Can a novel become a catalyst to help us address impending climate disaster? That’s one question posed by the legendary Kim Stanley Robinson, in his best-selling novel The Ministry for the Future, which begins with millions of Indians dying from temperatures that send people cramming into lakes to cool off — where they literally poach to death. The book has been praised by everyone from Barack Obama to the Dalai Lama and seems to be turning even bureaucrats and bankers’ heads. In his work, Robinson creates space for the possibility of change, possible worlds of equity, not only for survival but for justice and a liveable future. Call it speculative fiction, sci-fi, even “cli-fi”, The Ministry for the Future is a blueprint for transformation and pushes us to think not just about how close to the end we might be. If 20 million people in India died in a heatwave today would that be enough to force humanity to act? Join Laura and Stan for this conversation on how we can all imagine change and work to preserve our planet. “I’m seeing people responding to my novel, which is just a story, because they want that story. What I’m seeing now is that the 2020s will be a time of intense action and it will mean intense conflict, but good things can come of it.” “I think it’s a problem being noticed more and more — that we value the present much more than future generations, who are sure to come if we don’t wreck everything.”
Laura Flanders is the host of "RadioNation" heard on Air America Radio and syndicated to non-commercial affiliates nationwide. She is the author most recently, of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians (The Penguin Press, 2007) and also BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species (Verso, 2004), an investigation into the women in George W. Bush's Cabinet. Publisher's Weekly called Flanders' New York Times best-seller, "fierce, funny and intelligent."The W Effect: Sexual Politics in the Age of Bush, an essay collection compiled by Flanders, appeared in June, 2004 from the Feminist Press.Before joining Air America when it launched in March 2004, Laura hosted the award-winning " Your Call," Monday-Friday, on public radio, KALW, 91.7 fm in San Francisco.Flanders' TV appearances include "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and "Paula Zahn Now" as well as "The O'Reilly Factor," and "Hannity and Colmes," "Washington Journal," "Donahue," "Good Morning America" and the CBC news discussion program, "CounterSpin."Her writing appears in The Nation, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, and elsewhere and her op-ed pieces have appeared in papers including The San Francisco Chronicle.Flanders was founding director of the Women's Desk at the media watch group, FAIR and for more than ten years she produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's nationally-syndicated radio program. Shie is also the author of Real Majority, Media Minority; the Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting (Common Courage Press, 1997) about which Susan Faludi wrote, "If only there were a hundred of her." Katha Pollitt called it "Funny, angry, factfilled and brilliant."
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