{"podcast":{"title":"Nature in Crisis","slug":"nature-in-crisis-7731357","podcast_index_feed_id":7731357,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LRB7056230002","website_url":"https://www.lrb.co.uk","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/58b32d62-17c8-11f1-a39d-cffe2f0a32e2/image/19d3b7227a4cc33a26e07b9ed261d97b.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"London Review of Books","episode_count":7,"summary":"In a time of climate breakdown and mass extinction there is a new urgency to environmental writing, both as literature and as science. So In their series, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith consider some of the most significant books published in the last few years, along with classic texts by Rachel Carson, James Lovelock and Robin Wall Kimmerer – tracing a loose arc from biology to society via questions of plant intelligence, biodiversity loss, the rights of nature, ecofascism and green capitalism. Meehan Crist is writer in residence in biological sciences at Columbia University. Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney Non-subscribers will only hear an extracts from the episodes. 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 Books featured in the series: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring Zoë Schlanger, The Light Eaters Helen Czerski, The Blue Machine Sunil Amrith, The Burning Earth James Lovelock, Gaia Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive?…","last_synced_at":"2026-06-04T06:20:32.964020+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nature-in-crisis-7731357"},"episode":{"title":"‘The Burning Earth’ by Sunil Amrith","slug":"the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith","published_at":"2026-04-06T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nature-in-crisis-7731357/the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/nature-in-crisis-7731357","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB2298636050.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB2298636050.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…","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":729,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/nature-in-crisis-7731357/episodes/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/nature-in-crisis-7731357/the-burning-earth-by-sunil-amrith.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}