The Shape of the World

The Shape of the World


Latest Episodes

Episode 33: Can Listening Be a Political and Moral Act?
December 22, 2022

Biologist David George Haskell says this collective inattention is a huge loss for each of us. It's like leaving money on the table because paying attention to the living world is a source of beauty,

Episode 32: What Should We Fix First?
November 18, 2022

Margaret Renkl's new book "Graceland at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South is mix of graceful observations and practical solutions.

Episode 31: Who Trashed My River?
October 12, 2022

The organization Nick Wesley co-founded, Urban Rivers, is creating The Wild Mile, the first-ever floating eco-park of its scale in the world.

Episode 30: Privilege & Inequality in Animals
August 02, 2022

Guest Jenn Smith says that human concepts of intergenerational wealth and inequality occur also in the behaviors of animals.

Episode 29: Disruption & Resilience
July 25, 2022

When Jane Watson encountered a ruined meadow of seagrass in the ocean, instead of getting furious, she grew curious.

Season Five Coming Soon
June 23, 2022

Season Five Will Launch July 2022 New episodes, new guests, new insights about nature and our built environments are coming soon. And more on how we can live together--with nature, with cities and wi

Episode 28: The Wild Card
June 16, 2021

Sarah Cowles encourages radically rethinking the synthetic landscapes found in cities. When welcoming nature to our human cities, do we aim for an...

Episode 27: The World Is Not Static
June 03, 2021

Dr. Caitlin Rankin’s research shows that a long-held theory about why an ancient civilization passed out of existence was wrong. Cahokia Mounds in...

Episode 26: Bees Understand the Concept of Zero
May 20, 2021

Dr. Scarlett Howard’s research on cognition of honeybees got a lot of media attention when in 2018, she published a paper that showed bees can...

Episode 25: Think Beyond the Possible
May 13, 2021

Tony Hiss’s new book, “Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth,” lays out both the urgency for and possibility of protecting...