For the first time in over a hundred years salmon are returning to historical spawning grounds in the Klamath River. After four hydroelectric dams were removed the river came back to life. Wild salmon, once on the brink of extinction have returned in astonishing numbers. More than just a regional victory, the dam removal from the Klamath River could be a blueprint for ecological restoration. I spoke with Amy Bowers Cordalis of the Yurok Nation about her book The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life.  

The only metric for our economic system is the growth of wealth. Who gets that wealth or how that growth impacts people’s lives and the planetary life support system is never part of the equation. This has created the insanity of a billionaire class who can destroy entire countries while basic needs are unmet for many people and the looming climate crisis is ignored. In this episode of The Progressive Page Turner I talked with Tim Jackson, author of The Care Economy about another way to view prosperity. 

How are intimate violence and geopolitical violence linked? Both are expressions of male dominance. The imbalance in our culture toward masculine values has impoverished us all. In her book All We Want is Everything Soraya Chemaly outlines how dismantling male supremacy can result in an increase in dignity, independence, agency, respect and freedom for everyone. 

The saying goes that "people can imagine the end of the world easier than imagining the end of capitalism." I know it seems insane but what if we geared society to produce for sufficiency instead of profit?  We might actually be able to mitigate the damage from our fossil fuel civilization if we change the mindset of infinite growth.  It's time to start imagining the impossible because everything, maybe even all life on the planet, is at stake if we continue business as usual.

The imperative to stop burning fossil fuels and a proliferation of new tech gadgets like cell phones and smart everything has businesses and governments scrambling to procure the metals that make the magic happen. Mining, refining and even recycling these components comes with a heavy environmental cost. Can we realistically switch from fossil fuels to green energy if obtaining the raw materials cause environmental destruction, political instability and a great deal of human suffering? Vince Beiser traveled all over the world to document the real cost of the new economy.

It's dawning on a growing number of people that the lack of any sort of rational and effective response to the climate crisis is bringing us toward a Thelma and Louise ending for industrial civilization. The hope for a soft landing fades with every year. In his book Franken Politics George Tsakraklides looks at how we arrived at this point and honestly examines life in the era of global capital. 

As we scramble to create a more sustainable version of our civilization much of the focus has been on technology. But electric cars and reusable containers will only take us so far. From mountaintop removal to factory farms our relationship with the non-human world has been one of unabashed exploitation. If we’re to regain some sort of equilibrium we need to reset the way we view our place on the planet. In their book Naturekind: Language, Culture and Power Beyond the Human  Melissa Leach and James Fairhead explore how we can establish a richer and more nuanced relationship with other beings. 

Rich and connected, Jeffrey Epstein trafficked girls with impunity.  We've all seen those stickers for anti-trafficking organization in airports and bus stations and it's normal to assume they are there to help people caught in the same sort of situation. In their book Not Your Rescue Project
Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam detail how the anti-trafficking industry actually harms sex workers. The predicament of migrant sex workers is not what you might expect.

Donald Trump was surrounded by billionaires during his inauguration. It became glaringly obvious who bought the election. But the influence of the uber wealthy goes far beyond that one election. They are picking our pockets and causing societal instability in many ways. Chuck Collins looks at their impact in his book Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet.  

When Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the East Wing of the White house it was both real and symbolic. Much of what we took for granted, the rule of law, the constitution and due process have also been demolished. All of this happening as the planet is reaching irreversible tipping points. A recent report found that 84% of world’s coral has been bleached. Heat waves, wildfires, floods and droughts driven by burning fossil fuels are transforming our world and have devastating consequences for life on the planet.  Faced with the intellectual, moral, and spiritual abyss created by these intersecting crises, despair can seem like a reasonable response. But this isn’t the first time it appeared as if the world might come to a crashing halt. After two catastrophic world wars, the rise of fascism and the threat of nuclear annihilation mid 20th-century thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Albert Camus and Simone Weil found meaning and hope. Wen Stephenson explores their legacy and examines what it will take to find the resolve to keep going in his book Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe.