{"podcast":{"title":"Close Readings","slug":"close-readings-6008264","podcast_index_feed_id":6008264,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LRB7524563961","website_url":"https://lrb.me/closereadings","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/8048b732-4c5a-11f0-b296-b352f3a58800/image/5fa291b4c093e3f1c80cfc2115b27a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"London Review of Books","episode_count":209,"summary":"Close Readings is a multi-series podcast from the London Review of Books. Two contributors explore areas of literature through a selection of key works, providing an introductory grounding like no other. Listen to some episodes for free here, and extracts from our ongoing subscriber-only series. How To Subscribe In Apple Podcasts, click 'subscribe' at the top of this podcast feed to unlock the full episodes. Or for other podcast apps, sign up here: https://lrb.me/closereadings RUNNING IN 2026 'Who's afraid of realism?' with James Wood and guests 'Nature in Crisis' with Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith 'Narrative Poems' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'London Revisited' with Rosemary Hill and guests Bonus Series: 'The Man Behind the Curtain' with Tom McCarthy and Thomas Jones ALSO INCLUDED IN THE CLOSE READINGS SUBSCRIPTION: 'Conversations in Philosophy' with Jonathan Rée and James Wood 'Fiction and the Fantastic' with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin, Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis 'Love and Death' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'Novel Approaches' with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests 'Among the Ancients' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'Medieval Beginnings'…","last_synced_at":"2026-06-19T04:18:10.768764+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264"},"episode":{"title":"Nature in Crisis: ‘The Burning Earth’ by Sunil Amrith","slug":"nature-in-crisis-the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith","published_at":"2026-04-06T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264/nature-in-crisis-the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB7608009680.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB7608009680.mp3","summary":"The ‘great acceleration’ is a term used to describe the dramatic surge in the 1950s of both human and earth systems indicators that marked a shift from a relatively stable planetary state to one that's characterised by increasing environmental instability. Alongside measures of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane levels, this shift can be tracked in numerous other areas of human activity, such as GDP, financialisation, foreign direct investment and the spread of telecommunications. In ‘The Burning Earth’ (2024), Sunil Amrith uses history as a way of understanding why we got to this moment, drawing on multiple strands of human activity over more than 500 years to trace the origins of environmental crisis. In this episode, Meehan and Peter interrogate some of Amrith’s major themes and examples, from the damaging impact of 18th-century ideas of freedom on our relationship to the natural world, to his analysis of postwar environmentalism through the figures of Hannah Arendt, Rachel Carson and Indira Gandhi. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ture⁠⁠ In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsna⁠⁠⁠ture More from the LRB: ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n24/alexander-bevilacqua/friend-or-food⁠ ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n22/pooja-bhatia/the-end-of-the-plantocracy⁠ ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n05/benjamin-kunkel/the-capitalocene⁠ Meehan Crist and Alison Bashford on Indira Gandhi and the anthropocene: ⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/climate-politics-and-procreation-alison-bashford⁠ Recommendations for the London Review Books…","meta_description":"The ‘great acceleration’ is a term used to describe the dramatic surge in the 1950s of both human and earth systems indicators that marked a shift from a…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":774,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/close-readings-6008264/episodes/nature-in-crisis-the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264/nature-in-crisis-the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}