The Great Simplification is a podcast that explores the systems science underpinning the human predicament. Through conversations with experts and leaders hosted by Dr. Nate Hagens, we explore topics spanning ecology, economics, energy, geopolitics, human behavior, and monetary/financial systems. Our goal is to provide a simple educational resource for the complex energetic, physical, and social constraints ahead, and to inspire people to play a role in our collective future. Ultimately, we aim to normalize these conversations and, in doing so, change the initial conditions of future events.
379 episodes transcribedOn this episode, petroleum geologist Arthur Berman returns to discuss recent diesel shortages and go into depth on the importance of diesel and the co...
With the upcoming election, citizens of the USA once again align our beliefs and dreams with our 'favored'' political party, while often showing disda...
In this episode, Nate is joined by environmental and social activist Betsy Taylor. She and Nate have a wide ranging conversation about climate, consum...
Its nigh Halloween. Monsters (in costume) and revelry. As humans - we each possess a rational, caring 'Dr. Jekyll' and an atavistic, emotional, reacti...
In this fourth installment of conversations with Daniel Schmachtenberger, we dive deeper into the nuances of humans using energy, materials and techno...
Of all the challenges facing our culture, the fact that humans use social sorting mechanisms to solve physical world problems looms as perhaps the gre...
On this episode, Nate is joined by Marty Kearns, a civic organizer and networking specialist. He and Marty discuss why both networks and communities w...
Despite the improved standard of living that modern finance has enabled, it has also created an unsustainable economic system rife with systemic risk....
This week, religious scholar Mary Evelyn Tucker unpacks the entanglement of religion and ecology from an academic perspective. She and Nate discuss wh...
We are a product of evolutionary processes - certain categories of behaviors made our ancestors more 'fit' depending on the environmental/social circu...
On this episode, Nate talks with Ayan Mahamoud, a climate and resilience planner from Djibouti. They discuss the growing challenge the poly-crisis pos...
Climate change is often described as one of the single most important and existential issues of our time - that there is no greater threat to humanity...
On this episode, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Sebastian Heitmann discusses his work in tech innovation towards more sustainable futures. Techno...
This week's Frankly is a reflection in response to (and support of) Gerardo Ceballos' new project Creatures United, launching this week at Stanford Un...
On this episode, Professor of environmental chemistry Martin Sheringer joins Nate. Together, they discuss Sheringer's most recent paper on PFAS - the...
On this segment of Frankly, Nate responds to the predicament of increased use of forests, especially in Europe, for heating fuel in the face of declin...
On this episode, Author and Professor Douglas Rushkoff joins Nate to discuss how human behavior interacts with technology and how we have arrived at a...
Earlier this week there was a livestream debate highlighting the key points of the Green Growth and DeGrowth perspectives - this week's Frankly adds a...
On this episode, Climate Scientist Steve Vavrus joins Nate to discuss the Arctic and its critical impact on climate science. Why are the effects of wa...
On this episode, we meet with legendary financial icon Kiril Sokoloff to take a bird's eye view of the global energy/financial situation. Why is the f...
