I felt defeated by the ecological crisis, and by myself, so I created an episode about defeatism hoping to defeat my defeatism

TRANSCRIPTION OF EPISODE

(bell and voice)

Note: [ ] = filtered voice

I got up this morning feeling defeated. 

[ I got up this morning feeling…]

You might know this feeling of … powerlessness. 

[This feeling of…]

You know, producing more podcast episodes, like this one, exploring art and the ecological crisis. It does seem rather… pointless.

[Producing more podcasts… ]

I sometimes feel like the best thing I can do for our troubled world is to be quiet and do no harm.… 

[To be quiet and do no harm]

Rebecca Solnit, We can’t afford to be climate doomers (female voice) :

Some days I think that if we lose the climate battle, it’ll be due in no small part to this defeatism among the comfortable in the global north, while people in frontline communities continue to fight like hell for survival. Which is why fighting defeatism is also climate work.

[Which is why]

Am I one of those comfortable people in the global north struggling with defeatism? 

[am I a… defeatist? ]

Yes. I am. I produce this weekly podcast in safe, luxurious conditions while the majority world fights like hell for survival. While the majority world suffers like hell the consequences of my generation’s excess. 

[the majority world fights like hell …]

I’m a hypocrite. I’m complicit. My work is pretentious and …

[I’m a defeatist]

So, what does defeatism sound like anyway?

Well, it probably sounds like this. A privileged male voice talking about his feelings about defeatism.

[ what does defeatist sound like? ]

Britt Wray, Generation Dread (female voice)

Some people believe that it is already too late to prevent societal collapse. They speak about the “earth as hospice,” and suggest we use what time we have left to summon the courage to face the music, as the ship we’re all on sinks.’ …

[facing the music, as the ship we’re all on…]

In my August conscient blog I wrote that : 

I see no point shuffling the deck chairs. We have already hit the metaphoric iceberg and the good ship modernity is sinking. 

So, where do we go from here?  

How does one defeat defeatism? 

[where do we go from here? ]

In the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Moving with Storms report I was reminded of the seven steps forward and-or aside, in particular this teaching about honesty and courage to see what you don’t want to see:

Commit to expanding your capacity to sit with what is real, difficult, and painful, within and around you. In what ways are your projections, idealizations, expectations, hopes, fears, and fragilities preventing you from approaching aspects of the Climate and Nature Emergency that are unpleasant for you and/or that challenge your sense of reality and/or self-image? What are you not willing or ready to see and how does this unwillingness impair your ability to respond to the Climate and Nature Emergency ?

[ What are you not ready to see? ]

*

Warm thanks to Kelly Langgard for lending me her voice to read the Rebecca Solnit and Britt Wray quotes (Kelly’s voice is also featured in e142 consent). Thanks to Rebecca and Britt for use of their words and to the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective for use of an excerpt from the Moving with Storms report. 

This episode was created while I was in residence during the summer of 2023 at the Centre de production DAÏMÔN in Gatineau Québec as part of the fourth edition of Radio-Hull.

With thanks to the Centre de production DAÏMÔN production team: Manon, Coco, Philippe and Simon and DAÏMÔN’s funders and partners. 

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).

My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to Post Carbon Institute.

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish a free ‘a calm presence' monthly Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on January 9, 2026