Can you be collapse aware and still want kids? w/ Jem Bendell

In 2018 Professor Jem Bendell published an academic paper that went viral; pretty weird for a piece of scholarly writing. The topic? Societal collapse caused by runaway climate change. The timeline? Soon. Deep Adaptation presented a frank, delusion-free framework for facing the end of the world as we know it, sparked a movement, and copped a lot of flack.

I wanted to chat with Jem not so much about the grim facts but about how, “as that collapse guy”*, he is filling his life with meaning at the eleventh hour. And it turns out, that includes becoming a farmer, writing folk songs and considering having kids.

*Jem happily identifies as a doomster

🎙️ In this convo

Experiencing climate change first hand as a farmer in Bali

How to act on knowledge about collapse and climate?

Making the leap towards your values (with the help of a global pandemic)

Why the wellness community is full of shit

Farming fails

Picking up music at 48 and writing comedy rock

Faulty beliefs we have about our creative gifts

Living fully at the eleventh hour

Letting go of status and security

Why it’s all ok when everything’s not ok

Kirtan and ecospirituality practices

Jem’s evolving views about how collapse will unfold

Bringing kids into this world, yay or nay?

The Deep Adaptation framework

Becoming NURTURANT

How to help others through the grief

Jem’s simple pleasures

Oracle cards for cynics

🧙‍♀️LINKY POOS

Jem’s home on the web

[paper] Deep Adaptation ~ Jem Bendell

[book] Breaking Together ~ Jem Bendell

The Metacrisis Initiative

Jem’s collapse-aware oracle cards

Jem’s music

Songbird credit: Australia Outback Birds by EduFigueres License: Attribution 4.0

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