For this mini episode of The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature (Penguin Random House; first published in 1989 and called the first book on global warming written for a general audience) and founder of 350.org; in 2020, Bill founded Third Act, a new political movement of retirees (60+ years) committed to the environment.
Bill will be making his way to Montana to give a number of keynote addresses during the month of September: He’ll be in Billings on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, at MSU-Billings’ Petro Theatre; in Bozeman on Tuesday, Sept. 10th at the Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture; and in Missoula at the Wilma Theatre at the In the Footsteps of Norman Maclean Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28th.
Note: An extended version of this conversation will be published to MTPR.org and to The Write Question’s podcast page soon!
About Bill:
Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice, and is the author of twenty books. His work appears regularly in periodicals from The New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers.
McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.
Lauren Korn recommends:
The End of Nature (Penguin Random House); and Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, and EAARTH: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (St. Martin’s Griffin) by Bill McKibben
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Milkweed Editions) and Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses (Oregon State University Press) by Robin Wall Kimmerer
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate and On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein (Simon & Schuster)
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (Henry Holt & Company)
Learning to Die: Wisdom in the Age of Climate Crisis by Robert Bringhurst and Jan Zwicky (University of Regina Press)
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh (University of Chicago Press)
Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene edited by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Nils Bubandt, Elaine Gan, and Heather Anne Swanson (University of Minnesota Press)
—
The Write Question team is Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer and sound engineer.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.