The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
de Nate Hagens
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How the End of Energy Abundance Rewrites Civilization | Rules of the…
How the End of Energy Abundance Rewrites Civilization | Rules of the…
Despre acest podcast
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.
Episoade
Cele mai noi 50 din 442 episoade
- How the End of Energy Abundance Rewrites Civilization | Rules of the Downslope Part 1 · 30 minThis week, Nate explores the shifting rules of human civilization as society moves from the upslope to the downslope of the Carbon Pulse. The conditions of abundant fossil energy…
- Print or Default (or Both?): The US Debt Trap Accelerates · 1 h 36 min(Conversation recorded on November 4th, 2026) The Great Recession, the dot-com bubble, the Mexican debt crisis: for every major financial crisis in the last 50 years, the U.S…
- Who Won the Election?: The Blue Tsunami and the Superorganism | Frankly 165 · 11 minThis week, Nate offers a reflection on the U.S. midterm elections, separating the relief of a clear outcome from the deeper questions that remain unsolved. He considers what has…
- Saving Bats to Save Ourselves: How to Stop the Tragedy of the Commons with Iroro Tanshi · 55 min(Conversation recorded on September 24th, 2026) One in five mammal species on Earth is a bat, yet they remain some of the most overlooked and misunderstood creatures in…
- 7 Ways Growth Ends | Frankly 164 · 47 minIn this week's Frankly, Nate examines the possibility that global economic growth is approaching its limits, reframing it as a historically unusual period in human history…
- A Shattered Market?: The Counterintuitive Story of the Hormuz Oil Crisis with Rory Johnston · 1 h 37 minWith headlines reporting that oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are recovering to pre-war levels, it seems that the oil supply chains have stabilized – yet prices and…
- 5 Things That Keep Us Whole: Staying Grounded in an Unraveling World | Frankly 163 · 17 minIn the face of increasing chaos in our world, Nate turns inward in this week's Frankly to examine a more personal question: what allows an individual to remain grounded…
- Earth's Oldest Teachers: How to Live Well on Earth with Robin Wall Kimmerer · 1 h 25 minMany of us question the core principles of individualism, competition, and transaction our current civilization is founded on. But with an entire culture steeped in these ideals…
- 7 Rungs of a Runaway System: How Civilization Descended Into Crisis | Frankly 162 · 30 minIn this week's Frankly Nate unfurls a metaphorical "ladder" that traces the systems-oriented forces shaping the economic Superorganism. He outlines seven rungs that trickle down…
- Optionality Collapse: We're Investing in a Future That Won't Exist with Indy Johar · 1 h 28 minTraditional financial management tells us that, if we invest right, we'll be able to retire and sink into a future of comfort and stability – and even pass on your wealth to your…
- Humanity's Icarus Moment: The Wings, the Sea, and the Sun of AI | Frankly 161 · 59 minThis week Nate examines artificial intelligence through the metaphor of Icarus, asking what risks arise when a civilization injects trillions of cognitive workers into a…
- A World-Changing Event: We're Not Going Back to January 2026 with Art Berman · 1 h 15 minAlmost eight months after the Iran war first rattled global energy markets, the global system has proven surprisingly adaptable, even as prices continue to rise and product…
- Climate Uncertainty: The Coolest Year for the Rest of Our Lives? with Zeke Hausfather · 1 h 32 minThe El Niño now building in the tropical Pacific is unlike anything in the historical record, and it's arriving on top of decades of warming. Together, they could push global…
- A State of the World Address: The Climate Speech We'll Probably Never Hear | Frankly 160 · 15 minOn the heels of Climate Week, Nate poses a thought experiment: What would a world leader's speech sound like if the difficult truths underpinning global heating – which are…
- The Escalation Trap: Is America's Strategy in Iran Backfiring? with Robert Pape · 1 h 6 minThe United States, a global superpower for the last several decades, is now locked into a battle for control over the region with the bulk of the world's remaining fossil fuel…
- The Real Work: Four Things We Can't Afford to Get Wrong | Frankly 159 · 33 minThis week, Nate zooms out from recent headlines about climbing diesel prices, a thinning U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and inflationary bond markets to ask the deeper…
