We discuss Mieke Bal's Moments of Meaning-Making: On Anachonism, Becoming, and Conceptualizing, published by Valiz.

Mieke Bal (1946) is a Dutch theorist, video artist, and a well-known writer and feminist. She has been a Professor in Literary Theory (University of Amsterdam). In 1994 she was a co-founder of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA). Bal has been teaching at many institutes and universities in Europe, US, and beyond. She is known for her specific ways of ‘deep-reading’ artworks (e.g. Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Louise Bourgeois, Nalini Malani), and intertwining her research with various disciplines, such as contemporary and nineteenth-century literature, psycho-analysis, gender studies, philosophy, bible studies. Bal also works as a video artist, which she approaches as a specific form of cultural analysis. 

Now that Mieke Bal is getting older —being very active and involved in many art and research projects—she has been ruminating on how to reflect on a full life with different roles and experiences. She did not want to write a navel-staring autobiography and came up with an ABC of Memories, and the concepts these have generated: key terms that have a specific value to her, that interlink as a mesh of meaning, weaving together daily experiences and teaching, her know-how to art making, to the core concepts of her analytical work. 

This is my substack: https://marioveen.substack.com/ 

You can now order my Dutch language book about Plato's allegory of the cave: https://noordboek.nl/boek/hoe-plato-je-uit-je-grot-sleurt/ (also available as e-book)

My previous interview with Mieke Bal is Episode 21: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nJr0OdC11WiZVcvAcVCOR?si=LSKWhfz5Sq-fuBLtK_KfDw 

We discuss Turning the arrow: education after the age of the world-view by Gert Biesta: https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/507626803/BiestaAPJE2025TurningTheArrow.pdf 

Gert Biesta is Professor of Public Education in the Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy at Maynooth University, Ireland, and Visiting Professor of Education at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). Until July 2025 he was Professor of Educational Theory and Pedagogy at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. He publishes on the theory of education and the philosophy of educational research, with a particular interest in teaching, teacher education, curriculum, citizenship education, arts education and religious education. So far, his work has appeared in 21 different languages. His most recent monograph, World-Centred Education: A View for the Present, was published by Routledge in 2022.

This is my substack: https://marioveen.substack.com/ 

You can now order my Dutch language book about Plato's allegory of the cave: https://noordboek.nl/boek/hoe-plato-je-uit-je-grot-sleurt/ (also available as e-book)

My previous interview with Gert Biesta is Episode 22: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Ios0v1c7SvA5Q3vLRSfMr?si=T8H28-TNSWKFKsNvaYw9Yw 

And my interview with Ginie Servant-Miklos about Pedagogies of Collapse: https://open.spotify.com/episode/07p0xx2mRBeQaa0KxSFRjv?si=7QK0hOj-QradM2R4Kg4QIA 

We discuss Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson brought philosophy to the people - The first English-language biography of Henri Bergson, the French philosopher who defined individual creativity and transformed twentieth-century thought. Emily Herring is a writer based in Paris. She received her PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Leeds, and her writing has appeared in Aeon and the Times Literary Supplement.

You can read the latest installment of my new series Challenging Time: Reading Against Climate Madness here: https://futurebased.org/climate-madness/turning-to-stone-what-is-it-like-to-be-a-planet/ - the installment about Herald of a Restless World will appear here when it's online

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

We discuss Ginie Servant-Miklos' new book Pedagogies of Collapse. This urgent, and radically honest, open access book looks collapse in the face, acknowledges the temptation for denial and despair, but chooses hope. Pedagogies of Collapse makes a dire, fact-packed case for the urgency of action, but resists the urge to fall into the usual categories of environmental discourses. The ebook version will be available as open access.

Ginie Servant-Miklos (https://www.clubofrome.org/member/miklos-ginie/) is an engaged environmental educator with fifteen years of experience in education practice, research, and advocacy. She currently holds an Assistant Professorship in behavioural sciences at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her research and education work focuses on developing innovative pedagogies for societal impact. She developed the Experimental Pedagogics educational design framework, co-founded the Bildung Climate School with Prof. Rutger Engels, and is the author of Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as We Know It. She is a Senior Fellow of the Comenius Network for educational innovators in the Netherlands. She is the founder and chair of the board of the FairFight Foundation, an organisation that provides girls and women from Zambia, Zimbabwe, and India with the mental and physical benefits of martial arts practice, as well as educational support. Ginie is a vocal activist for sustainability and gender equality, advocating for change through public engagements like TEDx talks, debates, podcasts, and other digital media outlets.

You can read the latest installment of my new series Challenging Time: Reading Against Climate Madness here: https://futurebased.org/climate-madness/sad-planets-makes-me-happy/ 

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

We discuss Chris Julien's new book Everyday Activism (Alledaags Activisme). Chris is an activist and researcher, he is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, where he works on ecological governance with an emphasis on new materialisms and decolonial ecology.

You can order Alledaags Activisme here: https://uitgeverijpodium.nl/producten/alledaags-activisme-9789463812672 

English language publications of Chris Julien: https://valiz.nl/publicaties/worlding-ecologies 

You can read the introduction of my new series Challenging Time: Reading Against Climate Madness here: https://futurebased.org/climate-madness/challenging-time-reading-against-climate-madness/ 

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

We discuss Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud. Marcia Bjornerud is a professor of Environmental Studies and Geosciences at Lawrence University. She is a contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times and the author of Reading the Rocks, Timefulness, and Geopedia. Turning to Stone is available from Macmillan Publishers: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250875891/turningtostone 

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Dominic Pettman is University Professor of Media and New Humanities at the New School, and the author of numerous books on technology, humans, and other animals. We discussed his books Infinite Distraction and Peak Libido in episode 10. His book Telling the Bees comes out later this year. In this episode, we discuss Sad Planets by Dominic Pettman and Eugene Thacker, which is available for order here: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Sad+Planets-p-9781509562374 

Read my review of SAD PLANETS here: https://futurebased.org/climate-madness/sad-planets-makes-me-happy/ 

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

dr.Petra Verdonk is an occupational and health psychologist and works as an associate professor at the department of Ethics, Justice and Humanities at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her research and teaching she focuses on gender and diversity in health and care. She has long-term experience with research and projects in the field of gender (especially but not only women), labor and health (occupational health) of (health care) professionals. Petra has been active for Extinction Rebellion since 2019.

Petra's opinion piece on Shell (Dutch): https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/opinie-shell-gaat-de-klimaatcrisis-niet-verhelpen-trap-niet-langer-in-hun-pr~b5f5a2f7/

Petra's opinion piece of climate and education: https://www.trouw.nl/opinie/studenten-staken-hun-studie-als-die-opleidt-voor-de-markt~beaa7e6d/ 

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Dr. Zachary Stein is a founding team member at the Civilizational Research Institute. He was trained at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and education, and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. He is a widely sought after and award winning speaker, and a leading authority on the future of education and contemporary issues in human development. Zak is the author of several books, such as Education in a Time Between Worlds. In this conversation we primarily discuss the new book he contributed to, together with Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber. It's called First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come. Find out more about Zak's work at https://www.zakstein.org/.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

I'd love to hear your questions or comments:

Leave me a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/LifeFromPlatosCave  

Illustration © by Julien Penning, Light One Art: https://www.instagram.com/light_one_art/

Bestel hier: https://noordboek.nl/boek/hoe-plato-je-uit-je-grot-sleurt/ 

(Song ceated using Udio)