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Ep 142  |  Roman Krznaric

Roman Krznaric: “History for Tomorrow: Uncovering Future Possibilities from Humanity’s Past”

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TGS142 Roman Krznaric The Great Simplification

Show Summary

While the global crises we face are on a larger scale than anything before, there is rich wisdom to glean from past civilizations who have faced existential challenges and survived – or even thrived. What lessons might we learn from history that could offer guidance for our future?

In this episode, Nate is joined by social philosopher Roman Krznaric to discuss ways we might govern or lead during moments of crisis, using the lens of former and current civilizations. 

What lessons have we forgotten when it comes to being in community with and listening to each other? How have our ideas and expectations of the future been informed by seeing history as a story of individuals shaping the rise and fall of civilizations, rather than a collective effort? How could learning from the past to create better democracies, wiser natural resource stewardship, and more circular economies help us prioritize human and planetary well-being? 

About Roman Krznaric:

Roman Krznaric is a social philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to create change. His internationally bestselling books, including The Good Ancestor, Empathy and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 25 languages. He is Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing and founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum. His new book is History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity.

After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political science. His writings have been widely influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. An acclaimed public speaker, his talks and workshops have taken him from a London prison to the TED global stage.

Roman is a member of the Club of Rome and a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation. He previously worked as a gardener, a conversation activist and on human rights issues in Guatemala. He is also a top-ranked player of the medieval sport of real tennis.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – Roman Krznaric works + info, Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, Empathy Museum, Club of Rome, Long Now Foundation

Book: History for Tomorrow: Inspiration from the Past for the Future of Humanity 

03:17 – Theodore Zeldin

03:45 – Books: The Good Ancestor + Carpe Diem Regained

04:59 – Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence

06:24 – Thucydides, Ibn Khaldun, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Goethe 

07:01 – George Santayana

07:14 – Timothy Snyder, ‘On Tyranny’

08:14 – Deep time

08:27 – Supernormal Stimuli

09:50 – History of timekeeping

10:28 – IPCC long-term climate projections

12:32 – Kate Raworth, TGS Episode

12:56 – Thomas Carlyle, Great Man Theory

13:32 – Marxist history

14:09 – Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Hill, Howard Zinn: ‘A People’s History of the United States

19:29 – Harvard’s Applied History Project 

19:57 – Kim Stanley Robinson, TGS Episode

20:25 – Ursula Le Guin

20:40 – Isaac Asimov: ‘Foundation’ trilogy,

21:00 – Marvin Harris, Infrastructure, Social Structure, Superstructure

21:56 – Daniel Schmachtenberger + Bend Not Break series, TGS Episode on Artificial Intelligence, TGS Episode on Naive Progress

23:12 – Overton Window

23:37 – The relationship between witnessing altruism and acting altruistically

24:12 – Tribunal of Waters in Valencia

25:08 – Elinor Ostrom

26:11 – Subak water management system in Bali, Stephen Lansing: ‘Perfect Order

26:58 – May Day in Oxford

28:09 – Roger Hallam

29:06 – Stonehenge

30:50 – Measuring liberal democratic performance, the Human Development Report

31:15 – Herman Daly, TGS Episode

31:36 – Bill McKibben, ‘The End of Nature’, TGS Episode

31:57 – Doughnut Economics

34:22 – ‘Governing the Commons

34:46 – The rise of trade unions and their influence on labor laws

35:22 – 1831 slave rebellion in Jamaica

36:00 – The cooperative economy of Emilia Romagna

36:32 – Asabiyyah 

37:02 – Edward Gibbon: ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

37:31 – The Muqaddimah

38:27 – Wealth inequality is a key predictor for civilisational collapse

42:24 – Kincentric ecology in indigenous communities, the 7th generation principle

43:31 – Keith Thomas: ‘Man and the Natural World

44:23 – May Day rituals across Europe

45:55 – One large tree can provide oxygen for four people

46:32 – David Suzuki

46:57 – Goobalathaldin (Dick Roughsey): ‘The Rainbow Serpent

48:16 – E.O. Wilson, Bill Plotkin

53:37 – 1992 Rio Earth Summit, global CO2 emissions over time

55:03 – Madison on the exclusionary advantages of representative democracy 

56:10 – Ancient Greek democracy

57:22 – Random selection and Republican self-government in Renaissance Florence

57:47 – The Freestate of Rhaetia

58:48 – Murray Bookchin

59:13 – Democracy in Rojava, Abdullah Öcalan 

1:02:10 – Citizens Assemblies in Ireland + an ‘Irish Model’ for deliberative democracy, Irish Citizens’ Assembly on abortion

1:03:00 – Citizens’ Assemblies across the world, EU Citizens’ Assemblies

1:04:09 – Proposal to make ecocide illegal in French Citizens’ Assembly

1:04:45 – Permanent Citizens’ Council in East Belgium, permanent climate assembly in Brussels, Citizens’ Assemblies in Gdansk

1:06:52 – Extinction Rebellion Citizens’ Assemblies

1:07:08 – The Latin American Water Tribunal 

1:07:57 – The Oxford Muse, Conversation Dinners

1:09:53 – The Eden Project, the Big Lunch

1:10:27 – English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries

1:11:12 – Over 30,000 coffee shops in the UK, total pubs in UK

1:12:53 – UK riots August 2024

1:13:12 – By 2050 there could be 1 billion migrants

1:13:42 – Chinese migration to the US and the Chinese Exclusion Acts

1:14:53 – Migrants are net contributors to government budgets + more info

1:16:29 – The Disruption Nexus

1:17:07 – Milton Friedman

1:17:23 – Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev, The Power of the Powerless essay, Leipzig uprising October 1989

1:18:56 – Capital attacks 2021

1:19:58 – 1833 Slavery Abolition Act

1:22:52 – Circular economy in Edo Japan

1:25:26 – Shifting Baselines

1:26:02 – Kamanamaikalani Beamer, Hawaiian ancestral circular economy

1:30:58 – Steve Jobs Stanford address

1:34:30 – Steward owned companies

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