humans build a (beautiful) new civilisation?

    Jeremy Lent (author, systems thinker) is a leading authority on civilisations and has just created a manifesto on how to shift from the current crumbling one to what he calls an Ecocivilization. He joins me to discuss how we can actually get there, drawing on real-life, tangible examples and a bunch of concepts that tend to get people excited. In this chat, we cover: fractal flourishing, phase transition, mutually beneficial symbiosis and the Basque self-governing cooperative Mondragón. Jeremy is the founder of the Deep Transformation Network, an online discussion community, and convenes the Ecocivilization Coalition. He has been described by George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age”. Lent’s latest book, Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All, follows two previous award-winning books, The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning. SHOW NOTES You can learn more about Jeremy Lent’s work via his website.Get your copy of his book Ecocivilization: Making a World that Works for All here.  --- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min

  3. Jun 2

    FRANCIS WELLER: “Grief will wake us up”…so how do we do good grief again?

    Francis Weller (psychotherapist, bestselling author + “soul activist”) believes we have entered a “Long Dark”, a multi-decade (century?) period of collapse and psychological pain that will demand we learn to grieve deeply, messily, fully. In this episode, I ask Francis whether grief is the missing piece of the impasse we’re at. If we finally drop into our grief, will we wake up, will we finally let ourselves move into a new way of being that ditches the destructive soul-sucking paradigms, and prioritises our aliveness? Because that’s what I think we all know we’re aching for. Francis has worked for more than four decades, bringing together psychology, anthropology, mythology, alchemy, indigenous cultures and poetic traditions to educate communities on how to metabolise loss and grief. He’s also written a bunch of books, including The Wild Edge of Sorrow, which Anderson Cooper repeatedly raves about. As he is famous for saying, “The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them.” SHOW NOTES You might also enjoy one of my all-time favourite episodes, this one with James Hollis: The Jungian take on 2021I really loved this chat with death walker Stephen Jenkinson, too. It covers similar, still and deep themes.You can find links to grief circles run by therapists who were trained under Francis here. --- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 2m

  4. May 26

    RUTH BEN-GHIAT: How do we create a values-led politic from this mess?

    Ruth Ben-Ghiat (historian of fascism +NYT bestselling author of Strongmen) is an internationally recognised expert in how psychologically unstable men come to power and use corruption, sexual predation, staged victimhood and violence to rule. She’s recently, however, turned her focus to how societies subjected to such tyranny have survived and fought back…using moral authority. Ruth is an American history professor at New York University and a political commentator with an expertise in fascism and authoritarian leaders. Her 2020 book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present was a global bestseller. She publishes the hugely popular Substack Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy and will publish her next book, Resisting Autocracy: What History Teaches About Fighting Back, next year. SHOW NOTES Be sure to check out her Substack LucidPurchase Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present hereYou can catch up on the Ece Temelkuran episode hereThis episode with Lindsey Stonebridge on Hannah Arendt’s ideas on resistance might also interest you ----- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    59 min

  5. May 19

    ZAK STEIN: How do we raise kids in a metacrisis?

    Zak Stein (Harvard philosopher of education, AI + kids expert) is worried that we are not raising and educating our kids for the kind of wobbly, harsh future they will be inheriting. Zak is a Harvard philosopher of education and co-founder of the Centre for World Philosophy and Religion. He is also the co-founder of the Civilisation Research Institute and the Consilience Project, and the author of Education in a Time Between Worlds. I asked Zak to join me to answer the kinds of questions parents and teachers everywhere are asking. What kind of education matters now? Is it about being keyed into AI or radically rejecting it? What should young people be studying at college/university if entry-level jobs are now being wiped? Should we be pushing success or adaptability onto kids? What should be done with the social media bans? SHOW NOTES Learn more about Zak's work here.Get your copy of Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and SocietyIf you want more ideas about raising kids amid…all of this…you might enjoy this chat with Anya Kamenetz: AMA: How do I parent in the face of so much existential crisis? -- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 11m

  6. May 12

    MICHAEL MUTHUKRISHNA: Can we cooperate our way out of this? (Warning: a tricky episode!)

