Kim Stanley ("Stan") Robinson is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular science fiction novelists, first famous for his Mars Trilogy. For the past two decades, Stan has been telling vivid stories in which climate change is catastrophic yet people invent ways of reversing it. What he imagines is so bold it takes your breath away, then fills you with hope and resolve that you didn't know existed within you.

In his Science in the Capital trilogy, a Washington DC thriller, National Zoo animals roam the capital after a massive flood. The Gulf Stream shuts down. Then a tiny U.S. government agency with bold leadership funds massive global climate projects. That plus the election of an inspiring everyman new President saves the day.

Two decades later, Ministry for the Future tells a very different heroic tale. Here the protagonist is a new international agency based in Zurich led by an Irishwoman. After a massive heat wave in Indian kills millions, she gets kidnapped by one of its survivors and eventually answers her captor's challenge to do more. She persuades central bankers to back a "carbon coin" that changes the rules of the economic game. Companies now earn money by keeping oil in the ground, slowing Antarctica's melting, and investing in other projects on a scale commensurate with the climate catastrophe.

What led Robinson to dramatically rethink his bold ideas for reversing climate change? What can we learn from this about climate economics and the financial rules in capitalism? How might this learning shift us into more constructive moods as we face seemingly insurmountable challenges?

Join me in exploring these questions in this new episode of How My View Grew.

**Key takeaways**

• 4:00 A DC thriller: the Gulf Stream slows down. Washington floods. Science and government save the day
• 12:00 Stan gets criticized about economics and responds by reading more deeply. The virtues and limits of nationalizing banks.
• 18:00 A new view of money and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis
• 23:00 Paying companies to green the planet, changing the economic game
• 28:45 Stop asking "Is it to late?" Focus instead on better versus worse
• 33:30 Telling good stories that our culture ignores
• 35:00 Stan's message to the Left: get over it
• 40:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• A reference site for Kim Stanley Robinson
• Amiel's essay, "Beyond the false choice between despair and hope"

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In this 10-minute episode of How My View Grew, discover a powerful method for depolarizing politics and improving relationships: the drama triangle.

Invented to support families in high-conflict situations, the drama triangle opens a new window into understanding political polarization, emotional intelligence, and difficult conversations. Listen in as I describe the victim, the persecutor, and the rescuer and how they show up in MAGA and liberal/progressive politics.

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As Donald Trump returns to the White House, many American citizens are willing to tear everything down. Where did these destructive inclinations come from? Might they partly reflect the way that voters learned history back in school? How well are we teaching history through the eyes of people living then so we can learn from their experiences? To what extent are we introducing students to their culture's proud traditions so they feel inspired to defend them rather than throw everything away?

In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore these questions by hearing from someone from outside the United States. Lene Rachel Andersen is a Danish author, futurist, and economist. As a student, she knew history was important. However, when challenged by a classmate, she couldn't explain why. Lene sensed the disjointed nature of the history curriculum but couldn't pinpoint what was missing. Years later, as the result of a TV series she created that went awry, she discovered answers to both questions. Then postmodernism entered the scene, and Lene wondered: should we be teaching deconstruction to third graders—or can this wait until later?

Lene's story reveals deep lessons for avoiding authoritarianism and meeting other challenges of our time.

**Key takeaways**

• 8:00 A classmate's question about history stump Lene
• 12:00 Put yourself in the shoes of people in history
• 14:00 To avoid authoritarianism and stupid wars, understand history and humans
• 18:00 Pitfalls of the postmodern approach to history
• 24:00 An exciting pilot project in a Danish public school
• 27:00 Third grade teachers shouldn't be teaching deconstruction
• 32:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• Lene's web site
• "The Surprising Lesson of History"—from season one of this podcast

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In this short episode of How My View Grew, I offer an alternative to the false choice between despair and hope.

After the recent U.S presidential election, many people in my orbit are feeling despair. Their response: search for signs of hope.

But what if this is a false choice? What if we could gain access to other moods that are more constructive and powerful?

Say hello to resolve and curiosity, two moods for this moment.

**Resources**

A Cabinet of buffoons, bomb throwers, and bottom-feeders? Republican Senators get to decide. My recent Medium essay.

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When new political leaders promote disruptive and even violent change, then people accustomed to pressing the gas pedal on change may choose instead to hit the breaks. Liberals become small "c" conservatives.

In this episode of How My View Grew, I suggest that after November 5, 2024 every liberal in the United States became a small "c" conservative. Instead of pushing for change in society, liberals now have good reason to slow it down. That's because the changes coming with the new Trump Administration threaten to destroy or disrupt many things worth preserving, from liberal gains of the past 90 years to basic Constitutional protections we've had for two and a half centuries. Much that we Americans take for granted, everything from childhood immunizations to Constitutional freedoms to the rule of law, is now at risk. Someone needs to stand up and shout, "Stop."

For decades, liberals associated this stance with Republicans, and for good reason. But today's Republican leader doesn't have a small "c" conservative bone in his body. His Administration will be about rapidly disrupting and destroying much that liberals—and all Americans—value.

So, who will fill the void of slowing down change and preserving that which we hold most dear? Liberals.

After making this case, I describe five steps liberals can take to embody such small "c" conservatism.

