# Lessons to avoid societal collapse, from 5,000 years of history

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/zero-the-climate-race-5454543/lessons-to-avoid-societal-collapse-from-5-000-years-of-history
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/zero-the-climate-race-5454543/lessons-to-avoid-societal-collapse-from-5-000-years-of-history.md
Podcast: [Zero: The Climate Race](https://stenobird.com/podcast/zero-the-climate-race-5454543)
Published: 2026-02-26T05:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://omny.fm/shows/zero/lessons-to-avoid-societal-collapse-from-5-000-years-of-history
Audio file: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/37c6caa7-d377-4c08-b479-af9d012ed5ad/0a1cab48-2b10-4e89-8e11-b3fc00b4ddb9/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a7faefb0-28ec-4b1d-85f3-af9d012ed5c9
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/zero-the-climate-race-5454543/episodes/lessons-to-avoid-societal-collapse-from-5-000-years-of-history
Duration seconds: 2577

## Resource

Societal collapses happen more often than you think, and there’s much we can learn from the past to avoid or, at least, delay another one. This week’s guest on  Zero is Luke Kemp, author of Goliath's Curse, which draws lessons from the rise and fall of societies over 5,000 years of human history. Akshat Rathi asks Luke whether our current moment — with climate change and AI — makes us uniquely vulnerable to societal collapse or more resilient than we might think. Explore further: Luke’s book, Goliath’s Curse   The MOROS database  Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green . Our producer is Oscar Boyd. Special thanks to Sommer Saadi, Mohsis Andam, Sharon Chen and Laura Millan. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at zeropod@bloomberg.net. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit https://www.bloomberg.com/green . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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## Transcript

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