A man’s struggle to face social injustice and then social isolation in the midst of a global pandemic…while it sounds like a human interest piece in current events, this is a story about the future (set at the turn of the 22nd century) written by a 19th-century novelist. In the first episode of our second season—and our first virtual recording session—we read this sibylline science fiction through the 21st-century lenses of human environment and our need to connect with it.

Texts discussed in this episode: Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self (Stacy Alaimo) and The Last Man (Mary Shelley)

0:33 - Introduction

2:42 - The Natural Resource

16:38 - The Literary Min(e)d

45:16 - Finding Footholds

59:23 - Conclusion