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#5 | Frankly

FAQs on Episodes 1-25

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Frankly

On this segment of Frankly, Nate’s former student Lizzy curates and asks some of the most frequently asked questions sent in by listeners during The Great Simplification episodes 1-25. How should we be educating people on energy? What types of fossil alternatives are really feasible? Is a climate disaster the most pertinent and existential risk that we face? Nate gives his answers to these questions, and more. (A trial format for an AMA or live broadcast in future?)

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

01:30 – Energy Blindness

01:47 – Joe Tainter TGS Podcast and Collapse of Complex Societies

03:50 – Germany’s energy transition plan and its reliance on natural gas

05:37 – George Soros vs Bank of England

05:57 – One barrel of oil does 5 years of human labor (Section 4.3)

07:50 – The average American uses 100X more energy than your body needs in food

09:37 – Peak Oil in November 2018

09:50 – New Economic Growth high

10:25 – All the products that come from a barrel of oil

10:41 – China is the biggest oil importer in the world

11:55 – Peak Demand myth

11:45 – Peak oil production growth was in the 1970s

15:18 – 20% of global energy use is electric

15:53 – Nuclear is either on or off aka ‘flat’

16:28 – It take 10 years to build a nuclear plant

16:50 – We are doubling debt every 8.5 years and doubling GDP every 25 years

17:23 – Simon Michaux TGS Podcast

19:15 – Overshoot

19:45 – How much of a risk do people think climate is around the world?

20:10 – IPCC Climate resources (moderate action scenario)

22:02 – The Uninhabitable Earth

22:25 – The effects of 2-2.5 degree celsius increase and effects of incremental increases

23:25 – Biological feedbacks affecting climate

23:27 – The Amazon is becoming a carbon source

23:40 – Greece’s forestry response during the Great Recession

28:58 – Oil priced at negative dollars/barrel (2020)

29:56 – Oil is needed for all aspects of the supply chain

30:06 – Drawing down strategic oil reserves to 40 year low

30:36 – There’s nothing left after shale oil

31:18 – Human biases

34:02 – DJ White

37:35 – 2022 Earth Day Talk

41:17 – Doomerism

51:28 – Chuck Watson TGS Podcast 1 + 2 + Frankly

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Back to episodes
Frankly#111 | The Three Most Important Words We’re Taught Not to Say

In this week’s Frankly, Nate considers the ways in which our social species overvalues false-confidence rather than the more honest and inquisitive response of “I don’t know.” He invites us to consider the science behind this cultural bias towards certainty: from our biological response from the stress of “not knowing” to the reinforcing effects of motivated reasoning that ensnares even the smartest among us (especially the smartest among us).

Watch nowOct 24, 2025
Frankly#110 | What Sloths Teach Us About the Superorganism

In this week’s Frankly, Nate reflects on the multiple metaphors brought to mind via a single photograph, which depicts a sloth climbing a barbed wire fence in Costa Rica. Beyond evoking compassion for a species that’s on the receiving end of human intervention into its ecosystem, the image raises larger ideas about the response of animals, including humans, to artificial cues and novel environments. Just as the sloth mistakes a fence post for the safety of a tree, modern humans mistake consumption, speed, and certainty for meaning.

Watch nowOct 17, 2025
Frankly#109 | Peak Oil, Ponzi Pyramids, and Planetary Boundaries

In this week’s Frankly, Nate returns from New York City Climate Week with fresh reflections on the disconnect between our economic narratives and biophysical realities. Using his background in finance, Nate observes that while the prioritization of financial abstractions and claims continue to accelerate, with gold and silver prices reaching record-setting highs, the ledger is being balanced with parallel declines in our planetary health and social resilience. This tradeoff is harder and harder to ignore as newly crossed planetary boundaries continue alerting us to the fact that we are operating outside of our Earth’s ability to maintain biospheric stability.

Watch nowOct 3, 2025

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