In Our Hands Ramanan Raghavendran

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Michael Weisberg, Bess W. Heyman President's Distinguished Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also co-directs the Galápagos Education and Research Alliance. They discuss scientific models, the Galápagos, resistance to science, and Weisberg’s contributions to the IPCC.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.inourhands.earth

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Genevieve Guenther, a Renaissance scholar and literary critic at The New School who turned to climate activism after having a child and becoming increasingly alarmed about the world she might leave to her son after she died. They discuss the forces that shape our climate discourse and how to communicate effectively about the climate crisis.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.inourhands.earth

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Kim Wolske, a research associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. They discuss social norms around climate, barriers to low-carbon choices, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Wolske also shares valuable advice for early-stage founders focused on climate.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.inourhands.earth

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Tim Jackson, an ecological economist and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) at University of Surrey. They discuss the battle between efficiency and scale, investing for prosperity, and the relationship between hope and action.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.inourhands.earth

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College. They discuss “growth at all costs,” changing behavior in the top 10 percent, the gig economy, and grassroots momentum. Time stamps and the full transcript are below. This episode is also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.
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Show Notes
[00:00:16] Introduction
[00:06:50] “Growth At All Cost” Mentality
[00:13:58] Behavior Change in the Top 10%
[00:19:55] Gig Economy Research
[00:27:59] Grassroots Momentum
[00:33:36] Like-Minded Social Groups
[00:00:16] Ramanan Raghavendran: Hello, everyone, I'm speaking with Dr. Juliet Schor. She is a professor of Sociology at Boston College and a leading expert, which is kind of an understatement here, in Consumption, Labor, Economics and Sustainable Behavior Patterns.
All things of very high interest to Amasia and to me. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard for 17 years. She is a former Guggenheim and Brookings Institution fellow. She's a co-founder and former board member of the Center for New American dream, which is a national sustainability organization, and is the Vice Chair of the board of the better future project, which is one of the country's most successful climate activism organizations.
She has also served as a trustee of Wesleyan, her alma mater, and her undergraduate alma mater, and has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, through a variety of civic business, labor and academic groups. She appears frequently on national and international media, and has served as a consultant of UN at the World Institute for Development Economics Research and to the UNDP. So, Juliet, thank you very much for consenting to chat with me in our ongoing series.
And I'll begin with question one. One of my goals in these short interviews is to humanize science and research. Can you walk us through your life and your career, which is so illustrious, but has curved in so many interesting ways, and what led you to make the choices that you have?
[00:01:40] Juliet Schor: Yeah. There's a way in which I feel like I actually never made choices, I just sort of float along a river, but I was always pretty oriented to school and academics. In college, I studied Economics and Philosophy, because those seem to me to be the subjects that were most relevant for making change in the world and that's what I was interested in. From a very young age, I had been involved in various kinds of political activities. I did a lot of work for the United Farm Workers Union and anti-war activities during the Vietnam War, and so forth. And so, I was really, thought of myself as what we now would call a change agent.
So, to understand the world, I thought, Philosophy and Economics and I was sort of drawn more to Economics and went on to graduate school. At that time. I mean, this is sort of unusual, I think. At that time, I entered... I had finished college very young, and I just sort of felt like I just need to learn and I'm going to graduate school just to learn, not because I want to be a professor. But then, I got very socialized into the academic life, so I came out on the other side as a professor. I think it was more just looking up to the people I studied with. They were some brilliant people who were also very politically engaged. And I've always had a life in which I do scholarly work but also, I do a lot of activism.
And that's been from the very beginning. Whether it's through writings, through organizations that you mentioned a few that I've co-founded or that I'm working pretty intensively with. So, it was just a lifelong orientation to using knowledge and using scholarly activity to inform what I'm doing in the world.
[00:03:37] Ramanan Raghavendran: So, I have a quick follow o

In this episode, Ramanan speaks with Narasimha D. Rao, a professor at the Yale School of the Environment. They discuss the global energy system, demand-side solutions to climate change, what GDP leaves out, and combatting inequality and climate change together.
In Our Hands is a production of Amasia. Follow these links for more about our thesis, our portfolio, and our course for climate founders.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.inourhands.earth