- Radical Simplicity: The Opportunities of a World in Collapse with Sarah Wilson · 1 h 38 minFor years, the climate movement ran on the promise that, if we all rally hard enough, we could have it all: continue with our current system and save the planet. Yet the events…
- The Human Predicament: What Would Change My Mind? | Frankly 158 · 19 minThis week's Frankly begins with a deceptively simple question Nate was asked in conversation: what would change his mind about The Great Simplification thesis? Nate uses the…
- Banning Superintelligence: Are We Building Humanity's Replacement? with Roman Yampolskiy · 54 minThe world's leading AI companies tell us that superintelligence has a strong chance of leading to human extinction, while also promising that they will be able to control it…
- Turning the Dials Back on Psychopathy: Decent People, Indecent System | Frankly 157 · 39 minThis week's Frankly builds on Nate's recent conversation with systems theorist Greg Elliott, who came on the platform to discuss why our institutions themselves have become…
- The Collapse of Our Mythology: Can Humanity Choose What's Next? with Charles Eisenstein · 1 h 38 minIn this episode, Nate welcomes author and philosopher, Charles Eisenstein, for a long-requested conversation on the mythologies underneath civilization. For over two decades…
- Just Stop Oil!?: The Economic Foundation We Ignore | Frankly Archives 39 (2023) · 32 minThis week's Frankly is an episode from summer of 2023, which is being re-released to provide context for one of the most important questions we face today: what is the role of…
- The Psychopathic Selection Hypothesis: The Rules of the Game Keep Us Trapped with Greg Elliott · 1 h 41 minModern companies, markets, and institutions routinely behave in ways that would be diagnosed as pathological in a person: emotional detachment, strategic deception, grandiosity…
- An Antidote to Despair: What Dogs Reveal About the Metacrisis | Frankly 156 · 18 minThis week, Nate turns a late-night emergency vet visit for one of his dogs into a broader reflection on the extraordinary relationship between dogs and humans. While dogs have…
- Material World: The Key Resources Underpinning Modern Economies with Ed Conway | Archive TGS 127 · 1 h 49 minCurrent geopolitical events continue to expose just how complex and fragile our global economic system is. As such, The Great Simplification team is re-releasing this episode…
- The Villains We Choose and the Work They Give Us | Frankly 155 · 29 minHow can humans – at least those with access to the internet – ingest the same facts and data, yet arrive at radically different worldviews? That's the question Nate explores in…
- Your Anxiety Is Normal: A New Psychology for a World in Crisis with Richard Schwartz & Steffi Bednarek · 1 h 40 minMost of us were taught to treat emotions like distress, numbness, and burnout as private failings to manage and move past, rather than normal responses to living within a world…
- Unordinary Interventions: How to Plant Seeds for a Better Future | Frankly 154 · 30 minWhat can one person actually do about the metacrisis? In this week's Frankly, Nate explicitly outlines just a few of the countless actions we can take to actually change what's…
- The Optimization Trap: Why Too Much Efficiency Makes Us Fragile with Olivier Hamant · 1 h 24 minFor decades, modern civilization has treated efficiency as an unquestioned good: the leaner, faster, and more optimized anything is – from supply chains to your morning routine –…
- When Truth Becomes Hazardous: Navigating Information Through the Metacrisis | Frankly 153 · 24 minThis week, Nate takes on a tension he has been navigating for years, at the heart of communicating about the metacrisis: the hazards that arise from sharing true information with…
- The End of Globalization: Why Abundance Is an Illusion with Jeff Currie · 1 h 28 minFor three decades, most of Wall Street has treated energy and commodities as a rounding error, or as a small slice of the portfolio rather than the physical foundation everything…
- Watch With Both Eyes Open: The Beauty and the Horror of Our Moment · 9 minIn this week's Frankly, Nate reflects on a week spent with a group of friends and peers who share his understanding of the world's converging crises, and what it revealed about…
- Taking Love Seriously: What Ancient Wisdom & Modern Psychology Say About Interconnectedness with John Churchill · 1 h 34 minA growing chorus of psychologists, contemplatives, and systems thinkers argue that most of us, and most of our institutions, are running an outdated psychological and spiritual…