    Michael Muthukrishna (behavioural scientist, cultural evolution researcher) has a unified “theory of everyone” that says we evolved as a species, surviving crises and collapses, through cooperative norms that made sure inequality did not blow out, in conditions of energy abundance. Michael is Professor of Economic Psychology at New York University (NYU) and the London School of Economics, co-founder of London School of Artificial Intelligence (LSAI), technical director of The Database of Religious History and co-founder of the London School of Artificial Intelligence (LSAI). He’s also the author of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We Are Going, and in this episode I ask how everyone – humanity – can survive this multi-crisis pile-up when energy is running out. The answer is…complex. Show Notes Get your copy of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We Are GoingLearn more about Michael’s work here and his video trailer here You can catch up on my episode about Moloch I mentioned: LIV BOEREE: Explaining Moloch, the mysterious game theory force breaking the world (plus a fix!) And these episodes on how we’re fundamentally more cooperative than we tend to get told might be of interest, too. ADAM MASTROIANNI: Do we need to make the world great (and kinder) again?RUTGER BREGMAN: Author of Humankind on how to trust each other -- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 16m

  7. May 5

    ECE TEMELKURAN: How to save ourselves from fascism

    Ece Temelkuran (fascism expert, political exile, journalist) first began reporting on the global slide into fascism as a journalist witnessing it happen in her home country, Turkey. In 2016, she was forced into exile and went on to write the bestselling book How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps From Democracy to Authoritarianism that warned the rest of the world just how close it was to the same perilous descent.  In her new book, Nation of Strangers, Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century, Ece argues we are entering “an age of survival” and that we are all about to become exiles of sorts, “unhomed” from our sense of belonging to the world as authoritarianism rips us from our sense of collective meaning as humans. Pivoting her focus to how we can best move through this moment, she says we need to turn to those who’ve already been exiled (the immigrants, the refugees, the victims of fascism) to learn how to rebuild our “what comes next”. This is a fascinating thesis and Ece, who lives nomadically between Berlin and Greece, gives us a very raw and vulnerable take on it. About Ece Ece Temelkuran is an award-winning Turkish novelist, political thinker, and public speaker. Her work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, El País, New Statesman, and Der Spiegel. Show Notes Get your copy of How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps From Democracy to Authoritarianism and Nation of Strangers, Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century You can connect with Ece on Instagram here and on X here. -- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min

  8. Apr 28

    SHELDON SOLOMON: Can we gamify all the denial around us and save humanity?*

    Dr Sheldon Solomon (psychologist, founder of terror management theory) has spent 45 years proving that our fear of death is responsible for the structures of civilisation, such as religion, education, our moral laws, myths, consumerism, distraction technologies etc. Such structures keep us from being (fatally) overwhelmed by the uniquely human awareness that we will die one day. But what happens in a moment like this one, when so much death and annihilation looms? Well, our seductive death-denial efforts can drag us either way – into a tribal, fascist, self-destructive descent, or toward radical compassion and a life-affirming future.  In this episode, I ask Sheldon to tell me how we (all of us here) can use his terror management theory to urgently steer things to the latter. This chat goes into juicy, philosophical territory but emerges with beautifully tangible answers for everyone in the “collapse aware” space. It’s a fun one! *Hint: yes, it would appear we can! About Sheldon Sheldon Solomon is a professor of psychology at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Solomon is best known for co-developing “terror management theory” and is the co-author of Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror and The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Sheldon is also an American Psychological Society Fellow.   Show notes You can get hold of Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror and The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life here You might also like to listen to this Wild episode with “death walker” Stephen Jenkinson, which also goes into some of the themes in this chat. -- Watch on YouTube or Substack 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! Let’s connect on Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 9m
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4.8
out of 5
73 Ratings

About

Sarah Wilson chats wild ideas for a fired up life. The multi-New York Times bestselling author, activist, minimalist and former news journalist who founded the global phenomenon ‘I Quit Sugar’ travelled the world for 10 years (living out of one bag) to explore the freshest ways to live fully…and to save this one wild and precious life we have together. She riffs with philosophers, creatives, poets, scientists (and at least one nun!) on the Big Questions that haunt us. What goes through the mind of a prisoner on death row? How does Sia invent her art? Will we die from climate change and can our rage save us? Is being Australian a mental health crisis? Join Sarah as she wrestles a path to the answers… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Sarah Wilson
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    213
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 454e915e-a852-4328-8a8e-118240266466
  • Show Website
    Wild with Sarah Wilson

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