Inevitable

Ep 85: David Heinemeier Hansson, Co-Founder & CTO at Basecamp


Listen Later

In today’s episode, we cover:

  • David’s influential career in tech
  • His advocacy of various causes
  • DHH’s view that, regardless of one’s background, one should become versed in climate change
  • How his attention first peaked with the California drought
  • How the fires near Malibu made the crisis feel personal and urgent
  • “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace Wells helped inform him of the catastrophe brought about by a temperature rise above 2 degrees centigrade
  • How it’s remarkable to think that, since Seinfeld has aired, we’ve doubled GHG
  • His family’s carbon budget and how it showed him how much more complicated the problem is 
  • His belief that changes in consumer and voting behavior will only happen when people see the existential threat themselves (e.g. fires, floods, etc.)
  • His pessimism that things won’t change until the situation becomes more dire
  • Do carbon offsets inhibit decisive action?
  • The longer democracies fail to address climate change, the more society becomes ripe for the rise of dictators
  • DHH’s recommended reading: “The Divide” by Jason Hickel
  • His acceptance of the likelihood that he will live on an uninhabitable earth; that we’re not going to stay below 2 degrees Centigrade

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

  • “The Uninhabitable Earth”: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/
  • “The Divide”: https://www.jasonhickel.org/the-divide
  • Green New Deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal
  • Yellow vests movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_vests_movement

Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

Connect with MCJ:

  • Cody Simms on LinkedIn
  • Visit mcj.vc
  • Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

InevitableBy an MCJ podcast

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

165 ratings


More shows like Inevitable

View all
Climate One by Climate One from The Commonwealth Club

Climate One

564 Listeners

Energy Gang by Wood Mackenzie

Energy Gang

1,249 Listeners

Columbia Energy Exchange by Columbia University

Columbia Energy Exchange

391 Listeners

Currents by Norton Rose Fulbright

Currents

123 Listeners

Interchange Recharged by Wood Mackenzie

Interchange Recharged

503 Listeners

Redefining Energy by Laurent Segalen and Gerard Reid

Redefining Energy

129 Listeners

Switched On by Bloomberg

Switched On

98 Listeners

Climate Rising by Harvard Business School Business & Environment Initiative

Climate Rising

75 Listeners

Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change by Michael Liebreich, Bryony Worthington

Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

71 Listeners

Volts by David Roberts

Volts

590 Listeners

The Green Blueprint by Latitude Media

The Green Blueprint

207 Listeners

Catalyst with Shayle Kann by Latitude Media

Catalyst with Shayle Kann

262 Listeners

Zero: The Climate Race by Bloomberg

Zero: The Climate Race

195 Listeners

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins by Heatmap News

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

93 Listeners

Open Circuit by Latitude Media

Open Circuit

141 Listeners