**Key takeaways**

• 2:00 The reactionary changes coming
• 5:30 The two forms of conservatism: small "c" and big "C"
• 8:30 Big "C" conservatism, the ideology, is whatever the Republican Party currently stands for
• 13:30 Five steps liberals can take to conserve liberal gains and American traditions

**Resources**

• My recent essay, "Nine tempting but unhelpful interpretations of Mr. Trump's victory"
• On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

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The human brain craves certainty. It convinces us we know how next week's U.S. presidential election will turn out. We don't. Things are uncertain. Yet, we can imagine different scenarios.

In this nine-minute episode of How My View Grew, I describe five scenarios for the election and its aftermath.

Then, I invite you to consider three "no-matter-what commitments." These are stands we can take no matter what happens. Making such commitments is an antidote to anxiety and despair. It reminds us of our strengths and resilience.

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In the upcoming U.S. presidential election, democracy, many say, is on the ballot. But is democracy versus autocracy the best description of the stakes?

Not according to Stephen E. Hanson, co-author with Jeffrey Kopstein of the new book The Assault on the State. The democracy/autocracy distinction is about how people come to power. It doesn't address how leaders rule their staffs and administrations once they are in power.

In the West, we've long managed states based on professional expertise and the rule of law. It's so common that we take it for granted. Yet, in recent years a different form of rule has taken root, first in Russia, then in Eastern Europe, and now in England, the U.S., and other parts of the West. Here the method of rule resembles the mafia. It's based on loyalty to a single leader, typically a man, and characterized by attacks on professional experts and power centralized in a ruling household.

For many years, Hanson, an expert on Russia and Eastern Europe, didn't think that strong mafia-like states were possible in the 21st century. And he was far from alone in this. Then, when Putin defied the odds by building one in Russia, Hanson didn't think this model of rule would spread elsewhere. And yet it has.

In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore why it made sense to bet against the rise of mafia-like states and why such bets turned out to be misguided.

**Key takeaways**

• 5:30 Steve's prediction that Russia wouldn't build a state after communism
• 8:30 How Putin built a state with loyalists
• 14:00 Why nobody thought Russia's mafia-like rule would spread
• 17:00 An epiphany during the pandemic sparks an "aha"
• 20:00 Three warning signs
• 24:00 Democracies can be run like the mafia. Autocracies can be run by experts based on the rule of law
• 28:00 The "unholy alliance" leading the assaults on the expert-run state
• 33:00 How an assault on the state in Israel contributed to the country's lack of preparedness for Hamas's massacres on October 7, 2023
• 39:30 We only notice government when it fails
• 41:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• The Assault on the State by Stephen E. Hanson and Jeffrey S. Kopstein

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In this five-minute episode of How My View Grew, I offer five perspectives about being a man today:

1. It's confusing
2. Men and women are different
3. There is no need to apologize for being a man
4. Long live the healthy masculine
5. It's time for a new Bro Code

**Resources**

• "Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness" by Christine Emba in the Washington Post.
• "How to Be a Good Guy" by Janet Crawford and Lisa Marshall—includes a section on breaking the bro code

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Why might a liberal Democrat with progressive values hold a conservative disposition? Could it make sense to both advocate for positive change and honor traditions and the social cohesion they foster? Might this represent the twin challenges facing today's Democratic Party?

In this 30-minute episode of How My View Grew, Boston College philosophy professor David Storey explores these questions through his own personal and professional experience.

How did someone who dismissed the Republican Party as simplistic and repellent learn to recognize the virtues of the conservative disposition, even as Republicans themselves abandoned this disposition? What does this tell us about MAGA, Mr. Trump, January 6, and the the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election? Who are the "barstool conservatives," and why are they anything but conservative?

If you believe in the gains brought by liberalism and progressivism, aren't you acknowledging that these are traditions you want to conserve?

**Key takeaways**

• 3:00 The thick culture and Fox News habits of a childhood friend's family
• 5:30 Discovering positive patriotism on 9/11
• 9:00 Learning from Andrew Sullivan that traditions are complex, involve pruning, and were built by people
• 12:00 Why the Iraq War violated conservative principles and climate activism can piggyback on them
• 17:30 The primal ethnocentric energies of George Wallace and Patrick Buchanan—also not truly conservative
• 20:00 How these primal energies broke through to the mainstream in the form of MAGA and Mr. Trump
• 22:30 The "barstool conservatives" who are angry they can't watch cheerleaders or call things "gay"
• 25:00 The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is what happens when you abandon the conservative disposition
• 27:00 The important contributions of the Never Trumpers
• 28:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• David's web site, including his podcast, Wisdom@Work
• The Institute for Cultural Evolution, where David is a Senior Fellow

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In this final episode of season one, a short one, I describe how my view of history shifted after reading the memoir of Stefan Zweig, a popular early 20th century European novelist. What if the lesson of history, especially around war and other catastrophes, is precisely the opposite of what I long assumed? How might history make us humbler about our ability to predict the future? Might it help us see possibilities and perils we otherwise would ignore or dismiss? Finally, a brief riff on why, in light of this uncertainty, curiosity, resolve, and acceptance are more useful moods than despair and anxiety.

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