In conversation with Pete Chambers, August 2023

In conversation again with Pete Chambers. With this episode we have moved to a new recording setup and the audio quality is much better as a result. Thanks for the feedback from listeners and to our producer, Peter Van Hoesen, for his guidance.

Our starting point is the extreme weather that has marked this year’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. From there, we discuss how we are individually and collectively (mis)understanding climate change, some of the consequences that come from the responses we are pursuing - notably the emphasis on electric vehicles - as well as the enduring challenge of individual agency in the context of massive systemic forces. How we can better comprehend the profoundly uneven and odd historical moment we find ourselves in? How can we live and act in such conditions? These are some of the questions our conversation circles around.

Some references mentioned:

• Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014).

• John Urry, ‘The “System” of Automobility’, Theory, Culture & Society, 21: 4–5 (2004), 25–39.

• Ulrich Beck, ‘The Terrorist Threat: World Risk Society Revisited’, Theory, Culture & Society, 19:4 (2022), 39–55.

• Evgeny Morozov, ‘Critique of techno-feudal reason’, New Left Review, 133/134 (2022), 89-126.

• Imperfect notes: ‘Kitsch geopolitics’ and ‘Weakening powers’ (2023).

• Living together, somehow: ‘Unboxing the amateur unboxer’ (2023).

• Owl of Minerva: ‘A traditional symbol of wisdom, most famously invoked in Hegel’s remark at the end of the Preface to the Philosophy of Right: “when philosophy paints its grey in grey, then has a shape of life grown old. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the coming of the dusk.” Hegel means that the kinds of self-conscious reflection making up philosophy can occur only when a way of life is sufficiently mature to be already passing’. Taken from: The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.

Thanks for engaging. For the next episode, we’ll be inviting our first guest to help us think through the material realities of global supply chains.