Roman Krznaric: “History for Tomorrow: Uncovering Future Possibilities from Humanity’s Past”
Episode 142
September 25th, 2024
(Conversation recorded on August 5th, 2024)
Show Summary
While the global crises we face are on a larger scale than anything before, there is rich wisdom to glean from past civilizations who have faced existential challenges and survived – or even thrived. What lessons might we learn from history that could offer guidance for our future?
In this episode, Nate is joined by social philosopher Roman Krznaric to discuss ways we might govern or lead during moments of crisis, using the lens of former and current civilizations.
What lessons have we forgotten when it comes to being in community with and listening to each other? How have our ideas and expectations of the future been informed by seeing history as a story of individuals shaping the rise and fall of civilizations, rather than a collective effort? How could learning from the past to create better democracies, wiser natural resource stewardship, and more circular economies help us prioritize human and planetary well-being?
About Roman Krznaric:
Roman Krznaric is a social philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to create change. His internationally bestselling books, including The Good Ancestor, Empathy and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 25 languages. He is Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum. His new book is History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity.
After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political science. His writings have been widely influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. An acclaimed public speaker, his talks and workshops have taken him from a London prison to the TED global stage.
Roman is a member of the Club of Rome and a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation. He previously worked as a gardener, a conversation activist and on human rights issues in Guatemala. He is also a top-ranked player of the medieval sport of real tennis.
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Show Notes & Links to Learn More
00:00 - Roman Krznaric works + info, Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Empathy Museum, Club of Rome, Long Now Foundation
Book: History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity
03:17 - Theodore Zeldin
03:45 - Books: The Good Ancestor + Carpe Diem Regained
04:59 - Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence
06:24 - Thucydides, Ibn Khaldun, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Goethe
07:01 - George Santayana
07:14 - Timothy Snyder, ‘On Tyranny’
08:14 - Deep time
08:27 - Supernormal Stimuli
09:50 - History of timekeeping
10:28 - IPCC long-term climate projections
12:32 - Kate Raworth, TGS Episode
12:56 - Thomas Carlyle, Great Man Theory
13:32 - Marxist history
14:09 - Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Hill, Howard Zinn: ‘A People’s History of the United States’
19:29 - Harvard’s Applied History Project
19:57 - Kim Stanley Robinson, TGS Episode
20:25 - Ursula Le Guin
20:40 - Isaac Asimov: ‘Foundation’ trilogy,
21:00 - Marvin Harris, Infrastructure, Social Structure, Superstructure
21:56 - Daniel Schmachtenberger + Bend Not Break series, TGS Episode on Artificial Intelligence, TGS Episode on Naive Progress
23:12 - Overton Window
23:37 - The relationship between witnessing altruism and acting altruistically
24:12 – Tribunal of Waters in Valencia
25:08 – Elinor Ostrom
26:11 – Subak water management system in Bali, Stephen Lansing: ‘Perfect Order’
26:58 – May Day in Oxford
28:09 – Roger Hallam
29:06 – Stonehenge
30:50 – Measuring liberal democratic performance, the Human Development Report
31:15 – Herman Daly, TGS Episode
31:36 – Bill McKibben, ‘The End of Nature’, TGS Episode
31:57 – Doughnut Economics
34:22 – ‘Governing the Commons’
34:46 – The rise of trade unions and their influence on labor laws
35:22 – 1831 slave rebellion in Jamaica
36:00 – The cooperative economy of Emilia Romagna
36:32 – Asabiyyah
37:02 – Edward Gibbon: ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’
37:31 – The Muqaddimah
38:27 – Wealth inequality is a key predictor for civilisational collapse
42:24 – Kincentric ecology in indigenous communities, the 7th generation principle
43:31 – Keith Thomas: ‘Man and the Natural World’
44:23 – May Day rituals across Europe
45:55 – One large tree can provide oxygen for four people
46:32 – David Suzuki
46:57 - Goobalathaldin (Dick Roughsey): ‘The Rainbow Serpent’
48:16 – E.O. Wilson, Bill Plotkin
53:37 – 1992 Rio Earth Summit, global CO2 emissions over time
55:03 – Madison on the exclusionary advantages of representative democracy
56:10 – Ancient Greek democracy
57:22 – Random selection and Republican self-government in Renaissance Florence
57:47 – The Freestate of Rhaetia
58:48 – Murray Bookchin
59:13 – Democracy in Rojava, Abdullah Öcalan
1:02:10 – Citizens Assemblies in Ireland + an ‘Irish Model’ for deliberative democracy, Irish Citizens’ Assembly on abortion
1:03:00 – Citizens’ Assemblies across the world, EU Citizens’ Assemblies
1:04:09 – Proposal to make ecocide illegal in French Citizens’ Assembly
1:04:45 – Permanent Citizens’ Council in East Belgium, permanent climate assembly in Brussels, Citizens’ Assemblies in Gdansk
1:06:52 – Extinction Rebellion Citizens’ Assemblies
1:07:08 – The Latin American Water Tribunal
1:07:57 – The Oxford Muse, Conversation Dinners
1:09:53 – The Eden Project, the Big Lunch
1:10:27 – English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries
1:11:12 – Over 30,000 coffee shops in the UK, total pubs in UK
1:12:53 – UK riots August 2024
1:13:12 – By 2050 there could be 1 billion migrants
1:13:42 – Chinese migration to the US and the Chinese Exclusion Acts
1:14:53 – Migrants are net contributors to government budgets + more info
1:16:29 – The Disruption Nexus
1:17:07 – Milton Friedman
1:17:23 – Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev, The Power of the Powerless essay, Leipzig uprising October 1989
1:18:56 – Capital attacks 2021
1:19:58 – 1833 Slavery Abolition Act
1:22:52 – Circular economy in Edo Japan
1:25:26 – Shifting Baselines
1:26:02 – Kamanamaikalani Beamer, Hawaiian ancestral circular economy
1:30:58 – Steve Jobs Stanford address
1:34:30 – Steward owned companies