What does a livable future look like 100 years from now? If we unlocked unlimited green energy, what would we actually do with it? And are our dreams of a renewable-energy utopia sometimes just as delusional as the fossil-fueled drill baby drill mentality?

In this two-part series, Alex is joined by the hosts of Crazy Town—Jason Bradford, Rob Dietz, and Asher Miller—a research biologist, ecological economist, and Executive Director of the Post Carbon Institute, who bring a depth of knowledge as well as dad jokes. Together, they explore the implications of exponential energy growth on a finite planet, the hard truths behind a renewable-energy future, and which expectations we need to rethink as we chart a path forward.

Along the way, we encounter an Olympic athlete attempting to toast bread using a bicycle. We also step inside a billionaire's latest invention: a time-travel device promising to fling us ahead one hundred years. Will the future be a gleaming techno-utopia powered by infinite green energy? A scorched wasteland of collapse? Or something else entirely—a lower-energy world that future generations might actually enjoy living in?

Stay tuned for Part 2 where we take the full leap into the time machine and imagine what life a century from now could really look like in a post high-energy future.

CITATIONS

• The Toaster Challenge, Olympic Cyclist Vs. Toaster: Can He Power It?, 2015
• Tom Murphy, Galactic-Scale Energy, Do the Math, 2011.
• Tom Murphy, Limits to Economic Growth, Nature Physics, August, 2022.
• Solar Freakin' Roadways, Indiegogo, 2014
• Crazy Town podcast

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

• Modified version of "Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30" by Strauss, from classicals.de — licensed under CC BY 4.0

If you'd like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you listen, leave a review, and join us on Patreon for exclusive audio extras, writings, and notes.

For full episode transcripts, essays, and additional context, visit: resilience.org/human-nature-odyssey-podcast

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI

All rights reserved.