- Protect the Irreversible: What Matters Most in an Uncertain Future? | How to Think About the Future Pt 6, Frankly 151 · 32 minThis week's video is the sixth part in Nate's ongoing series, How to Think About the Future. Today, Nate turns from describing possible futures to exploring how we can make…
- It's Not Just Hormuz: The Chokepoints Changing Global Shipping Forever with Sal Mercogliano · 1 h 30 minRoughly a fifth of the world's oil and more than a tenth of all global trade has been navigating a literal minefield, a wary insurance industry, and whipsawing geopolitics since…
- Foundations Before Outcomes: The Future Beneath Your Feet | How to Think About the Future Pt 5, Frankly 150 · 29 minToday, in Part 5 of the "How to Think About the Future" series, Nate scales his exploration of civilizational futures down to the future of a single human life and analyzes how…
- Can Money Serve Life? How to Fund Communities Doing the Real Work with Matthew Monahan · 1 h 7 minEvery year, hundreds of billions of dollars flow through global philanthropy, yet only a small fraction reaches environmental, climate, and nature-related causes. Meanwhile, in…
- A Legacy Worth Celebrating? Reflecting on 250 Years of the American Experiment | Frankly 149 · 21 minAs America marks its 250th birthday, Nate takes a moment to step outside of the celebrations to seek out a wider boundary perspective on this week's holiday. He poses the…
- Mordor to the Long Repair: How Might Daily Life Feel in the Next Decades? | How to Think About the Future Part 4, Frankly 148 · 33 minThis week, Nate continues his "How to Think About the Future" series, where he invites listeners to imagine what it's like to live in different versions of the reality that lies…
- We Weren't Expecting This: What Does a Super El Niño Mean For the Climate? with Tad Patzek · 1 h 25 minThis year's projected Super El Niño forming in the Pacific could become one of the strongest climate oscillations in over a century. As regions prepare for the effects, and…
- How to Play 5D Chess: It's Not What You Think | Frankly 147 · 18 minIn this week's Frankly, Nate explores a pattern of thinking that permeates so many of our conversations: we often decide what we think before we've fully heard what's being said…
- No More Dystopian Stories: How to See a Future Worth Living In with Rob Hopkins · 1 h 35 minSelf-fulfilling prophecies; manifestations; the Oedipus Effect: Humanity has long had an intuition that the stories we tell ourselves the most are often the stories we make come…
- The Ultimate Alternative: Are You Okay With Nuclear Warfare? | Frankly 146 · 24 minThis week's Frankly is another in Nate's recurring series Uncomfortable Questions for Unsettled Times, in which he poses questions about our shared future. Today, he uses…
- The U.S. Can't Back Down: The Strait of Hormuz Closure Is Messier Than You Think with Michael Every · 1 h 25 minThis episode was recorded Tuesday, June 9th, before the current 'deal' was floated. Given world events, we decided to post this episode immediately as a special release, and deal…
- Why 'Community' Fails: Everyone Wants a Village, Nobody Wants to Be a Villager with Nora Bateson, Jonathan Goldsmith & Lucas Jackson | RR 26 · 1 h 33 minMany of us lack meaningful community in our lives, either from a complete absence of relationships or simply the sense of disconnection from those around us. In response, a…
- How to Think About the Future (Part 3): Uphill Futures in a Downhill World | Frankly 145 · 24 minThis week's Frankly is part three of the series How to Think About the Future. Today, Nate builds a framework for understanding the pathways that connect today's choices to…
- The Missing Half of Climate Change: Why Our Planet is at 50% Capacity and How to Get it Back with Brett KenCairn · 1 h 34 minThe Dust Bowl of the 1930s is one of the worst ecological disasters in American history. Across the great plains, roughly 2.5 million people left the region over the decade, amid…
- Casting Call for a Future Frankly · 5 minLink to submit: https://senja.io/p/the-great-simplification/r/share-your-technology This week, Nate is putting out a call to listeners of this platform to share stories from the…
- A Word I Can't Seem to Understand: Non-Duality and Our Living World | Frankly 144 · 14 minIn this week's Frankly, Nate discusses his long-running attempt to understand non-duality, and why this concept has remained just out of his grasp despite years of conversations…
- Darkness Deficit Disorder: How Constant Stimulation Has Shaped our Consumption with Andrew Holecek · 1 h 41 minMost responses to civilizational crises focus outward – policy levers, energy systems, geopolitical actors, and material flows – with little focus on how the humans inside these…
